Category: Blog

Managing finances is the lifeblood of any small business. Keeping a keen eye on your financial situation is paramount whether you’re just starting or have been in the game for a while.

Many small business owners wear multiple hats, including that of the accountant. And, as your business grows, bringing in a professional accountant is advisable. However, even if you do, you should always stay close to your finances.

This article will explore the essential financial concepts that can help you make informed decisions, reduce financial stress, and drive your small business towards greater flexibility and growth*.

 

One: Revenue vs. Profit vs. Cash Flow

Understanding the basic principles of finance is crucial.

One of the fundamental distinctions in finance is understanding the difference between revenue, profit, and cash flow.

• Revenue: This is the total income your business generates from sales of products or services. It’s often called the “top line” because it’s the total amount before any expenses are deducted.
• Profit: Profit is what’s left after subtracting all expenses (such as operating costs, taxes, and interest) from your revenue. The difference between ‘Gross Profit’ and ‘Net Profit’ can be found below.
• Cash Flow: Cash flow refers to the actual cash that moves in and out of your business. It can differ from profit because it considers when payments are received and expenses are paid. Positive cash flow is crucial for meeting day-to-day expenses and seizing growth opportunities.

Other terms that you should familiarise yourself with are:

• Gross Profit: Gross profit is the revenue after deducting the cost of goods sold. It reflects the essential profitability of a business’s core operations.
• Net Profit: Net profit, or the bottom line, is the profit left after all expenses, including taxes and interest, have been deducted from revenue.
• Profit Margin: This is the percentage of revenue that represents profit.
• Break-Even Point: This is the level of sales at which a business covers all its costs, and neither makes a profit nor incurs a loss.
• ROI (Return on Investment): ROI measures the profitability of an investment.

Top tip: If you’re working with an accountant, it’s critical you understand the information they provide. Don’t be afraid to ask your accountant to explain the numbers in a way you understand. A good accountant shouldn’t patronise you and takes the time to ensure you know the financial situation of your business. While your accountant should have your best interests in mind, they cannot make business decisions for you and are characteristically risk-averse. Therefore, a deeper understanding of the numbers will allow you to make informed business decisions.

 

Two: Budgeting and Financial Planning

Many small businesses run on a day-to-day basis and only analyse their expenditure at the end of the quarter or financial year. However, creating a budget can help you plan your finances, set financial goals, and allocate resources efficiently.

Ultimately, there are so many benefits to budgeting. Not only can they allow you to track your income, expenses, and cash flow, but psychologically, budgets can make spending money on necessary expenses easier, as the money is already an agreed expenditure and allocated for a purpose. They can also help you identify areas where you can save money or invest for growth.

 

Three: Check your financial pulse

Regularly reviewing your financial statements, including the income statement (or profit and loss statement), balance sheet, and cash flow statement, will make you much more agile and help you grow/avert disaster much more quickly.

1. Balance Sheet: A balance sheet is a financial statement that shows a business’s assets, liabilities, and equity at a specific point in time. It provides a snapshot of the business’s financial position.
2. Income Statement (or Profit and Loss Statement): An income statement summarises a business’s revenues, costs, and expenses over a specific period, typically a month, quarter, or year. It shows whether the business is profitable during that time frame.
3. Cash Flow Statement: This statement tracks the inflows and outflows of cash during a specific period and categorises them into operating, investing, and financing activities.

These documents provide insights into your business’s financial health, performance, and liquidity. They’re essential for making informed decisions and assessing your business’s financial well-being.

It would help if you made the time to have small internal account meetings each week and a larger one each quarter with your accountant. Regular check-ins will identify minor course corrections to help take advantage of new opportunities and avert imminent disasters.

Top tip: Separating your financial role from the business’s daily operations is essential. Daily, you might be on top of the invoice value (revenue); however, this information alone doesn’t provide you enough insight into the business’s financial situation to make informed decisions.

 

Four: Separate Business and Personal Finances

To maintain financial clarity, it’s crucial to separate your business and personal finances. Open a dedicated business bank account and use it exclusively for business transactions.

This separation simplifies financial record-keeping, ensures compliance with tax regulations, and helps you accurately gauge your business’s financial position.

If things do get inadvertently connected, make sure you compensate yourself accordingly. For example, be sure you expense business costs so you’re not personally out of pocket and can accurately track business expenses.

 

Five: Investment and Financing Options

Keeping on top of your business finances will allow you to explore various financing options for your business, such as loans, lines of credit, or investments from external sources.

For example, taking advantage of credit options can keep you liquid (cash flow). However, carefully consider how each choice aligns with your business goals and financial capabilities and always discuss things with your accountant.

 

How ETC can help

Mastering finance is not just for accountants; it’s an essential skill for every small business owner.

Understanding revenue, profit, and cash flow, budgeting, and reviewing financial statements are critical steps. These principles provide the foundation for making informed decisions, optimising your business’s financial health, and ultimately achieving flexibility and growth. By gaining control over your finances, you’ll be better equipped to navigate challenges and seize opportunities, moving your small business toward long-term success.

If you need help understanding how best to manage your business finances, please get in touch.

If you are new to ETC, why not contact us for a free new business review? We’ll spend two hours with you, giving you professional coaching and will leave you with actions for immediate implementation.

 

– Please note –

* Any financial information within this article is for general informational purposes only. We are not financial advisors, and the content in this article should not be considered professional financial, legal, or investment advice. Please consult with a qualified financial advisor, accountant, solicitor, or other professional before making any financial, legal, or investment decisions. It is essential to conduct your research and seek professional guidance tailored to your specific circumstances.

