Can you see if your business is Performing as well as you think…..

So your bank balance is looking healthy, that ticks one box, but how do you know that your business is really performing well?

Not all businesses are aware of the right KPI’s (key performance indicators) dashboards or management information, it’s all the same, and it’s the numbers that show you how well your business is doing. It will quickly show you month on month if your company is efficient and effective.

Perhaps you have grown in the staff numbers over the recent years and it’s now time to start reflecting month by month, year on year as to what difference that is making to the business.

So what sort of key measures are you looking for?
It will all depend on the type of business you are in, production, retail, consultancy or even a call centre, all that information is there for you to use. The measures could be
• the quantity of items you have produced,
• the value of those goods and the average values
• the margins you have started generating from them – these could be impacted by raw materials cost
If you’re in a call centre measures could be
• The average call time;
• Average time spent writing up notes after a call
• Time spent when people putting the call buttons on ‘busy/not available’, This will then trigger you to look at what are they actually doing during that time.

And for all businesses it’s important to see
• Number of complaints
• Number of compliments
• Number of customers
Getting that information shouldn’t generate a new job in itself much of it will already be available, be it in the accounts package, the production system, or the call information you get from the telephone system.

Once you have pulled it all into one central place look at having management meetings, get the team involved in seeing what’s happening, what changes can or should be made and most importantly when you’re looking at the information don’t just share the bad news with everybody, give them praise about the good things that have happened.

Once you have finished your management meetings let your managers take that information back to their own teams, perhaps print it and put it up on the walls so all the staff can see how well things are going and also strive to get them to give you information or ideas to start approving everything alongside you. It’s all about the team work that gets you to where you want to be and grow the business.

Here’s a testimonial from one of our clients whom we helped develop customer and staff management information.

‘We have been incredibly impressed with Sarah and her product delivery. She took the time to understand our service provision and some of its intricacies, no small test in itself, she managed to tune in to exactly what we needed and worked with us to guide us to the best solution. Sarah has not only created a bespoke dashboard against a tight timescale she has also delivered it and supported us through implementation. Sarah is an accomplished performance Manager with a fine attention to detail, we are delighted with the service we have received and the support she has provided.’