Esther: And we're back with the BusinessMakers Overtime Show heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. I'm Esther Steinfeld.

Katie: And I'm Katie Laird.

Esther: And I just want to make a real quick apology to our producer, John, because he has Verizon and we made him feel really bad about it.

Katie: Awwww.

Esther: Awwww.

Katie: Sorry, John.

John: Unlimited data.

Esther: He has unlimited data though so it's okay for him. He doesn't have to worry about pushin' that pesky button.

Katie: Exactly.

John: Short fingernails.

Katie: He has very small fingernails.

Esther: He has nice trimmed fingernails.

Katie: Does that mean that you get manicures regularly 'cause I don't know.

John: Noooooo.

Esther: Well, moving on, we've been talking about this onboard video technology and how it really enhances safety and reduce risks and improves productivity, maximizes profit for transit providers. It's a great thing for them to have.

Katie: It is.

Esther: So let's apply that to business now. What are some of the ways that you can closely monitor what's going on in your company to accomplish those exact same things.

Katie: So besides actually installing cameras at every single corner of your office.

Esther: Yeah.

Katie: Wouldn't that be weird? Like I don't actually think that I want to know.

Esther: We actually have a lot of cameras in our office –

Katie: Do you?

Esther: Yeah, because the building put them in.

Katie: Ohhh, okay.

Esther: I don't know where that footage goes. That's kind of scary --

Katie: Okay. I mean, like what weird things do I do --?

Esther: Who knows who's looking at that stuff?

Katie: Ya' know like on a good day, like I would be petrified to think of like getting filmed skipping down the hall singing Mariah Carey. I don't think that's ever happened, but what if it were to happen?

Esther: Someone just sends you an anonymous yellow envelope with this video in it.

Katie: Like blackmail. We know YouTube. We know how to use it.

Esther: That's right. We have plenty of much more embarrassing video of you. I wouldn't worry about it.

Katie: You probably do. So beyond watching your employees skipping down the hall or how many bathroom breaks they take, I think that's a great way to be able to keep in touch with what's going on in your business to really be monitoring every aspect and this is going to sound totally hippie and huggy, you just gotta talk it out. Creating the company culture and kind of laying the infrastructure in your business that actually encourages employees to communicate with one another, to be very open with their management and also to look towards technology because of course in this day and age there are a lot of businesses where employees may work from home, they may not be sitting in an office next to each other. They may be overseas, across the country. I know at Schipul we use a lot of tools, like tools like Base Camp, these collaborative project management systems. We also use Sales Force where it's very, very easy to see everybody's performance in the company to see these opportunities, potential missed opportunities, we can run and support one another and something and this may sound really weird, one of my favorite tools, technologies that we use at the office is something called Sure Tell, which it's a phone system. So it's like yay, whatever, phones, but I'm actually able to monitor and everyone in our company does this, we're actually able to see whenever somebody's on the phone. We can see how long they've been on there. We can see phone history. It's not so much that we're like, 'Oh, how long is she gonna talk to her mom this morning?' More of like it gives me an idea that if one of my employees is on an hour and a half phone call with a notoriously challenging client, I'm going to be able to be there for them. I'm going to jump into their office or if I see that somebody's missing a phone call, I'm going to be able to be there and provide that customer service, even if somebody's not there.

Esther: Right.

Katie: So it's just some of these basic technologies and just living this idea that we're all here to support one another in good times and in bad. That has really gone a million miles towards helping us monitor exactly what's happening.

Esther: Yeah; that's a great one.

Katie: Yeah.

Esther: We're a very metric driven company.

Katie: Okay. Fabulous.

Esther: Blinds.com. Every single thing we do is measured.

Katie: Okay.

Esther: And something that we have, we have these weekly KPIs, or key performance indicators and if your company doesn't have KPIs you should start thinking about what yours are because for us they're different. We're an online company and we sell blinds so what is important to us might not be important to you. Maybe you sell software. Maybe you are an agency and you sell to clients. That what you do, but management and sales and customer service and whoever, they should know exactly where they stand. We look at these KPIs and we just determine what's the baseline or where you should be or maybe you're far and above and you deserve a raise, but we are able to look at these KPIs on a weekly basis and tell salespeople and customer service representatives where they stand because you can't really get mad at employees for not knowing your expectations if you've never said them out loud.

Katie: Oh, exactly.

Esther: That's the thing. A lot of management has a hard time communicating what their expectations are, but if there are numbers and you say, 'Well you have to be right here at this number.' That's baseline. That's where you should try to aim for. If you're hiring a new person, then you're going to have a much more productive sales force.

