Workflows
The majority of my job is talking with partners and I do that everyday. Some, I talk with multiple times a week. Suffice to say, I have come to know a lot about your businesses and how they operate. With that said, this may sound familiar to you.
You are not operating your business correctly.
By that, I mean you have no workflow established. Many of you provide your clients with multiple ways of contacting you directly anytime they wish—this includes calling your cell phone and home phone! While I can go into a list of reasons why that is wrong on so many levels, let us just stay on point for a moment.
Let’s talk about your Support Department for a moment. Say as an example, Client A calls you with a email problem in the middle of you working on Client B’s issue. You take the call, confirm that they cannot send or receive email, and tell them you will handle it as soon as possible. After Client B’s issue takes longer than expected, Client C sends you an email stating they need to set up an appointment for you to address BSoD error on their Accountant’s workstation. After reading Client C’s email, you immediately receive a call from Client B stating that the malware you thought you just removed from their workstation has returned and they can not access network resources, including the Internet. I am writing this and I am already confused!
All the while, you are subscribed to the “simplest and most effective IT Management Platform and customer relationship management system—unifying support, services, management, reporting, accounting, and sales activity under a completely free branded experience.” Shameless plug, I know. 
What is my point? Create a proper workflow for your support department. In fact, create workflows for all your departments within your business. I don’t care if you are a one-person shop either. If you have not clued in yet, your company (however small or big) still has the same major keystone that every business is comprised of: Marketing, Sales, Service/Support, Accounting, and Human Resources.
Creating workflows allows your departments to run efficiently. More importantly, share these workflows with your clients. After all, you have no right to complain if you have not established a set of rules for them to follow.
Michael D. Alligood
Partner Sales & Support, ExchangeDefender & Shockey Monkey
michael@ownwebnow.com
(877) 546-0316 x707