Companies everywhere are looking to improve their workflow and productivity. Making your operations more efficient and effective is crucial for competing in today’s world. Customers have more expectations than ever before. So make sure you are poised for more profits and success by following these tips:
Increased Transparency
The workforces of today don’t rely on being in the same room to communicate. They can use chat apps to send emails, documents, do live video calls, and more. If you aren’t taking advantage of these tools then you are likely falling behind. But here are a few extra ideas you might want to implement to get a headstart on the competition:
Visual Workspaces
Visual collaboration is powerful. It helps you reduce the need to clarify what someone said over text. Instead, by chatting and working together live in the same digital space, you can get instant feedback looks. This helps you eliminate wasted communications and speed up your time to deliver on projects.
Take, for instance, a virtual helpdesk. If your team wanted to create such a platform for your customers, you would need your marketers, your customer service agents, your designers, and your programmers on the same page. For one person to understand their role, they might need to know what others are doing. Brainstorming and having a screen shared between them opens up the process to more creativity and input from all sides.
Standard Operating Procedures
Imagine taking thousands of dollars, lighting it on fire, and sitting there while you watch it burn. If you are not using an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) then that is exactly what you are doing. The reason is that an SOP reduces unnecessary work.
In its essence, an SOP is like an algorithm. It is a step-by-step process that tells your employees how to do something in your business. For instance, for a customer service agent they might have a way to answer each question that they get. By removing the doubt, you can plug anyone into any role in your company and have them follow the script with success. This takes away the need for them to come to you with common questions and focus instead of helping more people per hour for your business, driving up their value to your team.
Offer the Right Incentives
If you want your team to be more productive, you need one thing: incentives. People will only naturally do what they feel is necessary to get what they want. What you need to do is leverage this inherent trait.
Take a sales team, for instance. If they aren’t being good about reporting their calls or hitting their numbers, then it might be time for some incentives. These incentives can come in the form of negative outcomes or positive outcomes.
Negative Consequences
Make it clear that you will uphold your end of the bargain, as long as they hold up theirs. In other words, if someone is failing to meet expectations and shows no signs of turning it around, you might dock their pay or let them go. This sends a message that performance is mandatory.
Positive Consequences
You can go the other way with incentives too. Try offering bonuses more frequently when your team hits milestones. Perhaps you can make a quarterly reward a weekly reward for a short period of time. This might just give them a shot of motivation they need to keep going forward when times get difficult in the business.
When it comes to the modern digital age, getting more done in less time is more important than ever. However, without the right tools, it can easily get overwhelming. Follow the tips above and overcome common obstacles that companies face when they try to make their operations better. That way, your problem will be how to serve so many new customers rather than closing down the shop.