Improve Your Service Quality - Reduce your Costs

A contradiction surely? Not necessarily. For those organisations that wish to add fresh impetus to their continuous improvement of customer service and want to take advantage of the latest tools available, then look no further than the British Quality Foundation's (BQF) Levels of Excellence Programme.

The BQF, a not-for-profit membership foundation, is the primary source of information for organisations in the UK looking to excel in their market and in their business and is the custodian of the EFQM Excellence Model and runs the UK Excellence Award.

In the current economic climate many organisations are reviewing their investment in quality programmes. This is also an ideal opportunity to review and develop the corporate approach and further promotion of a business wide Excellence culture.

Over the years, many leisure facilities have been externally validated using established leisure industry awards and the same assessment has been repeated on a number of occasions. In our opinion any facility that has been externally validated more than twice using the same measurement tool can suffer from diminishing benefits from the process.

The desire to review the cost effectiveness of the current quality management approach and to consider a programme which provides a fresh impetus to the organisation's continuous improvement programme provides the underpinning opportunity for use of the Levels of Excellence Programme.

The BQF Levels of Excellence Programme provides a long term framework for an organisation to eventually enter the UK Excellence Award, but crucially to use the EFQM Excellence Model to underpin its business culture and improvement process. The BQF Levels of Excellence Guide for Applicants is available here

Levels of Excellence provides distinctive and prestigious international recognition based on the most widely used management framework in Europe (EFQM Excellence Model) for significantly less cost than many accreditation schemes.

There are 3 distinct levels: Committed to Excellence (C2E), Recognised for Excellence (R4E) and the UK Excellence Award.

C2E is part of the Levels of Excellence Programme and provides a proven route towards the attainment of the highest levels of performance. Validation is by trained BQF assessors. The process is challenging and will drive organisation and service improvement.

C2E is an organisation wide rather than a site specific assessment. It is now possible to have your organisation's approach to excellence validated against an internationally recognised framework (Committed to Excellence) for approx £5,150+vat. This is a package price combining support from QLM with assessment from the BQF. It covers a two year assessment cycle and includes 5 days of facilitation and support through the process from sport and leisure industry quality consultants QLM Ltd. Organisations wishing to pursue C2E verification independently of any support from QLM can do so typically for approx £2,950+vat, for details click here.

For example; a Leisure Trust with six sites may have invested £10,000 to £15,000 over two years on site specific quality assessment and accreditation. C2E would typically cost £5,150+vat* including QLM facilitation or £2,950*+vat if progressing independently of the BQF/QLM partnership.
(* subject to specific quotation)

For further information, no obligation discussion and a specific quotation contact QLM Managing Director Peter Mills at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

QLM has extensive experience in quality management and use of the Excellence Model and provides training, self-assessment and improvement planning support as part of the above fee.

Free Mystery Shopper Template

QLM also provides as part of the programme a free mystery shopper template that can be used by participating organisations and is available here for free download.