Keep Your Business On Course: Ask Why, Simplify And Trust Your People

I’ve come to learn that turning a business around can be one of the most difficult — and rewarding — things a leader can do.

Calling it a challenge is a huge understatement. Remodeling a house is much harder than building a new one from the ground up. And unless you’re a start-up, you don’t have the luxury of starting from scratch. You have to keep the day-to-day business performing well, all in the midst of significant change necessary for growth.

Here are a few ways I’ve found to strip down decision-making to the essentials required to get your business where it needs to be. While these ideas can apply at any time, I’ve found them to be especially critical when trying to transform a business and a culture. It’s about an objective and thorough assessment to find the most efficient operating model and encourage top performance.

Ask Why

We all can get caught up in deeply rooted institutional systems that keep us doing things the same way. But if they’re not giving you the results you want, it pays to ask why you’re doing them in the first place.

I came into a business that had the same organizational structure for years, even after our customer base and expectations had changed significantly. It didn’t take more than a few customer discussions to find out that our global model wasn’t right. Our customers wanted a close relationship with our regional teams (customer intimacy). We were organized to deliver the opposite.

So, we first added regional sales executives who created tight relationships with the customers in their areas. We also incentivized key groups to make sure they were aligned with their regional counterparts.

?Asking questions and taking a hard look at your basic structure can be the first meaningful step toward getting your business on track.

Simplify

While we built a regional model to get closer to our customers, we discovered an overly complicated support structure that was slowing us down, delivering inconsistent experiences for the same customers in different geographies. To get large, multi-region bids approved, the old system required interaction with multiple approvers worldwide, each with veto power to stop the deal. There were too many handoffs, and consistency suffered. And when responding to customers is your business, you have to be more nimble.

It was time to simplify. So, just as we zeroed in to bring the regional teams closer to the customer, we needed to zoom out to expand global oversight for faster pricing, sourcing and delivery services. We introduced a structure of global heads for customer service, project management and product development, reducing approval time by 90% while ensuring global consistency in execution.

Doing something similar to this can give your customers the same experience whether they’re in Manila, Madrid or Manhattan. Your productivity can surge. For us, this was the way to go, and our profitable growth-improved NPS and CX scores proved it.

?Trust Your People

When making major changes like these, I’ve learned that front-line employees can be a major asset. No one knows your customers better than the employees who work with them every day. Not only does this get you closer to the real challenges, but it also makes employees feel heard and part of the solution.

I once advised a company that runs an iconic amusement and entertainment park about improving their customer experience. After speaking to housekeeping and groundskeeping teams, we made some interesting discoveries. Customers often asked them about the timing of a certain parade or other key events. Most of these team members couldn’t answer and recommended calling the front desk. This tied up the reception team trying to check in and welcome new guests.

These frontline talks helped us pinpoint the issue and determine a simple solution. All employees received a detailed guide for each week so they could answer guests’ questions directly. Not only did customers get faster help, but employees felt empowered to deliver the superior experience that customers expected. These constructive conversations also led us to pair housekeepers together, which improved productivity significantly. Lost time and medical claims due to minor injuries fell by over 50%.

Creating the best customer experience and ensuring growth can take great fortitude. But the outcome is well worth it. The key is really listening to your customers and your team and having the resolve to make bold changes when necessary, whether you’re building or repairing a business. The going may get tough. But the experience will set your organization — and you as a leader — on course for a successful future.

This article was originally published on the Forbes Technology Council at https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/05/20/keep-your-business-on-course-ask-why-simplify-and-trust-your-people/?