Raising Quality

Putting it All Together

This information is part of the Making a Quality Plan topic.

Creating the plan

Having analysed your customers and reviewed every aspect of your business - including your own performance - you should have a considerable amount of information and ideas. Pulling these together into a plan that makes sense - your shopping list for quality improvements - is the next step.

You are going to go through each of the areas you've reviewed Customers, You, Staff, Premises, Products and Services, Business Management and pick out your best ideas for change. Then you'll go back and put dates against them, to give yourself a timeline.

You are likely to want to redraft this plan a number of times until you are satisfied that the targets you have are the right ones and can really be achieved.

Type up your customer notes

If you haven't already done so type up your customer notes. Type up the key customers you already have and their needs, and also type up any customer groups you want to develop - ones that you'd like more of, that you are currently missing but could be reaching, or that you are currently getting as enquirers but failing to convert - and their needs.
Meeting and exceeding customer expectations is the cornerstone of running a successful business. This customer information should be in the back of your mind all the time, and your staff should also be aware of it.

Use a grid

It's a simple device... but it works. The next step is to go through your notes for each area and pick out the key improvements you want to make, then put a date beside them. Targets are only any good if they are time bound - especially if you have a lot to achieve. Unless you've got a clear idea of what you'll be doing when, it will become a muddle.

Use a grid. You'll need five columns: Area, Topic, Score, Target, Date. Write the first area 'You' then look at the review you did. You scored yourself on a variety of things. Which were the lowest scoring areas? These are probably the areas that most require action, but now you've reviewed your whole business your priorities may have altered.

What ideas did you have for change? You'll need to decide what you can sensibly implement. You can't do everything, but you can do many things. Pick as many for each topic you've reviewed as you think you can sensibly implement and that are worthwhile. Some topics won't need any action. Consider any cost and time implications - obviously anything that has a significant cost implication has to be checked against the value it will deliver. The same goes for anything that requires a lot of time - since your time is money. Don't add dates at this point. You need to see all your targets across all areas before you add dates. But do add the scores for topics you want to work on.

Add target dates

Once you've been through each area and topic and identified the changes you want to make, the last stage is to add the date when you can either start or achieve the change by. For now stick to one year - anything beyond the first year is the stuff of fairy tales until you see how the first changes affect your business, and how long they take.

Be realistic, everything takes longer than you think. Some things really can be implemented immediately, but most take time. Go through putting provisional dates by actions. You are likely to have to revise this many times. Focus on the priority areas and the changes that can easily be implemented. It will be very hard to date some things, but at least pencil in a start date. For example, you know when you can start researching and you can allocate a certain amount of time - say 3 hours a month - to researching, but you don't know how much you'll achieve in that time. That's fine, your plan will stay fluid for a number of months as you learn from your experiences.

Allow some priority

Many people already so busy running their business that they feel they don't have time for change. But the changes you are proposing to make should make you more appealing to customers, more organised, more efficient and therefore more profitable. You may have to force the time for certain changes. Others you may be able to implement instead of tasks you already do. For example, if you need to get new literature printed, don't just reprint the old stuff, make the time to go through your customer needs and pay proper attention to text and images. If your website hosting is up for renewal make the time to review what you've got and what changes you could make. If you need to recruit new staff make the time to think through the person specification and the recruitment advertisements and put together an induction pack for when they start.

Delegate

If you have staff (or willing family members) think about what targets they could take on. There are lots of advantages to this: it means you don't have to do everything; your staff feel more involved; you're taking advantage of the skills you have in your organisation and you're widening the scope of what your staff do, creating more satisfaction and variety.

Get proper costings

For any change that has a significant cost implication you must get proper costings and you'll need to find some way to calculate the return to your business. In other words, if you invest £5,000 in new fittings, how many new customers do you need to attract to justify that cost? Or how much do you need to increase your prices by? Talk over any major investments with your accountant, your bank's business advisor and a Business Link person. For really significant investment - like building a new self-catering unit, or adding a feature to your attraction - check first with the One NorthEast Tourism Research Unit. They will have information about the market need and viability of your project.

Regularly review

When you have finished revising your plan and your targets try to type up what you have, so it's clear. Put it somewhere prominent, preferably stuck to a wall, where it is in sight and in mind. Leave on any target you can't date. You will need to regularly review your plan - at least every three months. It is immensely satisfying to cross off targets as you reach them and of course, as time goes on, and you understand the effects of your changes, you can begin to date ones you couldn't get to and add new targets.

Putting it into action

Planning is just the beginning. Of course the real effect comes when you begin to work on your targets, putting the changes into effect. Changing the way you do business is like making any other life-change - you have to develop new, better habits and leave poorer ones behind. Get all the help and support you can - use the Toolkit, staff, friends, family, business advisors and tourism organisations. Be disciplined. Sometimes deadlines slip for good reasons - the task is bigger than you anticipated or another priority crops up, but take care that deadlines aren't slipping because you aren't focussing on the work that needs to be done.

And above all enjoy it. Running your own business means being you own boss. Making and implementing a quality plan means really taking control of your own destiny as a business, and being the best that you can.

Next:

This was the final part of the Making a Quality Plan section. Explore the rest of the Raising Quality menu and resources or click below to find out how quality schemes can benefit your business.

• Quality schemes