Hit Your Target Through Perfecting Your Aim

When it comes to managing a company and growing its success, setting sights on improvement and taking aim on things that detract from your company’s success is critical.  Equally critical is nurturing the successful things happening in your business.  But first you need to find the cracks in the floor and retrieve the gold dust hidden underneath. Below are action steps to get you started:

Laser-in on your daily business routines.              

In order to improve a business process, you should first look at the daily tasks your company performs.  Things like answering the phone, running repair calls, and paying vendors may seem routine, but are they being done properly and efficiently?  Are your employees giving your customers the greatest level of service?  Do they know how? Is your accounts-payable person behind on paying invoices causing your company unnecessary late fees?

You will need to assess each job function in your company to figure out which one to focus on improving first.  Example: Technicians have numerous price objections because they are not providing above-and-beyond customer service.  What do you need to do to get customer-satisfaction levels up so that you receive fewer complaints and create more repeat and referral business?

Create the change.

Once you have identified your business processes for improvement, it is time to provide yourself and your employees with the change solution.  If you are a member of Success Group International®, you have an excellent advantage over thousands of contractors.  You have client success managers to help with your high-level business-improvement needs.  You have Success Academy® at your fingertips to assist you with frontline-employee and management training.  All you have to do is reach out to the resources you have, explain your need, and you will be pointed in the right direction to get started on changing your business for the better.  The key to creating the change is to give your employees the training they need—and for you to reach out to your SGI™ client success manager to get their help.

Implement the change.

Be sure to communicate the reason for change with your employees. It is okay to let your employees know what has been most challenging for the business. Ask them for their input.  Inform them how you plan to correct the challenge.  Make sure you give a good description of why it is important to them, the customer, and the company. Let them know how they will play a key role in creating the success of the business.

Be sure to measure the accuracy and consistency of the established change processes. Attending initial training with your employees shows them that you are equally committed to the change necessary to grow the business.

Create a process.

Written processes on how to perform a job within your company leaves little room for error.  Providing training and developing process-driven operating systems will free up more of your time. Make written processes easy to follow and understand—then tasks may be completed with little to no mistakes. Always give new employees a written copy of processes; this way they know how they are expected to perform from day one.

Test the change.

So many times things are implemented and never perfected.  You should sit with call-takers, accounting team members, ride-along with technicians, and examine the most challenging and/or time-consuming parts of doing their job.  After you have spent time with the employees performing the task, involve them by brainstorming ways to improve the process.  Automating manual processes and investing in contractor-specific technology to give greater customer service and decrease nonproductive time can benefit the company.

Never stop improving the change.

As time passes, encourage your employees to improve the company’s existing systems and procedures. When your employees operate with laser focus, customer service improves, overhead expenses decrease, customer satisfaction increases, your revenue and profits grow, and your business will become a beacon in the communities you service.

Start perfecting your aim now and hit your targets for the year!