The Conference Coach™

Small companies do not always have the resources or personnel to devote one person to a single business function.  As a result, employees of small companies need to be versatile, ready to pitch in and good at multi-tasking.  Businesses staffed by “Jacks of All Trades” avoid delay and complication inherent in large, departmentalized organizations and can remain competitive in the face of a down economy.

It’s Always Your Job
Employees at a small company do not have the luxury of claiming “it’s not my job.”  Versatility is the key to success in a small business and job duties may need to be adjusted at a moment’s notice in order to complete the task at hand.  For example, the manager of a department responsible for a half a million dollar account may need to keep an eye out to sign for a delivery if the receptionist is away from her desk.  The marketing manager may need to stuff invoices.  In these examples, it’s important to be flexible and willing to take on a task to ensure important things get done.  Inflexibility, while unfortunately sometimes accepted in larger organizations, can bring a small business to a standstill.

Respond Quickly to the Customer 
We operate in an electronic society that has developed a dependency on instant gratification.  Frustrating delays for a customer can easily lead to a customer looking for another vendor that is more able to satisfy their needs in a timely manner.  Imagine that every minute your customer is on hold while being transferred around trying to get to the ‘right’ person to help them, that customer may be multi-tasking and using that time to shop online on your competitor’s website. 

Every person that answers the phone should be able to help the customer or get the customer to the appropriate person with a single transfer.  Large corporations and the employees who work for them have a lot to learn from small businesses who adopt this philosophy.

Become Cross-Trained 
Understanding the roles and responsibilities of other departments, especially of the departments that directly support you and in turn the departments that you directly support, helps ensure that you have the required knowledge when extra assistance is needed.  Become diversified in your skill sets.  By definition, no one role is isolated within any organization.  A sales person cannot make a sale without someone having to provide or support the product.  Technical support representatives cannot assist a customer without sales having sold the product in the first place.  Absolutely no one gets paid unless accounting sends out invoices and receives payment. 

In a small business, everyone’s job depends on everyone else doing his or her job well.  It is mutually beneficial to be able to jump in and help anywhere that help is needed in order to get the task completed.  If another department is getting overwhelmed, determine where the most help is needed and then provide that assistance or offer to pitch in during a crunch time. 

Learn to Prioritize and Multi-task
The luxury of sitting down at a desk for an eight hour day and working on a single project is not as common as it was only a few years ago.  Every day brings constant interruptions from the technologies that are now a part of our daily lives: e-mail, instant messaging, Blackberries, and so on.  The challenge is to be able to filter and respond to all of the incoming information as it comes in, while still completing other lengthier projects. 

If interruptions make it impossible to return your focus to the larger task, there are some tips that may help. 

• Before stopping a project to address an incoming request, note where you stopped so you can get back on task quickly once the smaller item has been addressed. 
• Consider ignoring non-urgent incoming requests until a set time every hour that is set aside to address or prioritize them. 

Tools for the Jack of All Trades
Every company has a host of tools to help its employees accomplish their daily tasks.  Depending on the company or employee, the mix of tools may include specialized software (accounting, inventory, CAD, graphics) as well as standard applications such as email, spreadsheets and word processing.  A tool that is fast becoming a standard in businesses around the world is the combination of web and audio conferencing. 

With both audio conferencing and web conferencing, employees are able to better plan their time thus increasing efficiency and save money by cutting down unnecessary travel.  For example, a sales person can give a product demo via an internet meeting which takes only a fraction of the time when compared to traveling to a customer site to give the same demo.  Using an internet meeting also takes the frustration out of trying to fumble through a phone meeting without visuals. 

Consider how the advent of technology has made doing business easier (or harder) and how the small business must adapt to changing market conditions to survive.  By selecting the right mix of tools, a small business gives its employees a leg up on competition of any size.

The Advantage to the Small Guy
As our society gets more accustomed to getting anything we need at the flip of a switch, we are going to continue to expect faster, better service.  Small businesses have a huge advantage in being able to adjust to the ever changing needs of customers.  Large corporations are struggling with layers of red tape and departmental segregation that make change difficult, if not impossible.  Until large organizations start thinking like small companies and encouraging their employees to think like they are working for small companies, change may be slow or non-existent.  Corporations and their employees must adjust as needs change, assist where help is needed and jump between tasks if required.

About Conference Coach Amy
Amy Hiatt is a Senior Account Manager and Conference Coach with Copper Conferencing.  She has been in customer service for 10 years and in conferencing for 4 years.  She is an avid traveler and loves to spend as much time as possible outdoors enjoying the Colorado mountains.