1. They set clear expectations.
To achieve quality, you have to define it, and you have to make sure that definition is disseminated throughout the rank and file. “It’s the job of any business owner to be clear about the company’s nonnegotiable core values,” says restaurateur Danny Meyer. “They’re the riverbanks that help guide us as we refine and improve on performance and excellence. A lack of riverbanks creates estuaries and cloudy waters that are confusing to navigate. I want a crystal-clear, swiftly flowing stream. Riverbanks need not hinder creativity, and in fact I leave plenty of room between the riverbanks for individual expression and personal style.”
Dig Deeper: How to Set Standards
2. They collect and analyze data.
Collecting data is more common than ever, particularly with the advent of Web analytics. But companies that focus on quality have long stood out thanks to their passion for data. Moreover, the metrics they track go above and beyond either web or financial information. For example, Inc.’s John Case wrote a profile of Granite Rock, a phenomenally successful quarry (yes, quarry) in 1992. Customer surveys played a major role in the company’s governing philosophy, with information collected at all kinds of intervals, and results shared widely among the quarry’s 400 workers. “The role of managers,” Granite Rock CEO Bruce Woolpert told Case, “is to make sure there’s a flood of information coming into the company.” Would you say that this was true in your business?
Dig Deeper: How to Use Online Tools for Customer Surveys
3. They invest in capacity.
An organization stretched thin on resources will never be able to overdeliver, and quality depends somewhat on the ability of a company to exceed expectations. For that reason, “we create infrastructure in anticipation of revenue,” says Dawson Rutter, president of Commonwealth Worldwide, a
Boston-based limousine company known for exceptional service. “That ensures service delivery will be impeccable 100 percent of the time. We can always handle 105 percent of our absolute busiest day. Is that a more expensive way of doing it? You bet. But the fact is we don’t lose customers, which means we can afford to pay that premium.”
