“All the Crap”…Flush it or Fail.

I’m ridiculous. I have a lot of opinions and I’m stubborn. I’m also really impatient. But this isn’t about me. Not really. Well sort of, it’s about how much I hate “all the crap”. The procedures, the automation, the red tape.

Think about what you want your company to be. Successful. And it’s only successful if you have customers willing to pay you. And people only want to pay for quality. And to have simple, happy interactions with companies.

So cut the shit, you idiot. Not to be profane but I needed your attention. Every boss should have an impatient little jerk under them. One who will tell them, this is crap, that’s crap, oooh this is good! The scripts, the mountains of procedures…spend a week going through them and throw out 50–80% of it. Then when your customers call follow these simple steps:

Talk to them like a friend. Smile.

Find out their problem. Sit quietly and LISTEN.

Fix it quickly. Smile.

Tell them to call, email or text about any other issues. Smile.

That is your job. If you do those things your customers will be happy. Instead of creating new procedures or new scripts look at every area where you can make positive changes. For example:

When you ship their order, add a hand written note or a free gift.

Give them a call just to see how their business is doing, no selling.

Send an email with an article you think they’ll find useful and/or enjoy.

Remove the crappy automated system and have a live person answer the phone.

(Best way to find out what you can cut? Ask your employees, the ones who actually do the menial tasks. I’m a genius right??)

Every company has tons of “the crap”. It is so worthless. All the reports you run, most of them are crap. The annual review, waste of time, which makes it crap. Most of the meetings you have, crap. Following the organizational chart to a tee. Important info often misses the CEO’s ear because underlings won’t say anything to anyone above their manager. Silly. Those managers that are power trippy and need to micromanage? They’re crap and they’re dangerous to your culture, flush them now. “Cliquey” departments…we’re adults, no time for that.

Keep your employees happy. They shouldn’t need scripts because you should trust them. You pick them, hire them, train them, pay them. Let them do their job. You shouldn’t worry if they surf funny videos for a few minutes here and there on your dime. You should throw them parties, not stress them out. Let them know you’re there for them but not standing over their shoulder. These happy employees are your, hopefully loyal, front line. These are the people your customers interact with daily. You know that old saying happy wife, happy life…treat your employees like your wife in this case.

Keeping customers happy. That’s all. Every single thing you do should be with that in mind. Every. Single. Thing. This will lead to your success and the results you want. You’ve heard of the 80/20 rule. Well in business it’s more like the 1/99 rule. Focus on that one goal (your customers duh!) and you’ll get 99% of the results you wanted.

I’ll be writing a more in depth article soon about keeping employees happy. Because after building a quality product or service, that’s your next priority. Until then, feel free to drop me a line (no crap please) at caitmackcs@gmail.com or visit me on Twitter, @caitmackcs

Oh I’m also always looking to add to my band of cohorts on LinkedIn, www.linkedin.com/in/caitmackcs/