Month: May 2017

If you’re a business owner working alone or if you have a small team you may feel you don’t have time for systems and processes or that they just aren’t necessary. If that’s the case then you may losing money. In this post, I’ll explain how to implement a system to ensure that you have transparency across the business, that you’re spending your money wisely and thus have successful and profitable marketing from which to start your business growth.

Where does your business come from?

You may think you know where your business comes from, but how often do you complete an analysis of your marketing, if at all? In my role as a business consultant I discovered a client of mine was spending thousands of pounds on Yellow Pages advertising. When I asked whether this was a successful marketing tool, the business owner didn’t know because he wasn’t monitoring the amount of business that it was generating.

Record the source of your sales!

I showed my client a simple way to record the source of his business and after 3 months we were able to see that none of it had come from Yellow Pages!

So, it’s clear why it’s so important to monitor where your customers come from. Implement a system to keep a track of the source of your new business for you and your staff to follow. Remember to record each enquiry as well as each sale, so you can determine your most successful marketing activity.

Profitable marketing

Very quickly, you’ll have some meaningful insight into the profitability of your marketing and this will give you the ability to spend your money wisely. Perhaps stopping some activity altogether and reallocating the cash to something that is really working. Imagine the results…

Understanding the outcome of your expenditure is just one of the reasons why systems and processes are so important. My next post will explain how they are also important in your efficiency and customer service delivery.

If you need any help implementing these tips, then book a free business review.

Are you about to become an employer? Perhaps you already have a team but you are struggling to delegate tasks to them or maybe you do delegate with disastrous results! If you are in any of these situations then implementing processes within your business can give you the consistency you need for great customer service delivery. Without them, your customers may not know what to expect when they buy from you.

In practice

Let’s take McDonalds as an example of this in practice. Being a huge franchise organisation with stores being independently owned, McDonalds pride themselves on their consistency in delivering products and customer service the world over. A Big Mac in London looks and tastes the same as a Big Mac in Moscow or New York! You know exactly what you are going to get.

Systems and processes are the key to delivering its customers food that looks and tastes the same. Everything has a process, from cooking times, ingredient amounts, right down to the way the store is cleaned.

McDonalds attracts young staff with a high turnover; many are students who are simply there to earn some extra money but that probably don’t see a long-term career with the company. Having such detailed procedures leaves nothing to chance and ensures the consistency required.

Training

Of course in your business your processes may not need to be so intricate, but having the right ones in place will ensure that no matter how skilled your workforce is, you can be confident they can get the job done. Written processes or checklists for specific tasks can give you the basis of staff training.

Repetition equals reputation

With established processes and checklists in place you’ll be able train staff effectively and as the old saying goes, from your repetition comes your reputation. With procedures in place your customer service delivery should be the same each time, building trust and reliability in your business and from there, business growth.