How are you with follow-through and responsiveness?

Follow-through and responsiveness are a thing for me. Are they for you too?

Follow-through is defined as to continue something until it is completed. Accomplishing what you commit or plan to do in the best manner within a set time.

Cambridge Dictionary

and

Responsiveness is the quality of reacting quickly and positively. A business’ responsiveness to customer problems engenders trust’.

Oxford Dictionary

Respond quickly. It is a business strategy, a common courtesy, and it is your responsibility as the business leader to ensure your team follow-through and respond effectively and consistently across your organisation.

Responsiveness is an organisation’s ability to identify and effectively adapt to the continuous change in their industry and in their customers’ preferences.

My follow-through and responsiveness in business didn’t begin in business leadership, they were shaped during my earliest position as a legal secretary. In 1983, 18-year-old me was employed by Solomon & Jagelman, solicitors, on the 62nd floor of the MLC Centre in Sydney CBD. An elite firm with even more elite customers. My mentors in that firm showed me how critical it was to follow-through and be responsive in a professional manner.

This post has a list of questions and that I know I’ve needed to ask myself from time-to-time over many years of business.

Fast-forward to 2001 and I was making the first inroads into serving the nursing industry with staffing.

An eager entrepreneur, I’d run around the front garden wooping when I filled a shift at a new hospital or new aged care site. Then I’d sit down and try to fill one more. I rang to see how they liked my staff, did they want them again. At 5am each day I’d ring to see how they were going with staffing for the morning and before I went to bed at night, to see if I could help with any gaps in the roster they saw for the night or the next morning. I hand-delivered Cheesecake Shop Hummingbird Cakes for their morning tea; bags of red frogs for afternoon tea; little fluffy blue nurse balls that they loved sticking to their computer screens… I loved serving and loved working within this industry.

All the business dealings aside from staffing also needed consistent follow-through.

I felt clear-minded when I knew I’d closed out on something that was on my list of responses to make. Signing off a client agreement, showing we’d met standards, checking off timesheets, everything had a timeline in my mind.

How are you with follow-through and responsiveness?

• Is it on your terms?
• Are there protocols you adhere to?
• What training do you have for your staff about how things are done?
• What is your belief around following-through on something you were to get back about, to do, to deliver?
• What are your internal thoughts about responsiveness?

What do you believe is professional, timely and reasonable turn-around time or responsiveness in your business?

• Is it focused on you?
• Is it focused on the people wanting to do business with you?
• Is it focused on the outcomes your business committed to in-service of others?

What’s the longest delay you’ve taken in responding to a client new inquiry?

Has how you’ve responded to a longer term client changed from the first inquiry to the standard ones they’re still making?

What’s got in your way of a turnaround time that is polite, businesslike and shows your commitment to serve?

• Is it procrastination?
• Is it that you didn’t ask enough questions of them?
• Is it that you need to have a more transparent conversation with them around pricing perhaps?

If you’re not sure of what each other’s outcomes are at the start does that make it harder to deliver on those outcomes each and every time they arise?

Today, if you had the opportunity to drop a follow-through list onto a sheet of paper or a spreadsheet, what is outstanding for you to get back to?

• Who’s waiting for your response?
• What’s getting in the way?
• What’s one baby step towards you as a service provider delivering on what your clients want from you.

I know from experience that I went out of my way to deliver the first time clients called me for nursing staff. Then as we grew and demand grew I kept conscious that they loved working with us, some I did sack (see below), but I did everything I could to ensure I closed any open loops and watched how our staff were managing them. As we grew further, and my responsibilities shifted, I employed an Operations Manager who was on the same page as me with regards professionalism. Interestingly she also came from a legal background.

We rarely advertised for work or for nurses – our reputation grew through word-of-mouth referral. That was an incredibly valuable gift that I didn’t want to toss away.

If someone doesn’t follow through on something that you are expecting back from them, how does that feel?

When we forget to be the service provider we were when we first approached a client for their business that is so damaging to our reputation and relationship:

• Who was that person you were then who really wanted your client’s work?
• Was it that you were desperate for any client, any work?

It’s nice to be honest with yourself about those. Being honest lets you grow and change.

I know I took whatever clients came my way when I first started out, until I gained more clarity about the types of people I wanted to serve, who aligned with our values.

Sometimes, as relationships drift apart, it is reasonable to accept that we don’t need to continue to try to deliver nor to follow-through. It is Ok to sack a client. It’s just best if that’s done with openness and not to let it slide. Perhaps you’re stretched. You’ve overcommitted. You’re used to saying YES. You don’t like to say NO. You’ve become successful. Other bright shiny objects have got your attention.

When you’re in business, you need to ask more questions. Some questions you don’t want to answer. Some questions you do know the answers to and hope that no one (even you) will not ask.

Forbes shares seven ways to become more responsive in business as being:

1. Ask your customers what they want.
2. Manage customer expectations.
3. Develop procedures.
4. Educate your employees.
5. Provide self-service options.
6. Use technology.
7. Stay human.

As an entrepreneur who becomes the owner of a growing business, we need to reflect on how we can be more responsive to our customers.

When it comes to how quickly and professionally you need to respond to customers and potential customers, there is a choice. Those who do it well will thrive. Those who don’t, will struggle to survive.