As the saying goes, there’s no time like the present. When the end of the year rolls around, the best way to prepare for business growth in 2018 is to complete a review of the current strategies that have brought about success. Being proactive about your business’s short and long-term goals is essential to creating a blueprint for the new year that will lead to development and increased revenue.
Our team has put together our three strategies for success that we will release throughout January. We recently shared our first strategy—developing buyer personas of ideal customers—on our blog, and last week, we shared our second strategy of using social media for customer acquisiton and retention.
Now, we'd like to conclude with our third strategy for business growth in the new year.
Strategy #3: Ask Your Employees for Feedback
For businesses both big and small, internal operations are always the foundation for development. If your procedures and company standards aren’t outlined or enforced, your employees will not be able to work symbiotically. As you begin a new year, assess the value of your business by asking your employees for their input.
All too often, businesses think the administration of employee surveys is a one-and-done method. Your employees will generally maintain the same ideas and opinions over time, right?
Wrong!
Asking for feedback should be seen as an ongoing metric that is constantly evolving. Regular surveys will not only give you needed information about account particulars, but they will also help your employees feel more appreciated. Over the years, these surveys may even reduce the company’s turnover rate.
Since your employees are the backbone of the day-to-day business operations, they are the people who will be able to tell you where they see room for improvement. Your employees are the ones dealing directly with customers—or who target your buyer personas—making communication a vital component to developing strategies for the new year.
Start with these questions:
By having a base of questions, you can start the conversationand look for emerging themes. It's not a bad idea to develop questions that are outside of the zone of comfort and even provocative. In mapping out what has ben reported by a majority of the employees, you can identify the hot spots and determine where changes should be made.
Of course, if you simply administer the surveys and never act on the feedback, the feelings of openness and receptivity within the company will not last. Employees appreciate being listened to, and they will work harder if they see new actions take effect. Gathering feedback ultimately makes for a happier, more productive staff that will feel empowered to address the most pressing issues of the new year.
Now that the new year is upon us, it is crucial to focus on the strategies that will bring about growth in 2018. By creating a profile of your best clients, using social media for attaining customers and asking your employees for their input, you can prepare for optimal success in the new year.