Customer Service over Process

Anthony Baker-Smith

Published Dec 23, 2019

Process assists in growing business until it gets in the way of customer service. As easy as this sounds, almost every business goes through this as part of the growth cycle. Why? Usually fast expansion. Organizations can grow to a certain point without too much process. There is a magic number and it has to do with the number of employees in the company and how well responsibilities are communicated to each person. Otherwise, individuals take on whatever responsibilities they feel to be interesting or important comparatively. These actions lead to certain tasks forgotten and customer service being the area that pays for it. Today we are going to talk about organization charts by quantities and utilizing process to increase customer service instead of getting in the way.

Org Charts and Numbers

The magic number is 5. At 5 employees including the owner, a business becomes difficult to manage without structure. Managers find it difficult to give each employee enough 1 on 1 time to deepen relationships in meaningful ways after 5 employees. Org charts with more than 5 downlines become cumbersome. Use 5 as a rule of thumb if you are a growing organization. Need 20 more employees you also need leaders for each of those 4 teams. Keep in mind, these are working managers. Do not hire managers simply to manage. Give them operational responsibilities. A CEO should not have more than 5 people that communicate to them. An example would be 5 department managers. Can it be done with less leadership? Yes. Should it be? No. Loss of quality occurs, and clarity of the organization occurs at this point. Hierarchy becomes important when it comes to dealing with employee situations, customers that are not happy, and progression of roles. For the individuals out there trying to control everything in a 32-person organization, I both salute you and have empathy. Might be one of the hardest jobs in the world just past balancing on a tight wire while reading Hamlet.

Customer Service just over Process

I enjoy creating processes in the workplace. Making sure everything piece of the puzzle is written down and organized tends to increase quality. Process also creates “Red Tape” in the workplace. Ever had to go through a frustrating list of steps just to get one thing done at work? Those individuals in operations tend to know what I am talking about. For those who do not, overcomplication happens. Too many steps with too many individuals involved. The person that pays the most tends to be the customer. They must wait for the cumbersome process to occur. They must wait for bureaucracy. For that reason, one of my largest steps in process creations has to do with making sure that whatever strategy I create does not decrease customer service in order to make gains in other aspects. Customers pay the bills and should be respected as such.

Conclusion

Focus on the people that pay you and help you hire others. You got it, the customer. Always create a better end user experience. I mean everything because any action taken in an organization comes back to quality and speed of customer service.