Define your business processes
Every successful business has a method to their operation. A standard way of doing things. When these business process are well understood and clearly communicated to staff, clients, vendors and partners, operational efficiency is achieved and the profits follow.
Successful businesses document their successful patterns of behaviour. Employees are trained in the method and each business process is refined over time.
Whatever your business, standard business processes most likely include the following
- Marketing strategy and follow-up
- Sales methodology and prospect life-cycle
- Support and customer care in a helpdesk / service desk setting
- Recurring renewal of services or regular billing via subscription, invoice or similar
- Standards for dealing with complaints, feedback and suggestions
- Processes for project management
Good processes for these essential business functions lead to good business.
Don't be a blunt tool
Without standards and clearly defined processes, a business will revert to addressing issues on an ad-hoc fashion. This is a business that will be burning through time and money. It's a blunt tool. When processes are not clearly defined, performance and efficiency decreases. When knowledge is not documented, recycled and shared, people start re-inventing the wheel.
A lack of process, is a lack of business efficiency.
Stay sharp!
Invest in your business by investing in HelpMaster. HelpMaster allows you to "document" your processes via templates that describe each step of your business workflow. Define jobs, actions, updates, communications, escalations, service agreements and more.
HelpMaste is a proven business tool. Thousands of users around the world use HelpMaster to streamline their daily business operations. Download a copy today to see why.
Automate business processes that make sense
Business processes are one thing. Automating them is another.
Some processes lend themselves to being automation.
- Sales processes
- Software bug tracking
- Helpdesk and technical support
- Complaints management
- Facilities management
- Request fulfilment
Trying to automate everything is a recipe for disaster and frustration, but many of the repetitive process common in any business are perfect candidates for software automation. HelpMaster provides a rich toolset for template design, escalation, SLA calculation, stop-the-clock status indication, knowledge creation and vetting and more.
Automating process saves time, improves consistency, facilitates learning, speeds learning and allows business process engineers to concentrate on creating, reporting and refining the day-to-day things that make a business operate efficiently.
Report on your progress
Measure what you manage. Manage what you measure. Reports and statistics are a vital part of business management. Get the information your need to run your business. Find out what works, what doesn't.
- Determine who your best staff are. See who is not working to capacity.
- Quantify who your most profitable clients are.
- Report, then refine. Use the reporting data to re-invest in your processes. Refine them.