Troubleshooting Your Business

If you aren’t on “the floor”, that is in the thick of things,
get there. Get out of your office and onto the floor to see
what is happening.

There is nothing more important than being “hands on”.

Your managers can not be trusted to manage. This is because
‘having to work there’, needing “good relationships” with
employees, blind eyes are often turned.

This means you need a fresh pair of eyes.

Many businesses are overstaffed. Your goal is to have one
less employee than you need, which forces “management” to
fill in.

Too often the “manager” is locked in his office dealing
with paper while your business goes to hell in a handbasket.

By deliberately having one less employee than necessary means
everyone has to do their job and a little bit more.

Come down hard on the hiding manager when customers are left
on their own, or forced into long lines while cash registers
sit empty.

Managers who think being a cashier in emergencies is not
part of their job description can be dispensed with.
Remember, a manager is to manage the business not occupy an
office.

Having one less employee keeps your workers occupied. It
limits their opportunity to gossip, to fight, to waste time.
Idleness among people who are only at the same place because
they work there often leads to conflict. Once there is no
idleness, conflict has little room to grow.

No employee should be irreplaceable. There should always be
those who can multi-task, who can step in to do what needs
to be done, then step back.

There should not be “extra workers”, but a floater who can do
a number of tasks and unneeded on the floor, can be put to
good use.

Investigate if your company is top heavy. Having a Manager,
a Deputy Manager, two Assistant Managers, on and on, often
means that they do nothing except cash their pay cheques.

No one should be hired to see that others work but have no
work of their own. Although moving one to management is
often done to avoid paying overtime, it is extremely costly
in not just monetary matters.

I have seen managers argue over chairs because they have
nothing to do. Others who enter their offices and never
emerge. What are they managing? The fish tank?

Your first step is to get to that One Less level where
efficiency becomes paramount.

Shift systems, whether called Part Time or Flexitime
are not written in stone. One must know when the busy
times are, when the slack times are, and create shifts
as is needed.

Customers hate standing in line.

Take a supermarket, it’s crowded on Saturday morning.
Customers glance in, turn and go away. Others, on line,
abandon their carts and walk out.

If the entire front of the store is full of checkers and
every post is filled, well, there’s nothing more you can
do, you’ve got a terribly successful business. But that’s
not the case, is it?

Seven aisles, four checkers.

Where are the others?
At lunch.

A wise manager would create shifts, so that there
would be no lunch break. The employee would come,
work, leave, replaced.

If this were practiced at the supermarket I mention, then
there would be seven moving aisles and customers who see
the crowd, but how fast it moves, would not be dissuaded
from entering.

This image can be translated to almost any occupation.

Another important realm is time wasting. Employees should
not be on the phone, (yours or their own). Paying for the
call is not the issue, not working while being on the call
is the issue.

The most prestigious consultancy firms called in to assist
major businesses in downsizing actually start with the phone
test.

Moving from area to area they mark which employees are on
the phone. They return to that area a few hours later.

Those caught twice are circled as first firings. Often
this method is all a company needs to become efficient.

Another major area of investigation is what makes money and
what doesn’t. Once workers have to dust goods that means
the goods have been there quite some time.

Consider goods as “dead” money. The longer they sit on the
shelves, the more they “decompose”.

Once you notice nothing seems to be moving in a section,
put it on sale. You’ve already lost whatever you paid
for it once your accounting period passes, so virtually
giving it away, hoping someone will buy something else
is a way to make space for a more popular items.

The idea that you have spent $ on it and will not sell
it for less than $+1 means you might as well take it
home as it’s your’s.

Create your own agenda as to how long each item should spend
waiting for a home. Once that time is passed, reduce prices
and get it out of the store.

Often loss leaders attract customers which has a knock on
effect. A customer might come for this item, pick up another.

Customer Service is your main product. Surly staff, or those
with attitudes are like fires without insurance. They destroy
your business.

Make sure you have “shoppers” investigating your business
at least twice a month. Take what they say very seriously.

Giving “chances” means you are selling lottery tickets.
You don’t know how many customers you have lost or will
lose with this employee.

Everyone who meets the public must be the kind of person
who can. Forget test scores and experience, one friendly
warm clerk is your best advertisement. People come where
they feel welcome.

Anyone can walk into any business, once. To get them to
return is your goal. Good quality is one way, but sure
fire is excellent customer service. Price is only one
consideration.

Many people will pay more to be treated well than less to
be treated like annoyances. Keep that in the front of your
mind.

Advertising your business is expensive. Most studies have
shown that free samples are often the best way to gain
customers. People often buy X because their parents bought
X or their friends by X or they saw X on television. If
Y is better, they’ll buy Y, but they’ll never know that Y
is better unless you give them a sample of it.

‘Freebies’ make money.

The guest house that gives you a “free” day if you pay for
three gets that extra days food and beverage sales.

The restaurant that gives you a free dessert or drink makes
up in orders.

By giving a little extra, the customer feels he or she is
prized and will return. Counting out the number of olives
on a pizza means this is the last time you’ll see that
customer.

Be on the look out for things that make a customer feel
unwanted or shortchanged and get rid of them. Whether
it is a staff member, a policy, or an attitude.

Often you don’t need to hire troubleshooters to tell you
what the problem is once you explore your business with
these tips in mind.