Keeping an eye on your bottom line is key to staying in business. How do you generate your best return on investment? You might think the answer is to purchase more ads or invest more in marketing, but – that’s not the full picture.
Believe it or not, you’ll achieve the best bang for your buck by investing in your current team. Yes, those human connections between your team members and your customers are worth more than your ads and your marketing. Turn your current team into a High-Performance Team and watch your ROI skyrocket. Here’s how.
Team Performance Affects Your Company
Look around. It’s easy to identify your frontline team members. They’re the people making the first impressions on customers. Are they operating as your brand ambassadors?
Have you heard of social media brand ambassadors. Who stands out? Their posts stand out because ambassadors get a very specific set of instructions on how to photograph the product, the tone to use when discussing it, and even how they interact with followers in their comments.
When you take the time to invest in simple explanations of your expectations and freely compliment a job well done with specificity, your team members have a better understanding of what you want, and they feel appreciated by you!
If you haven’t already created Position Agreements with performance standards and how their role contributes to the business’ success for each team member, it is definitely worth your investment.
Team Performance Grows When Members Make Connections
An engaged team creates great first impressions on clients and customers. To support their success, start by providing consistent direct and specific feedback and offering rewards for a job well done. Keep in mind that rewards can be as simple as an authentic handwritten thank you note.
If team members focus on your company’s mission but not each other, consider bringing people together for outside-of-work events. Professional gatherings help teams bond and build trust. One great way to do that is through education; employees who learn together have more in common than those who do not. Finally, make sure your employees know how much they matter to you.
As your team members feel more empowered and are clear on the impact they have, they’ll feel motivated to help solve customers’ problems instead of just going through their days checking off a list of To-Dos. It gives them a deeper purpose. And when they feel like they’re at work to help enhance their customer’s experience, they have permission to engage, make connections, and become part of an unforgettable positive experience.
Team Performance Drives Profits
Consider this: your team members are the main profit drivers for your business. Their interactions with your customers can enhance an experience, lead to more purchases, and give you raving fans instead of intermittent customers. They can also deteriorate a relationship and leave the customer empty-handed and not interested in returning.
Investing in developing your team, improving their skills, and setting them up to win generates an expanding ROI and becomes more significant over time. As your team stays engaged, your customers have better outcomes and then become referral sources for your business growth.
Everything measured improves = what are your team performance metrics and Key Performance Indicators. How do you measure success?
For example:
- Team retention.
- Revenue/Customer
- Revenue & Customer Visits per a specified period of time (month, quarter)
- Annualized Revenue/Customer.
- Customer referrals and reviews.
Do you share that information with your team members? As they learn more about the way their roles contribute to your bottom line (and therefore their job security and opportunity for growth), they have a greater feeling of the importance of their role, especially if their performance led to reviews that name them specifically.
Invest in Your Team and Get Ready for a Higher ROI
What have you done lately to show your appreciation for the team member who goes out of their way to greet customers with a smile instead of an eye roll? Or for the people at your front desk who immediately end their personal conversation when a client walks through the front door?
When was the last time you updated your Standard Operating Procedures (or do you need to create and organize them as your first step)? Have you planned the next team get-together, whether it’s in-person or virtual?
Do your team members feel like a supported and valued part of your business? Build your investment in them today by finding out if they feel connected, purposeful and understand how to win. Then when you continue to invest in their journey, you’ll be amazed at the ways you grow together, and your business succeeds.
