Member Article

Effective and efficient: Trial and improvement tips

Like all small businesses, in the early years, commercial success is first and foremost. Excellent customer service is a route to that success. As a company, we’ve now matured, and as part of that maturity, have installed two golden rules which set customer service on equal pegging with commercial success. These rules: “Is it better for our customers? Is it more efficient for us?” Every new process or service we wish to install has to pass these tests.

As an example, we are in the process of creating an online FAQ. Seemingly obvious but something that has been ‘parked’ until now in favour of the personal touch. However the creation of the rules has pushed it right to the top of the list. We answer 500 customer queries a day and we found that a huge percentage was spent on the same questions. We are therefore developing this online resource to answer the most regularly enquired problems. This crucially ticks two boxes: it saves the customers’ time, replacing a call with an easy-to-find fast track FAQ and will save our time, allowing us to identify new services to improve or develop.

Through researching content of this FAQ, it became clear that “What time is my order going to arrive?” was a very common question. To make this question a thing of the past, we had to develop a new system to avoid wasting both the customers’ and call centre’s staff time. We therefore installed an order tracking system through the recruitment of a new delivery supplier. Without any prompting or promotion from us, 80 customers a day are already using this new service, which shows just how much it was needed.

Changing our delivery supplier came with added benefits, both commercially and for customers. We anticipate that we’ll see a 4% saving on shipping costs, coupled with approximately £700 savings per month from improved efficiency in the warehouse – a price saving which ensures we don’t need to raise customer prices. The new delivery supplier also better integrates with our IT warehouse management system, saving one minute per transaction, of which there are approximately 500 transactions every week.

Recruitment for the call centre, likewise, is an area where the two rules are implemented. There’s no denying that it is a difficult and time-consuming process to find the personnel to whom you can entrust the customer facing side of your business. We’ve therefore decided to outsource the initial recruitment process to an external agency. This ensures that lengthy first-rounds e.g. identifying the applicants, ensuring they meet the qualification criteria, hosting the first round of interviews and overseeing the entrance tests, are all undertaken by the agency, freeing us up focus on the shortlist and find great staff to work with our customers.

In the warehouse we’ve also decided to recruit staff on a temp-to-perm basis. Again this offers dual benefits. Workers are incentivised by the opportunity of a permanent position, ensuring the stock room works like clockwork. Furthermore, very often, you’ll find that you know on the first day whether someone is suited to the job, and if not the first day, you will be sure to know by the second and this structure allows us to nurture the promising applicants from the start.

Although this is a snap shot of the impact of our two-rule test, through keeping a careful eye on our business, it has become clearer which areas have the potential to act in a more efficient manner. We’d recommend seizing the initiative and make sure that your company isn’t drowning its resources into ineffective operations. Don’t forget the obvious; sometimes the smallest, most obvious things our businesses needs are the ones we put off whilst we deal with the “bigger” problems. Ask yourself what can be done to make operations more effective for your business, and better for customers. Lastly, it is important not to forget the age old adage, as time truly is money.

Ian Cowley is the founder of www.cartridgesave.co.uk the UK’s largest dedicated printer cartridge company. By taking a systematic trial and improvement approach, Ian and his Marketing Director Sean Blanks, have created a Sunday Times Fast Track 100 e-retailer which manages 30,000 orders a month; ranks above all its competitors on independent shopper surveys on sites including Google, Pricegrabber and Shopzilla; and is the UK’s fastest growing printer supplies retailer in terms of sales.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ian Cowley .