Leverage Through Systems

Summary

Systems can increase your efficiency, your level of customer service and satisfaction while save you time and money.   

Remember the best system is one that you will use.   
One thing to keep in mind about systems is that they are ever changing, as your business changes or grows, and as technology expands.  So please never get it in your head that you will someday have the perfect system in place and that everything will be roses.  What should happen is that you will get some vital systems in place that will change your world, then your job is to break those systems and improve upon them.   Just like in your personal growth, if you are not failing forward then you are stagnant.  The same is true of your internal systems, they must be challenged, broken, rebuilt and broken again, or growth and improvement are simply not happening and you will not progress at the rate that you may have envisioned.    Systems can save a ton of hours and even more importantly often take out the human error component.  This one may seem extremely basic and it is just an example of a process that is done on a continual basis that can be made much simpler quite easily.

 CRM or customer relations manager – This may seem really basic, but do you know that only 50% of small businesses use a CRM in their daily  practices and the ones that do use one, a majority of them use it for nothing other than a glorified card file 

   Go mobile.  With all the changes that we have had to endure this year, one thing that has emerged from this is something that many experts feel is here to stay on a large level and that is the ability to be mobile.   Connectivity through the use of mobile devices and utilization of cloud-based storage systems has changed the way that we can do business by giving us the option to be somewhere other than behind a desk from 9-5.   

Systems don’t have to be complicated…in fact remember that they are supposed to make life easier, more productive and more error free.  Systems in your business world that could be more efficient and therefore likely cost savings would be a natural result because of less people's time involved in the completion of the project. Don’t be afraid to create something just to find out it doesn’t work for you.

Inspirational Quotes  

Full Transcript

I am sure that you have heard it said that if you do something more than once then you should have a system for it.  This has never been truer than today where things move at the speed of light, and the ability to serve customers or clients at a high level in record speed has never been more important. This is a time where regardless of the business type, companies are integrating new technologies to automate daily processes and move business forward faster than ever before. 

One example would be in this world of instant gratification Consumers expect answers to questions, problems or concerns within moments not hours or days, as was acceptable in decades past.  This is especially true if you are in a service industry where buyers shop multiple people or platforms for what they are seeking and if that return call or email is not within moments they have since moved on to the next person.

As daunting as this may all sound there is good news.  One of the most common things that I hear in our businesses is that the potential client left messages for 3 or more businesses and either we were the only ones who picked up the phone OR we were the only ones that replied, either by phone or email depending how the client had reached out to us.  Not just that we contacted them quickly, but that we responded at all.  The great news in that sad statement, is that there is a ton of room for you to serve clients well and kick everyone else’s butt, just by doing what is right and what you should be doing if a consumer needs help.  After all, regardless of your business, chances are that people engage with you for some sort of service or commodity and should expect amazing communication.   This is just one example of where a system would be critical to follow up and tracking.

I am going to talk about 3 different ways that systems can increase your efficiency, your level of customer service and satisfaction and save you time and money.   One thing to keep in mind about systems is that they are ever changing, as your business changes or grows, and as technology expands.  So please never get it in your head that you will someday have the perfect system in place and that everything will be roses.  What should happen is that you will get some vital systems in place that will change your world, then your job is to break those systems and improve upon them.   Just like in your personal growth if you are not failing forward then you are stagnant.  The same is true of your internal systems, they must be challenged, broken, rebuilt and broken again, or growth and improvement are simply not happening, and you will not progress at the rate that you may have envisioned.

Alright here we go…Number One – CRM or customer relations manager – This may seem really duh basic, but did you know that only 50% of small businesses use a CRM in their daily practices and the ones that do use one, a majority of them use it for nothing other than a glorified card file…which mind you is what they originally were designed to do. My how times have changed.  Now if this is you and you have not progressed to a computer database, that is ok, we are here to help as everyone must expand their horizons in their own time frame.  But I am here to tell you now is the time. 

Your CRM can be a marketing machine in so many ways. Here are some of the most common ways that businesses utilize a CRM.  There is of course the obvious of keeping all client data in one easy to search location.  You have the capability to organize your clients by just about any category one could dream of, so that later if you want to contact a certain pool of clients you can literally do a 2 second search and have the entire list of clients that for example like to participate in horse activities, or golf, or wine tasting, or have children at home.  There is literally no limit to the classifications that you could put on people.  You can put multiple categories on people so that you can search for people in your database that ride horses and like to knit…. or maybe they like to knit for horses.  You get the idea.  This is invaluable when trying to market to a select group of individuals.  A more practical example might be a Real Estate agent that knows of a fantastic multi-unit property that will be coming on the market and has a field in his CRM that designates his investor clients, so now he can pull all of his investor clients with a couple clicks, send out a group email in that same software and alert them to this upcoming property.  Or if he prefers, he can print off address labels and mail literature to all of them on that property if that is how he likes to market.

Your CRM is also the most valuable note storing system for you to keep priceless information from conversations with clients, that you can reference in your next contact with them and look like you have a memory like a steel trap that your client interprets as an incredible level of caring.  Don’t get me wrong I know that you care for your clients or you would not be here trying to improve yourself, but there is only so much, about so many people that we can remember if they are not a member or our immediate family or close circle of influence…and I am not going to lie, even those groups are sometimes the victims my selective memory. 