In the fast-paced world of small business, efficiency is the key to success. As a business owner, you’re no stranger to juggling multiple tasks and responsibilities. However, not every part of your business needs to be handled in-house. Outsourcing can bring additional services and skills to enhance profitability.

In this article, we’ll explore the untapped potential of outsourcing for small businesses and how it can significantly improve performance, streamline operations and help your business grow and become more profitable.

 

One: Access specialised skills and expertise

Outsourcing allows you to tap into a wide range of specialised skills and expertise that might not be available in-house.

A typical example is hiring a web agency to manage your website, as hiring a full-term developer might be too costly. A less obvious example could be to hire a specialist consultant in a particular market or area. This consultant’s knowledge might be essential at the beginning of a project to help set up systems and processes, but afterwards, they might not be needed day-to-day.

By entrusting these tasks to experts, you free up your team’s time to focus on core business activities that directly contribute to growth.

Top tip: It’s sometimes natural to assume existing employees can learn new skills and take on new challenges. While this can work, you should always consider the learning curve (how long it takes someone to become proficient at a task), the source of their skills (is their tutor trusted and qualified?), and the impact this will have on existing workload.

 

Two: Start new projects quickly

Hiring external support can help you scale your business up or down and start new projects quickly.

Outsourcing provides the flexibility to scale your operations up or down based on demand. Some short-term or new projects may require considerable investment to achieve the end goal. An outsourced agency will already have the experience and tools to start quickly and can reduce the complexities of internal staff management.

 

Three: Reduced risk & invested partner

Working with a partner to deliver projects and tasks can reduce the risk of handling things alone.

Firstly, outsourcing services can reduce the initial setup costs needed to take on a new project. Also, the partner you choose will also be invested in your success – as they will want to retain the business for as long as possible. This partnership can increase the chances of success and retention.

Top tip: You should regularly evaluate the advantages of your outsourced resource to ensure you’re maximising efficiency. While it might not be beneficial to bring everything in-house, it can sometimes be more cost-effective to bring certain elements back into your business to allow your partner to focus solely on the areas you can’t. Not only does this strengthen the partnership as there are more dependencies between you, you slowly grow your internal knowledge and skills.

 

Four: Focus on core competencies

Outsourcing lets you concentrate on what you do best: growing your business.

By delegating non-core tasks to external professionals, you create more time and space to innovate, develop new products or services, and strengthen customer relationships. This strategic focus allows you to accomplish more, increase market competitiveness and develop a stronger market presence.

 

Five: Gain a competitive edge

Outsourcing enables small businesses to level the playing field with larger competitors by giving you access to high-quality resources and expertise.

Enhancing your skills can help improve your offerings and provide your customers better service. This enhanced quality can result in higher customer satisfaction, increased loyalty, and a competitive edge in your industry.

 

How ETC can help

If you need help streamlining your business operations and identifying the best tasks to outsource, please get in touch.

If you are new to ETC, why not contact us for a free new business review? We’ll spend two hours with you, giving you professional coaching and will leave you with actions for immediate implementation.

As a small business owner, you know that your team is the backbone of your success. However, managing employee performance can be challenging, especially if you don’t have a dedicated HR department.

As an entrepreneur, we usually only manage employee performance when things are going wrong. However, finding time to be proactive will help boost performance and be a great asset in attracting top talent.

This article will explore practical and positive strategies to boost productivity and drive overall business efficiency, regardless of the sector, size, or resources.

 

One: Set clear goals and expectations

Give yourself the best start and set clear, achievable goals and expectations for each employee. You can include all this information in a detailed job description.

When everyone knows what is expected of them, they can align their efforts with the business objectives. You should ensure that goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). This will make it easier to monitor progress and provide feedback.

All targets, expectations and job descriptions should be documented and accessible to the employee. At each review, you can evaluate if targets have been achieved and if the job description is still appropriate.

 

Two: Regularly monitor and measure performance

Scheduling regular reviews will ensure you’re all meeting business expectations. While the focus is usually on the employees’ performance, this is also an excellent opportunity to see if any business barriers are preventing you or your employees from performing efficiently.

In these reviews, you should celebrate achievements, offer support to overcome obstacles and ensure business goals are aligned.

Again, document agreed actions or targets so that you can evaluate if targets have been achieved at the next review.

 

Three: Provide training and development opportunities

Investing in your employees’ professional growth enhances their skills and boosts their motivation and commitment. Consider offering training and development opportunities, whether it’s through workshops, online courses, or mentoring programs.

Empowering your team with knowledge and new skills will help them excel. In addition, moulding employees into a role and providing tangible personal development opportunities can be much more efficient than continually recruiting new team members and can be a great incentive when hiring.

 

Four: Real-world feedback

A positive workplace culture can significantly impact employee performance and job satisfaction.

You should encourage open communication, recognition of achievements, and collaboration among team members whenever possible.

Top tip: Create a structured format for reviewing company performance and celebrating team success. This can be a short monthly meeting where you can boost morale and provide a roadmap of business priorities for the upcoming month.

 

Five: Foster a healthy work-life balance

There is nothing wrong with expecting high performance and dedication from your staff; however, recognising the importance of work-life balance will reduce burn-out, sick leave and improve overall performance.

As small business owners, it can be challenging to remember that most employees aren’t as invested in the business as you – many work to live, not live to work.

Ensuring employees have adequate time to recharge and maintain a healthy work-life balance will help maintain performance levels and can inject new energy into the business.

