Stop using spreadsheets in your business
The Great Spreadsheet Challenge
Show me your spreadsheet and I will show you
how to use new technology to save time or money
See examples of businesses using new technology to replace spreadsheets to save time and money.
Enter the Challenge at https://hardbasket.com/spreadsheets
Problem | Important customer information in a spreadsheet or old database?
Do you know someone that has important customer information in a spreadsheet or old database?
Recently I worked with a business to move their information into a new system that made the information easy to use.
We took the information from an old access database and setup a knack database so it can be accessed from any device and used by the team.
This is making their job easier and helping to provide better service to customers :)
#databases #technology #customerexperience
Knack
We can provide this solution for $690 per month with our database system.
Improve Your Business Processes
You’re already using countless processes in your business, today let’s look at how to improve them … and in doing so, improve your business.
Your processes and procedures are your roadmap for your day to day operations but the fun doesn’t end with creating them. And let’s be real, creating them isn’t really the definition of fun! The fun starts with the results process improvement has on your business, and you ultimately spending more time in your zone of genius.
Why is Process Improvement Important?
There are many benefits to process improvement. These include:
Improved Productivity: With process improvement and automation, you can save valuable time by reducing the number of steps a person needs to do. That gives you time to focus on other improvements that can directly increase the revenue of your business.
Happier Team: Instead of having to tediously do routine and mind-numbing tasks, with process improvement your team feel empowered to have a direct impact in your business.
Client Delight: When your clients experience a high level of consistency and accuracy, they build trust with your business and know that they won’t fall through the cracks.
Reduced Risk: With proper process automations and improvements in place, you can avoid risk. You can have your system take care of the things that humans often struggle with, without leaving anything up to chance.
Ready to Scale: Your new processes means as your business grows, the foundation of how you do business supports that growth with no negative impact on quality of service or strain on you and your team.
5 Ways to Improve your Processes:
Process Outline
The first and most important step is to outline the processes you want to improve. You can use mapping techniques (e.g. flowcharts or swim lane diagrams) to visualise your strategies and goals, identifying what requires the most energy and resources. Seek feedback from the people who regularly use the specific processes you’re improving so you don’t miss out on anything.
Tip: Start small. Outline a key process to start with where improvement will have a significant impact.
Process Analysis
Next, you need to analyse your strategy to optimise its efficiency. This means exploring related opportunities by asking questions, such as:
what is most expensive,
which processes are the most frustrating,
where do most delays come from,
what tasks are the most time consuming,
where is quality impacted most?
Look into pain points to identify what is not working to its full potential, and then use an analysis method to find out why. We use the 5 Whys method to find the underlying problems so that you are treating the root of the issue and not just the symptoms. This method involves asking a question and tracking the line of thought by asking ‘why’ 5 times to reveal why things are done a certain way and what needs resolution. This, as well as feedback from team members, will help show you issues you hadn’t before considered so that the improvement process is effective long-term.
Process Redesign
Having taken all the feedback and analysis into account, it’s time to redesign your processes to eliminate the issues. To improve! As you strategise, consider both Risk and Impact Analysis to ensure that your processes won’t immediately fail once reinstated. Consult with the team members who will be using the processes. They will help you consider how your strategy will translate into practice. While redesigning can be detail-focused, you don’t want to forget about the big picture impact.
Process Implementation
Once you’ve laid the groundwork for process improvement, it’s time to implement it. One of the first steps in this phase involves discussing the new changes with both employees and stakeholders. Anticipate some resistance, not everyone is comfortable with change. Be patient and emphasise the benefits of the new and improved processes to get their support. Remember, implementing this change can be a project in itself, so you want to allocate time for unpredicted delays or issues. Be proactive in avoiding identified risk in the implementation.
Process Review
After you’ve implemented the changes to your process, you may think you’re good to go. Business Process Improvement … done! Don’t stop just yet, BPI is continual improvement. If you want to continue improving you must continually review the progress and make updates when necessary, both internally and externally. You can use analytics tools to track your process or view metrics, which also make compiling month-end reports much easier.
Don’t be afraid to modify your approach as time passes, you want to integrate systems that simplify regularly reviewing and refining your processes.
Remember to prioritise checking in with team members, especially in the early stages after implementation, so that you are always aware of how your team is adapting, and what the strengths and weaknesses are.
