You can’t compete against the likes of Amazon on price or range. But you can deliver better customer experiences so that people want to shop with you more — and tell their friends too.
Great customer experiences start with you. You know what your customers want, you care about meeting their needs well and you want them to feel valued. After all, your customers are valuable to you and the health of your business.
You also want the people you hire to be an extension of you as the human face of your brand, making every customer interaction feel worthwhile and worth repeating.
To make that happen, everyone working with you needs to know what’s expected of them: when they need to work, what they need to do, how they will do it and why they are valued.
That last part is important as it connects what you want for your employees to what you want for your customers: to feel valued, every day. Otherwise, where is the motivation for people (customers and employees alike) to choose your business over your competitors?
Focus on excellence
We’ve met thousands of business owners over the years who’ve been so caught up in the little things every day they feel disconnected from what motivated them to start their business.
We get it. Deputy’s co-founder Steve Shelley was running a very successful service business, as it grew he found himself spending more and more time administering his expanding workforce instead of focusing on strategic growth. He’s always had a strong commitment to excellence and is skillful at communicating what it takes to achieve it.
So, Steve brought in Deputy co-founder Ashik Ahmed, he found a way to free Steve up from mundane tasks, such as editing schedules and tracking hours, so Steve could focus on leading his team and nurturing excellence.
Those tools developed to solve the admin challenges were the foundation of Deputy.
Everyday performance enhancements
Our vision at Deputy is to help people bring the best version of themselves to work every day.
First, we want to make sure every person who is scheduled each day can truly come to work and is supported to do their job well.
We make it easy for everyone to see when and where they’re working by sharing schedules via our app on their mobiles. Some teams also have options for members to swap shifts or claim open shifts if their roles match.
We help leaders communicate with their teams on several levels: there’s a News Feed about what’s happening in the business, such as new product lines and promotions, and task lists for each shift so everyone knows what they’re doing and how to do it well. We encourage everyone to use the News Feed to share positive feedback too.
When you have good communication among your team and good routines you can drive a positive reinforcement culture in the business. It’s a bit like maintaining physical fitness: a combination of regular exercise, nourishment, motivation and getting enough rest.
Next, we want to make sure everyone is paid correctly. Deputy’s software integration with accounting tools means every hour worked can be accurately tracked to the right pay rate for each time period, making payroll more efficient.
Paying people correctly is an essential part of maintaining trust with your employees. You can’t build a good culture if you churn through staff.
We’ve seen businesses improve their performance in even the most competitive markets as a direct result of bringing the focus back to good people doing good work.
Reducing admin and improving efficiency gives managers more time to lead their teams well, keeping everyone in the loop and motivated; and when employees know what they need to do, and why, they feel empowered to bring the best version of themselves to work.
That’s what makes every shift count.
Find out more about how Deputy can improve your performance: deputy.com/ara
