Inter office communication is a major function of the modern office and choosing the best strategies for maintaining open and seamless communication is vital.

With well-maintained communication, co-ordination between departments is seamless, office systems become routine and, overall, it projects a positive image of your company as a whole, in the eyes of your clients.

Often inter office communication is overlooked, as it is not dealing directly with clients. The first step to good communication within the office is to establish professionalism.

Email is the most commonly used inter office communication method. Dictate clear guidelines to your team and require that emails follow a specific protocol. Develop an email format that is used uniformly throughout the office to simplify.

Many offices employ the use of an intranet- a network operating within an organization.

“Benefits are increased productivity and the immediate delivery of information.”

This private extension of the internet acts as a platform for posting office materials, announcements, files, directories, sales, projects, etc. Benefits are increased productivity and the immediate delivery of information, in a secure and efficient manner.

Intranet also encourages collaborations and builds corporate culture. It is built for your specific audience, has cross platform capabilities and is cost effective.

Employ the use of instant messaging systems that are simple and use friendly. These quick messaging platforms increase productivity and reduce time spent on tracking down answers.

We use a system called PowWow – an online collaboration tool, which allows a simple, clear and secure interoffice communication on projects and group tasks.

PowWow functions like a cloud, retaining files and allowing for multiple users to access and edit files, send messages, create milestones and to-do lists, etc.

This sort of system is useful because it encourages team members to utilize the same platform for all office communications and keeps things organized and fluid.

Regardless of the type of inter-office communication, it is important to stress the need for professionalism. Short, succinct and to the point should be standard.

Start from the ground up and adequately train your team members. Invest time in refresher courses, dedicating efforts to revisiting classic methods as well as fresh innovations.

Systemize your service. Consistency is the key – clients will come back when they feel like they are appreciated.

Nurturing your clients is low cost and effective. Make your clients feel valued.

Regular mailings (newsletters, articles of interest, thank you notes, holiday cards, etc.) and loyalty programs are the best ways to remain connected and to ensure your clients are being nurtured.

If you choose to make use of customer service strategies such as live chat options, social media outlets or email support, be sure to fully consider the ramifications.

Do you have the staff to support these options? Do these staff members have adequate time to devote to these channels?

Only offer services in which you can excel. It’s better to focus on the ‘less is more’ model when it comes to support- unavailability is frustrating to a client.

“Excellent customer service is a competitive business differentiator.”

Select Client Relationship Management (CRM) software that will allow you to track all correspondence. Refer back to the CRM constantly to see where things stand, and take action to satisfy all client issues.

Make “please” and “thank you” a company-wide mantra. Studies show that these simple platitudes can help make or break a deal.

Know how to apologize when called for. Listen and be attentive. When dealing with clients always use names and activate familiarity.

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” – Bill Gates

Asking for regular feedback shows your client you are dedicated to their needs and value their opinions. It also allows you to get unique insight and create new strategies based on experiences.

Utilize satisfaction surveys, comment boxes and customer advisory boards to gather your client’s feedback.

When in doubt, employ the RETAIL strategy:

Really welcome the client

Enquire about their needs

Talk in their language

Ask questions constantly

Invite them to decide

Leave them on a high

Learn to recognize some of the warning signs early and you may save you and yourself the headache of losing a client.

Often communication will start to slow down. Use CRM’s to track communication with clients so you can be immediately aware of a lull or break in correspondence.

Reactivate the relationship by sending a personal email, making a phone call, or stopping by in person.

You may notice that your discussions are focusing more on your prices than anything else. Consider a special offer or re-examine your value proposition to ensure the client understands the value of your solutions.

Clients may show a lack of trust, and begin questioning the quality of your product of service. In this case, gain as much information as you can into what specifically is causing their dissatisfaction. Devise a strategy to tackle the issues and present this solution to the client.

Clients may become difficult to contact. Excuses such as ‘’too busy’’ will become the norm. Get face-to-face with your client. You may be able to salvage the relationship if you go the extra mile.

Late payments may signify a client is dissatisfied. Make the call and find out if cash flow is an issue and offer payment plans and other options that may alleviate this problem.

Involve us in this process as it’s important you are aware of just how much you can give away.

“The best warning sign is to receive regular, in-depth client feedback.”

This insight will give you the upper hand in tackling issues and will result in better client retention.

Devise a checklist: do you and your team members arrive on time for meetings? How often are phone calls ringing through to voicemail? What is the average time it takes for a client to receive a callback? How often are you in touch with your clients?

Continue to ask the right questions and take preemptive steps to avoid losing clients over time.

