Learn from Big Business
Big Business have resources to try new things. Learn from them, use what works.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems
Big Businesses have learned the better they keep track of customers, the more satisfied the customer is likely to become.
Example of a bad CRM system: You call a company, you tell someone your issue, they transfer you, you repeat the issue, they transfer you, you repeat the issue, etc.
Example of a good CRM system: John orders the same thing every time he comes in. The waitress asks John if he has a prefered card, the waitress types in his customer number. The new waitress, who has never seen John before asks, "Would you like the your usual Mr. Doe?" It gives John the warm fuzzy and makes him appreciate coming in instead of going next door.
CRM systems come in all shapes and sizes. You don't need a big sytem to take better care of your customers. Something as simple as a Microsoft Outlook contact list can become an easy place to keep notes on customers.
Standardizing, Proceeduralizing, Training, Using and Streamlining
You hear about how standardizing saves companies lots of money. How? What is it? How do I do it?
Ever go in to a grocery store and notice that the layout is totally different than the one you normally go to, even though it is the same company? Standardizing, making things the same through out all the stores, yes is nice for the consumer, but is even nicer for the grocery store. Lets go through an example, say we are a company that builds houses.
Standardizing
Take 5 house designs and standardize on them, meaning figure out the best configurations and don't deviate from them.
Proceeduralizing
Create proceedures on how to build those houses. Figuring out the best, most efficient way to build is imperitive at this point. But don't forget to tell why you chose do it one way over another..."We build 12 ft wide rooms because that is how wide a standard roll of carpet is. This cuts down on costs because the carpenter does not have to cut and patch pieces of carpet to make the room."
Training
Training becomes easier because you can develop training material and can use it over and over.
Using
Now that you have the standards, the proceedures and the training. You put them to use. Since all the staff is doing everything the same, there is less question and confusion over how to do it right. What ends up happening is that your staff become very familiar with your 5 house designs, quality goes up and your customers percieve your staff to be more knowledgable. Quality means less errors, less errors means less warranty work. Less warranty work means costs go down.
Streamlining
With costs down and quality up you can focus on streamlining. Go through each step of the process again and see what you can do better. What can you add or change thatyou can make to save time, cut costs, or even adding a feature.
The great thing about this is that you can do it with almost anything. However we recommend focusing on your core business processes.
Automation
The first thing that comes to mind when I hear automation is the robots at an automobile assembly line. However Automation does not have to be that dramatic. Even automating little tasks through out your business can add up to more efficient staff.
The computer is a great tool to help automate your Small Business. For instance, you can use templates in Microsoft Word to automatically put your business name and address on the bottom of all your documents. Automatically sort your email using Microsoft Outlook's rules wizard. Use Microsoft Windows' scheduled tasks in the control panel to automatically run a program, like Backup. You can also automate some applications by automatically creating and emailing reports.
It does not have to be computer related. What are the thing you or your staff do over and over? Is there a way to automate it? Does it cost money? If so are the long run benefits worth it?