Why You Should Fire Yourself to Become Focused and Happy Again
Suppose you find yourself in a position where your customers always insist on speaking with you directly instead of your employees. In that case, consider shifting your structure to improve your business's value.
Here's why: a business that can thrive without the owner at the center of all its operations is more valuable because processes can run smoothly with or without you. If you are in the weeds, you'll have a difficult time improving – and your employees won't have the opportunity to grow and become advocates for your brand.
To maximize your business's value, you should set a goal to quietly slip into the background and let your staff take center stage. Here are five ways to make customers less inclined to call you:
1. Show the Team
If you display the bio of key staff members on your website, re-order the list to be alphabetical rather than hierarchical.
2. Re-brand
If your surname is in your company name, consider a re-brand. Nothing makes a customer want to deal with the owner more than having the owner's surname featured in the company name.
3. Hire a President
Giving someone the title of president conveys the message that they have real authority to solve customer problems. This step should not be taken lightly, but it can free up you and the business in connection with an overall strategy to change your role.
4. Use an email auto-responder
Tim Ferriss, the author of The 4 Hour Work Week among other books, made the email auto-responder famous, and it can serve you well. Set up an automatic response to anyone sending you an email explaining that you are traveling or attending a strategic project and cannot answer their questions immediately. Instead, train customers to direct questions to the person best suited to answer them quickly.
A word of caution using this strategy: If you set one up, you need to be ready to let others step in.
5. Get Away
For a hard-charging A-type entrepreneur, the steps above can be complicated and feel counterintuitive. They may even have a short-term negative impact on your company's sales, but once you get your customers trained to go to your team, you'll be able to scale up further and ultimately maximize the value of your business.
