Some think that what happens inside a company does not go outside the company, and that how you handle internal communication, documents and process never affects the client's satisfaction. Unfortunately, just like Twinkies, it is the inside that matters most.
Not long ago our company went through a growth cycle, and every component that was perfectly fine a couple of years earlier had enough holes poked in it that we needed to refine, replace or overhaul it to keep scaling with local demand. We could have waited for things to break and replaced them as needed. That would have been reactive. We wanted a proactive approach that did not just repair but future-proofed our process and systems. Here is some of what each department decided.
Marketing
Marketing faces the challenge of every growing company: keeping up with demand for fresh, original and compliant content while keeping the brand aligned, the messaging consistent and the creative cohesive. Our team also serves mortgage bankers with customized requests. So we both scaled up marketing, deploying a new library of customized but compliant print materials, and sped up turnaround on incoming requests.
When you transition from a sales-support team into a strategic marketing department, you have to adjust how you serve sales. You cannot stop the work you do, but you have to change the way you work.
Using Dropbox for Business, Microsoft Planner, Google Forms, Adobe Acrobat and SharePoint, the team saw gains in both quality and speed, which freed marketing to focus on larger campaigns and relationship-building tools.
Sales
A mortgage banker has to stay in direct line of sight with borrowers, real estate agents, builders, underwriters and managers, every day, after banking hours too. That is the testament of an Alpha employee. It does not mean the sales team would not do better with workflow optimization. Before ListReports, the MyAlpha app and new efficiencies in Encompass, our bankers worked even harder to get through the day. With these tools in play, they can focus on relationships and new opportunities.
Operations
Workflow and organization are easy in a small department. Add multiple locations, more than 100 employees and a growing list of departments, and complexity becomes a daily reality. We knew there had to be a way to get better visibility, accessibility and workflow, and the answer was a company-wide intranet. The word still conjures clunky nineties software, but modern intranets help you get work done rather than inhibit it. Ours improved:
- Documents and resources available in one place
- Knowledge base and training
- Compliance rules and procedures
- A library of assets and tools
- Internal communications and multi-location connectivity
- Employee onboarding and organizational clarity
- Reinforcement of brand and values
- Fewer emails and meetings
Human resources
After welcoming a new HR manager, it was not long before her recommendations led to a company-wide discussion of leadership alignment, performance reviews, recruitment and retention through better measurement and goal-setting. We chose more than a system. We chose a complete solution to help us be better managers and better employees, and to define our core values: align teams around mission, vision and values; coach with a performance-values matrix and 360-degree feedback; and evaluate employees, teams and managers so the right people are in the right seats.
Happy employees mean a better customer experience, which means a better brand.
What happens inside the company reaches the customer. Fix the process before growth breaks it.
Originally published on LinkedIn on March 3, 2020. Read the original and the comments.
