Get the junk out of the trunk: Now is a great time to reassess your business.

Every year about this time my wife organizes the house in preparation for the holidays. This includes going through all the stuff we have in our closets, shelves, hampers and trunks. The ritual is fairly painful, because she pulls everything out to reassess usefulness and how each item might fit in our plan for the next year.

Now is the time to get the junk out of your trunk and reassess your direction, tools, products and people. How much baggage does your company carry into every year? Evaluate your business as objectively as possible and get rid of those things that have no place in 2012.

Some areas to look at include:

Your business model

Many businesses and industries have materially changed since early 2008. We hear many people talk about the “new normal”; this may mean that products and services that you have relied on for years are no longer valid going forward. One company I work with has relied on a personal one-to-one service model and has added books and videos to their product offering. This was done to diversify their revenue and reduce the reliance on a business model that requires the principals to be involved with the generation of revenue during an 8:00 to 5:00 business day.

Opportunities

What opportunities have you missed in the past that might have put your company in a different place today? I meet with a number of business owners that discuss the actions they could take that would improve their business, but then go on to say “we discussed these areas 12-18 months ago and just couldn’t find a way to execute.” Does this sound like your company? Many business owners and leadership teams can sit down and plan how to take advantage of new opportunities, but fail to execute. Objectively evaluate your opportunities and develop a plan to get them implemented.

Strengths

When was the last time you and your management team identified your company’s strengths only to find a list that included things like “good customer service” or “good customer relationships”? Evaluate your company from the view point of your customers, partners, competitors and prospects. Does good customer service or good customer relationships set you apart from others in your industry? If not, then look deeper for sustainable areas of differentiation and identify how you can further exploit these strengths for a competitive advantage.

Weaknesses

Deep down we all know what some of our weaknesses are, but in many cases don’t confront them. It is difficult without outside input to develop a complete list of areas in which your business needs to be improved. Take this time to have candid discussions with your customers to learn how your company can improve. There are also some excellent tools and resources to perform a loss analysis, to develop insight into how your company can improve for the future.

People

Do you have the right people in the right places in your company? Many businesses have not strategically evaluated their most important asset… their people. Take a hard look at the direction of your company against the skill sets in your business and identify gaps that your management team can work on in the coming year. It may mean moving people into new roles, implementing training programs to help develop your employees, or hiring new people to supplement your team.

Yourself

As senior leaders we have a tendency of overlooking our own developmental needs. Are you ready to make the changes necessary in the new year to be successful? Just because you have been successful in the past, does not necessarily mean you will be successful doing the same things going forward. Successful leaders are those that can manage in changing environments, retool their company, and operate during times of ambiguity. Take an objective look at yourself and get ready for whatever the future brings.

Look at the junk in your trunk

Take the time to pull your leadership team together and objectively look at these areas as you prepare for 2012. Get an outside facilitator to work with you and your team to help develop the objective thinking and forward look needed to develop the basis of your operating plan for next year. Be prepared to gather additional information from your customers and partners to help guide you through the process. Taking the time to evaluate your business with independent input will help you develop a strong plan.

Larry Turner is CEO of Roundhouse Advisors, Inc. and has over 25 years experience growing, starting up, repositioning, and revitalizing organizations. Roundhouse Advisors is a consulting practice focused on helping businesses increase enterprise value by managing pain, growth and owner exits. Larry is a consultant, public speaker, and the author of two books “Owner Exit Planning: Leave On Your Own Terms” and “Mapping Your Recovery: Grow sales in difficult times”. For additional information visit www.RoundhouseAdvisors.com

“Mapping Your Recovery: Grow sales in difficult times” provides additional information on areas that can positively impact your company.

Boost Sales with Improved Customer Service

We have seen some improvement in the economy lately which means it is time differentiate yourself from your competitors, take some market share and begin to emerge a much stronger company. Customer service is an area that may have been cut during difficult times of recent days. As the economy continues to improve, begin to refocus on your customer service plan to create a differentiator from your competitors.

Many companies have cut customer service levels to a minimum or just below minimum acceptable level to save money over the past two years. This is actually an opportunity your company to stand out. Strong service delivery and customer service are opportunities to win more business from current customers and can be used as sales tools to win customers away from your competitors.

The Situation

A few years ago I accepted the position of President of an IT services business that provided on-site service for many of the large IT outsource and computer hardware companies. On my third day in this position, I attended a business review with our largest customer, Dell. During that meeting I heard that our business was:

1. “Worst of Breed” in every category – Dell stack ranked their service providers in six different areas, and our business was the worst in all six areas.
2. Lagging Customer Satisfaction – The business not only had the worst customer service ratings, but our ratings were bringing down the overall customer service scores.
3. Negatively Impacting Dell Management Bonuses – This was the kicker; not only were we bad, but we were hitting the Dell management in their pocket book!

While this was not the most up-beat meeting I have ever been to, but the Dell management was willing to give us a chance to improve our service.

The Actions

A lot of activity that went into our transformation, but the following areas were the basis of the business improvement plans that we implemented:

• Changed the focus of the business unit – A shift from running as many service calls as possible to a main focus on customer satisfaction along with optimizing their time.
  
• Communicated expectations – In the past, clear expectations were not communicated to all levels of employees. Working with my field delivery leaders, we made it very clear to all levels in the organization what was expected in their daily work and how we expected them to operate.
  
• Held employees accountable for meeting expectations – While there may have been some expectations in the past, no one was being held accountable for their actions and operation. This was one of the critical areas needed in changing the culture in the organization. The front line employees and all levels of management knew what was expected from them and how we would measure their results.
  
• Work with under-performing employees to improve or move them out – There were many employees that showed huge improvement in their activities, but there were some that did not/could not meet expectations. These employees ended up leaving the company on their own or with our help.

The Benefit

While the transformation was a lot of work, the most important question we asked was what was the benefit to our company? When I got to the business, Dell was in the process of pulling their business from the company, which represented about 40% of our revenues and 60% of our activities. It would have shut the business down.

We ultimately turned the situation around. Four months later, during the next quarterly business review we had moved to number two overall and “Best of Breed” in four of six categories. 15 months later, the business won Service Provider of the Year award.

The turnaround in service delivery was critical for our company to secure more business. In the months that followed the quarterly business review, our company was awarded additional business in two growing business units at Dell. This new business was critical to our next strategic direction of moving into higher level services and providing revenue growth with strong margins.

Conclusion

The story outlines a company with poor service delivery and customer service. Your business may not be in a situation where your clients are leaving you, but maybe a competitor has cut their costs too deep and is experiencing problems. Customer service can be a differentiator that your sales organization can use to steal clients from your competitor and secure your own customer base.

Larry Turner is CEO of Roundhouse Advisors, Inc. and has over 25 years experience growing, starting up, repositioning, and revitalizing organizations. Roundhouse Advisors is a consulting practice focused on helping businesses increase enterprise value by managing pain, growth and owner exits. For additional information visit www.RoundhouseAdvisors.com