Building, growing, and maintaining a business often comes with seasons that require a little house cleaning. You've collected too much software and the process to get work done is being bogged down by convoluted processes. Or perhaps the pain of growth meant that you didn't have a chance to create processes that made sense. This means that it's time to streamline your business and you can do it with these ideas.
Use Corporate Cards Instead of Reimbursement Processes
When your team uses their personal money to buy something for your business, it can lead to a long string of paperwork that takes a while to process to ensure everything is accurately documented for IRS purposes. Many companies are moving to corporate cards only for purchases to streamline this process.
No longer do employees need to fill out paperwork, submit it, wait for it to be processed, then get a check issued from your finance department. Using a corporate card is simply about turning in receipts and categorizing those expenses. Once it's documented, there isn't much else to do other than have someone responsible to make the credit card payment from your corporate account. Some cards, like a fuel card, even limit what people can buy with their cards. Using a fuel card is perfect for
Automate Where It Makes Sense
One of the worst customer service moves is to over automate processes. Think about the self-checkout locations at the local grocery store. Nothing is more frustrating than waiting in line for eternity because average people don't know how to use them correctly. This leads to people choosing other stores where skilled cashiers can help people with their groceries instead. This is an excellent example of what not to automate.
Automate where it makes sense. Creating a good customer experience is important for your brand. And while balancing the needs of the business with consumer perception can be tricky, any process that directly impacts customer service should be automated with care. Automate things like data collection, procurement, email management, appointment setting, and even social media posts. When you free up your time from these kinds of tasks, you can invest more of your attention in creating a great customer experience in other ways.
Give Your Employees More Authority
Nordstrom has it right on this one. The primary role of their customer service associates is to create happy customers-whatever it takes. This means that their teams are empowered and given the authority to make decisions that impact the customer experience. They don't need to constantly ask permission from managers to do the right thing, they are simply empowered to do it. What if you did something similar in your company? What if you chose to train and empower your staff and gave them authority to act when needed? It would certainly streamline and simplify a lot of lower-level decisions that they are perfectly capable of making.
Use Less Software
Too many companies have a bad habit of adding new software that can do a new function and then trying to integrate it with their other software. This can create a lot of manual work that is unnecessary. Instead of using one software for data entry and another to process the data, why not find something that serves multiple purposes? You'll end up with fewer errors in the long run if more processes are kept in the same software systems than in trying to use multiple programs.
Ditch the Paper
Paper makes sense for a few things. But the vast majority of work that average businesses do can be digitized. Storing documents in the cloud have never been easier or more secure. This means that documents can be typed, digitized, and easily stored without ever printing a page. Team members can collaborate on documents, edit, and communicate without paper. Not only does this save you money on big purchases like industrial printers, but it also streamlines the process of creating materials and getting them finalized within your company. Documents are available at the click of a button instead of trying to track down who has the latest edit or iteration. Too much paper leaves room for errors and also creates unnecessary bottlenecks to getting work done, so it makes sense to ditch the paper.
