Tag: small business performance

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4 Rules for Building Service Customer Loyalty

4 Rules for Building Service Customer Loyalty

Every business owner knows that it’s important to retain the business of good customers, because those good customers will turn into referrals and more customers.  What many business owner’s don’t know is that building customer loyalty – the repeat and referral business that keeps the doors open – takes more than producing a good product or having nice personnel.  Building customer loyalty is a continuous process which involves just about every area of the business. Particularly with service-based businesses where there may be a number of variables involved with the delivery, proper information collection, management, and communication becomes the essential foundation for delivering on the promise of great service, which helps to develop loyal customers.

4-rules-of-thumbIn a previous article titled “4 Rules of Thumb for Business Success”, I stressed the importance of creating the best business impression possible.  Here are a few additional tidbits for service businesses – things the company can do to make sure that the work is done completely and correctly the first time, which is what leads to happy and loyal customers.

Rule 1. Remember that everyone in the company is essentially in a sales and service position.  The customer should be able to get useful help or direction from any employee.  Not that everyone in the company can do all the jobs in the business, but everyone should be willing and able to find the resources necessary to get the customer’s question answered.  And it’s a good habit to try to set any necessary service appointments on the first call – it lets the customer know you’re ready to get the job done and saves them time.  Too many sales teams simply answer inquiries from callers and don’t ask for the business.  If you don’t ask, they can’t say yes.

Rule 2. Structure the order process to make sure that all information is captured, stored, and made available to service techs.  Customer requests should be specifically noted, along with any special details or requests.  There’s nothing more annoying than telling the company to watch out for something when they’re at your place, and then finding out that the tech didn’t get the memo.  Also make sure that any specific work items or parts are listed on the order, making it easier for the tech to record what they do and use.  All of this information should be available not just to techs, but to customer service and sales people, too.  After all, mismanagement of order information is usually not the customer’s fault, yet the customer is the one who ends up not getting what they asked for.  Avoiding this situation is critical to developing loyal, repeat customers.  It also makes getting the customer sign-off more likely, and this signature should be captured at the work site when the job is completed (allows the billing department to get the invoice out much faster, which allows the company to get paid faster).

Rule 3. During the job, make sure customers and co-workers are informed as to the status of the work.  The worst thing is to partially complete a job and leave the customer hanging – a situation that status tracking of service orders helps prevent.  When the work is completed, make sure to let the customer know, and also provide observations and recommendations.  Whether it’s a single job or a regular maintenance contract, always document what was done so that the customer knows exactly what work was performed.  Use a checklist or cheat sheet to make sure things are done completely and consistently every time, including cleaning up and making notes about the job.  Documenting things that technicians notice while at the customer location may provide the opportunity to offer more or other services to the customer, or might at least inform the customer about an issue they should be aware of.  By paying attention while on-site and looking for upgrades or value-adds that might benefit the customer, service technicians can often position themselves as top sales people, too.

Finally, Rule 4, always thank the customer for their business and let them know you genuinely appreciate it.  Smile, hand them a business card, and maybe even ask for a referral.  If you’ve done your job well and kept the customer informed along the way, it’s likely that this customer will bring you more business both directly and through referrals and recommendations.  That’s customer loyalty, and you can’t buy it anywhere – you have to build it.

Make sense?

J

coopermannconsulting-paperli

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New York or Las Vegas? It doesn’t matter if you can work online.

New York or Las Vegas?  It doesn’t matter if you can work online.

Skyline
Skyline

The 10th annual Accounting Solutions Conference, held by The Sleeter Group, is being held in Las Vegas on November 3-6.  By all accounts, it’s looking like the conference will again bring together some of the best and brightest in accounting and business technologies.

The annual “Sleeter Conference” event is among the best opportunities accounting and bookkeeping professionals have to explore and learn about the technologies, service models, client management tools and other elements involved in delivering accounting, bookkeeping and consulting services to small business clients.  With the introduction of so many new ideas and solutions designed for small businesses and their accountants, it is no wonder that professionals look to this conference to help make sense of it all.

With the right strategy and through the innovative and efficient use of technology, people and processes, even the smallest of organizations can compete with the big boys.  Accounting professionals, pro bookkeepers, and small business consultants and advisors are not simply participants in the financial processes of these small organizations – they are the influencers and implementors of the solutions and methodologies which will generate the positive impact in the client business.  Information technology -mobile access solutions and innovative tools for working together – makes it possible to deliver these benefits to clients, whether they’re in Vegas or the Big Apple.  Come to the conference and hear all about it.