Top tip: Remember to give yourself the same respect and to take time out of the business to recharge and refocus when necessary. If you struggle to take time off, plan holidays and breaks around bank holidays or in months with five weeks in the month.

 

Six: Provide Regular Feedback and Recognition

Feedback is essential for continuous improvement. You should schedule, and keep, time each month to provide constructive feedback to employees.

It can be easy to reschedule employee performance meetings, especially when they’re doing well. However, good meetings are just as important as the more challenging ones. Don’t underestimate the power of recognition. Acknowledging hard work and accomplishments boosts morale and encourages further dedication.

 

Seven: Lead by example and take ownership of your employee’s success

As a business owner, your leadership sets the tone for your team. Your work ethic and values will be matched by your employees.

Finally, as business owners, we only have so much time in our day, and controlling everything can be unhealthy and stagnate growth. Developing employees can be the best way to grow and grow sustainably.

Watch Bewdog CEO, James Watt share his discovery of how managing people more fairly changed the course of the business – and moved him from a ‘fishing boat captain’ to the CEO of one of the world’s most renowned businesses. People are now one of their primary focuses as a business.

Brewdog Founder: The Untold Story Of One Britain’s Fastest Growing Companies: James Watt | E157

 

How ETC can help

If you need help streamlining your business operations through employee performance management, please get in touch.

If you are new to ETC, why not contact us for a free new business review? We’ll spend two hours with you, giving you professional coaching and will leave you with actions for immediate implementation.

Small business owners are required to wear multiple hats and juggle various responsibilities. In addition to delivering the work, you’re the head of accounts, HR, sales and marketing.

As your business grows, you can delegate these roles to your employees. One position to consider early on should be a dedicated account manager.

The role of an account manager can often be overlooked, as their duties don’t always directly relate to sales. However, this important function can increase efficiency and make your business more profitable.

Here are five ways an account manager can help you as a small business owner:

 

One: Streamline Communication

A dedicated account manager can significantly reduce the number of general emails and phone calls flowing into your business. An account manager can serve as a client’s primary point of contact, handling enquiries, addressing concerns, and liaising between clients, internal departments and other suppliers. This gives you more time to focus on actually getting the work done.

 

Two: Build better relationships

As a dedicated client-facing resource, account managers can build strong relationships with clients and help tailor your services to their needs. This level of attention enhances customer satisfaction and builds loyalty, which can significantly improve customer retention and reduce your cost of sales.

Learn more about the importance of customer loyalty and how it can set your business apart from the competition, drive growth and increase profitability in our Mastering Customer Loyalty article.

 

Three: Focus on delivery

An account management role can help you separate product delivery from client liaison. This separation can reduce distractions and unnecessary interference and allow you and other team members to focus on what you do best – the actual work. This will greatly improve your overall business efficiency and productivity.

Top tip: While it’s not always possible to directly measure the return on investment of an account management role, you should ensure you factor this resource into your pricing. A good account manager should allow you to increase production, bring in new work, or reduce client turnover. Learn more about mastering business delivery, measuring delivery performance, pricing services appropriately and improving delivery efficiency in our Mastering Business Delivery article.

 

Four: Real-world feedback

With account managers working directly with clients, they provide a rich insight into their challenges and needs. Understanding your clients can help you proactively develop new products and services, which, in turn, can help you win more business from similar customers in that market.

In addition, their in-depth knowledge of clients’ accounts also allows them to address challenges swiftly, maintaining high service levels, minimising disruptions and reducing the risk of clients using your competitors.

 

Five: Upselling and Cross-Selling Opportunities

Account managers are ideally placed to identify upselling and cross-selling opportunities. Their deep understanding of your clients allows them to present relevant products or services and block out competition.

A good relationship between the client and your account managers can also provide the opportunity to develop strategic account plans that align with your business objectives. This partnership can result in mutual gain – as their business grows, so does the need for your products or services.

 

How ETC can help

If you need help streamlining your business operations through account management and improving your return on investment, please get in touch.

If you are new to ETC, why not contact us for a free new business review? We’ll spend two hours with you, giving you professional coaching and will leave you with actions for immediate implementation.

Delivering exceptional customer service is the cornerstone of building customer loyalty. Loyal customers are more likely to return and spend more money with your business. Furthermore, loyal customers are more likely to generate positive word of mouth, which plays a vital role in the growth and reputation of your business.

When it comes to business growth and profitability, it’s much easier and more cost-effective to retain loyal customers than to acquire new ones. So, how do we build customer loyalty?

Customers have a strong desire for personalised experiences, attentive support, and swift resolutions. They want to feel valued, listened to, and satisfied throughout their interactions with your business. In today’s competitive market, outstanding customer service can truly set your business apart, driving growth and boosting profitability.

Here is an example of the different types of customers in your business (the customer loyalty ladder):

1. Satisfied customers – stay with your organisation so long as expectations are met
2. Repeat customer – habitually returns to your company to buy again
3. Advocates – put their personal/professional reputation on the line to recommend your business to others
4. Evangelist – Actively convinces others to use your business
5. Owners – Feel responsible for the continued success of your business

Here are three practical steps to build customer loyalty and move customers up the customer loyalty ladder.

 

One: Understand Your Customers

To deliver exceptional customer service, it’s crucial to have a deep understanding of your customers. This involves gaining insights into their needs, preferences, and pain points. By understanding your customers, you can effectively tailor your products, services, and communications to meet their expectations.

