Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

Because the end of the year is a good time to reflect over the past year and plan on how to develop your business in the coming year, here are eight resolutions to help increase productivity and boost business.

1. Communicate: In 2009, resolve to share ideas, processes, and new products and clients regularly with your employees. Don't keep people in the dark. Well-informed employees mean well-informed customers.

2. Schedule more meetings: I know what you're thinking, more meetings means less time actually getting work done. But I'm talking about holding meetings to cultivate ideas and to foster resolution #1. Build an area on your intranet for employees to contribute ideas and then share the top ones at meetings. Reward the ones that get implemented.

3. Collaborate: Urging employees to create relationships across departments is a sure-fire way to stimulate progress, create efficiencies, and help harbor the first two resolutions. Often times opportunities in the workplace are overlooked. Break down those silos and start working together.

4. Get Social: It may be daunting to enter the social media space, but the payoff can be well worth it. From blogging to monitoring customer posts on Twitter to establishing a Facebook page, many companies are having success with these channels to cultivate new product ideas, create new avenues of communication for customers, and monitor their brand identity.

5. Build Trust: Customers' trust doesn't come naturally. As Don Peppers and Martha Rogers have said: "Violate your customers' trust and kiss your assets goodbye." Many of the events of 2008 have produced untrusting customers who may or may not stay loyal to your brand. Don't let your customers leave. Keep your customers continuously engaged with your brand, offer them offers and discounts based on their interests, and most importantly, maintain your integrity.

6. Invest: Investing in your people can refuel profits. Continue to spend on training, education, and the tools to make your employees successful and happy. And continue to recognize their achievements and reward appropriately. Maybe you can't afford to hand out bonuses or give monetary rewards to a job well done, but there are other less costly ways to keep compensating. Offer a flexible "at-home" work schedule or maybe offer "free" vacation days to employees.

7. Rebuild: Create solid procedures. Streamlined and integrated processes will allow for increased workload. Having procedures reduces errors and creates employee effectiveness.

8. Start over: Drop what's not working. If a product, tool, or business relationship isn't working or is costing you uncessary time and money, stop using it. As the inventor Charles Kettering said, "If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong."

Happy new year and good luck in 2009!