To Err is human, I understand that we all make mistakes, what kills me is repeated mistakes. The things that seem to go wrong repeatedly is one of my biggest bug bears.
Stamping out these repeated errors has been a life mission of mine since I started in business.
One of the main reasons people make mistakes is because they are new to a job, they take time learning the ropes and understanding the role and along the way make mistakes. If you have a reasonable staff turnover this means that there is, at any given point, someone new in your business making mistakes.
Mistakes are inevitable but you can drastically cut down on the number of these errors with the help of systems.
Save Yourself Time Energy Money
Building a system around a tricky process or procedure will go a long way to making sure that mistakes are not repeated. The system can be a detailed list of procedures or even a simple checklist for the individual to follow.
These checklists aren’t just for the new members of staff either they should be for everyone. Everyone who is running an important procedure or one where mistakes are frequent should have a checklist to follow.
An example of where a checklist is vital for my business is our new customer checklist. When we win a new customer, we must set them up on our system and if this is completed incorrectly if one or two vital pieces of information are missed, then somewhere down the line problems will occur. So, we have developed a new client checklist that is printed off and followed.
We have adjusted and corrected this checklist until it covers everything we need to do with a new client. If mistakes happen now we immediately refer to the checklist and 9 times out of 10 the checklist wasn’t followed.
If you find yourself being frustrated with customer complaints because someone hasn’t done something, or being annoyed because the same things are going wrong then consider working on your systems.
How to Build Systems
Building systems and how to implement them is the basis of Module 1 of Foundations.
Foundations is a business transformation programme which will improve the lives of small business owners by allowing them to free themselves from their business, helping them to maximise profits and to make their businesses run like clockwork.
Attendees will be taken through a 6-month programme, involving 5 modules delivered in monthly tutorials. Each tutorial is followed up by one-to-one coaching sessions to support the achievement of individual learner action plans. Online support is also available in an open discussion learners’ forum.
