This post is a part of a series to help you define processes in your business
Every couple of years, we have to train in a new level one support rep. When we hire people in this position, they get stressed with all the learning. And frankly, I get overwhelmed trying to teach them not only the tech knowledge but also our company knowledge and our client knowledge.
I realized a few years ago that a huge competitive advantage for us was training. If we could quickly onboard and training new people we could provide much better support to our customers.
Our process journey started with just a single document.
In order to provide the best onboarding and training process for these new employees, we started creating documentation. We didn’t set aside a huge block of time to develop a massive library of documents. We started with one. Just one! That was all we needed to get going. Over the years, we just keep adding and adding and adding. We now have an impressive array of documents.
This image gives a little glimpse of our documentation library in an app called Notion. I love Notion because it takes much of the friction out of creating and finding documents. It’s like digital clay that we can mold and shape to meet our needs.
Documenting your processes will become the critical foundation that allows your company to learn. With each new page, your team gets smarter, your employee onboarding gets faster and your ability to serve your customer gets better. In the short term, this seems costly, but over the long term, this all translates into higher profitability.
It would be overwhelming if I told you to get all your processes and knowledge documented today. Luckily you don’t have to do that. You just need to commit to starting. What is your most stressful process currently in your company? Just start with that. Create a single document today! Tomorrow, pick the next process. Keep that going over years and I guarantee that you will see a massive shift in how your company operates.
