Focus on being productive instead of busy
Tim Ferriss, American podcaster, author and entrepreneur
It isn’t just headcount or revenue that separates winners from losers in the professional services game. The real indicators of enhanced operational efficiency are intelligent resource allocation, higher billable utilization rates, a culture of psychological safety, and a myriad of other factors.
Improving operational efficiency is not a one-and-done initiative. It is a combined effort that strives to optimize processes, people, financials, and technology. There’s no universal remedy that can turn the company into a well-oiled machine overnight. Eventually, the financial viability of projects and services depends on the balance of all elements and is the result of continuous improvement.
In this guide, we’ve listed some of the best and proven tips to help you strike this balance and embrace change at all levels. Let’s dive in.
1. Fix communications with customers
Effective communication with customers is a key element not only to boost operational efficiency, but also increase revenues. Adding live chat options, being active on social media platforms and investing in the best customer relationship management (CRM) solution are great ways to enhance customer communications and business processes.
2. Set measurable metrics
You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Efficiency is achieved in an organization by a steady progression towards a meaningful goal or target. Measurement and metrics involve driving in continuous feedback from various sources and using the feedback wisely to chart the immediate list of items to be completed.
3. Get the minor issues and problems right
Small business owners who want to improve business operations effectively must get the minor issues and problems right immediately. Minor issues that are ignored usually turn into big problems later. Always take a closer look at the small areas of business operations that can be improved for better operational efficiency. Also, develop a prevention plan to avoid such issues recurring.
4. Make it easy to collaborate
Making collaboration between the workforce, business partners, customers and vendors will boost your business’ operational efficiency. In this age of advanced technology, a business or company can take advantage of video conferencing, live chat, social media apps and mobile technology to make collaborating effective and efficient.
5. Keep up with the latest trends
Both internal and external factors can have a direct effect on the operational efficiency of a business. Rapidly changing market trends are one of the things you should track. Staying on the top of the latest trends enables you to transform business operations and processes for increased productivity and revenues.
For example, a manufacturing company or business can automate its maintenance operations by investing in the best computerized maintenance management system software solution. Similarly, if you have a content creation and sharing strategy for social media, examine the possibility of using an app like Outfy to automate and optimize these activities.
