Streamlining the Customer Experience

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When I first started out in my business I had a general idea of what my process would be like, but I didn't have it completely identified. I hadn't taken the time to write it out, and I should have.

One of the best things I can offer all my clients is a streamlined, consistent experience.

If I could go back and do it all over again, I would sit down and plan out my full workflow, step by step, for what every client would experience. From the first contact to the last follow up email, I would make sure that every experience had the same framework. Every client has unique circumstances, so it's important to stay flexible, but a solid foundation has been incredibly helpful since I've implemented my new processes.

In order to make this happen I had to invest some time and effort into implementing certain tools and templates to make sure that every experience was consistent.

Step 1: The Steps

First I created the list of steps that a typical client goes through. I actually created several, based on the type of service they were buying. But they all had a flow in common. In my case as a photographer my flow includes the following:

1. What has to happen to book the session/event

2. The contact

3. What happens once they've booked, but before the session/event day

4. What happens on the day of the session/event

5. What happens after the session/event

6. Follow-ups

It seems pretty simple, but until I wrote it out this way, put the steps under each category and then set dates to them. My workflow is clearly tied to the session/event date, so everything that happens prior to that has to occur a certain number of days before. For example, the last step in the "What happens once they've booked, but before the session/event day" category is a reminder email that goes out a certain number of days before their booked session or event.

Also note, I put the contract separately, while others might consider it part of booking the client. I think it can be viewed as the last step of that category, but I also think it's THAT important for my process. It deserves it's own space in the workflow. Especially considering, sometimes there's some back and forth on contracts before they're fully signed by all parties. So don't be afraid to adjust the process for your own business to make sure it really works for you!

Need a little help getting your client workflow put together? I've got a worksheet to help guide you through writing out the process. The worksheet helps you plan out step by step how your client experience goes. Or if you'd prefer a more hands on experience, contact me to set up a consultation.

Step 2: The Tools

Once I had my step by step list of everything I needed to happen to book a client and all the information I needed to send them I needed to figure out how to implement this. I chose to use my CRM/Project Management tool: 17hats. It makes it fairly easy to make workflow templates, email templates, contract templates, etc. and assign them to projects. Each projects is a session/event. For me it was about digital access and streamlining, but make sure you find the tools that help you do that best. You can piece it all together yourself using tools you probably already have.

What the tools you use need to be able to do will vary from business to business but I believe you'll at least need:

1. Checklist for each client (your workflow)

2. Calendar

3. Lead forms

4. Templates of emails

5. A template of your contracts

6. Online scheduling if you provide consultations or services

7. Quote templates (if your business sends quotes)

8. Invoice templates/Receipts

9. Payment Methods/System (example: square, paypal)

10. Questionnaire templates

11. Samples/Promotional Materials

You can create these yourself in a variety of programs and tie them together on your own and use multiple systems. You can buy one entire solution system. Or you can mix and match and buy some tools and use others entirely on your own. I choose to do a mix with a system I like for many of theses, but my payments, invoicing and samples/promotional materials located outside my software.

My breakdown:

17Hats for checklists, calendar, email templates, quote templates, lead forms and questionnaires.

Paypal for invoicing, receipts and accepting payments

My website for promotional materials, guides, online scheduling and samples of my work.

Flodesk for delivering newsletters to subscribers and past clients.

Delivery Systems for delivering digital files and physical products to clients.

Step 3: The Templates

So now that I had chosen the tools I would use it was time to build out temples in all the systems.

• Workflow or checklist template: I created templates for different types of services. For example as a photographer I needed a different flow for a family session vs a wedding. The checklist offers the steps I have to do as well as automated steps that happen on their own when certain criteria are fulfilled. The checklist also includes the dates on which each step needs to happen. This checklist is based very closely on the client workflow I did above.

• Calendar: A place to get a visual of all the work I need to do and appointments I need to keep.

