Easy to get – feedback

We know we have a good product/service.  We know that we’re the best.  We know that we offer the best value for money. Do we know that our clients know this?

Gaining client feedback can be quite daunting – we don’t like to ask for praise do we? We also fear what the answer might be!

Firstly try not to be afraid, whatever the answer is, approach the process of gaining client feedback as an opportunity to improve.  If you’re following your systems and the management of them has been carried out properly (ie, planned, drafted, reviewed and checked), your clients’ requirements will have been met. 

So how do you get the feedback?  Ask for it!

Communicate with your clients throughout your relationship with them.  From their initial enquiry, confirming an order, receiving your product/service, invoicing, after sales care and on to close out.

How do you ask?  This can be simply through natural conversation, meetings, telephone, email and even now social media sites.

Ask the questions you want the answers to.  You can issue a feedback form ‘for quality assurance’ purposes, but how often do these get returned to you … be honest! If you do ask your clients to return feedback forms only ask a maximum of three questions at any one time.  You will be more likely to get quick replies. Especially if you continue to communicate in the same manner you did during the job; so if you communicated always by phone – call your client; if by email – email for a quick reply; twitter – tweet your client, etc.

If you ask only three questions you can then ask ‘open’ questions and steer clear of the 1-5 scoring check boxes, which, let’s face it, is just you carrying out your own box ticking exercise!

If you have built a relationship with your client and communicated well throughout you should be able to simply pick up the phone and actually ask your questions and write down the answers.  Then if your client says great things about you in a quotable fashion, you can ask permission to quote the feedback in some of your media.

So success all round = you gained valuable information, what’s working well and what needs improvement and confirmation that you have happy customers.

Remember:  the best feedback is repeat business.

Benefits of documented systems

Document management systems are pretty essential any business owner who would like the comfort and security of knowing the business can run efficiently.

Your Action Coach will tell you – write down systems for everything you do – that way your business at some point will achieve your target of ‘running without you’.  Documented systems equals:

• Time away without worrying
• Stress free time for working ‘on’ your business
• Security in the knowledge that your teams know what they’re to do
• Quick and easy reference when the need arises

Having a Company Manual of all you do – or, at least, instructions/procedures written down of your critical activities – is like having a ‘safety net’ for your teams.

In times of change, whether business growth or downsizing, reference to how things should be carried out can be a real benefit to all concerned.  The Manual will remind you and your teams of your ethics, your objectives, your aspirations and vision.

Your procedures covering activities such as:

• Enquiry development;
• Selection/recruitment;
• Invoicing;
• Purchasing;
• Etc, etc, etc;

will help your teams to carry out their responsibilities efficiently and effectively.

Your Company Manual is also the place where current templates, forms, policies can be found.  This ensures that your teams are always using the latest versions of your company documents.  Again this provides security in the knowledge that the correct information is being gathered and issued to your clients.

In summary:  writing down your systems ensures:  Peace of Mind; Security, Assurance to both your teams and your clients.  No matter what is happening to your or your clients, the level of quality of your service or product will be sustained:  ie, as high as possible

            =  happy satisfied clients, that go back to you again and again.

Styles of written procedures

tabular format

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flowchart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flowchart/Description mix

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Descriptive Style

Forms, Templates, Standard Documents

How infuriating is it when you have created a form/template no-one either uses it properly or uses out-of-date versions?

Take the Enquiry Form. We all have one, so that we get all the information we need when a new customer calls. It has been created with passion, using all our experience and knowledge of years and years of information gathering calls – we know what we need to know to be able give our new customers what they need. Then you pick up the Enquiry Form and your telesales person didn’t get the telephone number and the email address keeps bouncing back – something’s wrong!

Then there’s the purchase order form, that if you don’t fill it in properly the Office Manager gives it back and you can’t buy what you want until you do.

Worse still, the job sheet that isn’t detailed enough means your operatives can’t do their job properly.

What do the above form filling (or lack of) scenarios add up to? … unsatisfied customers.

Unsatisfied customers means lower repeat business, weakened brand image and reputation, poor potential for new customers.

So often forms, and filling them in, are not taken seriously. Users need to know that it is critical to the efficiency of your business that these forms are completed correctly and in full. In full means that if a particular field is not applicable, for example, a new customer does not have a mobile telephone, then ‘n/a’ is entered into that field. So much time is wasted by the next user searching for the ‘missing’ information only to discover there is no information to find!

It might be that monitoring form filling closely has to be done, but short term pain does mean long term gain. Insisting on the correct form being used at all times may seem ‘silly’ to your staff, but the benefits of efficiency for them and you is evidence itself for simply doing it.

After all, if you don’t fill in your expenses claim form correctly, you don’t get your expenses, right? Same goes for every other form.

Control your forms, give specific training if required and check they’re being used properly by everyone.

Start-Ups

My advice to any new starter would be to make sure you have your systems in place. That is to say, write down key procedures that have to be adhered to for your business. No matter how simple or complicated, it is critical to your business that you and your staff can refer to a company ‘handbook’ – so that everyone knows what has to be done.

Procedures need to be written with four key elements: 1) who does it? 2) what has to be done? 3) when does it have to be done by? and 4) what templated documents have to be used?

Ideally use a system such as the quality management standard ISO 9001. Here in the UK I work with small to medium companies that are finding this framework invaluable in making sure that they ‘do what they say they do’. Operating a quality management systems covers every aspect of your business too. So when you’re going through changes such as fast growth, the quality management system makes sure that you don’t forget key activities. Such as: maintaining the quality of your product/service, ensuring your staff understand and are happy with the changes, making sure your clients continue to be satisfied with your services.

Once you have written down your key procedures, provided training for all users and given time to embed the systems and handled any anomalies, it will be essiential to monitor that the systems are working for your business. In the ISO 9001 world, this is called auditing and it is critical because it will make sure that you take every opportunity to improve.

Hello world!

Say what you do, do what you say, prove it, improve it – that’s it –  Quality assurance (quality management systems) in a nutshell.