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    • Action plan

    Using data and feedback to shape your business planning

    Medium effort

    High impact

    Your business has a range of different stakeholders, but how many of them are involved in the planning process? Customers and staff have useful insights into your business and, if you take the right approach, you can use this to shape your business plan. The end result is not only a more robust strategy, but customers and employees who remain loyal to your business because they are an integral part of it.

    • We’ve designed our action plans to be completed in the order of steps laid out and explained why each step is important
    • Customising your action plan lets you set your own completion dates, assign tasks to others and get notifications
    • Helpful tools are provided for certain steps while a tracking metric at the end will help you determine the long-term success of your effort
    • A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available if you’d like to compete it offline
    What's involved? Ways to use this action plan Measuring impact
    1

    Define what areas of the business plan you most need guidance or input on

    Impact: medium

    Why will this help?

    It’s important to focus your research on what’s going to have the biggest impact. Look for assumptions that haven’t been tested or new strategies that you need to make more robust.

    2

    Use data and feedback collected from online customer surveys to shape your business planning

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    Online surveys allow you to reach a large number of customers (and potential customers) efficiently. Be clear about your objectives and target audience and spend time fine tuning the questions to ensure you get the data you need – what assumptions in your business plan need more justification?

    3

    Use research groups to collect more in-depth customer feedback that can inform specific areas of your business planning

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    Whether you run a research group online or face-to-face, this format gives you the opportunity to hand-pick the participants and have meaningful discussions.

    4

    Incorporate the data and feedback you have collected into your business planning

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    This is the crucial step that consolidates all the information you’ve gathered and turns it into a meaningful part of the business plan. Deciphering the data can be a daunting task – break it down using our template on incorporating feedback into your business planning.

    Incorporating feedback into your business planning

    Feedback from customers, employees or peers can lead to positive changes and new ideas. Use our checklist to get started.
    5

    Communicate how the business plans have changed as a result of staff and customer feedback

    Impact: medium

    Why will this help?

    It’s important to show employees that they’re involved in decision making, so that they know their views have been heard and to motivate them to give honest feedback in future.

    What can I do with this Action Plan?

    Start this Action Plan

    Add some extra information to this plan and we’ll help you get it done.

    • We’ve designed our action plans to be completed in the order of steps laid out and explained why each step is important
    • Customising your action plan lets you set your own completion dates, assign tasks to others and get notifications
    • Helpful tools are provided for certain steps while a tracking metric at the end will help you determine the long-term success of your effort
    • A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available if you’d like to compete it offline

    Download and print

    Get a printable template for this Action Plan, fill it in with some target dates, and share it with your team. Pin it on the wall where everyone can see it.

    Get the printable Action Plan

    Learning Groups

    We also run Learning Groups on these topics where you can join other leaders tackling the same challenges.

    Find a Learning Group

    How will I know if my action plan is working?

    Employee review of your business plan

    Get key team members to score your business plan

    Why this metric?

    Giving a small, dedicated group a chance to assess the changes you’ve made to the business plan ensures that nothing gets missed or misinterpreted over time.

    How do I start tracking?

    Recruit around five employees to join the working group. Agree how regularly you will contact them and the format their feedback will take, including quantitative and qualitative responses.