Here are three things you can do to understand your customers better:

• Conduct thorough market research: Create short surveys or conduct interviews to learn more about your target audiences. Identify their demographics, behaviours, motivations, and challenges. This information will guide your customer service strategies.
• Create customer personas: Develop fictional profiles that represent your typical customers. Include details such as age, interests, goals, and challenges. Personas help you empathise with your customers and make informed decisions on how to serve them better.
• Actively Listen: Pay serious attention to your customer’s comments, suggestions, and complaints. This feedback is invaluable in understanding their experiences and identifying areas for improvement.

Understanding your customers is an ongoing process. A better understanding of your customers will reduce complaints and allow you to deliver experiences that exceed their expectations and foster long-term loyalty.

 

Two: Reward loyalty

Creating a customer loyalty scheme or discount structure can be a cost-effective way of retaining clients.

There are many ways to create a loyalty programme. For example, depending on your business, you may want to make data-driven, automated processes like the Tesco Clubcard or Nectar (Sainsbury’s, Argos, Esso, Ebay); establish a cash-back scheme like Asda Rewards; or implement a simple card and stamp system -buy six coffees and get the seventh free.

Creating a structured program that rewards customers for their repeat business not only encourages customer loyalty but also provides an added sense of value and appreciation.

Things to consider when creating a loyalty or discount scheme:

• Understand your cost per acquisition and ensure your discounts/reward cost is less than it would be to find a new customer.
• Consider FREE over a discount. Giving something away for free is sometimes better than discounting cash. For example, a free product has a perceived value of £X to the client, but it would have cost your business less.
• Keep things simple and ensure the program is easy to implement and for your customers to understand.
• Track and measure success to ensure the programme is working. Is it increasing sales and overall profits?

 

Three: Build a Customer-Centric Culture

Ultimately, customers want a positive, hassle-free service that exceeds their expectations. Keeping the customer at the centre of everything you do will help you meet this goal.

To achieve this, leadership must lead by example, and there are some simple things we can all do to foster a customer-centric culture. These include:

• Empower employees to take ownership of customer interactions and provide discounts and refunds at their discretion.
• Actively listen to feedback and take noticeable action.
• Resist bad-mouthing or negatively talking about a client/customer around the office or in public
• Reward staff that go above and beyond for customers, not just the business

 

How ETC can help

If you need help creating a customer loyalty programme, streamlining your business operations and improving your return on investment, please get in touch.

If you are new to ETC, why not contact us for a free new business review? We’ll spend two hours with you, giving you professional coaching and will leave you with actions for immediate implementation.

For all businesses, delivering on your promises is paramount to success. Whether it’s meeting customer expectations or fulfilling internal commitments, effective business delivery can make or break a company’s reputation and profitability.

However, are you focusing on promises to your customer and neglecting your business promises by spending 12 hours on a 10-hour project?

Mastering the management of your business delivery requires tracking and measuring delivery performance, pricing services appropriately, improving delivery efficiency, prioritising customer satisfaction, and cultivating a culture of delivery excellence. Doing this will enhance your business operations and boost your bottom line.

Here are five ways to manage and improve your business delivery.

 

One: Track and measure delivery performance

One of the best ways to improve your business delivery and profitability is to track and measure your performance against your quotes. This applies to both product and business-based services.

The best and simplest way to track project performance is through a WIP (Work in Progress) board. Creating a WIP board needn’t be complicated. You can use a project management tool like Monday.com, Wrike, or Trello, or you can create a simple Google Sheet. Typically a WIP would include the following:

• Project name
• Client lead (customer)
• Project lead (who is internally responsible)
• Value
• Time allocation
• Actual time taken
• Key milestones (such as the client expected deadline)
• Status of the project (such as New, In Progress, In Review and Complete)

The purpose of a WIP board is to track the progress of projects against what you agreed. It allows business owners to monitor the time and resources spent on each project and compare it with their initial estimates. For example, suppose you quoted 10 hours for a particular service, but it takes 12 hours, or in a product-based business, you spend longer on administration or customer support than expected. Either way, you’re losing money and eating into your profit margins.

By monitoring your delivery, you can identify gaps and take corrective actions, such as optimising your processes, allocating more resources or increasing your prices to improve your profitability. A WIP board also gives you visibility of key milestones, such as the client’s expected deadline.

Top tip: When allocating hours to your delivery team (the people working on the project), don’t forget to account for the time needed to conduct quality control and any administration/project management. For example, if you quoted 10 hours for a project, you may need to allocate your team 7 hours, leaving yourself a few hours for quality control, amends/corrections and administration.

 

Two: Price appropriately

Pricing is a critical aspect of business delivery. If your prices are too low, you may attract customers but struggle to generate enough profit. On the other hand, if your prices are too high, you may risk pricing yourself out of the market and losing potential customers.

It’s essential to strike a balance. It’s important for business owners to closely monitor and analyse the WIP board to help understand if your pricing aligns with your delivery. If there is a miss alignment, you may need to look at your price or the efficiency of your delivery.

In your pricing review, you should consider the following factors:

• Costs
• Market demand
• Competitors
• Customer value

For more pricing information, read our Quote based on value, not price article to learn more about pricing appropriately to cover costs and boost your profits.

 

Three: Improve delivery efficiency

Maximising efficiency will help reduce business costs, minimise waste and maximise profits.

Business owners should continually look for ways to improve to streamline processes, eliminate unnecessary steps, and optimise resource allocation. For example, automation tools or software can help speed up administrative tasks, while training and upskilling your team can enhance their productivity.