• Online Scheduling: To make it that much easier for my clients to schedule their session, I put my online calendar with scheduling up on my website. This does three great things. The first is allow my clients to have the most options possible, without me possibly missing something. My calendar also take sunsets into account, and only allows sessions to be scheduled when lighting will be great. The second is to make it far less likely that anyone can double book. Once a session is on my calendar, the scheduling tool immediately removes it from the calendar! I'm only human and could make a mistake, but the system automates this. Third, it saves me time, so I can spend more time photographing, editing and providing great customer service. Rather than trying to dig through my calendar.

• Lead forms: One of the first steps in a client experience (after seeing your website or social media) is contacting you. So the lead form is a very important tool that needs to be incorporated early into your workflow. My lead forms feed all my client information directly into my project management software (17Hats) and a project launches for them automatically. This then triggers a workflow or my checklist to be assigned to them if they've provided enough information for me to know what they're looking for. Important Note: You don't have to be limited to just 1 lead form that you place everywhere. It's great to have several different ones that fit their uses best. For more on lead forms check out my post on "Contact Forms and Lead Information."

• Email Templates: All the emails that go out to every client (my welcome email, please sign my contract email, reminder of appointment email, follow up after the session email, and many others) are all templates. They have custom fields that fill in important client and session information (name, appointment date/time, etc.). What makes them great is that they go out automatically when scheduled. This keeps the process seamless, gets the client all the information they need and doesn't require me keeping up with as many tasks! I send many custom emails to clients for their specific situations as well, but these automated emails allow all clients to have all the information they need and nothing falls through the cracks.

• Promotional Materials, Guides, Samples: I use my website to create guides and welcome pages for my clients. A local location guide for places to take photos, a wedding planning guide to help my wedding clients with their planning, my portfolio and examples of products they'd be getting.

• Contract Templates: Nobody wants to have to reinvent the wheel, especially when it comes to legal documents. Getting a good set of contracts from your lawyer and implementing them into your workflow makes life so much easier. I have different contracts for different session types assigned to different workflows. I check them, set due dates and make special adjustments for clients and then simply hit send. 17hats allows all my contracts to be stored with the client record and more importantly, for the convenience of my clients, all signed digitally. They never have to print out a single piece of paper (saving trees)!

• Quote Templates: For some design projects I send out quotes to be approved before beginning to work. If you need client agreement to work that requires a breakdown of services a quote is a great tool. Again, rather than reinvent the wheel, setting up templates with your business information and as much product information as possible, saves time and gets clients what they need faster.

• Invoice/Receipt Templates: I use Paypal for all my invoicing and payments. They're a great company and offer one of the most diverse sets of payment options. Plus many of my clients are already familiar with them. To simplify the process I've set up templates for different invoice types and added my most commonly purchased services into the system to make it simpler to put together an accurate invoice. This helps speed things up and avoid mistakes!

• Payment System Set-Up: Since Paypal is an integrated system the items available for my invoices are also available in the app for payments on location. The set-up is pretty seamless.

• Product Delivery System: As a photographer I needed a way to deliver the photos in a way that's beautiful, easy to use for my clients and efficient for me. I have several ways I do that for clients. The first is a digital delivery system where I provide clients their photos in a beautiful digital gallery. From there they can order prints and other products. This system is integrated with my physical delivery of products, my photo lab. This gives my clients a seamless experience from receiving their digital images to ordering products that will last for years to come.

• Questionnaire Templates: After I've completed everything I send out follow up questionnaires asking clients for their feedback or information about their session. Rather than create new ones every time, I use templates. This gives clients the opportunity to voice their thoughts and provides every client with the same opportunity. This helps me improve my customers' experience and know if there is anything that needs to be addressed! I personally really like Jotform and embed it into my website on a landing page. Then I provide a link to the landing page to my clients for easy access.

Step 4: Implementation

All of this is great, but until I put it all into use and began using all the systems together and following all my workflows consistently, the system wasn't going to be much help.

Making sure you follow through with your workflows and customer experience will make your job easier and your clients' experiences more positive.

I make sure with every client to follow all the steps I've outlined. This allows for personalization throughout the process, but also ensures that nothing important is missed. I never want to feel like one of my clients missed out on an important part of the experience because I made a mistake. Having consistent processes, with automated steps, organized checklists and templates lets me make sure that doesn't happen and every client gets my absolute best customer service. Need help with your workflow or implementation process? Check out my services to see if I can help make your business more streamlined.

