How to Run a Company With Hardly Any Human Capital

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Here are the 3 ways you can help run your company with minimal human capital

1. Provide customer service after hours

Customer service is very important at a small company. Every client may make the difference if your company can live to see another year. But it is challenging for small companies to offer customer service out of hours when the phones aren’t staffed 24/7. One trick to improve service is to have the business phone number forwarded to employee phone numbers out of hours. For example, sales calls can go to your Head of Sales’ phone. Of course, make sure you take turns who will be getting calls and equip people with the proper tools (such as a PDF file with how to answer calls) to set them up for success outside of the office. And overnight, it’s okay to connect your voicemail too!

2. Use chatbots to service clients

Another way to improve your customer service (and save your employees’ time) is to use chatbots to help service your clients. For example, if you are a retail business that offers free returns and your customer wants to return something, you can use an AI-powered bot like Nanorep to collect the information you need from your customers. Using chatbots can make your company not only look bigger with a full-service customer service operation; but it can also make your company look tech-savvy because you’re utilizing AI in a smart way to improve customer experience.

Need more help getting up to speed on chatbots? Check out some of our past guides: Creative Ways to Use a Chatbot In Your Small Business and5 Ways SMBs Can Improve Business with Chatbots

3. Add additional business addresses

Some customers trust larger companies more than they do smaller ones. Adding a New York City or London address to your office contact details may help drive the perception your business is growing, or planning for future growth. There are numerous services that allow you to purchase a postbox in these cities. While you shouldn’t expect loads of fanmail, psychologically, it can be reassuring to customers to know you have a presence in major cities.

5 Perks and Benefits Today’s Employees Really Want

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Your employees will be happy you came here

  • Flexible Employee Health and Wellness Programs

Employees value self-care, and want perks and benefits to help them achieve their health and wellness goals. A 2017 survey of 2000 workers by Fractl found that employees considered health, dental and vision insurance as the most important. And in the 2017 Employee Benefits Research Report by the Society for Human Resource Management, in response to demand from workers, almost 33 percent of businesses increased their employee benefits during the past twelve month period. The top benefit increases were in Health (22 percent) and Wellness (24 percent) benefits.

  • Flexible Hours for Better Work/Life Balance

More than ever, quality of life is important to today’s workers who value the perks and benefits that reflect that. According to a recent study by online job board Flexjobs, 84 percent of workers who are also parents value job flexibility more than other key job factors. And a 2016 Fidelity study found that younger workers (born between 1981 and 1991) value, “A better quality of work life.” So much that they’re willing to take a $7,600 pay cut for a job that provides it.

  • Paid Time Off to Volunteer

Giving employees time off to volunteer can be a hallmark of a company people want to work for, according to Fortune magazine. Supporting time off and encouraging volunteer work that makes use of an individual’s professional skills was particularly appreciated by staff. Research into the businesses on the list of 50 Best Workplaces for Giving Back found that these companies let employees “guide their charitable efforts,” which may increase employee commitment.

  • Personal and Professional Development

The ability to grow professionally in their current roles and learn skills to better position them for future roles are key perks for today’s workforce. This is especially true for millennials. According to Pew Research Center’s The State of American Jobs report, 87 percent of workers feel it’s critical they receive continuing opportunities to learn throughout their careerss.

  • Exercise Area/Onsite Fitness

Today’s employees want their employer to support their efforts to stay fit. In a recent Harvard Business Review article, a survey of 2000 workers found that 39 percent would give free gym memberships consideration when evaluating a job. Free yoga or fitness classes would get some consideration, 33 percent. 22 percent would give extra thought to a job offering a free onsite gym.

Know Your Customer: Why Every Small Business Should Define Their Customer Personas

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Customer personas are not only marketing tools used by ad agencies; they can also help smaller firms better understand their customers, enhance marketing efforts and drive long-term business goals.

These are 4 ways customer personas can help smaller firms

What are customer personas?

Simply put, customer personas are generalizations that group the types of customers who use your business. For example, if you are a baker, three of your customer personas may be: a caterer, a busy mom and a local restaurant owner. Additionally, customer personas can help you think about the kinds of customers you want to attract. You may develop target customer personas based on different criteria like age, income level and interests.

How do you develop customer personas for your business?

There are many ways to develop your customer personas. If your customers are in-person shoppers, feel free to talk to them to understand who they are; why they use your service; how frequently they use it; and what would ever be the reasons why they wouldn’t use it anymore. Also, make sure you figure out if they have any pain points while using your service and what they are.

If you have online customers, social platforms, such as Facebook, may allow you to get more specific demographic data about your customers. You could also use an online or in-person customer survey to gather demographic data about your customers’ existences, wants, and needs.

Additionally, to help you develop customer personas, your local Chamber of Commerce may be able to provide you with basic demographic information about population in your area — including income levels, ages, ethnicities, etc.

How can using customer personas increase customer retention?

Customer personas are one way to understand who your customers are and how to serve them better: Are they busy people who are in a rush when they use your service? Are they stay-at-home moms with small children? Are they wealthy professionals?

Understanding customer personas can help you better market your business and shape the value you give customers. For example, if 95% of your customers are stay-at-home moms in Los Angeles, then it might make sense to advertise on Los Angeles-area parenting blogs. Another example: If you run a book shop, maybe your customers prefer to do book shopping at night. You may decide it doesn’t make sense to close at 5pm. Thus, you can restructure your shop’s hours and open from noon to 8pm instead of from 9am to 5pm.