FOCUSING ON BRAND CONSISTENCY

When taking steps towards a more virtual business marketing strategy; ensure that you are creating a consistent brand image. Before venturing into social media and other web related areas, it is important to hone in and clearly define your image.

Select colors that represent your desired image and use them across the board, your logo should appear on all materials and be sure to use include your taglines.

Here are some of the good work habits that they have shared with us.

1. Think of difficult jobs and assignments as challenges rather than obstacles. Don’t over think a job and don’t over-criticize yourself. Perfection is seldom achieved and never rewarded.

2. Look for better ways. Think outside the box; involve your team, family, your business advisor. Discover new and better ways to do things. Ideas can be found anywhere.

3. Organize your desk, your files, and your life. Use technology so that you can locate everything you need when you need it. You haven’t the time to spend an hour looking for something that’s hidden somewhere.

4. Technology is essential to every business. Keep up with trends. Someone has already provided a solution for your biggest problem.

5. The only constant thing in this world is change. Be flexible to whatever changes might occur at work and try to adapt quickly.

“In business, work habits play major roles in company success and reputation.”

6. Don’t be late for appointments. The working world is not the world of university. At university, the worst that can happen when you show up late in class is that the professor won’t let you in.

7. When talking on the phone employ good phone etiquette. Don’t talk loudly and distract others nearby. When making business phone calls, always be polite and have a pen and paper at the ready.

8. Personal and business emails are different. Use standard formats for business emails to stay professional and always re-read what you have written.

9. Value and manage your time well. Missing deadlines is a reflection of your brand.

Some studies have shown that as much as 60% of your stationery budget could be reallocated to other income producing areas if some simple changes were made in the way many businesses carry out traditional administrative functions.

The “paperless” office scenario was seen as a potential advantage to businesses back in the 1980’s when computers became a commercially viable tool. However a lack of trust in the technology coupled with an inability to share information resulted in paper trails on a level not seen before.

Today technology has moved on and there is a great opportunity for businesses to do the same.  “Cloud” applications have made many of those paper trails redundant.

“For a small investment the savings can amount to thousands over just a few years.”

Cloud based invoicing programs allow the client to be emailed invoices which they are free to process and file online. They can often settle the invoice in the cloud by credit card, PayPal and other means; the system can send them off acknowledgement of payment and update your accounts receivable system instantaneously.

The days of having to tolerate the “check is in the mail” story are gone. Reminders to delinquent clients can also be sent automatically.  From a management perspective, cloud-based information is available to you anywhere in the world – providing you have internet access.

And utilizing cloud solutions developed by reputable providers also means your data is being regularly, reliably and securely backed up, perhaps on different continents.  Often an investment in a 2nd computer screen can significantly reduce the need to print documentation to look at while processing work.  This can also reduce the workload, and therefore the required specifications of the printers themselves.

Key Performance Indicators (or KPI’s) are specific measurements of various parts of your business activity. They are used to check performance against targets or as benchmarks or to monitor trends.

On their own they yield limited information, but as a comparison they can instantly identify areas in need of improvement allowing management to focus ON the parts of their business that will contribute most to success.

Much like the dials on the dashboard of your car, KPIs work best when they are few in number.

There are literally thousands of things going on underneath the hood, but if those three or four things showing on the dials are pointing in the right direction, chances are the car will reach its destination. And it should be the same with your own KPI’s.

Less is more so it’s imperative that the KPI’s you select are the ones that will ensure you reach your desired destination. Which, incidentally, is another reason why your business plan is so important?

“A sale isn’t a sale until the cash is in the bank.”

The best way to ensure you have the right KPI’s for your business is to take a step back and examine your business plan for the Critical Success Factors (or CSF’s) – the factors you have to get right for your business to achieve its objectives.

One might be cash flow. After all, it’s hard for a business to get anywhere without it! So a manager might introduce turnover as a KPI to measure against set targets. And there might be a pleasing trend.

Even if increased sales are being achieved by an aggressive discounting strategy, sales would probably have to increase significantly just to maintain the business’ current position.

Therefore a smart manager might also include their achieved margin as a related KPI.

Monitoring both turnover and margin will instantly inform management if the strategy is successful and if it will result in increased cash flow.

So if the business extends credit it is also a good idea to monitor the average amount of time it takes to receive the money.

If increased sales are being achieved without systems to convert that sale quickly into cash the strategy could be counterproductive.

These types of KPI’s are called “sub system” KPI’s and considered together they can provide some insights on how your business is really performing.

While it is important to be consistently attracting new business, your ‘old dogs’ don’t need to be taught new tricks. By simply reminding them of why they chose you in the first place, you may be on your way to picking up an easy sale.