What do you do to make sure you offer great customer service? How do you keep your customer processes organized? What do you do to streamline your business?

#smallbusinessbrand #microbusinesscustomerservice #microbusiness #solopreneurship #processoptimization #runningyourbusiness #leadinformation #contactforms #websitedesign #clientexperience #customerservice

Amazing Things Come in Small Packages! Microbusinesses and Solopreneurs...

What is a micro business? What is a Solopreneur?

Well according to the Small Business Administration (SBA) a micro business or micro enterprise is a small business with less then 10 employees. Some even define it as a business with only up to 5 employees. While small businesses can have dozens of employees and still fit the definition of small, micro businesses are truly "small".

Solopreneurs are business owners with no employees. They are the only owner and employee of the business. This doesn't mean they don't contract out for services from other professionals to help them along the way. But as far as actual employees go, they have none.

Micro businesses make up over 90% of all businesses in the United States, and solopreneurs or non-employer businesses make up 80% of all businesses in the US! That means there are over xx million micro businesses in the US and of those over 26 million are solopreneurs.

The vast majority of business owners are doing it alone or with a very small team!

So why does it matter?

Well for one, it helps to know you're not actually alone. You're the only one in your business, but you're one of millions. That means there are millions of other talented, amazing business owners going through the same struggles, the same lessons and the same wins as you.

It also matters because for years it felt like the business space wasn't for people like me. People that were doing it alone or had a small team. It felt as though this was just a transitional step on the way to something bigger. Or at least that's what all the news articles led me to believe! Every blog post I seemed to come across, would chastise me about how doing it alone is ok, but it's a job not a business. To be a real business you have to grow.

Well I'm here to say, that's complete crap! A business of one or two or three or four or five is a real business! In fact it's almost EVERY real business! And it counts. You are building something real, and you definitely, absolutely count!

Challenges Facing Micro Businesses

1. Resources & help is mostly targeted toward bigger small businesses - Most resources out there assume you either have several employees or plan to at some point. It makes it so much harder to keep going as you feel left out and alone. A good support network is so important to success. Don't worry, you're not alone! As I said above there are millions of other people in the same boat. And many of us are willing to work together, share information and grow together. The internet and social media have made it easier than ever to connect. Find some groups to support each other.
   

2. Depending on just one client - Smaller businesses can get caught in a trap of having one or two really big clients and becoming dependent on that source of income. This puts them in a really dangerous position and threatens long-term success. To help avoid this, make sure you work on creating great relationships with your clients and asking for recommendations. When you deliver service, ask them to review you on whatever sites you get reviews (Google, Facebook, Yelp, etc.) and to tell their friends. No matter how secure or busy you feel, don't stop posting on your social media, writing blog posts and reaching out. If you keep the marketing activity up when you're busy, it will help you find new clients when you get slower.
   

3. Burnout, fatigue and too many hats - This problem is so common for micro business owners and solopreneurs. And it makes perfect sense, because we're responsible for our entire business. It can get overwhelming! All the tasks big and small fall on your shoulders and it can burn you out. After all, you didn't get into business to do all the behind the scenes, you got into business to do what you love! There are so many resources available to help. Other small business owners offering their services as contractors. You can run more efficiently and contract out certain tasks. Tools made to standardize and automate your processes, so tasks get done automatically and you can focus on the bigger things. Make sure to incorporate the options available to you to free up your time for the parts only you can do!
   

4. Knowing when to grow & when not to - It seems like growing your business is the metric for success others have. The bigger your business, the more successful you are. But that is far from true! Success should be measured individually, by meeting goals that you have. Not by continuous growth for growth sake. In fact growth too fast, or when you were simply not ready, can lead to burnout, fatigue, bad customer experiences and negative reviews. You don't want any of that! It's important to take time periodically (as often as monthly or quarterly if your business is growing really fast or yearly or every few years if it's growing slower and depending on industry) to take time, breathe and evaluate. Are you ready to take on more? Can you afford the costs in time and money associated with the growth? Will it help you achieve not just your business goals, but your personal goals? It's ok to stop and say, no more growth right now. We're going to stay right where we are. It's ok to feel happy where you are and take the time to grow in other areas of your life. And it's ok to just breathe!
   

