Does every single one of your customer support reps fully understand how their department makes money for your business? Is the administrative staff harboring a few bright ideas about how to increase the bottom line?

It’s easy for employees to view their jobs narrowly and forget that they each contribute to the financial health of the business in some way.

 

Here’s a great exercise: Instruct your supervisors to meet with their teams and come up with a list of ways that their respective departments can help the company meet — or, preferably, exceed — its projected profits. Depending on the size of your business, you could wind up with dozens of suggestions. After all, employees on the “front lines” are often in the best position to know precisely where waste is occurring and come up with ways to better use resources.

Example: A company used hundreds of window envelopes every payday to deliver paychecks to employees via interoffice mail. Because there was no writing on the envelopes, and they were never sealed, the envelopes were still in perfect condition. Yet employees simply discarded them after removing their paychecks.

The payroll clerk suggested putting a bin in each department where the envelopes could be collected and used again the next payday. It was a simple step, but it cut down on the cost of supplies and allowed employees worried about climate change to feel good about saving paper. Of course, the company eventually switched to direct deposit, eliminating paper altogether. But the example stands as a simple thing, recognized by a non-management employee, that saved the business money.

Here’s a Handful of Other Steps:

• Don’t base credit terms solely on customers’ payment histories. Consider adopting a broader policy that enables you to tighten, or relax, credit terms according to the company’s cash flow needs.
• Generate and send invoices while orders are being prepared for shipment, not after. Faster invoicing usually means faster payment.
• Make sure invoices are accurate and easy to read. Mistakes will not only delay payment, but also potentially drive customers to competitors.
• Develop tools to measure, analyze and project the productivity of both labor and equipment.
• Don’t assign projects to employees who are overqualified for the tasks. Get the job done for the lowest possible payroll cost.
• Make sure every customer is aware of all the products or services your company offers. Is it possible that customers are shopping elsewhere because they’re unaware that you can fulfill more of their needs?

Once your employees understand how they can contribute to the bottom line, higher profits will be close behind. In fact, they can probably add a few steps to the list above rather quickly. Why not ask?