Feb. 22 - "Diary of a Business Sale" Register   More Details

Mar. 2 - "Diary of a Business Sale" - Sold Out 

Mar. 3 - "Eliminating the 4 What Ifs that Keep Business Owners Awake at 2 A.M." Register    More Details

Mar. 3 - "Don't Let your Business Become a Casualty"   Register   More Details

Implement a customer "after-care program" as a value-added part of your product or service, and to stand out from your competition. The after-care follow up should be free, and should be conducted within the shortest appropriate time after the work has been completed.

You can use a site visit, phone call or an email to determine if your customer is 100% satisfied with what they received from your company. If they are not, ask how you can make them happy. If they are satisfied, ask for a testimonial.

Patrick Ilett, IQ 9000 Ltd., Winnipeg, MB

Financial statements are an important part of understanding and improving performance. However, because they are high level and take time to prepare, they may not provide timely or detailed information about the key metrics driving your business. For this reason, my company identified a few key metrics that can be calculated quickly, and that help us measure the effect of changes we make.

For example, "Revenue per Payroll Hour" is one of our key metrics. It is calculated by dividing the total revenue invoiced that month by the total payroll hours of employees who directly serve clients. A rising "Revenue per Payroll Hour" means that labor efficiency improved for one of three reasons - revenue improved, payroll hours dropped, or both. This ratio is valuable because it directly links a financial value (revenue) to an operating term (payroll hours). After tracking this metric for the last year, we have accumulated a substantial database that measures the positive or negative impact of changes we have made, such as reorganizing our process for serving clients or even scheduling vacations.

Lawrence Stopa, E-Power Marketing Inc., Oshkosh, WI 

I had been frustrated by my employees' lack of appreciation for my values (e.g., my company's values), so I decided to broaden the dialog with them on this subject. I asked each one to tell me "What makes Lynn (me) crazy?" The result was a list of more than 25 specific "infractions" - everything from "employees whining" to "not acknowledging customers right away." I published the list for all employees and added this note at the bottom:  

From these responses, certain CORE VALUES for our dealership are easily recognizable: 

- Honesty and integrity
- Teamwork and respect for others
- Excellence in products and service
- Professionalism in attitude and appearance

The list of specifics, along with my summary, is now a meaningful and memorable way to illustrate our company's values.

Lynn Nathan, East Coast Cycles Inc., Bear, DE

Human nature demonstrates that most people don't plan more than one or two weeks ahead. As a result, many B2C (business to consumer) companies are now offering bi-weekly payment plans. In the automotive industry the trend is becoming so popular that some vehicle ads no longer show the purchase price, only the bi-weekly payment amount. These plans are very lucrative as many companies charge an administration fee, all taxes up front and a high interest rate.

Would offering financing on your products or services increase your sales? If you don't have the resources internally to support customer financing, you may be able to find a financial institution to provide the service and pay you a commission. In addition to making your offerings more attractive to cash-strapped consumers, the interest and/or commission collected provides an additional revenue stream for your company.

Kim Christie, TAB Winnipeg Board 401

If you're considering a new system for Accounting, Customer Service, Inventory Control or other critical business practices, you should first conduct a careful analysis of the related habits and processes within your business. This analysis will provide valuable insight for selecting the new system, as well as how the system should be implemented.

It is also important to discuss and document all reports, "dashboards" and other critical business tools you currently use, so that the new system provides a clear path to these assets. If this process is followed, downtime will be significantly reduced and employee adoption of the new system will be quicker.

Fred Moore, Moore Computing LLP, St. Louis, MO

Text messaging can be a huge waste of time if employees have access for personal use. However, it can be a big time saver for your business if you enable it for internal communications. We use an open source instant messaging tool called Ignite Realtime, which is limited to intercompany communications. The system allows our customer service personnel up front to easily communicate with warehouse personnel in back, and saves everyone from running back and forth to address simple questions.

Jerry Su, Teamson Design Corp., Edgewood, NY

 
ABOUT THE ALTERNATIVE BOARD®
The Alternative Board® is comprised of members who are business owners, CEOs or presidents who run businesses in non-competing fields. During a TAB Board meeting, you receive the benefit of the collective experience of the board members, who offer practical solutions to your problems-not theories.

You can learn more about TAB, which has been helping business owners succeed since 1990, by visiting TheAlternativeBoard.com