How To Document Processes Using Loom
Does writing out a step by step procedure have you running for the hills?
Or even worse, is the time it takes to write these SOPs a barrier to you delegating and getting them off your to-do list for good?
If you’re not already using Loom life is about to get a lot easier for you! You might be vaguely familiar with the screen recording tool, but have you considered how it could revolutionise the way you document your processes? Loom videos complement SOPs since they make explaining procedures clearer. Because Looms are easily shareable and can be referred back to, they aid communication and coordination between team members, allowing an employee to understand what needs to be done by seeing it in action while they listen to (or watch) you describe it.
A Beginners Guide to Loom
Here’s a guide overview of the basics you should know to document your processes via Loom, with links to the respective pages in their Help Center for more in-depth information. Be sure to check out the Help Center for any more questions you might have and to learn how to edit, share and access analytics along with more advanced tips once you know your way around.
Time Limits: On Loom’s Starter plan, you can only record videos up to 5 minutes long. You’ll notice a timer under the Stop button on the left side of your screen (this can be turned off in your desktop preferences as it shows in the recording). With the Starter plan, the timer will count down from 5:00 until you either stop the recording or it reaches the end (you also can pause the recording). However, the Business plan allows for recordings up to 6 hours long so the timer will start from 0:00. Once your recording has finished, the share page will automatically open.
Storage: The Starter plan has a storage limit of 100 videos or screenshots, while the Business plan’s storage space is unlimited. However, neither plan has an expiration date for the storage of Looms.
Highlight Cursor: Highlighting mouse clicks helps bring attention to the action you’re performing, and you can toggle it on/off in your desktop preferences.
Drawing Tool: The drawing tool is a great feature for desktop users where you open a recording and hover over the ‘start-stop’ icon to reveal the drawing symbol. From that point, all you have to do is select the pen thickness and colour, then you can draw or annotate where you please. Keep in mind that any drawing will disappear after 5 seconds to keep your screen clear.
Keyboard Shortcuts: Save time down the track by memorising frequently used shortcuts.
Recording Internal Audio: If part of your process means you need to record the audio from a Youtube video, Zoom meeting, webinar or another browser player as part of your Loom, figure out how to do capture that through this link.
Using Loom to Document your Processes
Next time you’re working on a process to improve, or adding instructions into your project management tool (i.e. Trello) simply record the task as you do it.
We suggest short videos which makes it easy to re-record in the future that task or part of the process changes.
Finally, there are a few things to consider as you are sitting down to document your processes. You can prepare for a Loom as much or as little as you want, it will depend on the process you are recording and who will have access to it.
To improve the efficiency of a Loom, ensure any tabs that you’ll need are already open to reduce loading time but close all unnecessary tabs that will slow down your browser. Obviously, a quiet background and a stable internet connection will make all the difference in quality, but you can’t always control those conditions when you have to record and share something on a time crunch.
The Technology Too Hard Basket Q & A Call
There's never been a better time to leverage technology to save time and make your business more efficient. Find out how on this call.
The Technology Too Hard Basket Q & A Call
Join Scott Wilson & Andy Carruthers as they discuss how to make your business more efficient and effective from a technology point of view.
We look forward to sharing how your business can leverage technology and win online.
#technology #innovation #digitaltransformation #automate #streamline
6 Problems Technology helps you solve
Do your team all do the same job differently?
Do you need to auto tag orders in Shopify?
Do you spend hours going back and forth with customers?
Do you need to auto sync your contacts across two systems?
Do you need to manage job applications more efficiently?
Do you need to increase your appointment show up rates?
#technology #innovation #digitaltransformation #automate #streamline
Increase efficiency | Women's Refuge Process Re-engineering
Recently we worked with Farisha Begg and the team at Women's Refuge to streamline and automate the processes for the Whanau Protect project. There are incredible opportunities to use technology to improve customer satisfaction, get more from your team and be more efficient.
#technology #innovation #digitaltransformation #automate #streamline
Increase efficiency Interview Series | Rupert Gough Founder of The Mortgage Lab
Rupert Gough Founder of The Mortgage Lab
shares about how he has used these strategies to improve efficiency.
Delegate the small things. There is a finite number of hours in a day. ...
Automate processes and workflows. Small businesses often get bogged down with repetitive tasks. ...
Welcome, change. ...
Use available tools.
#business #processimprovement