While you’re there, stop by the Uni-Data Skyline Cloud Services booth and check out some of the new stuff that’s going on in the QuickBooks and general application hosting world.  It’s pretty cool!  I give it 5 bunnies.

J

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4 Rules of Thumb for Business Success

4-rules-of-thumbThe business environment is becoming increasingly competitive, with global opinions influencing customers of even the smallest local businesses.  The best method of competing in a world where customer perception is reality – at least when it comes to the impact of social and other media – is to create a company that people simply want to do business with.

Here are a few things which every business can do in order to create the best possible environment for engaging new customers and providing quality service. Regardless of industry or business orientation, these 4 simple considerations will go a long way towards creating a sustainable, high quality operation which recognizes the value of a customer relationship – whether it’s an internal or external customer.

Teach everyone in the company that they’re part of sales and customer service.

Each and every member of the organization should be in a position to help customers get what they need, and to help guide the customer towards the various products, services or solutions the company offers.  This means that internal training is essential, and all employees should be fully informed in the offerings of the company.  Business owners will find that one of the best ways to reach and retain the best workers is to provide ongoing skills development and training programs.  The result is a more confident and productive workforce and workers who feel more satisfied with their jobs.  It’s also important to recognize that employees are another form of ‘customer’ of the company, and surveying them to understand how satisfied they are with the work is a really good idea.  When employees lack satisfaction in their jobs or with the company they work for, it will be revealed in their interactions with customers and other workers, which is not good for business.

Remember that first impressions count – a lot.

You only have one chance at the first impression, and it takes a lot more work to overcome a bad impression than it does to leave a good one in the first place.  This means that the company should promote a quality, clean and professional image.  When speaking to customers on the phone, speak clearly, professionally and politely.  Make sure that all workers arrive at their jobs in clean uniforms and in clean, branded trucks.  Customers should not only know who’s parked outside, but a good-looking branded vehicle is a mobile advertisement for the company and can deliver a lot of good impressions.  On the other hand, not maintaining or caring properly for vehicles and equipment can deliver the opposite type of impression you want to leave.

Do company business with the company voice.

Communication is essential in building a successful business, and it is important that the messages be what the company wants the customers and market to hear.  When communicating on company business, always use the company email address and contact information rather than personal email addresses or generic domains.  Just like with uniforms and trucks, communications from the company should be branded and professional so that the right type of impression is created.  The business website (which should support mobile devices!) is available to help communicate your values, brand and services, and should serve to present your business as someone a customer would want to do business with.  Posting case studies and testimonials can be very useful in this regard as they help to build credibility in your company and convey the trust others have in your services.  Apply social media and listing services, too, so that customers and prospects can find information on your company and read good things others have said.  It’s important, however, to remember that social media can go both ways.  While being a great way to reach new customers as well as reminding current customers of the other products and services you offer, it could also turn negative.  If there is negative feedback, be honest and reasonable, but address it quickly.

Work beyond corporate walls.

The business exists in a community, and workers in the company live in neighborhoods and have lives beyond the business they work for.  Community service is a way to develop a more cohesive and productive team while developing closer community relations and enhancing the image of the company and ownership. Volunteering and creating an environment where service to others is promoted helps build a team atmosphere in the company, and expresses the understanding that businesses will thrive when the communities around them thrive.  

Joanie Mann Bunny FeetMake Sense?

J

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Sleeter Peeps and New Technology in Las Vegas

Sleeter Peeps and New Technology in Las Vegas

Marshmallowpeeps.com bunnies Peeps

The Sleeter Group is preparing for its 10th annual Accounting Solutions Conference, which is in Las Vegas next month (Nov 3-6) at Caesars Palace.  The conference is THE annual event where Sleeter Group Consultant Network members and other accounting, bookkeeping and business professionals get together to learn about new technologies, see and explore a wide variety of solutions and services, and to meet and network with their peers and peeps.

The venue this year, Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, is likely to be even more fun than last year and is far easier to get to than Orlando, Florida (for those of us on the West coast, anyway).  And, unlike in Florida, we’re probably not going to see all those little lizards everywhere around the hotel grounds.  Well, unless there’s a lizard convention going on in LV, which wouldn’t surprise me.  Actually, the good old days of attending the conference at the Tuscany Suites are what I miss – when the venue was a little more intimate and you could really have a good conversation without all of the typical Vegas distractions.

