Can you Trust Your employees? I’ll explain what I mean in just a minute, but first, if you know me, you know I am a full blown caffeine-a-holic. As I like to frame it, I am simply a coffee connoisseur, who encourages everybody to #KeepItCaffeinated.
One of the many great things I love about living and working in downtown Venice, Fl are all of the wonderful cafe’s.
One of two things has happened: coming back to that.
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Can you completely hand over your key and passwords to your team leader?
- Either you have not clearly documented and communicated your processes to your team or,
- You do not trust them.
If it’s reason 2, not having your process clearly written and communicated to your team, then you likely feel overwhelmed at the thought of even thinking about writing all your processes? Man can I relate! So did I! I did it anyway.
It felt so overwhelming because I was looking at the project as a whole, instead of one step at a time. It goes back to the question, How to you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
In fact, the words process or procedures can seem overwhelming. So, let’s call them checklist.
The key is to start with something small and as simple as how to answer the phone checklist. Oh Steve, answering the phone is too simple, and anybody can answer the phone? Yes, they can, but the way you need them to? And the exact same time over and over again? Is it really that simple?
Here is an example of an Answering The Phone Checklist:
- ANSWER after the 2nd ring and before the 3rd ring.
- “It’s a great day at Burnett Painting, _______ speaking! “
- LISTEN to the needs before asking questions.
- REQUEST their info (ALL on paper first!)
- First, spouse and last name
- Address
- E-mail (“What’s a good email for us to send the proposal to when we are finished?”)
- Is this the best number for you? (Phone number from phone)
- Who can we thank for referring you to us?
- Seasonal? Permanent? Rental? Flipping?
- Scope of Work: INT/EXT Etc.
- Open CALENDAR of estimator andbooktheappt.:
- Enter full name into calendar event title like this: Ven – Smith, Mary – EXT – Website (CITY – Last, First – SCOPE – SOURCE)
- Enter the full address in proper form for quick GPS function.
- Be sure there is one hour travel time between estimates (book only 8:30, 10:30, 2:30, and 4:30pm) –
- Open Google CONTACTS: NEW Contact
- Enter notes from paper (Names, address, email, phone) in proper place.
- Click on the NOTES section of Contact
- Use TEXT EXPANDER (;take) and fill in the form
- Zillow address for:
- Sq ft
- Home Value Estimate
- Verify zip code – if need be
- Sq ft
- Zillow address for:
- Copy Text expander notes section and paste into CRM (PEP, Quickbooks Online, etc)
- Add labels:
- leads/prospect and
- The current year
- Copy and Paste all NOTES from Google contact to Notes in Calendar event. Also, if an online booking – copy online to notes in Contacts as well as “;take” (see Note on what “;TAKE” in Text Expander is)
- Use TEXT EXPANDER (;take) and fill in the form
- CRM – New Customer
- First, last, spouse, address, email address, phone, and, most important, the Source.
- Double check all info entered into 3 places:
- Google Contacts (Estimator/Owner’s/Main)
- Google Calendar (Estimator’s)
- CRM Pipeline Deals ( at least a spreadsheet. )
With this checklist, you can use, or model it to create your own, and simply hand it off to whomever you wish to answer the phone, freeing you up to focus on other responsibilities or for some well deserved R&R.
The sole reason we were able to sell our painting company, easily was because of these documented and trainable systems and processes.
PRO HINT: Use tech.