By Paul Halter, CPCU, CIC, CRM

You have heard the phrase “I have my ducks in a row”, but what does this really mean. My definition is to have everything organized and in place to get what is important to your bottom line accomplished. 

Let’s assume you have determined your mission and where you want your organization to go. You can determine what it will take to get there by looking at what is important to your ultimate success. You have completed the overview of your current structure, effectiveness, and efficiency. You have identified strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and gaps to properly position the company. Now you begin the process of getting your “ducks in a row.”

First let’s get rid of what is not core to your business. We, too often, are diverted by the day-to-day elements of our internal business, away from conducting the business. Eliminate functions that are not core to your business and outsource them to professionals. Spend your internal dollars on acquiring the best internal staff you can find and have expert resources available for significant issues. A competent administrative employee can help the internal employees understand the employee handbook policies, get the necessary paperwork completed and input time into an outsourced service to assure your payroll is compliant and the taxes are paid. To hire a person with the knowledge and experience necessary to support your internal business in these areas is a cost you can avoid. Outsource this function to a professional service and significantly lower cost.

Looking now to what is needed for success you can view your business from the customer’s perspective and determine what elements are important. Let us look at responsiveness. If we believe that being responsive is a core value that will move the business to success, then explore what it is to be responsive. 

One technique we may use is to determine what our employees and customers say we do that describes behaviors that say we are responsive. Once we have determined the necessary behaviors, we can consider how to integrate these behaviors into our business.

 Let’s look at what being responsive to incoming phone calls might entail:

• How many times do you want the phone to ring prior to its being answered?
• What information do you believe the person who answers the phone should be able to convey to the caller?
• How many times do you want a caller to be transferred until the question is answered?
• Should you anticipate the question before it is asked and have a newsletter or e-mail customers to answer questions before the need to call you with the question?
• How long should it take to get back to a customer?
• How long should we wait to follow up with a customer when waiting for a response from the customer?

One of my associates offers a service that requires a license. Everyone in his office is licensed, no matter what the position. So, whoever answers the phone can offer basic information on the companies overall offerings and know to which specialty area to direct a call if more in-depth information is required by the caller. The phones in his office seldom ring more than twice before a live person answers. He has a standard response time for responses to inquiries. Employees are aware of these expectations and can convey the time an inquiry will take to get a response to the caller. If for whatever reason the response is not obtainable within the given time period, the client receives a call stating the response will take longer and the reason why. Whenever a complex issue arises, the client is advised after each step is taken to resolve the issue so the client is kept in the communication loop.

In order to accomplish the response system described above, my associate had to determine what was necessary for this to happen. He knew his employees needed specific knowledge so he made sure he had his employees licensed.  He needed the right phone system to permit easy access to answer phones and transfer and track calls. He provided a system for follow-up and tracking issues that included a system to elevate complex issues.  If for any reason a customer complained, he had a war room to which specific employees could be called on a moments notice to develop a plan for resolution as soon as possible. The highest ranking person in the area of the customer complaint would immediately call the customer after the meeting to advise the customer of the action being taken.

My associate defined responsiveness for his business, provided the tools necessary for his employees and got advice from his outsourced Human Resource expert to provide employee rewards to drive responsive behavior.

We have only considered a few items that one may consider for handling phone calls. If we describe ourselves as responsive and expect our customers and employees to recognize us as responsive, we need to integrate responsiveness into each and every part of our business such as responsiveness to employees, supervisors, vendors, etc.
 

The initial resources we invest in evaluating each element of what we determine a necessity for success is well spent because once our “ducks are in a row” we can move forward with confidence.

Paul Halter is Executive Vice President with The Resourcing Solutions Group.