Top tip: Business owners do not always need to find and recommend improvements themselves. You may encounter less internal resistance to new initiatives if you get the buy-in from staff. Consider encouraging or incentivising your team to find efficiencies themselves.

 

Four: Focus on customer satisfaction

It takes much less effort to upsell to an existing customer than acquire a new one. In addition, satisfied customers are more likely to become repeat customers and refer others to your business.

To build customer loyalty, business owners should invest in excellent customer service and processes to effectively communicate new products and services (unknown/unused by them). Doing so will improve the overall efficiency of your business as you’ll be spending much less energy per sale.

For more information on the benefits of customer retention, read our Building customer loyalty article.

 

Five: Create a culture of delivery excellence

Managing your delivery is about delivering what you promised to the customer and what you agreed to achieve as a business – your goals.

Delivering these promises requires a focused mindset (attitude) and collaborative effort from your entire team.

To achieve this, you should foster a culture of delivery excellence by providing ongoing training and empowering your team to take ownership of their responsibilities. In addition, motivating and rewarding employees for their problem-solving skills will create a culture of continuous improvement and significantly impact your profitability.

 

How ETC can help

If you need help streamlining your business operations and improving your return on investment, please get in touch.

If you are new to ETC, why not contact us for a free new business review? We’ll spend two hours with you, giving you professional coaching and will leave you with actions for immediate implementation.

Nobody enjoys receiving complaints. However, handling complaints is crucial to maintaining customer satisfaction, managing your reputation, improving your business, and increasing sales opportunities.

Ignoring complaints or handling them negatively will likely damage your business in two ways:

1. Customer dissatisfaction: Customers may feel insulted or undervalued. This can lead to decreased customer satisfaction and even loss of business.
2. Missed opportunities for growth: Complaints can highlight areas where your business can improve and even opportunities to add new services/products to sell.

Dealing with complaints is an inevitable part of running a business, but it doesn’t have to be daunting. In fact, if handled well, it can actually improve your business reputation, customer loyalty and sales.

Here are some simple steps you can follow to handle complaints effectively:

 

One: Create a clear complaint channel

It’s important to ensure all complaints are captured. Complaints can come in through various channels, such as email, phone, review platforms, online forms, or social media. Therefore, you need to ensure either all these channels are monitored or you need to direct customers to your preferred or ‘official’ way to make a complaint.

It’s usually best to nominate one person in your organisation to take the lead in managing complaints. This lead person doesn’t necessarily need to handle complaints themselves, but they should be ultimately responsible for ensuring procedures are resolved, the customer is informed, and records are kept.

It’s also a good idea to include expected reply/response time and outline any formal procedures for customers to help set their expectations. Customers might become more agitated if they feel their complaint has been ignored or fallen into a black hole. Automatic replies are a quick way to acknowledge receipt and explain your company process.

 

Two: Establish a complaint handling procedure

Depending on the size of your business, you could receive the complaint directly as a business owner or members of your staff could be on the front line. Regardless, you should establish a clear complaint procedure. This will ensure complaints are:

• responded to in a timely manner;
• recorded/logged;
• handled consistently and fairly across the business.

A complaint procedure will give everyone in the business the confidence to handle complaints. Procedures can help to defuse your defensiveness as a business owner and ensure staff aren’t left sounding uninformed or inexperienced (deer in headlights).

A complaints procedure should include the following stages:

• Acknowledgement of the complaint
• Recording of the complaint (either on a system, Excel or Google Sheets) accessible to all relevant persons within the business
• Investigation
• Resolution/Answer/Escalation
• Documentation of outcome
• Follow-up
• Review

Including these elements will ensure that complaints are handled consistently and effectively.

Top tip: You should always respond to a complaint as soon as possible. You do not have to have a resolution or outcome straight away, but ignoring a complaint can escalate customer frustration. If there isn’t an easy response, you can invite the customer to contact you for more information or let them know you need some time to investigate.

If the complaint is in public view, such as on social media, the best practice is to publicly acknowledge the complaint and ask the individual to contact you privately. It’s highly recommended not to try and resolve things publicly or to delete the feedback.

 

Three: Training

Training yourself and your staff about how to handle complaints effectively can have a dramatic impact on customer satisfaction. This training should include the complaint handling procedures and how to communicate with customers.

Your overall aim should be to respond to the complaint as quickly as possible and work with the customer to resolve the complaint to their satisfaction.

If you have a customer support team, you should consider training on active listening, empathy, and developing their problem-solving skills.

Effective complaint handling can have the following benefits:

• Improved customer satisfaction: Staff who are trained in complaint handling are able to resolve them in a timely and effective manner. This can lead to improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Increased staff confidence: Trained staff will feel more confident when communicating with customers and handling difficult situations.
• Better customer relationships: Handling complaints effectively can help build better customer relationships.
• Reduced complaints: Staff can identify and resolve issues before they become formal complaints. This can help to reduce the number of complaints received by the business.
• Improved business reputation: When complaints are handled effectively, it can improve the business’s reputation and demonstrates that you care about your customers.

 

Four: Complaint tracking and reporting

As a small business, it’s likely that as you grow, take on more staff and expand your services, you will receive more complaints. While not the most enjoyable task in the business, it is important to understand where you might be going wrong – in the eyes of your customers.

Tracking and reporting on complaints be used to identify opportunities for improvement, ensure complaints are being handled effectively and measure success in your business performance.

It is important to set regular complaint review meetings with key stakeholders in the business. This is typically done quarterly. This dedicated time will allow you to investigate your business to identify areas to improve and prevent future complaints. It will also help you outline changes or processes needed to prevent further complaints.

