Running a creative agency is not always fun. Despite having tons of creative ideas, losing some clients is inevitable, especially if you haven't optimized your agency's operations.
Entrepreneurs or agency owners need to do dozens of things every day to ensure smooth operations. They always have their hands complete, from hiring suitable candidates for your team to managing the sales and marketing department. In addition to these, there can be hundreds of mundane tasks they do while stressing about finding the right client and getting the results for their current clients.
Since the pandemic, there has been a drastic increase in creative agencies. Many of these agencies are operating through virtual work spaces. With the increased competition and stress, I have seen many agency owners juggling different tasks simultaneously. They are often stuck with administrative tasks and fail to build meaningful relationships with their customers. Without a clear strategy, they end up losing their clients.
If these situations sound familiar and you are trying to improve your agency's operation efficiency, then you have come to the right place.
As an entrepreneur, your aim should be to provide the best services to your clients. However, even your clients expect you to get them what they want without delays. They want you to be available to respond to their queries, make the changes in the task, and deliver the results quickly. The only way to do all this is “Operational Efficiency.”
Operations entail all of the activities done by the company to produce and deliver a product or service. Operational efficiency means the capability of the company to run the operations. In simple words, operation efficiency refers to how the company delivers the product or services.
Agencies need operational efficiency to reduce the chaos and build a structure to deliver the results with high quality and support. If they cannot deliver their project efficiently, their clients will be quick to find out and turn to one of many competitors. There is a possibility that someone else is offering the same services as you at a cheaper rate with high efficiency. Hence, the success of any creative agency depends on the efficiency of the operations.
Your agency's operational efficiency does not depend on one single person; it relies on the team's efforts. As the leader, you have to make sure that all of your team members have a clear understanding of your goals and objectives. Your agency's game plan should be well-communicated and understood by everyone working in the team. They should be aware of their tasks and have the necessary tools to take the project to its final release.
Operational efficiency helps you and your team members to steer clear from any mishaps in the project and enables you to complete all of your tasks before deadlines. But, it's impossible to get everyone from your company to work with the same efficiency level.
Some people like to focus on their creativity rather than following their to-do lists and setting up the workflows. They might believe this approach makes them more productive. However, if they are not doing the right thing at the right time, their creativity won't be enough to hold the client. Therefore, it is essential to focus on the right tasks that will effectively and efficiently deliver the services.
Here are six steps to improve your agency's operational efficiency:
The first step to improving the operational efficiency of your agency is to outline and optimize the business processes. Having standard operating procedures and processes can help you reduce chaos in daily operations, save time, and limit frustrations.
Before setting up the business processes and systems, you need to visualize the workflows and projects your teams are working on. You can use a project management tool, such as Click Up or Trello, to manage and see all of your projects in one place.
Once you have a clear view of all your tasks, you can start documenting all of the processes that you are required to complete any task. This document will come in real handy when you hire new team members.
In addition to setting SOPs for every task, you also need to track the time taken to complete the task. It will help you prioritize the tasks that need to be completed first. When you start keeping track of your and your team's time, you will analyze the tasks that are wasting your time and resources.
While prioritizing, you can also understand the speed of your team. Sometimes, people focus too much on speed and ruin the quality of work. You have to find the right balance between the time spent on each task and the quality of the final results.
To improve your agency's operational efficiency, you need to measure your team's performance. It would help if you started evaluating your team member's performance with monthly scorecards and then gave feedback to improve their work. The performance process will help you analyze the challenges faced by your team.
Communication goes a long way in your agency. Misunderstanding and miscommunications can turn your loyal clients into unhappy ones. So, while running your agency, it's vital to communicate clearly with the client and set clear expectations.
Once you clearly understand your client's expectations, you need to inform your team and align them with the client's expectations. Avoid sending long emails to your team, which might lead to overcommunication. You can use software like Click up and Trello instead of sending multiple emails.
You can also improve your agency's operational efficiency by improving your onboarding process. Start by introducing your new hires with an overview of your agency's work and align their talents and qualifications with appropriate internal teams. Then, use their strengths to their full potential and align their tasks around their knowledge.
When you start optimizing all of your business processes and teams, you have to involve everyone. All of your team members should grow and collaborate to take the company to the next level.
It is essential to build strong relationships with your team as well. So, start by showing appreciation for their work and efforts. Then, boost their morale and encourage them to take more responsibility.
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