Business Efficiency is a reflection of caring for your customers.

You as the business leader establish what's most important to you, and you build around that. If efficiency is important for your business, then establishing clear points of responsibility is essential. You can't do everything yourself, and nobody can do it as good as you, so you letting go and making others responsible provides you the time to work ON other areas of the business that need your attention.

If there's one thing customers hate it's a business they plainly see operating inefficiently. Bottlenecks, mistakes, and friction can be seen easily by others, yet often those closest to the business see things as just a normal day. Sometime these issues can be found in the numbers. Other times they appear as a 1-star review. Once you dig deeper you'll probably find answers to problems.

When customers see an inefficiently operating business they often view it as a people problem. More often it's not the person, it's a systems problem within the business. Every process within your business is a system. It needs to be documented, and the team needs to be trained on how the system works. The system is designed to provide the best customer experience, and when executed well it will be.

When you are ready to take all the guesswork out of how your business operates you will document all these details. Then you will train and hold others responsible for their role on the team. The systems you create run the business. The people you hire run the systems. Seems simple, but it requires one to focus on the experience you want your customer to have with your business.

What happens when your business has well established systems and your customer experience is good, yet sales and income aren't? This challenge is best solved when you manage your business by the numbers. Individuals and teams can have their own goals and KPIs to help you monitor the performance of the business and individuals. Team members are responsibile for their action and accountable to results.

Your customers know where your business can do better, yet too often that feedback comes in the form of negative reviews. While reviews offer insight to one customer's experience, multiple with the same experience requires immediate action. Not every customer suggestion is going to be worthy of making changes, keeping your attention on what feedback you receive can turn into system improvements.

Every customer is going to be guided by their perceptions, and as we know these perceptions can be unique. The old saying, you can't be everything to everybody, holds true. You will never be able to please every person, yet you can set expectations for your customers through consistent execution of your product or service. The experience is in the eye of the beholder. You get to set what that is for your business.

Loyal team members have one thing in common. They feel good about the contribution they make to your business. Recognizing these team members as a business leader helps others see where they fit in to the overall success of the business. As stated before, you can't do it all on your own and having committed team members is a retention strategy that strengthens the business' ability to deliver consistently.