Top tip: You should always try and handle your complaint review process objectively. Firstly, try looking at the complaint from a macro perspective as well as trying to solve the individual problem. Consider that not everyone complains openly; some customers will have the same issue, but simply stop using your products/service. Has one person complained but it is an indicator of a larger problem?

Secondly, understand the scale of the problem to determine if a solution is financially viable. For example, you might not want to spend a fortune restructuring your business if only 1/100 customers complain (a 1% issue) – you may want to consider a more cost-appropriate solution.

 

Five: Follow-up and feedback

Often forgot, but following up and asking for renewed feedback is a crucial step in the complaint-handling process. There are two critical reasons for making sure you follow up:

1. You can understand if your solution was appropriate
2. You can share your resolution success with others

After a complaint has been received and resolved, it is important to follow up with the customer to ensure that they are satisfied with the resolution. This can help you identify if your solution was the right for the next time or make adjustments if needed.

In addition, by only focusing on the original complaint, staff and potential customers can become disenchanted with the brand. It’s important to celebrate your growth and demonstrate your dedication to your customer satisfaction.

Top tip: Ensure you include staff in your complaint resolution progress. If front-line staff are only hearing the complaint, but the solution is handled by another team, they might not be aware of the resolution and only hear the negative.

This is true for customer complaints online. Whenever possible try and encourage customers to respond to their own reviews. Potential customers are comforted by seeing a response to a problem. It will make them feel that if they have a problem too, they will be heard, and a solution will be found.

 

In summary: How to handle complaints

Complaint handling is an essential aspect of running a successful business. Handling complaints effectively can lead to improved customer satisfaction, loyalty, and a better reputation.

In summary, efficiently handling a complaint consists of the following steps:

1. Provide clear channels for customers to complain
2. Respond to the complaint as quickly as possible
3. Work with the customer to resolve the complaint to their satisfaction
4. Investigate your business to identify areas to improve and prevent future complaints
5. Implement changes or processes to prevent further complaints
6. Keep the customer informed when changes have been made
7. Record and review complaints to analyse trends (suggest quarterly)

By taking these steps, businesses can demonstrate their commitment to customer satisfaction, improve business performance and increase sales opportunities.

 

How ETC can help

If you need help streamlining your business operations and improving your return on investment, please get in touch.

If you are new to ETC, why not contact us for a free new business review? We’ll spend two hours with you, giving you professional coaching and will leave you with actions for immediate implementation.

Good customer service is essential for business growth, customer satisfaction, and long-term profitability. Maintaining happy customers will increase customer retention, referrals and overall brand reputation.

Research suggests that if you have a positive experience with a company or brand, you’re likely to tell two or three people. However, if you experience poor service, you’ll tell ten or twelve people. Therefore, customer service can be a crucial element to the success of your business.

In this article, we will outline eight ways to improve customer service to ensure you retain clients and attract new business.

 

One: Training staff

The foundation of customer service is knowledge and training. Many small businesses focus on training staff on their products and services and how to speak to customers. However, this is only half the training required; it’s also important for staff to understand the customer’s needs – why they need your product or service, and the benefits.

Think of your customer support team as an extension to your sales team. A well-trained customer support team provides a better customer experience, leading to customer satisfaction and loyalty. As a result, you’re more likely to retain clients, upsell products and services and attract new clients.

 

Two: Responsiveness

Today, customers expect quick responses to their queries or complaints. In most circumstances, failure to react quickly to questions could mean the customer goes elsewhere. Likewise, failure to respond promptly to a complaint could make it harder to resolve the complaint. Therefore, your business needs to respond to customers in a timely manner. One way to achieve this is by investing in technology (covered in section 8 below).

Top tip: Even if you can’t resolve a complaint or answer questions immediately, you should always respond to customers and set their expectations of when an answer can be expected. This is a great way to buy you more time and keep the customer informed.

 

Three: Personalise the customer service experience

For efficiency, it’s best to create systems and processes to respond to customer enquiries quickly. However, in doing this, you can lose the personal touch. Customers like to feel valued and appreciated. Therefore, whenever possible, you should include personalised elements in your responses. This personalisation can be achieved by remembering their preferences, addressing them by name, and sending personalised offers.

 

Four: Multi-channel customer support

It’s always best to ensure your customers have different options to reach you. Also, depending on your business, you may have a diverse user base. Therefore, you should cater to their preferred communication channel. For example, younger generations typically prefer online website chat features and text messaging over using the telephone.

In providing a variety of channels you’ll be able to communicate with customers in a method that suits them best. However, this variety can be difficult for small businesses and entrepreneurs to manage. Therefore, if you need to limit the number of customer support channels, ensure you understand your customer’s preferred means of communication and focus on those. Again, customer service technology can help you manage multichannel customer support more efficiently (see section 8 below).

 

Five: Empower customer service staff

Today, customers expect fast resolutions to their questions or complaints. In addition, customer service titans, such as Amazon, have established an almost ideal experience regarding product issues – issuing refunds/replacements/refunds quickly without much explanation needed.

Training and empowering your staff to make decisions quickly will significantly speed up the time needed for customer support. This autonomy can include offering a refund, upgrading a service or product, or providing a discount. Continual reviews and training will ensure you’re offsetting things like funds and replacement against employees’ time. Overal, your objective should be to create the most profitable means of delivering customer service. For example, it may have cost more in time (employee wage) to resolve a complaint than the cost of a substitute.

