Business Tips

1st day new employee starting – can they actually start work?

by fiona / Blog / No Comments

Spoke to a great friend of mine today and it triggered a topic which is close to my heart. Ensuring you have everything ready for your new employees on their first day. My friend started at her new job which she is really excited about and she is sitting at her new computer today without the programs she needs to her job, no email address so no one can invite her to team & project meetings, no phone so no one can call her, no organisational chart or phone list so she can start figuring out who does what. Everyone in her office seems to be hurrying in and out of meetings so she is sitting at her desk twiddling her thumbs ! What a waste of her time and what a bad impression they have set for her first day.

Would you invite your friends over for dinner and only prepare for their arrival by setting the table?

Not plan a menu , shop for food & tidy the house and greet them at the door when they arrived?

Most business rely heavily on computers and phones for their employees to do their jobs. So having these two basic things set up should be a given.

What are you telling your employees on their first day of work if they do not have the tools to do their job?

• Don’t worry about delivering on time
• You are not important
• We forgot you where coming
• We are disorganised

Your staff are also your customers

Enough of my whinging…

Solution:

1. Write a checklist of who needs to do what to set up a new employee
2. Assign the checklist to the person who is the best host & great at follow up in your organisation.
3. When the new staff member starts get the host to show them around and answer questions.

TIP: Remember to allow time for deliver and setup of equipment.

No idea were to start?  The Kiffin team can help you write this and set it up . Give Fiona a call now 021 627 822

6 questions to improve your service delivery

by fiona / Uncategorized / No Comments

Happy New Year !

Now is a great time to review your service delivery – coming back into the workplace from a holiday you maybe be refreshed and ready to focus on fine tuning how you do business.

Use these questions to discover what systems are in place and what needs to be put into place.

1. Where do my sales come from and what percentage comes from what area?
2. When & how do you know the sale in made?
3. What expectations do you and your client have? – do they match are they clear?
4. How do you know the product & service is being delivered as promised?
5. How do you know payment is made on time?
6. How do you get client feedback and ask for referrals or repeat business?

How would you like your clients to become Raving Fans?

by fiona / Blog / No Comments

Raving Fans book review – “Customer service plus 1” Ken Blanchard & Sheldon Bowles

I know that by achieving Raving Fan status with my clients they have become natural refers of new business back to me. So I was attracted by the title of this book and I enjoy the tongue in cheek style story that these authors favour.

Here are the key 3 points from this book. (which are made are clearly made with practical examples from different industries).

1. Define your vision of customer service – make it one you passionately believe in !

2. Determine what your customers want – test it against your grand vision. Listen to the silence – if your clients are not complaining it doesn’t mean they are happy. Most likey the will jump ship as soon as someone else offers them an better experience.

3. Build it & test it & measure it and add plus one percent improvement each time.

Why plus 1 ? Well if you aim for one percent difference each week – this will accumulate and mentally incremental changes are a lot easier for us to aim for.

How will I incorporate this into my business?

1. Keep true to my core values of Value, Balance & Focus

2. When I hear nothing from my customers I will be worried and call them and find out how I can help them or rectify anything that has gone wrong.

3. Test &Test again always looking for a 1% improvement

Getting PAID – show me the money from a systems perspective

by fiona / Blog / No Comments

After a recent bad experience of chasing money (everyone’s least favourite task) I thought what a great topic to talk about from a systems perspective. If you are in the service industry you are often expected to deliver work to new clients before getting paid.

Problems can arise when a new client is enthusiastic and thinks they know what they need, is in a hurry and wants work done now.

I recognised it all started badly as I did not firmly define what the deliverables would be. Silly ha ?

I know, I know, I am a systems coach who did not follow my own system. I let myself get bulldozed along by an enthusiastic client. Now I have a better system to share with you.

Learning Points = NEW System for KIFFIN

1st RED Flag – If the client is in hurry and you don’t take the time to access their needs properly.

System: Slow the process down a step and define the outcome and get agreement up front. Etc… YES we want to achieve xyz outcome and deliverables because our company strategy plans are abc.

