Building business strategies that actually work to promote productivity has to be a core consideration for every business. Some business owners will try about anything to get there, and their stories will get other business owners to try them out, often with much less success. One of the best ways to build more productive and sustainable business processes is to ensure that they are repeatable. Today, we’ll discuss how building more consistency can really benefit your business.
Consistency doesn’t mean that you tackle every problem with the same strategy, of course. It just means that when presented with similar challenges, that your reaction to them is consistent. This will help when dealing with employees, vendors, and customers, alike. When you read about businesses doing outside-the-box things and finding success, most business owners’ first reaction is to try and implement some version of that strategy, but for every business that succeeds with rash new plans of action, there are many that don’t; and, you don’t ever hear about them. Let’s look at a couple of ways building a consistent approach will help your business:
In order to properly judge how your business strategies are faring is to look at the data. In order to get solid metrics, you need many examples. By building a consistent approach, you are able to get a good read about what works and what doesn’t. Since building efficiency is the easiest path toward enhanced profitability, having data that is all over the proverbial map will not only convolute how you are able to identify problems, it will also mask the successes. Consistency will allow you to marginally tweak your strategies rather than upend them on metrics that are either sparsely collected or worse yet, give the wrong impression.
Every business has a lot of resources to manage, and if you have processes and procedures built into your business, you will more effectively be able to manage them. The truth is that your capital is sacred, and wasting any of it on superfluous strategies can really hurt your ability to do business. If you are more consistent with your handling of resources, manage your risk, and accept small gains, statistically your business will be in a much better position to succeed down the line.
When dealing with your staff, consistency is essential. There can’t be rules for some people that don’t apply to others that do the same job. Of course as an employer it is your right to rewrite the rules from time to time to adjust to your market and the social environment, but having a consistent approach to handling your human resources will pay off. Not only does it provide clarity for your staff, it also keeps them wanting to come to work. No one likes it when the rules constantly change, after all.
Finally, and probably most importantly, your customers will more-often-than-not respect consistency over inconsistency. Of course, every customer expects that they get what they pay for (and then some), but if you have clear policies in place to deal with support issues, you will keep a loyal customer base and eliminate what they perceive as confusion. Customer relationships are expensive and the less time your business spends dealing with consumer-related problems, the better off your business will be.
Our staff of technology experts can help you find the tools you need to eliminate inconsistency as much as possible. If you would like to learn more about how technology and managed IT services can help you build a more consistent business, give us a call today at (403) 210-2927.
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