5. Getting lonely - If you're the only one running and operating your business, it can get super lonely! Especially as more and more business interactions move to the internet. Not only are you making decisions with no sounding board, but some days you may not see other human beings at all. And while your furry companion might be cute and all, it can get stressful. Join some local and internet based business groups. Especially ones focusing on similar topics that interest you. They don't need to be in the same industry, but perhaps a similar general category. These groups can help you grow as a business owner, learn new skills, build a network and stay focused on ways to keep improving. Not to mention you may just make some lifelong friends.

Tips for Making it as a Micro Business!

Now that we covered some of the challenges, and some ways to address them, let's chat about some ways to make sure you're successful. About 50% of businesses survive past 5 years. These tips (some of which might seem an awful lot like solutions to the challenges above 😉) will hopefully help you be in that 50%!

1. Avoid debt - I know this sounds hard. And I'm not entirely opposed to debt. But! And this is a huge but, most businesses are better off avoiding debt in their first few years. If at all possible, save up money, spend carefully, and make sure you set aside the appropriate amount for taxes and reinvesting in your business. Most micro businesses can be started with just a few hundred dollars. And as you start to make some money you should be reinvesting back into the business. Which in turn will help you make more money, etc. To really make this work you need to make sure to invest carefully and really weigh your options! If you can't avoid debt, for example, if you need to buy some expensive equipment to get started, make sure you prioritize paying down the debt as you bring in income. Look for dept options that are the lowest interest rate possible (some credit cards or credit lines are 0% interest if you pay it off within a certain time-frame), as this will help minimize the impact of the debt. And consult with your accountant about appropriately depreciating and writing off the expense!
   

2. Build a network and learn from each other - Running a business by yourself can get super lonely and exhausting. Not to mention, unlike a typical job, you don't necessarily have people to bounce ideas off of. Instead of going at it completely alone, try to find a network of business friends! Whether online groups, or in person meet-ups find a tribe. This network will be extremely helpful in succeeding. You can offer advice to each other. Be there when things get tough. Learn together. Support each other. And so much more. Not to mention when you surround yourself with people who have similar goals to your own, you both remind each other why you started on the path in the first place and help each other reach your goals!
   

3. Get feedback often - The best way to make sure you're successful and can keep improving is to always ask for feedback! This has a few benefits. First, you'll learn what you need to fix, quickly. If you offer clients and friends the opportunity to tell you what's going wrong early, you can correct it sooner, rather than later. Second, if you get great feedback, you can use it as reviews and it will help inform future clients and fill them with confidence in your service!

4. Hire other business owners for help - Just because you're a shop of one or only a couple, doesn't mean you can't get a bit more help! You don't need to have an accountant, lawyer and IT person on staff. But you should find other local, small businesses offering these services and get help from professionals who can help make your business safer and more efficient. While you will need to wear many hats in your business, you don't need to learn every, single skill required in the smooth operation of a business. Let someone be the expert in their field so you can be the expert in yours and spend your time doing what you love and are great at!
   

5. Find the right tools & create automation - Another tip to save you time and make your business more efficient is to find the right tools that will cut your work and help you be more consistent and efficient. You don't need to write out every email by hand! Create beautiful templates and make sure responses to people who contact you from your website are personalized but automated to collect all the information you need before you have a call. Create online scheduling tools to give clients more options and save yourself time scheduling every appointment by hand. Create systems for inventory, contracts and other processes to keep your business consistent. The best way to create great service and get great reviews is to make sure every client has the same, consistent, great experience. Curious how I do it? Here's my toolbox of favorite tools and resources as well as tools and courses I offer!

Do you run a micro business? Are you a solopreneur? What's been your biggest challenge? Do you have any tips for success? I'd love to hear about it in the comments! #smallbusiness #microbusiness #solopreneur #tipsforsuccess #microbusinesschallenges #solopreneurchallenges #solopreneurtips #microbusinesstips