 

Six: Collect and share customer feedback

Information and feedback from customer service can be vital to the growth of your business – their feedback is based on where your product/service meets the real world (where the rubber meets the road).

Regularly capturing and analysing your customer service performance can help identify opportunities to improve your business. For example, continually reviewing customer support logs can identify common questions. As a result, you could potentially eliminate frequently asked questions by addressing them earlier in the decision-making process or improving your service.

In addition, sharing good reviews and testimonials can build trust with potential customers. This can help attract new customers. There is also an online/SEO benefit if reviews and testimaonlas are captured on Facebook and Google.

 

Seven: Anticipate customer needs

Understanding your customer’s behavhour and anticipating their needs could increase sales. For example, a florist can email previous customers reminding them of a special occasion, such as valentines day or a personal date (such as their birthday), eliminating their need to remember to use them. There could also be an included incentive giving the customer a discount code for that occasion.

 

Eight: Customer service technology

Recent technological advances in automation and Artificial Intelligence have transformed customer service efficiency. As a result, you can now deliver faster response times and alternatives to more traditional forms of communication, such as email and telephone. This will not only improve business efficiency and profitability, it will also create a better, more personalised customer service experience.

Here are three simple, cost-effective customer service technologies small businesses and entrepreneurs can take advantage of:

1. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software: CRM software will help you manage customer interactions, track purchases, and provide personalised customer service – such as a reminder when it’s their birthday. There are plenty of low-cost solutions that can help small businesses organise customer information, track customer issues, and manage customer communication. Examples of affordable CRM software that small businesses can consider include HubSpot CRM, Zoho CRM, and Agile CRM.
2. Website live chat systems: Having a chat function on your website can help your company deal with multiple enquiries simultaneously. Low-cost tools such as Trengo, LiveChat and Facebook Messenger can be installed onto your website and provide quick support for inquiries, questions, and issues.
3. Email Automation: Email automation will allow you to send emails to customers based on their actions, such as making a purchase, abandoning a cart, or signing up for a newsletter. Email automation can help keep customers informed, provide relevant information, and offer discounts or promotions. Popular email automation software includes Mailchimp*, Constant Contact, and Sendinblue.

Top tip: If you see the benefit of these technologies, but the investment is too high for your business, you can outsource some of your customer service needs to a virtual assistant – who will use this technology, but their costs are spread amongst multiple clients. A company providing virtual assistant services can provide cost-effective and flexible administrative support to businesses, allowing you to focus on core tasks and increase productivity.

 

How ETC can help

If you need help streamlining your business operations and improving your return on investment, please get in touch.

If you are new to ETC, why not contact us for a free new business review? We’ll spend two hours with you, giving you professional coaching and will leave you with actions for immediate implementation.

 

*Mailchimp is ETC’s current email marketing solution and the link provided in the article is an affiliate link. If you prefer a direct link, please click here: Mailchimp. 

One of the best ways to grow your business and become more profitable is to improve efficiency and maximise your return on investment (ROI). A successful, profitable business will focus on marketing and sales to keep money coming in and efficiently to slow the money going out – make every penny spent work harder.

Sometimes a single factor can significantly increase profitability. However, for most businesses, a series of minor improvements are needed across several areas.

This guide aims to help business owners identify and implement simple improvements to each area of your business to increase overall performance and profitability to maximise your return on investment. Retaining customers is essential; having spent time and money on your marketing and sales activity, why not put effort into keeping them? Getting existing customers to spend more is also easier than finding new customers – but you must do both to be profitable.

 

Step one: Customer service

Customer service is where your product/service meets the real world – where the rubber meets the road. This is an important area to get right, and you should invest in good people and efficient systems. Firstly, keeping customers happy will ensure they continue to use your business and refer you to others. In addition, listening to their feedback can help identify new markets, tailor your marketing and sales messaging, and gradually improve your overall delivery.

Strategies Improve Your Customer Service.

 

Step two: Complaint handling

If you haven’t already, create a robust system for handling complaints. Humbly paying attention to negative feedback will make you a better business. Not all feedback is constructive, but simply ignoring negative feedback can be devastating. In some circumstances, receiving negative feedback and then demonstrating how you overcame a particular issue can become a winning sales message.

Creating a Customer Complaint Handling Procedure.

 

Step three: Managing your delivery

Essentially, this is delivering what you promised – both externally and internally. Before you begin, ensure you track and measure your delivery against your quotes. For example, if you quoted 10hrs and it takes 20hrs, you are losing money! You either need to increase your prices or improve your delivery. Likewise, if the situation is reversed, you should ensure you’re not short-changing customers and risking dissatisfying them – potentially eliminating repeat business.

Mastering Your Business Delivery.

 

Step four: Customer loyalty

It’s easier and more cost-effective to keep a customer returning than to find new ones. Businesses should reward customer loyalty as this helps clients continue to use your products/services over your competitors – especially if your product/service is easily replicated. For example, think of supermarkets; they all sell similar products at similar prices. Therefore, their loyalty programmes are essential in helping customers spend more in their store than with their competitors. Businesses can reward customer loyalty in several ways, including offering discounts on repeat orders, retainer rates and loyalty cards.

Master Customer Loyalty.

 

Step five: Account management

For business-to-business customers and larger retail accounts, an account manager’s role is to nurture a client post-initial sale. Account managers are important as they can help retain clients and grow accounts. They shouldn’t be too involved in the delivery and act more like project managers or translators between the client and the business. Having account managers will allow other departments to focus on their specific delivery tasks, significantly reducing the number of general emails and phone calls.

