Streamlining Your Business: The Process of Continual Improvement
- The only way to succeed is to put in your time and take your blows.
- Employees will only work if you crack the whip around them.
- If you’re leaving less than a cup of coffee, make a new pot or risk certain demise.
What does this have to do with the process of improving your business? Most businesses have maxims they live by – maybe yours is one of those. We all have certain things we harp on each other about, maybe because we know our companies function better when things are done a certain way, maybe just because of personal preference (and, at the end of the day, we all like to be catered to a little bit).
But, when it comes to Zoho CRM, you might be in the dark – especially if you find yourself reading this blog! (There’s no shame in that.)
Here’s another adage for your repertoire: Stick to the process.
You might be nodding your head…or, you might not.
So, what does it mean to stick to the the process of improving your business?
Well, here’s what it DOESN’T mean:
1. Doing the fifteen-step of sales, ops, underwriting, development, accounting, and fulfillment… all in one fell swoop.
2. Going to great lengths to streamline one part of your business while ignoring another part simply because it’s not your area of expertise or you’re getting pushback.
3. Sifting through volumes of abstruse information looking for something that might, just perhaps, be the solution to an equally difficult business problem.
If you weren’t nodding your head before, maybe you are now.
And, if you are… there’s nothing wrong with that.
These are really common problems to have. Running a business isn’t a walk in the park.
However, if you’re using Zoho CRM or Zoho One, you have the tools to help you with problems like those, or at the very least point you in the right direction. Rome wasn’t built in a day, so here’s another maxim, no matter what: Knowledge is power. Without further ado…
Use Zoho to Separate Work Into Departments
If your head is swimming with the scores of complicated (or even mundane) tasks you need to do just to keep your head above water, it probably wasn’t always like that – but, now maybe you’re in a little too deep to come out, stop everything, and figure out how to get your Zoho suite to handle it all.
Rather than perpetuate the cycle of you doing everything yourself, you can take a small step towards improving your lot simply by exploring, turning on, and connecting the various apps in Zoho One to your Zoho CRM:
1. Zoho Projects, great for project-based businesses
2. Zoho Finance Suite, great for any business, even manufacturers and distributors
3. Zoho Desk, great for routing help desk-style inquiries
These apps connect with the CRM in different ways, but all can help you ultimately by conforming to your process if they’re used the right way.
Zoho: Not Just a CRM, and Not Just for Sales
Even after you’ve turned on various Zoho apps, connected them, and even configured them somewhat, there’s no guarantee you’re getting the buy-in you need from your staff, or maybe there’s an area of business you’re letting lag because it isn’t your forte.
If there’s a clear bottleneck in your process, there’s no better solution that using what you already have in Zoho One – a full suite of applications – to solve that problem. For example, if your sales staff has adopted Zoho fully, but operations still tracks their projects on spreadsheets, we recommend introducing Projects at the very least – and perhaps even using the built in custom function (from the Zoho CRM Custom Function Gallery) to create new projects in Zoho Projects when you close deals in Zoho CRM.
Googling: Great for looking up words, terrible for solving complex business process flow problems
When your business’s very success is on the line, the worst thing you can do is continue to spend time doing something that may not necessarily help, like scouring the internet for solutions to issues you have that may be quite complex. Or, worse yet, thinking you’ve found the solution to a problem you have, only to find it isn’t correct because of a simple misunderstanding.
Rather than put yourself through more misery, stick to doing what you do best – running your company – and let Zoho’s built-in AI tell you what you can improve on. Zoho’s AI bot, called Zia, is designed to analyze your daily activities and inform you about where you can possibly save time doing repetitive tasks, as many repetitive tasks can be automated using workflow automation or macros.
Taking Zia’s advice won’t solve the most complex problems, but it will save you valuable time, which could give you just the edge you need to extricate yourself for ten minutes, pick up the phone, and…
Let the Experts Do What They’re Best At
If you’ve already gone through the issues and you’re still stuck behind an insurmountable wall, just remember this. No, not another maxim.
You know your business better than anyone else. We know Zoho just as much. Your best possible version of the Zoho suite is waiting for you somewhere in the middle, and that version of Zoho will be molded, conformed to your processes. Sticking to the process of improving your business might be a good thing to talk about, and it might be something you wish Zoho would help you do. But, with the proper planning, it’s a real possibility. And with expert execution, it can be a reality.
Call ZBrains toll-free and mention QuoteSmarter for a free CRM consultation.