The “Sleeter Conference” used to be a purely QuickBooks-oriented conference, but has expanded to embrace the larger realm of products and services emerging which serve various small business accounting or process automation needs.  While there remains a very large focus on the QuickBooks products and service lines, it is not unusual to see sponsors and speakers representing other accounting solutions and business technology products.  The benefit for the audience is exposure to emerging technologies and trends, and discussion on how these trends are impacting business in so many ways.

Among the technologies and trends to explore at the conference are application hosting and software licensing and delivery, and how those models are changing the way people obtain and use their business applications.  We introduced the application hosting models and cloud-based QuickBooks models years ago, and those hosting solutions proved the value of anytime, anywhere access to conventional desktop applications.  Now, we’re introducing other application delivery models which address a variety of needs, and which go beyond the Remote Desktop concept.  It’s pretty cool stuff, and this conference is where you can learn more about it. [*Note: visit Skyline Cloud Services by Uni-Data at the conference; they’ll know where to find me.]

Meet me in Las Vegas next month, and we’ll chat more about technology, the evolution of the accounting industry and profession, and how these elements are combining to create new challenges and opportunities at all levels of business.  Sleeter peeps – I’ll see you there!

J

 

  • Read more about how accountants need business intelligence, too
  • Read more about how there’s no fear and loathing in accounting
  • Read more about the pressure on accountants to deliver more value and intelligence to their clients
  • Read more about Data Warriors: accounting in the cloud
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Banks and Small Business: Finding the “Just Right” Fit Isn’t Easy

Banks and Small Business: Finding the “Just Right” Fit Isn’t Easy

Banks need business customers because business accounts provide more profitability than consumer accounts.  By volume, there are more small businesses in the US than mid-size or enterprise businesses, which you would think would be a good thing for the banks – more business customers, right?  It seems not so much.

For many banks, the problem is that they don’t appear to really know how to service – or even identify – these small business customers.  The majority of small businesses in the US don’t have employees, so direct deposit and payroll solutions aren’t something they are looking for.  Many of these small businesses operate from the business owner’s home rather than an office, and don’t generate the revenues (=deposits) that bigger businesses do.

To a bank, most small businesses look like consumers.  These small businesses are treated like consumers – are offered consumer-level services and are not educated on what business banking services might be able to do for them.  In reality, the banks really don’t have much to say to these small business owners, because the services offered by the banks are simply not a great fit.  There are studies which suggest that the small business market is fairly evenly divided, with approximately 50% using consumer banking services rather than those designed for business use.  Given the inability of the banks to even identify those consumer banking customers who are actually small businesses, I would suggest that the percentage is even higher.

There are three primary elements tied to banking which should be better-positioned to assist small business owners in leveraging their banking relationships to the benefit of the business and not just the bank.   If the financial institutions can find a way to meet these three essential needs for smaller businesses, they would likely find that more small businesses would embrace business banking services, resulting in greater profitability for the bank.

e-Payments

Use of electronic payments services represents a growing trend in small businesses and needs to be better-addressed by the financial institutions rather than purely retail providers.  Small businesses are increasingly using the Internet and online technologies to service their various business needs, and payments processing is among the top sellers.  Providing SOLO/SOHO and other small businesses with the ability to process payments at any time and from anywhere has become a big driver for this type of solution.  The popularity of Pay Pal, Intuit GoPayment and Square payment solutions is a testament to the need for such services in the small business market, yet the broadest use continues to be within retail providers rather than directly via the financial institutions.

Entitlements

Security and access controls to account and transaction information (frequently referred to as “entitlements” attached to business accounts) are hugely valuable for small businesses.  Most small business owners engage bookkeeping or accounting professionals at some point, and the process of accounting for the business activities is improved dramatically when those professionals are able to access the information directly from the financial institution.  Unfortunately, it is only with the more expensive business class accounts that most banks provide the means for account holders to grant access to account and/or transaction information for accountants and bookkeepers, financial advisors, etc.  Allowing small businesses to benefit from this type of security and control of their accounts is tremendous, yet the overall costs of the associated business banking solutions are often simply too great for the small business to bear.  The result is either a lack of privacy, security and control, where the business owner must grant unfettered access to account information to a 3rd party bookkeeper or accountant, or the business owner simply continues to pay for manual bookkeeping transaction entry.

Cash Management

Most small businesses operate on cash, and expense and cash management is essential to maintaining operations.  Consumer banking solutions may offer limited capabilities for expense and cash reporting, but the services offered through many business banking portals would be far more beneficial for the business, reflecting trends and providing more insight relating to business financial activities and business behavior.  Unfortunately, many of these services designed for business customers are oriented towards the larger organization, and are far too complicated or expensive to provide real value to the owner of a small business.

