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September 4, 2011 By 6 Comments

ROWE and freedom from time-based billing

ROWE and freedom from time-based billing

Do you bill your clients based on time? Do you ever find this to be frustrating, messy, and unpredictable? Do employees sometimes forget to track time therefore creating fire drills to catch up and reconcile billing (which takes even more time)? Does it ever cause issues or disagreements with clients? Do you wish you never had to worry about it again?

I’ve been having some interesting conversations recently with other professional services firms that bill their clients based on time. It’s interesting to me because a few years ago, SpinWeb made two very significant changes:

  1. We implemented ROWE
  2. We eliminated time-based billing

Yes, the two are related.

Pre-ROWE, we billed our clients based on time. We would do the old-fashioned dance of “hmmm… I would estimate this project at 70 hours” and then hope we  magically hit that target. We all knew we were simply making up numbers out of thin air and hoping it was remotely accurate. It was a huge pain. Every time we did this, at least one or more of these things would happen:

  1. No matter how many times we called it an “estimate,” our clients would hear a fixed price
  2. Once the invoice was sent, we would end up arguing over money (see #1)
  3. Employees would forget to track time, which caused us to lose money or spend time going back to find the hours
  4. We would be penalized for being efficient (less money)
  5. Our clients woud be penalized if we were inefficient (over-billing)
  6. We would fudge and edit time reports to avoid arguments
  7. We would spend 10% of our productive time just dealing with all the minutiae of tracking time

As you can see, time-based billing is not much fun. However, it is such an accepted norm in professional services that not many people really question it. They just accept it as “the way things are done” and continue to trudge along with all the lost productivity and pain that comes with it.

However, when we implemented ROWE at SpinWeb a few years ago, an interesting thing happened. As we eliminated time as a measurement of productivity and started focusing 100% on results, we also began to extend that mindset to our services. It became more and more ridiculous to apply time to our internal results and so we began to see how we could revolutionize our billing, as well.

Soon after implementing ROWE and using the tools from that experience, we moved to a 100% value-based billing model. No more time tracking.

It has been one of the most tremendously positive changes we have ever made at SpinWeb.

No more making up numbers. No more arguing over money with clients. No more babysitting employees to remind them to track time. No more answering questions like “how much time should I bill for this?” five times a day. No more making up different prices for each project. No more scary “estimates” that leave clients fearful of over-billing. No more being penalized for being efficient.

All these issues: gone.

Clients are happier. Employees are happier. The company is more profitable. Everyone is more productive. Best of all, we have not had a single argument over money since the switch.

I cannot stress how much of a dream it has been to move to a 100% value-based billing model. If you are still billing based on time, let me assure you that it’s possible to make the switch. If we can do it as a web services firm with lots of moving parts and complexities, I’m confident that anyone can do it.

Have you moved to value-based billing? I would love to hear your experience.

Filed Under: Productivity Tagged With: , , ,
July 3, 2011 By 1 Comment

What your business can learn from the Mormon Church

For those who may not be aware, I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Other less formal labels for this denomination include “LDS” and “Mormon.” My faith is a source of great happiness in my life and I am always happy to answer questions about it. However, this post is not about religion, so I would ask that if you have any religious questions about the LDS faith, please contact me directly and I will be happy to discuss.

The LDS Church is one of the largest religions in the world. It has over 14 million members and is the second-fastest growing church in the U.S., according to the National Council of Churches. Other statistics on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can be found in the LDS Newsroom.

All spiritual debates aside, it’s easy to see that the LDS Church is doing something right. What are the Mormons doing that has lead to such dramatic and steady growth and how can it apply to your business?

Strong systems

The Mormon church is extremely systematic about everything from building churches and temples to teaching sunday school. If you go to a Mormon church anywhere in the world, you will find that they all follow the same meeting agendas, the same processes, and even teach the same lessons. If you attend a church meeting one Sunday in Indianapolis and then attend a meeting the following Sunday in California, it will be very familiar and you will be be able to stay on the same lesson plan. If the Mormon Church wants to form a new congregation, it follows a proven system for setting up the meetinghouse and can very quickly set in motion a process to get it up and running (complete with local clergy) very quickly and with very few issues. This saves time and money.

In a similar fashion, your business can benefit from strong systems that allow you to execute tasks and projects quickly and consistently. If you have proven systems for sales, marketing, product delivery, and customer service, your business will run much more efficiently and enjoy faster growth. If you’re unfamiliar with creating business systems, check out The E-Myth (affiliate link).

