Building a quality driven culture
In the fourth of a six piece content series Mike Ayres examines each of the steps that businesses should take if they want to develop and drive a quality driven culture across their organisations.
Read the previous instalments on the quest to a quality driven business culture:
- How to articulate a quality driven culture.
- How to permeate a quality driven culture.
- How to empower a quality driven culture.
Standards
In this context the definition of standards is a standard procedure to be followed: a procedure for operating something or for dealing with a given situation. The idea is that certain processes and procedures can be completed in set ways therefore reducing the risk of something going wrong.
Standardise Quality
Standardised procedures can be especially useful with respect to customer service. Business service firms tend to have a high levels of phone contact with their clients and it is important that they receive the same level of service each time. By having a standard structure for phone calls and dealing with any common queries or issues you can ensure that every customer interaction is dealt with in the same manner.
Your workers will understand the cultural ethos of the firm from the previous steps, articulating, permeating and empowering, and as such the standards that you put in place should be second nature to them.
This is because the procedures should reflect the value of the business and effective implementation of the previous steps would lead to the standards put in place being the natural thing to do.
Developing
By following the standards set, employees will further gain understanding of the vision that set out for the company. This will help them develop as individuals to act in a way that is in line with the company ethos. As they encounter new situations their overall understanding of the business will allow them to find solutions faster and more efficiently.
A warning on standards
Though standards can have many benefits, too many standardised procedures can be a bad thing. Any successful business knows that one of its most valuable assets are its people, by defining too many aspects of their roles you could restrict their natural creativity or worse demotivate key staff. We have previously discussed empowering your team and it is important to bear this in mind when considering what standard procedures should be in place.
The aim is to set standards that provide a framework to help ensure quality is demonstrated in every customer interaction, but also to give guidance to the way that things should be dealt with and help to empower people to effectively deal with any issues they face.
As well as having specialists in the business services sector, Menzies consultancy team can discuss your vision and values and provide further details and recommendations on how you can implement a quality driven culture.
To discuss further and see how we can help you contact Mike Ayres by email at mayres@menzies.co.uk or by phone on 01252 894911.
More for More – Six Steps to Instilling a Quality Driven Culture
A ‘more for more’ business culture is key to the future success of service sector businesses such as those in legal, recruitment, financial services, marketing and other professional services. Menzies Business Services Insights report details how to instil and maintain a quality driven culture.
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