Small businesses fuel the economy, yet remain a largely untapped market in terms of business banking and other services.  Small businesses run “under the radar” of many service providers because they have not reached the point where the obviously available business services (e.g, the more profitable banking solutions) seem attractive to them.  Banks need to recognize that serving the small business customer well – providing the services which help small businesses grow into bigger businesses – is ultimately the key to acquiring new customers for whom the big banking solutions fit.

jmbunnyfeetMake Sense?

J

Read more about small business banking and credit

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Lease Accounting Rules, Small Business Financing and the Cloud

Lease Accounting Rules, Small Business Financing and the Cloud

Cloud Service FinancingThere are changes in lease accounting rules that may have broader implications than expected.  Lease accounting, or accounting in general, isn’t exactly an exciting topic and generally doesn’t come up in conversation.  But the changes to how business equipment and other leases are accounted for and reported could become additional fuel for cloud adoption by businesses – small business looking for financing, in particular (= lots).

First, what does accounting for leases have to do with small business financing?  Quite a bit, actually.  The balance sheet is one of the things a lender will look at when considering a small business for a loan, and if lease obligations and leased assets are on the balance sheet, they’re going to want to talk about them.  They’ll also possibly look at asset turnover – trying to understand exactly how much in assets it takes for the business to make “x” amount of money.  Banks and other lenders like to know they’re loaning money to a business that is going to pay it back, and in a reasonable amount of time.  They will limit their risk potential as much as possible, and they do it by looking through the financials and related information.

Business value is generating sustainable cash flow.  If you run a highly efficient business, the more top-line growth you deliver, the more cash flow you enjoy.  For capital-intensive businesses (either through the need for capital equipment or working capital), growth can actually lower your cash flow and diminish your business value.   To understand which side of the equation your business resides, accounting professionals will often look at the return on total assets calculated over time, dividing the operating income for each period from the P&L by the appropriate period values of total assets from the balance sheet.  The resulting metric describes how efficiently assets are applied to creating earnings.

https://coopermann.com/2013/01/22/why-is-asset-management-important-to-a-business/

This can be a difficult conversation with the banker for new businesses, as they have little to go on in terms of historic data to show the bank.  The P&L (profit & loss, or Income Statement) only reflects current business performance, not what it can do in a few months or years.  By putting leases on the balance sheet, businesses are now reflecting a more realistic view of things, but are also introducing additional items for scrutiny and question by the lender; things which are often described more in terms of business strategy than in proveable numbers.  That makes getting the loan just that much tougher.

Previous rules relating to business leases didn’t necessarily require that the business recognize operating leases (leased items and lease obligations) as assets and liabilities on the balance sheet.  This is among the reasons why businesses lease equipment – they are able to obtain the item without having to record a single large capital expenditure.

The FASB changes demand that accounting for leases should be standardized, forcing the lesees to report all leases on the balance sheet, reflecting both the benefit (asset) and the cost (liability) associated with the lease.  Stated in a press release on the subject: “The new guidance responds to requests from investors and other financial statement users for a more faithful representation of an organization’s leasing activities,” stated FASB Chair Russell G. Golden. “It ends what the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and other stakeholders have identified as one of the largest forms of off-balance sheet accounting, while requiring more disclosures related to leasing transactions.”

“a capital lease creates a tangible right where you own the equipment; the liability in a capital lease is true debt…”

http://www3.cfo.com/article/2013/9/gaap-ifrs_lease-accounting-elfa-fasb-iasb-global-convergence

By understanding how these changes in accounting for leases impact businesses, cloud solutions providers now have an additional lever to use with prospective customers: leasing equipment isn’t necessarily the way to keep capex off the balance sheet any longer.

One of the big value propositions offered by many cloud solution providers is that their service is paid for as a monthly business expense rather than a large up-front capital expenditure and investment.  Businesses are able to use the solution and benefit from it without actually “buying” anything, it’s just subscribed instead.  All of this is really a fancy way of saying “renting but not owning”, but the result to financial reporting is the same: it’s not on the balance sheet, it’s on the P&L in chewy chunks.  This used to be a preferred treatment for leases, too, allowing businesses to reflect the usage and payment in little parts rather than a big one.  It was “gentler” on the balance sheet.  But leasing equipment and software for on-premises use won’t be competing with the cloud and subscription service any longer, closing off the “impact to the balance sheet” conversation entirely and making cloud IT just that much more important to small businesses who need cash to fuel business growth.

Make Sense?

Joanie Mann Bunny FeetJ