Member empowerment

The LDS Church makes it a high priority to encourage members to share their faith with others. In fact, one of the three main components of the mission of the church is “to proclaim the gospel.” Church members are encouraged to talk about their faith, share information with others, and speak openly about religion. This creates a culture that empowers all members to become “marketers” for the church. They are encouraged to follow their enthusiasm for their faith and make it a part of their everyday lives and communications. As a result, almost every member of the LDS church is prepared and eager to be a polite but ardent evangelist for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Your business can also turn employees into evangelists. If you continuously encourage your employees to talk about your company with others, share your brand, and openly talk about their jobs, your company will enjoy greater name recognition and awareness. This will result in more leads and potential customers. Empower your team to use tools like social media to inform the public what your company is all about.

Training

The Mormon Church has a phenomenal training program for its 52,000+ missionaries around the world (who are volunteers, by the way). Before serving, a missionary must spend anywhere from three weeks to three months in a training program that helps them utilize systems, processes, and procedures for reaching prospective new members. Every missionary goes through the exact same proven training process. If some part of the process is improved, it is rolled out to every missionary in the world. The Mormon Church is very serious about proper training and equips its missionaries with the systems and support they need to be successful.

Does your business provide sales training? If not, it might be worth considering. Proper sales training gets all your sales people on the same page, gives them a system to follow, and provides ongoing coaching. My favorite sales system is the Sandler system. If you’re in the Indianapolis area, I recommend Trustpointe or Lushin.

Rapid embracing of technology

Technology evolves at an frenzied pace and it can sometimes be difficult to keep up. However, the Mormon Church sees almost every form of new technology as an opportunity to grow the church’s brand and message. You’ll find that the church has a presence on just about every major social network in use today and even organizes messaging among specific focus areas, including newsroom communications, and member training just to name a few. The church has an incredibly strong SEO strategy which brings lots of relevant traffic to its websites. Additionally, the Mormon Church facilitates messaging through the use of apps, blogs, video, mobile, podcasts, and email. The church even has web portals and apps that allow all members of a congregation to instantly download directories and leadership information directly to their phones in order to facilitate easy communication between members. Most church buildings also now have wireless Internet access in order to encourage members to make use of these technologies as learning aids.

Your business can also benefit by embracing new technologies. If you look at each new form of technology as an opportunity to share your message, your brand will travel faster and your business will grow. Just as the Mormon Church does, carefully study each new tool or technology that evolves, decide how it can strengthen your brand messaging, and then deliberately integrate it into your business.

Partnerships

The Mormon Church does not see other religions as competition. Instead, church leaders throughout the world work with leaders of other faiths to serve and provide humanitarian relief. Some notable examples include Indian Ocean tsunami relief efforts in which the Mormon Church partnered with Islamic leaders and the church’s partnership with the Catholic Church to bring aid to Niger. Other less-dramatic events include interfaith concerts and other social events.

In a similar fashion, your business can also grow faster by leveraging partnerships. Instead of viewing other businesses in your space as competitors, try reaching out to them and looking for ways to work together. Not every prospect will choose to work with you and some may choose your competition (just as some people will choose another religion over Mormonism). However, if you have a positive working relationship with your competitors, you can create opportunities to refer to each other and network constructively, which raises the level of respect for everyone.

Conclusion

The Mormon Church continues to grow quickly and recruits new members very rapidly. With new churches and temples being built all the time, it’s obvious that the methods in and practices of the church lead to growth and success. So what can your business learn from the Mormon Church? By creating systems, embracing new technology, utilizing sales training, creating partnerships, and empowering your employees, you can have a business that enjoys similar growth and success.

Filed Under: Marketing, Productivity, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
September 27, 2009 By 3 Comments

How was everything?

“How was everything?”

How often do we hear that? It’s a question often asked as we check out of a hotel, finish dinner at a restaurant, or shop at a store. What answer do you typically give when asked?

If you’re like most people (including myself), you answer with a simple “fine”.

Recently I checked out of a hotel and was asked this same question: “how was everything?” This time I said “almost everything was great but the Internet access at the hotel was terrible. It was slow and unreliable.” After I expressed this, the woman behind the counter looked a bit startled and muttered something to the effect of “I’m sorry about that” without any further discussion. No offer to submit further feedback, no offer to apply a credit to my bill, nothing.

I often wonder… if customer service representatives don’t want to hear honest feedback, why ask the question?

As consumers, we need to speak up more often and hold service providers accountable. By responding with “fine” we contribute to the (sometimes) status quo of mediocrity. If no one ever complains about the Internet access at the hotel, what incentive is there to fix it?

By the same token, businesses need to be ready to listen to customer feedback and act on it. If your customer service representatives are trained to ask for feedback, they need to also be equipped with a mechanism for capturing that feedback and placing it in the proper channels to create change.

Are you giving honest feedback every time? Are you listening when you receive that feedback?