2^nd RED Flag – The client calls begins to wander of topic and changes their mind. You arrive to perform agreed tasks and are thrown something totally out of the specification of work.

System: Don’t be nice, flexible & accommodating – STOP and reassess how this meets the agreed outcome and deliverables.

3rd RED Flag – Client loves what you delivered and texts you at all hours of the evening and expects a response to questions.

System: Set clear hours and response times.

4th RED Flag – Client drops off the radar completely once the work is delivered and doesn’t pay on time.

System: Once quote is signed off get 1/3 paid up front if over x amount of $

Hope my mistake makes your working life easier

Induct new staff more simply and easily

by fiona / Blog / No Comments

Learning small things like how to set up their email, or where the tea and coffee is kept means your new team member will take a while to start performing at top speed. It also means they’re interrupting their team‐mates to ask questions.
Record all your Administration information in a  Manual so you’ll have all this information in one place, making induction simple and easy. Your new team member will be able to settle in and become a productive part of your business faster – which is better for everyone!

Think about all the things that have made you feel uncomfortable on your first few days or weeks in a new job?

• Location of toliets ( key or keycard for door )
• How to work the coffee machine
• How to work the photocopier
• How to setup your answer phone message
• Where to park your car ( So you don’t annoy the boss on the first day by taking their park)

If you need this written down and don’t have the time – contact the Kiffin team we have a product that can capture the most common adminstration questions from your employees.

The Adminstration Manual  http://www.kiffin.co.nz/products/

Do your documents suffer from Muffin top?

by fiona / Blog / No Comments

Those of us who use Microsoft Word will have had to edit a document some time in their career and had annoying things happen like:

• images disappearing,
• tables falling off the sides of pages,
• page numbering and footer disappearing
• table of contents with double entries of the same heading

If you plan to use word as your primary tool for document creation experts will recommend setting up a template.

You will want a consistent look that reflects your brand so spent a bit of time with your graphic designer defining your standard colours ( RGB) , table styles and determine which fonts you will be using.

I recomend setting up the following templates

1. Eletterhead ( with some standard click and type areas to guide people on what needs to be filled in)
2. Form ( if you require your clients to sign off anything)
3. Manual ( for your internal business processes, policies, procedures etc…)

Ohh and by the way we have been setting up word templates for our clients since 2003  ….so  if you need to call on experts email info@kiffin.co.nz

Keeping your manual current

by fiona / Blog / No Comments

If you have a manual that documents how you do business – how often do you update it?   You may call it an Operations Manual, Systems Manual, Departmental Manual, Sales Manual.

Keeping your processes, procedures and templates up to date is not usually the full time role of one person in most companies.So information once collected can become out of date quickly.

TIP: Add updating manuals to a staff members KPI’s. [ Ensure you enter parameters around this such as frequency, accuracy etc..]

Keep in mind…

• How would that person find out that things have changed?
• What would prompt them?
• How would others remember to tell them things like the cleaning company has changed and the new company comes on Wednesday mornings?

You need a system to make sure it happens.

If you are in charge of doing the updates in your business here is a handy checklist to use…

What has changed Checklist

• New software?
• Anyone left? ( name, role, dept)
• Anyone started? (name, role, dept)
• Any Roles / Titles changed?
• New suppliers?
• New target market?
• New product / service?
• New location?

Kiffin recognised that keeping your manuals current is an issue for companies

We offer a service where we take care of all your updates. We contact the staff, arrange meetings and do the updates and send you the updated versions.

October 2011 Special

For the month of October 2011 we are offering a free style guide template for the first 5 businesses to contact us about getting their updates done.

Spring Clean Part 2: WHERE DO I FIND THE #*@?!! DOCUMENT / FILE?

by fiona / Blog / No Comments

Most businesses start out with one or two people who save their documents and name their files in a way that makes sense to them and then new people start and they do the same and so on and so on.