The Power of Account Management: Boost Efficiency and Profitability for Your Small Business.

 

Step six: Employee performance

Regularly monitoring and measuring employee performance will help develop your team and ensure skill sets in your business are improving. In addition, workplace culture is becoming an important hiring factor. Working with employees to understand how to get the best from them will enhance productivity and identify potential hiring benefits.

Unlocking Your Team’s Potential: How to Improve Employee Performance in Your Small Business.

 

Step seven: Outsourcing

Not every part of your business needs to be handled in-house. While it might cost you more short term, outsourcing can bring in additional services and skills that might be too expensive to implement fully. An obvious example is hiring a web agency to manage your website; it is probably too costly to hire a full-term website developer. A less obvious example could be to hire a specialist in a particular market or area; bringing in support short-term can allow you to meet a critical need without committing your business to a long-term cost.

The Benefits of Outsourcing for Small Businesses.

 

Step eight: Finance

Keeping a close eye on your financial situation is critical if you want to remain flexible and grow. As early as possible, it’s usually advisable to hire an accountant. However, to keep costs down, learn the basic principles and pay attention to the essential numbers. For example, the difference between revenue, profit and cashflow – revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, and cash is king. Understanding your financial situation can make every decision easier, whether that’s hiring, outsourcing or which projects to take on.

Demystifying Small Business Finances.

 

Step nine: Management meetings

Every business should have a formalised management meeting – even if there are just two staff members. These meetings help to ensure top-level, strategic decisions are being answered. In these meetings, avoid getting into delivery specifics and focus on your progress towards achieving business objectives. These meetings should be regular enough to progress the business without stalling productivity. Typically, longer meetings are held once a month, and smaller check-ins are held once a week, depending on the size of your team.

The Importance of Management Meetings.

 

How ETC can help

If you need help streamlining your business operations and improving your return on investment, please get in touch.

If you are new to ETC, why not contact us for a free new business review? We’ll spend two hours with you, giving you professional coaching and will leave you with actions for immediate implementation.

Completed the sale: Job done! – or is it? On average, it can cost up to five times more to attract new business than to keep an existing one. Therefore, after-sales and customer care is essential to building and maintaining a profitable business.

According to Fundsquire, in the United Kingdom, there are approximately 1,800 companies founded every day. As a result, competition is extremely high, and as a consequence, customer loyalty needs to be earned. Poor after-sales, customer service and failure to build loyalty through upselling services can negatively impact your sales.

Here are three things you can do to maintain customer loyalty and increase sales revenue.

 

1. After-sales and onboarding

Many companies, after the sale, will switch the customer from a sales process into a delivery or operations workflow. This is extremely common and can be an effective use of skills and resources for your business – but is this change in relationship always best for the customer?

For the best customer experience, it is vital to ensure one of the final steps in your initial sales process is to create a smooth, gentle transition between sales and customer service. An effective means of doing this is to establish a customer onboarding process.

Customer onboarding significantly impacts whether a customer keeps using your product long-term, becomes a repeat customer, or leaves to find an alternative. Creating a customer onboarding process will help ensure you’re giving the customer the best possible start to their journey with you. Done well, it sets your customers up for success. Done poorly, it leaves customers questioning why they signed up in the first place.

Typically, the onboarding process covers the whole journey: from initial sign-up to product/service activation and first use. This process is a gentle, structured way to move away from the sales relationship and starts building customer service relationships.

 

2. Regularly schedule an aftersales follow-up

Perhaps a really obvious one, but regularly keeping in contact with customers to make sure they are happy will genuinely retain customers and boost sales.

According to HubSpot, 93% of customers will likely make a repeat purchase with companies that offer excellent customer service. So, as a small business, your customer service is the greatest indirect sales weapon. However, on a day-to-day basis, you’re likely working on delivery, not thinking about how to get more money out of your customer – which is a good thing (mostly).

Separate from operational meetings, ensure you arrange a regular, dedicated after-sales meeting. These meetings are essential to ensure you’re delivering what you promised and to help you identify additional services or any revisions of service the customer may need.

Top tip: Make sure you’re prepared before the meeting and speak to everyone with day-to-day contact with the customer. Understand the value to the customer and you as a business. Sometimes it can be just as profitable to reduce services (if you’re over-serving) as it can be to upsell new services.

 

3. Don’t neglect to upsell or cross-sell

It’s far more efficient to upsell or cross-sell to existing customers than gain a new one. The actual process is more cost-effective to you as a business and can also demonstrate innovation to your customers – you’re not a one-trick pony.

Upsell: Selling a more expensive version of the product or service. For example, convincing the customer to buy a 55inch TV over the 42inch one they intended to buy.

Cross-selling: Selling additional/supporting products or services related to what the customer already intended to buy. For example, convincing the customer to buy a speaker system alongside the TV.

Studies have shown that 40 per cent of customers get annoyed when employees upsell or cross-sell them during customer service interactions. Effective timing is critical when selling additional products or services. It’s probably best not to try to do this while you’re resolving a problem, and we recommend (as detailed in point 2) having a dedicated meeting to discuss further opportunities.

Ultimately, both upselling and cross-selling help the customer get more value from your business and help your business get more loyalty and revenue from the customer.

 

How ETC can help

If you need help improving your after-sales, creating an onboarding process or upselling to your customers, please get in touch.

If you are new to ETC, why not contact us for a free new business review? We’ll spend two hours with you, giving you professional coaching and will leave you with actions for immediate implementation.