Now is the best time to learn how to clean up and optimize your business processes if you want a successful future for your organization. I remember watching a TikTok where the creator spoke about, “the most successful people are the ones that start stumbling and messily”. It's okay to start being scared, and unorgaized but you won't and SHOULDN’T stay that way forever. As Brian Tracy once said, "The only thing we know about the future is that it will be faster changing and more unpredictable than the present."
With that in mind, it is best to galvanize your business to be adaptable to the fast-changing and unpredictable future. You can’t do that with disorganized and messy processes.
Therefore, let me show you how to optimize your business step by step so you can get ready to serve your customers better.
What is Business Process Optimization?
Process optimization is a management technique for improving organizational efficiency through business process improvement. The technique is simple: identify inefficiencies in your regular procedures and fix them to improve efficiency.
You need to implement structures, strategies, methods, and tactics to improve a specific process within the parameters of a project or initiative.
Think of cleanup and optimizing like a car service. The car may be mechanically fine, but you still want it to be fine-tuned to perform even better and give you longer service.
Signs Your Business Needs Cleanup and Process Optimization
You may forget to take your car for service and tune-up, but the car won't. It will not be long before your car reminds you it needs services with signals like weird noises, breakdowns, and dashboard lights.
The same happens with your business. If you experience any of the following signs, then it’s time for a cleanup:
Poor product and service delivery times
Increased customer complaints about the quality of products and services
You are having a hard time delegating tasks
You are having difficulties measuring process performances and KPIs
High communication inefficiencies
You are experiencing high operation costs and reduced revenues
There are variations in your final products or services
Benefits of Cleanup and Process Optimization for Business
You take your car for service first because it’s a requirement and second. After all, you don’t want to spend more on repairs or experience breakdowns unexpectedly. You’ll also need to clean up your business processes for similar reasons that include:
To Comply with Various Regulations
When you update your workplace safety SOPs, you improve process efficiencies and still comply with the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
On the other hand, creating a file organization system to optimize your record-keeping processes will contribute to increased productivity. Most importantly, it will help you comply with various regulations on maintaining accurate financial records and secure your customers’ data.
To Reduce Operation Costs
Optimizing your business processes allows you to reduce waste which contributes to increased business costs.
Optimization also creates transparency in your workflows. Therefore, you can identify when resources are wasted or underutilized, and when bottlenecks that decrease productivity arise.
To Increase Productivity among Employees
You’ll increase workers' productivity when you cut down on costs and wastage. For example, you can do this by automating some tasks. Automation will enable you to cut the number of employees needed to perform various tasks.
It’ll also help them produce higher output per day compared to when they had to do everything manually.
To do this efficiently, audit your current processes and technologies. Identify the ones that need to be automated and those to eliminate. Introduce technologies like AI that complement your employees' skills.
To Improve Teamwork and Company Culture
You cannot succeed in this digital age without inefficient communication systems or processes. For example, employees collaborating on a project should be able to share data, files, and progress reports in real-time.
Focus your optimization on improving communication-specific workflows, like adding new chat automation tools and refining contact protocols.
These improvements enhance teamwork and collaboration and strengthen your organizational culture.
Now that you understand what is a business process optimization and why you need it, let’s discuss the steps you’ll take to achieve these results. There are different methods of optimizing your business processes, but they all follow the following basic steps.
1. Map Out Your Processes to Know What Needs Improving
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The rule is simple as that.
Audit all your processes to identify the bottlenecks, barriers, waste, and any other inefficiencies. Use the following techniques to gather analytic data about your business processes.
Website analytics – shows your business's website traffic and engagement levels.
Operational analytics – it highlights your overall productivity levels
Social media analytics – shows your business performance and engagement on the various social media platforms
Production analytics – shows the input and output of production levels
Note: auditing your business processes allows you to determine which areas to prioritize in your optimization. Moreover, it allows you to customize your solutions to specific business process needs.
2. Set Goals for Cleanup and Process Optimization
Every business project you undertake should begin with setting clear goals. Now that you’ve identified the processes you will optimize and improve, it’s time to set clear objectives.
What do you want to achieve?
What KPIs will you use to measure performance?
When are you hoping to achieve these results?
Answer these questions when setting goals. Also, ensure the goals are SMART- specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.
3. Plan and Implement Changes
With the problems identified and the goals set, you can begin to create an improvement plan with your team. Involve your team in creating an optimization schedule. Brainstorm with them the most effective ways to optimize your business processes.
For example, ask your staff to help you choose between two CRM automation tools. Your team will be more productive if they are working with automation tools they are more conversant with.
Remember to implement the changes in phases. It’ll allow you to fine-tune the solutions like SOPs before unrolling them for full adoption.
4. Automate Where Possible
Automation allows you to clean up and optimize your business processes quickly and efficiently. After brainstorming with your employees about the best CRM, now it’s time to put it to use.
Automate your email marketing, onboarding, offboarding, and other important processes in your organization. Here’s a guide to the best automation tools for a digital business to increase sales.
5. Test and Document the Process
Test your process optimization solutions to ensure they achieve the set objectives. Remember, cleanup and optimization of your processes require an investment of your business resources.
Therefore, you cannot afford to play a game of dice with the optimization solutions you adopt. Please don't be shy to redesign and reexamine the process before clarifying it.
Moreover, have the employees test it and offer their feedback. It is best when everyone is on the same page on changes to be made.
Finally, don't forget to document everything that works. For example, you can use Airtable to map workflows of the processes you have created or modified.
The documentation will be vital when you want to improve the process in the future or for orientation purposes.
6. Monitor and Improve
Process optimization is not perfection but a continuous process. Once fully implemented, you have to measure efficiency and effectiveness against your performance metrics and KPIs.
The metrics don't also tell the full story. So, don't ignore the feedback you receive about your processes from the various stakeholders. That way, you will know what needs to be improved promptly or with time.
Get a Full System Audit Right Here
The above is just the beginning of business process optimization. If you’re a busy entrepreneur, you need a systems analyst to audit your business processes and recommend what needs to be improved. Get in touch with Marie for a full system audit to get started with streamlining your business processes.