Katie: And I love the fact that, I mean, these are things that you revisit weekly 'cause I found just in the management experience that I've had, you can't just say something once and then expect it to stick forever and ever and ever.

Esther: No, no.

Katie: You have to constantly and I think it's a people thing. It's a human thing. Our brains go in a million different directions so by being able to be like, okay, times have changed, this is altered, this is what we're working on or even if those KPIs, even if expectations remain the same for seven years you have to just keep pounding it in and revisiting and working together. I love that.

Esther: Absolutely; it's a goal to reach for.

Katie: Yes.

Esther: And exceed. So one of our important things that we do to measure is have this daily dashboard of high level info that everybody has access to.

Katie: Oh, I like that.

Esther: We have these giant white boards in our office and they say, 'This is the order number we're up to. This is how much we've made today. This is this.' There are like four or five things that are – they change constantly throughout the day. Everybody looks at them. Average time to answer the phone –

Katie: Wow.

Esther: -- is one of them. Average calls missed, average calls dropped, average order value for – I mean, things that are extremely critical, things that we try to hit as a company, that's sort of something that is critical, especially if you're in sales. Figure out those metrics, what everyone needs to know on a daily basis to come together to kind of like raise the numbers or lower the numbers or whatever because not everything is about individual numbers.

Katie: Right.

Esther: Sometimes it's about collective numbers and that's when you need to make sure that everybody sees those, whether you send out an e-mail, whether they're on your intranet dashboard that everybody has access to on a regular basis every day or they're big up on your white board like us. We actually have them on the intranet and on the white board right in front of sales.

Katie: And I love the fact that you guys do kind of go lo-fi. Like what better thing than to have these giant scribbly marker notes when you're on your way to get coffee, on your way to meet a client, walkin' a vendor by. It's so out there and in your face and changing every day. So you're not just going to take it for granted and not look at it. That's a big deal. That means that you're constantly thinking and talking about it and that's fantastic. You don't have to have crazy gadgets. It's called a marker.

Esther: That's right. It changes all the time and someone can just go right up there –

Katie: Yes.

Esther: -- and change it –

Katie: You're not worried about networks. It's a marker, people.

Esther: Exactly. Sometimes that's more fun.

Katie: It is, especially if they're scented. Just kidding. So going back to kind of more of security safety perspective, another thing that has been very, very valuable in our business is just that we talk about the obvious stuff so we put a huge, huge emphasis on security, whether it comes to passwords, network maintenance, but lately we've been really focusing on personal safety. For instance, we're very, very open about social engineering scams. We share e-mails on all the latest phishing attempts. We're constantly talking about it, but we also do stuff. Like we're all CPR certified and we re-up it every year whenever we need to for the company. We walk each other out to the parking lot. We all had and this has been crucial, our management team and our crucial communicators have these emergency backpacks that we keep in our trunks at all time and they have pretty much everything that we would need to run specific things. Web sites, get a certain site back online regardless of where we are and that has been, just for the peace of mind factor, has been incredible, but just knowing that our employees, they feel safe. They know that we care about them not just as numbers, not just as people bringing in business, but as human beings. We want their families to be safe. We want them to be taken care of. That has gone in a tremendous way for loyalty to the business, but customer service. They're happy. They're satisfied. They feel good about where they are and that translates into everything that our business does.

Esther: So my last tip is to have a bi-yearly strategy meeting to review the previous six months and to look ahead to the upcoming six months. Now this seems simplistic I know, but chances are you're not doing it and it's not just about looking at the numbers. It's about examining your goals and reevaluating your goal. It's not enough just to set the goals the beginning of the year and then make them happen. You have to actually accomplish them and then you have to document that they were accomplished.

Katie: Yeah; celebrate them.

Esther: Yeah; celebrate them.

Katie: If you hit it.

Esther: Absolutely. But the key is to really get your executives and your managers on the same page and actually making your employees down to the bottom of the bottom making sure every single person understands that what they're doing affects these major goals that your company has.

Katie: Uh, to take that ownership. So important.

Esther: Exactly. Because everyone is maybe doing all these different little things, but you've got to tell people why they're there and how what they're doing contributes to the greater good.

Katie: That is fantastic.

Esther: We've just had so much fun with you guys this week.

Katie: We have. We really have. We've covered a variety of topics and I love it.

Esther: From the illegal to the ultra safe. God, you just get everything with us.

Katie: Everything. You've been listening to the BusinessMakers Overtime Show heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. We're so glad you came. I'm Katie Laird.

Esther: And I'm Esther Steinfeld.

Katie: And we can't wait to see you next week.