Main Idea:
Have you struggled getting your calls returned? Are you able to solve your online problems or questions? Does everything take 50% more time to do? Do you feel that there is just a missing link in all transactions?
Expansion of the Idea:
I have noticed that small businesses have not been operating at peak efficiency since Covid 19. I have been trying to get a window replaced at the office. This should have been a two-week process. Instead it has been a couple of months and I don’t know when it will get done. This may not be fault of the glass repair business as they may be waiting on the glass company. But it is a supply chain problem or a service issue. They could have called me and told me that they were having delays in getting the glass and I would have been perfectly fine. The problem is that I am left not knowing what is going on.
Covid 19 has completely upended business and how we operate daily. We have been forced to adapt and try things just to survive. There have been financial implications as well as complete shutdowns of a number of industries and slowdowns for most of the rest. There are a lot of people working from home and as a result the normal workflow has completely changed.
Most small business owners thought that this was a 2 or 3 month issue and as a result only put patches on their operations and systems. However, it is clear that this is a longer-term problem and our systems need to be redesigned or at a minimum need to be modified to accommodate a different way of creating a superior customer experience.
Have you driven past a Chick Fil A in the past three months? It almost doesn’t matter what time you drive by them. They are always busy. I thought that there is no way I would get into one of their drive throughs. That was the case until my wife and I had the grandchildren for a week. I was amazed at how quickly they ran cars through the drive through. They could only have done that if they completely changed their procedures and systems. While they may not be doing quite the volume that they did before Covid 19, they are completely maximizing their potential. And they are doing it through systems and great customer service.
It is clear that our world is going to be changed for a while, and we need to plan for the future. We need to look hard at our systems from our customers point of view. Here are some questions to consider:
If we have employees working from home, have we optimized the customer interfaces?
Is our website streamlined for remote access?
Do we need to bring employees together more often because of the separation? (This can be virtual but it needs to be intentional.)
Have we looked at our supply chains to determine if there are changes in vendors?
Do we have systems to keep customers informed?
Do we have systems to keep employees informed?
Do we need to change our physical space?
I hope you have a great Labor Day weekend.