How to Calculate Customer Lifetime Value

Once you have your customer personas, it can also make it easier for you to calculate customer lifetime value (CLV). This enables you to focus more on the kind of customers who mean the most to your business’s long-term survival.

CLV is the amount of revenue you expect to generate from each customer for the duration of his/her relationship with your company. You may want to calculate the CLV for all the customer segments and/or personas your business serves. If you own a cleaning business that serves both commercial and residential clients, you may determine the CLV for commercial customers is less valuable than the CLV for residential customers. This is an extension of the personas discussed earlier and will likely help you market more efficiently and effectively.

To calculate CLV, multiply the frequency with which customers do business with you (the number of repeat transactions) by the average value of a transaction and the average tenure of a typical customer. Say you own a barber shop and that customers typically visit your store once a month and spend $30. The average customer stays with you for 2 years. The CLV of the average customer is calculated as $30 x 12 months x 2 years = $360.

By evaluating the most common groups of customers your business serves, you can inform business decisions in a way that is both meaningful and efficient. Crafting detailed customer personas and mapping them to CLV can put you in a better position to devise customer-focused strategies and maximize profitability.

How to Improve Your Employees’ Customer Service Skills

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Here are the ways you can improve your employees’ customer service skills

Treat every customer like a guest

Training every employee in basic customer service skills should be a prerequisite to working for your company. You never know who is a potential big customer, who is the husband/wife of a big customer or who just had a very bad day. As your representatives, employees must know how to be customer-facing. This is important even if they work behind the scenes in a warehouse or cleaning the floors. No matter how painful it can sometimes seem, it is very important to always treat customers like they’re invited guests.

Basic etiquette isn’t basic

Imagine if someone who doesn’t normally answer the phone picks up the phone and your most important customer is on the line. Now imagine that person botches the conversation, leaving your VIP customer wondering if he should take his business elsewhere. Training all employees in basic business etiquette can go a long way in terms of customer relations. It may be helpful to have employees practice hypothetical conversations they may have so that they know what answers they should give.

Have your FAQs available

Your company’s Frequently Asked Questions are the things every employee should know backwards and forwards. Have this document readily available for your employees online and in print. Encourage your employees to be familiar enough with the answers as to not give faulty information to customers. Also remember that FAQs are living documents that evolve and adapt over time. As your service and offerings evolve, make sure you update your FAQs for the sake of your employees as well as for your customers.

Create an employee handbook

Investing in your employees is one of the ways you can help your business sustain itself in the long term. Though some businesses take this for granted, creating an employee handbook that closely details the company’s values will help your employees align with the culture you want from them. Additionally, in the long-term, a handbook can also be used as a recruiting tool to find employees who fit with your company’s values. Companies which align their values with those of their employees can better serve customers.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility & My Business

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Gone are the days when corporate social responsibility (CSR) was considered going “above and beyond”. These days, more and more consumers — especially millennial and Gen Z consumers — see CSR as a point-of-entry for the businesses they support.

According to a recent public relations study, a company without a CSR plan could stand to lose as much as 39% of its potential customer base. Additionally, 83% of professional investors indicated they are, “More inclined to invest in stock of a company well-known for its social responsibility, viewing such initiatives as an indicator of greater transparency and honesty,” according to research by The Holmes Report.

The good news is that incorporating a social giveback into your business doesn’t have to be costly or time consuming. While many companies have risen to fame with their 1-for-1 models — Toms Shoes and Warby Parker for example — CRS doesn’t have to mean “1 for 1.” In fact, it can be as simple as getting your employees involved in local community events. You could also donate a portion of your overstock merchandise to a local organization in need.

 

Here are three tips for enhancing your small business’s social giving:

1. Find out what your employees care about

Unless your employees are personally invested in your social giving, you don’t have a program. You essentially have a tax-deductible charitable donation. To get employee buy in, ask employees about the causes they care about most. After an open discussion, decide on one or more charities to support. You may choose a local partner, like a food bank or women’s shelter, or a national cause, like human trafficking. When employees are part of the decision-making process, they can rally behind the collective good you’re doing.

2. Find out what your customers care about

Your employees aren’t the only people who could help make this decision: your customers have opinions too. Find out what causes are most important to your customers before choosing a partner to align with. Depending on the size of your business, you can do informal surveys at the register (“We’re looking for a new charitable partner to support. Are there any causes that are especially important to you?”), send out an email blast asking for feedback, or even include a survey on your social media pages. Some businesses, like UncommonGoods, support multiple causes and give each customer the option of which charity will benefit from a purchase.

3. Decide how — and how much — you’ll give back

Not all givebacks have to be financial in nature, although many are. Talk to your senior leadership team and decide how and when you’ll give back. You may decide to give .05% of your net profits at the end of each year to a charitable partner. Or, you may dedicate one weekend during the year in which 10% of your proceeds benefit said partner. In that case, the charity might help promote the event ahead of time to drive customers. There’s no one right answer; it’s all about what works best for you.

Non-financial give back options could include giving all of your employees one or more paid days off per year to volunteer at a charity of their choice. This can be done on an individual basis (each employee chooses his/her cause), or in a team setting (the entire company partners to build a Habitat For Humanity house, for example).

Although recognition should never be the goal of a CRS program, it’s a nice bonus. Don’t be shy about capturing photos of your team giving back to share on your social accounts or display in your store. Your customers will appreciate knowing that your team is giving back. And they just might discover their next favorite charity in the process.

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As part of Strategic Funding’s corporate social responsibility initiative, we have chosen to support the Foundation Fighting Blindness. We will match up to $20,000 in donations made. To donate, please go to https://www.crowdrise.com/sfs-ffb .

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