Ok, so for example, let's say you are talking to a client who informs you that they are really busy right now as their daughter’s soccer team just qualified for the national championships and they are scheduling travel and figuring out homework while they are going to be gone.  You notate this so that when you talk to them next you can ask how the team did.  Even better you can put the date down as an activity a few days before the match and send a good luck card that pops up as a reminder on your calendar that is synced with your CRM.  You have just leveled up in the eyes of your client. As you can see this is a step up from 90 percent of your competitors.  Even if they are using a CRM, they likely are not using it at this level.  This is the type of interaction that if you are in a service business will gain you clients for life.   If this sounds complicated, be assured it is not.  It will take some time to determine what fields you want and what you want to track but from there it is simple.  If you have your contacts on something as simple as an excel spreadsheet, most CRM’s will allow you to import from that document right into your new database.  Some companies will even do it for you free of charge just for using their systems.

I could go on forever about the different things that CRM’s can do for your business, but you owe it to yourself to Google the different companies that are out there.  There are even many that are industry specific so you may want to start there.  Be cautioned though that those can sometimes be pricey, when you in fact can use something more generic that will work to get you started and tweak it to meet your needs and is super affordable.  Like anything you can spend as little or as much as you want, but it is only as valuable as the pieces you use.  Remember, your job is to keep pushing it to do more and break it…. then you may need to adjust or trick the current system or graduate to something more powerful.

The next system that can really be a time saver and can have you showing up on a different level is going mobile.  With all the changes that we have had to endure this year, one thing that has emerged from this is something that many experts feel is here to stay on a large level and that is the ability to be mobile.   Connectivity using mobile devices and utilization of cloud-based storage systems has changed the way that we can do business by giving us the option to be somewhere other than behind a desk from 9-5.  Many companies have found that employees are quite capable of working at a high level from home and therefore saving the company thousands with reduced office space and utilities.  I know that we could get into a debate about the productivity of people from home or outside the office and I am not here to say whether it is a good fit for your situation or not, but one that should be analyzed and considered.    Working remotely has the capability of giving your team a more balanced life which leads to happier employees which in turn produces higher quality work.  This has been proven over and over with science, so we know that this is not just conjecture.  Happy people are simply better workers, it’s that simple.  Being mobile decreases or eliminates commute time, constant office distractions and coffee pot talks that burn valuable time.  Again, it may not be the right fit for you depending on the type of business that you are engaged with, but it may be something to consider if not for everyone, then for some.

Finally, the last system that I am going to chat about today we will refer to simply as process lists.  This is likely the oldest system in place that is so every day that it can easily be overlooked.  This goes back to what I said earlier…if you do something more than once have a system for it.  Think about your own business or workplace and even your home environment.   I am sure that you can think of a dozen things that are done either daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually.   Without fail they are non-negotiable and must be done.  By default, some of the simpler ones you likely have a system in your head for how you do it the same way every time.

Let’s take an easy one for example that many families can relate to.  Recently one of my team members and I were discussing exactly this topic and how systems are a part of our everyday life whether we acknowledge it or not.  He said you know it’s like when he and his family go camping…he has a list of everything that must be done to ensure a successful smooth trip.  The list is completed, and he knows with confidence that unless they get eaten by a bear chances are pretty good that the trip will be a huge success. That is a system.  But then he confessed that they had decided at the last minute one Friday to go camping and did not follow “the list” and just started putting things together and hit the road…just to discover that once they got their vital items had been forgotten which caused stress and frustration and they ended up coming home early as it just wasn’t worth the struggle.

So, this is just one example of a system that can be automatically done but is not thought of as a system…but hard to argue that it is not.  Especially, when it is not done, and chaos is the result.

Let’s look at something in your business world that could be more efficient and therefore likely cost savings would be a natural result because of less people time involved in the completion of the project.  One that comes to mind is payroll.  Most companies are doing payroll twice a month or at the very least once a month with some having to do what can be an arduous weekly chore.   If you are a small company, you may not want to pay the expense of a payroll company to do your payroll and payroll taxes so you may even still choose to do your payroll manually.  Now, there is nothing wrong with that…. however, what I do know is that there are programs and systems such as Quick books or other financial software that allow you to still keep those tasks in house but automate them affordably so that you are not checking your numbers multiple times for accuracy or calculating hours, pay and taxes by hand every payroll period.  This can save a ton of hours and even more importantly often takes out the human error component.  This one may seem extremely basic and it is just an example of a process that is done on a continual basis that can be made much simpler quite easily.

What about tracking performance metrics, or team production by individual or department.  I am sure that your business has many components that need to be tracked to establish goals and future growth plans.  Even if your system is as simple as an Excel spreadsheet…start there.  It has to be better than sticky notes all over your desk with numbers that you can’t remember what they were for 10 minutes after you wrote them down. What if you are in sales and want to track your current active clients…sure you have your CRM with a field for active, but maybe you want something more visual for team motivation.  A white board that the team members get to engage in by putting newly converted clients on the board and taking them off when they buy…. that is a system and a great way to keep an eye on the ball.

Systems don’t have to be complicated…in fact remember that they are supposed to make life easier, more productive and more error free.  Don’t be afraid to create something just to find out it doesn’t work for you.  You have no idea the amount of dry erase posters I have made with systems on them that we used for a month just to determine it didn’t work or we got push-back in using it.  Remember the best system is one that you will use.  

I hope this has been helpful and you will take some time and write out a list of the things that you do that could be systematized or automated to save time, money and energy.  After all you have likely given up a lot of all three of those this year.  It’s time to take it back.

Please comment or put your questions below and as always, we are eager to answer them and continue to serve at a high level.

As you go move towards bigger and better things remember it is always your choice to Focus Forward.