To pull old clients back into your business, take a look at your attrition levels. What percentage of clients have you been losing per year? You want to examine and separate the lost clients into categories, best describing their reasons for leaving. They will usually fall into one of three categories:

1. An interruption (personal, health, cash flow, etc.) caused them to cease being a patron of your services. With every intention to come back, they simply have not.

2. They were unsatisfied with the product or services you were offering.

3. They had a poor customer experience the first time around.

One you have researched their reasons for leaving, come up with strategies to ensure this does not happen again.

Once you have actively made changes addressing these issues, you can contact these old clients, and let them know about your recent upgrades and your plan for preventing future dissatisfaction.

“Your client list is your security. Call. Visit. Send a letter.”

Work with solid and concrete examples of how your service has changed. Do not be afraid to address the problems they cited for their departure and be direct about how you have integrated solutions.

Reaching out to clients who have simply fallen off the radar may be more time consuming, but it can also be quite simple. When you contact these lost clients, start with a concerned and empathetic approach. Always ask how they are and what might have stopped them from coming back.

Return to the basics and embrace the power of basic human communication. By simply showing concern for a lost customer, you may save yourself the cost of high attrition levels.

Set up preferred customer programs and ‘unique’ special offers to entice inactive clients back into the fold. This small loyalty recognition can go a long way.

Small businesses bear a heavier burden then the big boys. Your client list is your security and money and time should always be put aside to ensure your client list is not weighed down with inactive clients.

While long-term plans help you to keep an eye on the overall goals, short-term goals are necessary on a day-to-day basis to ensure their delivery.

For short-term goals to be successful, they must be achievable, encouraging and have realistic timelines. While a business plan plays out over years, short-term goals can cover daily, weekly or monthly timelines.

Many recommend adopting the S.M.A.R.T. method of setting short-term goals:

Specific, Measurable, Action-Oriented, Realistic and Time specific. Each goal should be submitted through this model to increase the chances of a more successful outcome.

Break your larger goals down into achievable short-term objectives. It will also help you to better monitor employee performance.

Patience and persistence are the keywords when it comes to managing and achieving goals. Consistently reviewing your goals and finding out the reasons why they have not been accomplished will help you evaluate what is working and what is not.

“Increasing sales by a smaller percentage each month is more realistic then setting an annual percentage.”

Don’t overwhelm yourself. Start with a daily goal, a weekly goal or a monthly goal. Including colleagues in the setting of your short-term goals is also a great way for them to stay inspired and motivated.

Record your goals in a planner, on your calendar or on your computer and keep them in plain sight. Visualizing the goals will help remind you of what you are working towards.

When working with clients to help them achieve their goals, we often utilize a software initiative called Advisapedia. It has a Milestones feature- for setting goals and issuing reminders to assist you in achieving your goals.

Be flexible and realize that some goals change or become obsolete along the way. Always be ready to review them. Keep morale and energy flowing by adjusting the goal as required.

One prominent business advisor once said, “Goals are not separate from the culture of the organization.” Your goals should reflect your mission statement and values at all times.

Successful businesses know how to direct employees to accomplish their short-term goals in order to achieve their long-term goals.

Every company with a client list relies heavily on their customer service to retain those clients throughout the years.

“It is the provision of service to customers before, during and after the sale of a product or service.”

Being customer centric is defined as “creating a positive consumer experience at the point of sale, or post sale”. More simply put, it means putting the customer at the center of a company’s marketing efforts, without the main focus being solely on closing the sale.

The question here is whether being customer centric is a beneficial or detrimental strategy for small businesses. The debate is heated, as many believe that becoming customer centric implies that the customer is always right, and that the customer shall be satisfied at any cost.

A small business would most likely suffer in this environment, as budgets are often too tight to accommodate such an approach.

Some have broken customer centricity down into a more streamlined formula that can easily be applied to each customer, in each sale.

1. Awareness and Consideration: Be aware of what the client is looking for and make sure you are offering that, at all stages of the communication.

2. Select and Buy: Streamline your purchasing process to make sure that it is as simple as possible for clients to buy from you.

3. Initial Experience: Prevent buyer’s remorse by actively engaging your clients from the initial buy, inquiring immediately about their level of satisfaction; in other words, nip problems in the bud.

4. Use, Learn and Support: This is the crucial part of customer retention, post sale and follow up – you must continue to nurture the relationship at all times.

5. Repurchase and Recommend: A successful completion of stages 1-4 will ensure you arrive at the last stage where you have engaged your clients into generating new business seamlessly.

We offer customer centricity support tools that include Survey and Feedback features that will encourage your clients to evaluate your services at all stages.

While customer centricity embraces the contested belief that the customer must ‘always be right’, in the long run, its customer retention benefits should not be overlooked as a strategy for small business owners.