Let’s talk business strategies. The New Year brings with it billions of resolutions worldwide, ranging from getting in shape, to finally taking that dream trip, to swearing off some vice negatively affecting your life. Your organization, however, can’t wait until January 1. The following are business strategies you should implement as soon as humanly possible.
3 Business Strategies You Should Implement Now:
Focus on Customer Service:
Customer service can make or break a company, particularly a small one. People tend to discuss their good and bad experiences with their friends, family, and even on public fora (such as review sites and blogs). A good review provides free word-of-mouth advertising to anyone within earshot (or eyeshot). These people may then go out, experience your first-class customer service, and post about it on their blog. If you wonder about the power of word of mouth, look no further than Nielsen, according to them, 92% of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family over all forms of advertising.
Conversely, a negative customer service experience can turn off a whole group of people at one time. A single person may turn off a dozen potential customers in-person, but can do significantly more damage with a single review or blog post. Facebook has over one billion users. Yelp has over one-hundred million. Who knows how many people that review may reach?
The best thing you can do is provide outstanding customer service so those fora broadcast just how wonderful your company truly is. Bend over backwards. Innovate to provide more value. Care about your customers. These days, there’s more (and easier) access to companies than ever before. Customer service is a great way to stand above the fray. Be sure you track it, and listen to what your customers have to say!
Create the Right Culture:
Every organization has its own unique culture. Is yours detrimental to your employees? Take a step back and look at your company culture objectively. Are your employees happy? Put yourself in their shoes. If you worked where they worked, earned what they earned, and did what they did, would you be happy? How can you add value to their working lives?
Happier employees are typically more engaged and less likely to leave. Did you know that organizations with a high level of engagement do report 22% higher productivity. And while productivity is critical, employee retention is paramount; the cost of replacing a single employee is 1.5 – 2.5 times their annual salary. Now, consider the cost of a pool table for the break room, or buying a weekly lunch to show your appreciation, or even just giving them more autonomy in their roles. There are so many things you can do which your employees will appreciate, and they’re fairly cheap compared to the cost of turnover.
Implement a Measurement and Feedback System:
Measurement is crucial to understanding how your organization is performing. Managers need access to some sort of performance data – whether that’s widgets produced, customers helped, sales tallied, or some other measure. They then need to share this data with their employees, and use it to improve performance.
Additionally, if employees have access to their own productivity data, encourage them to report it to management at any time. Decades of social psychology experiments suggest that people perform at their absolute peak when their effort is easily identifiable. If your employees have control over that, they’re more likely to exceed expectations.
The above are just a few suggestions in a sea of possibilities. If you’d like help figuring out your business strategies, let us know! Visit our services page to learn more.