Hello there, SGI members!
My name is David Boyle, and I’m a client success manager for both ESI and AirTime. Last week I talked with you about planning—and how it is one of the five most basic and important functions of management.
In this week’s Coach’s Corner, I want to talk to you about another critical component to being an excellent manager for your company… That topic would be organization.
Organization is the skill of making sure resources are positioned properly to maximize efficiencies. It involves putting the right people, materials, tools, procedures, and skill sets in the right time and place. Okay, that’s a nice textbook definition, but what does that exactly mean in relationship to your business?
To succeed in this industry, you must be organized in all phases, and here are just five areas you should constantly be evaluating:
- Your financials. If your books aren’t properly organized and departmentalized, you have no way of knowing what segments of your company are making money and what’s losing money. If you’re not completely departmentalized, get with our financial guru Patty Myers immediately! That’s an urgent matter!
- Your responsibilities. Financials aren’t the only thing that require departmentalization. Your technicians need to clearly understand their job functions, too. You will see much greater success if certain technicians focus on maintenance while others concentrate on service while others focus on sales. Plumbers and electricians, this can pertain to you, too. If you get a call for a faulty water heater or panel, don’t you want your best selling tech on that call? Absolutely. Are you dispatching as best you can?
- Your operational procedures. When new employees start with you, do you have a manual or document that outlines their responsibilities, tasks, and expectations? Do you then provide training or job shadowing so they can gain further insight into their new roll? If not, maybe that’s why you’re constantly hiring the same positions over and over! Operational procedures are critical to a company’s success!
- Your training. Your training meetings must be organized in order to be efficient. Go over invoices. Cover results since the last meeting. Talk about current issues. Then, have a set curriculum you want to discuss each week—it could be technical training, introducing a new service or product, or simply spending more time practicing a certain situation. You must be organized to maximize your training time!
- Your building and vehicles. Is your office ever confused for a disaster sight? Could someone get lost in the back of one of your service vehicles? Offices and vehicles in complete disarray are terrible for business. It communicates unprofessionalism and it greatly inhibits efficiency. Get your offices clean and tidy and require that your techs reorganize their trucks on a daily basis.
These are just five ways you should evaluate the organization level in your business. There are many more, but you get the idea. Your passion for order will set the tone for everyone in your business. The more organized each function of your operation gets, the better the results—and the easier it is to be successful!
If you need some guidance or direction in organizing any part of you business, please know that your CSM team is always eager to help and standing by! Give us a call at any time!
Until next time, this is David Boyle with your Coach’s Corner!