Filed Under: Lifestyle, Marketing Tagged With:
May 9, 2009 By 1 Comment

10 Customer Service Details that Matter to your Customers

Every company talks about how great their customer service is. Put 5 business owners in a room and ask them how they are different and they will probably all say “we provide great customer service”. Great customer service is critical to building a great company but how many of us take the time to quantify what that means? Here are 10 little details that matter to your customers.

1. Do you keep your promises? Do you speak in absolutes and follow through or do you say that you will finish your customers project “in about 3 weeks”? Even if the time line is longer than expected, customers appreciate knowing what to expect. Delivering on time strengthens trust.

2. Do you double-check (and triple-check) your work? Few things are more frustrating and embarrassing than a customer pointing out mistakes in your work. As a customer, this irritates me a great deal because it creates extra work for me and weakens trust.

3. Do you answer your phone? Is your receptionist friendly and knowledgeable? Does every employee answer the phone with a positive attitude? I’m amazed at how many times I call a company the phone is answered by someone who sounds like he or she is annoyed at the interruption. It’s even more annoying when I get an auto-attendant. Your customers want to talk to a person, not a machine.

4. Do you ask questions? Too often we get caught up in all the great things we are doing that we forget that our customers have needs, which is why they have hired us in the first place. How often do you call your customers and ask them what challenges they are facing right now? Not only does it show that you care, but it might also open the door for you to find opportunities to solve more of their problems with your products and services.

5. Do you keep up with the latest best practices? When your customer comes to you and says “XYZ Company is doing this, should we do this, too?”, it erodes trust if you don’t have an answer or appear to be uninterested in evolving.

6. Do you gracefully help customers leave? No company has a 100% retention rate. Occasionally customers leave. When this happens, do you become uncooperative and belligerent or do you politely ask for feedback on how you can improve in the future? Do you assist them during the transition? By behaving in a professional manner when customers leave, you leave the door open for them to remember you favorably when their new vendor drops the ball. Besides, it’s just the right thing to do.

7. Do you send referrals to your customers? Few things will please your customers more than if you send business their way. I love being on the lookout for referrals for my customers. I feel strongly that I should do everything I can do help my customers succeed.

8. Do you believe in your product or service? Your customers (and prospective customers) can tell whether you believe in what you are selling. You must truly believe that your company provides the best solution possible for your customers. You must get excited about what you do.

9. Are you on time for appointments? We are all busy and time is valuable. Your customers will appreciate it when you respect their time and will certainly notice when you are consistently late.

10. Do you admit when you are wrong? Do you make it right? Nobody’s perfect and we all drop the ball at some point. The important thing is that we admit when we are wrong, own up to it, and make it right. Whatever it takes, make sure your customer remembers how you solved the problem with integrity.

When someone asks you about your customer service or how you are different, how specific can you be? Do you know what matters to your customers?

Filed Under: Lifestyle, Marketing, Productivity Tagged With:
March 2, 2009 By 1 Comment

The Zen of Customer Service: Ruby Receptionists

Every so often I encounter a service provider that makes me so happy that I become an evangelist for the company. Apple comes to mind as my most prominent example. However, today I would like to sing the praises of Ruby Receptionists. At SpinWeb, we subscribe to Ruby Receptionists in order to create a better experience for our clients by taking their calls as a real person. Our receptionsts at Ruby answer the phone every time and direct calls, take messages, and generally provide great customer service.

Now, a remote receptionist service is not a new thing and there are many such services in existence today. So what makes Ruby different? For one thing, the receptionists are super-friendly. I’m talking so nice that you can’t help but be in a better mood when talking to them. I don’t know what it is about Portland that makes people mellow and awesome but I want some and I’m glad my receptionists have it. Within a week of signing up, we were already receiving compliments from our clients on how helpful our receptionists were.

Next, the technology works very well. Voicemails are delivered as emails and they actually play seamlessly on our iPhones (something we’ve had trouble with in the past). Additionally, they send clear, well-formatted emails with clickable callback numbers making it super-easy to track and return calls.

Another great feature of Ruby is that they answer the phones from 8am to 9pm Eastern time, including Saturdays. This means that “after-hours” calls are still taken by a live person. Hey, I’m usually working in the evenings, anyway so it works great.

Finally, their web site is really well done and offers a well-designed control panel that lets me see call history and minutes used.

They even sent me a beautiful boxed coffee mug and coaster set when I signed up!

I admire companies that take the time and effort to polish all the little details that go into creating a great customer experience. So many companies ignore those details but Ruby Receptionists is an example of one that knows how important the little finishing touches are. They have earned my business and I am happy to refer them anyone without hesitation. Thanks, Ruby!

Filed Under: Productivity, Technology Tagged With: ,