I was talking with a small business owner this morning and she was telling me how the 1-800 line for her business was down for two weeks and she figures she lost around $15,000 in sales as a result of that. I was blown away. Here are some things to do to ensure this never happens to you:

• Ensure you have a good relationship with all of your providers (phone, cell phone, email, internet, website, etc.) so it nevers takes two weeks to get an issue resolved
• Ensure you have back ups for your main methods of customer communication so if the phone or website goes down, customers still have other ways to do business with you
• Ensure that you have various ways that customers can reach you so that if one method is unavailable, they can still buy from you

This was an unfortunate situation for her, but provides a great lesson for the rest of us.

Miller's Monday Morning Message
presented by ACM Consulting Inc.

Andrew Miller on strategy, operations, life balance and everything in between

Toronto - July 11, 2011 – At some point today, it is likely that Toronto mayor Rob Ford will make an announcement about the future of many City of Toronto workers. In his plan to reduce expenses, Ford will announce a pay package for many employees near or at retirement. His critics will say that he is spending more money needlessly. However, although there are short-term costs to a buyout, the long-term impact is usually positive. For those employees who accept the buyout, the obvious savings come in the reduction of salary and benefit costs, but there is also a reduction in required pension payments, expense reimbursement, payment for sick days as well as a cost avoidance in having to replace those employees and hire new workers. A buyout plan can be effective when core services are not impacted. We should find out later today what services are considered core and how they will be changed. Regardless, we know that there will be cuts made so we should be prepared for it.
 
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