In the ideal world a business would start out with a set of files and instructions on how to name documents and files and where to store them. One person would be responsible for managing templates and releasing them to staff. As time goes on a more people join or leave the business the filing systems on a server get bigger, messier and more complex. Each person brings their own habits from past jobs along to add to the expanding file ciaos. Imagine those folders and documents had to live on your desk – they would soon get in your way, get knocked over and take over your office. The fact that documents are hidden in your server means most people just ignore it. Storing all those documents can start to cost you $ when have to increase your server size and when you are paying for offsite storage.

Finding the current template or document is a problem I have seen for lots of clients over the years

If you have the budget and need to store a large amount of documents then a document management software maybe worthwhile.

The first place to start though is to do a spring clean and get rid of what you don’t need

How to fix it :

1. Get all staff together to decide what needs to be accessed the most often
2. Confirm the names of the folders and what is to go in them
3. Confirm the naming conventions of the documents
4. Write down the instructions for 2 & 3
5. Decide on what needs to be kept for tax and legal purposes
6. Pick a time to clean ( delete) that will least effect people
7. Sort by date order to see which are the oldest files
8. Delete, archive old files if they are needed

Good systems and processes = good for employee retention

by fiona / Blog / No Comments

A recent employment survey in Australia has shown that the biggest gripe Employees have is with their systems and processes.

41 % of respondents picked Systems and Processes as their key frustation.

“This result is consistent with Insync Surveys’ benchmark database where “structure and systems” is placed in the third quartile (i.e. in the bottom 50% of the database). Poor systems and processes is a frustrating reality for many employees, but as most people don’t know what other organisations offer in terms of their systems and processes it drives attrition but not attraction.
Our research indicates that high performing organisations provide employees with effective systems and processes that enable them to do their day-to-day work well (Insync Surveys, 2010). This includes IT, payroll and other broader procedures and methods, and can cause dissatisfaction when not implemented correctly. Gilboa et al (2008) found evidence to suggest that performance will be adversely affected by situational constraints such as improper machinery or inadequate supplies.” visit http://www.insyncsurveys.com.au/ to read the full report.

How do you and your staff feel about your current systems and processes?

• IT?
• Induction?
• Customer Service?
• Adminstration?

I suggest that 2012 is a good year to start fresh with a review and documenting what does work, then looking for ways to improve, remove of replace those that don’t.

Start planning for this in November with a quick Audit to see where you are now.

Contact your IT people, Systems & documentation team [ Kiffin ]

The secret of successful delegation. How to clear your in tray by delegating to your team.

by fiona / Blog / No Comments

Guest Article by Carole Bates from Premier Performance   www.premierperformance.co.nz

Managers are often reluctant to delegate because they feel they can do the job quicker and better than a team member and that they will lose control of how things are done.  There is certainly an art to successful delegation but, once you’ve mastered it, you will be able to manage your workload more effectively and free up time to focus on the activities that create most impact in your role.

Follow our 8 step process to master the art of delegation:

1. Review your job description and decide which tasks can be delegated.  Some tasks will obviously not be suitable for delegation (e.g. where confidentiality is an issue).  You will need to assess the rest based on degree of difficulty and responsibility.
2.  Delegate a mixture of enjoyable and not so enjoyable tasks to get buy-in from your people.
3. Use delegation to develop the skills of your team members by assigning tasks that will challenge and interest them.  This helps to build confidence and staff morale.
4. Match the delegated tasks to the skills and experience of team members.
5. Provide training where required.  If you’re too busy, just make time for the training.  It will pay off in the long run.
6.  Provide appropriate instructions, including:
1. WHAT needs to be done?
2. HOW does the task need to be carried out?
3. WHEN does the work need to be completed?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Allow as much autonomy as possible, taking into account the ability of the individual you’re delegating to.
7.  Ensure that your instructions have been understood.  Ask the person to talk through their understanding of what needs to be done to make sure you’re on the same page.
8. Retain accountability for the overall outcomes and deadlines.  Check in with team members to make sure they’re on track and provide coaching and support as required.