How to Organize the Office & Customers for a Small Business
The worst word that can be uttered or even thought of in a small business is disorganization. While that might sound like it applies only to the office, it can lead to a chain reaction that also affects your customer base. But the first place for getting organized in a small business is on the desk if you're the boss, or on each desk occupied by employees. Once you're organized there, you can start on organizing your customer service.
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Things You'll Need
- In and out box
- Mail filing box
- File cabinet
- Storage boxes
- Scanner
- Mystery shopper (optional)
- Organizational chart
Instructions
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Organizing the Office
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Clean off anything unnecessary on your desk and all employee desks. This includes unneeded things in the desk drawers that might be exposed when the drawers are opened during a business day. Only have your office basics on the desk, such as the computer, phone, fax machine and pertinent documents you need for reference.
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Wash off the surface of each desk so it looks clean. Food stains and general dirt and dust can accumulate over time, making your work area look unprofessional.
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Set up an in and out box on your desk for keeping track of important documents. While it might appear antiquated in the age of email, you're still going to be dealing with tangible papers. For incoming mail, use the old "To File, To Read and To Contact" filing system.
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Buy storage boxes and file cabinets to keep all those old papers in an organized place where you can find them again if needed. Don't jam them full. Also, color-code each file to identify by subject. During audits especially, knowing where to find all your financial papers is extremely important.
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Use a scanner to scan any important articles or documents into your computer. This may not be practical for all financial papers, but most documents that you need at a moment's notice should be on your hard drive.
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Keep a record of all your phone calls. Do phone calls in batches, with a list of calls in which you left messages and which you need to do again later.
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File away all papers on your desk after a project is done at the end of the day. That way, when you return to the office the next day, you won't have multiple papers to sift through that could easily get mixed together.
Organizing for Customer Service
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Hold a meeting with your staff and get them on the same page about the meaning of customer service.
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Teach your employees about personalized service. Send a customer an email ahead of time about offers, or send gifts as a "thank you" for buying in order to help create customer loyalty.
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Get feedback from your most loyal customers about what you're doing right or wrong. Send these customers an index card in the mail, or ask each customer directly if he'd like to fill one out when he stops by your business.
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Hire mystery shoppers or other third-party sources to scope out your business's customer service so you can get a fair assessment of how good or bad it is.
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Hold contests for customers to win certain products that your business sells. This gets customers more involved in something fun, and can increase your sales if the prize product is already gaining in popularity.
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Tips & Warnings
A good tool for a small business is an organizational chart that can be used during employee meetings. On the chart, indicate who does what and at what time. While some might prefer having a tangible chart that's visible during a meeting, also consider doing a computer-based version that's visible in meetings on a large hi-def computer monitor. Organizational charts can be created using any of Microsoft's Office programs.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit my office image by ayhan yildiz from Fotolia.com
