Odds are good that if you are running a small business or startup you have a solid list of key performance indicators (KPIs) that you track on a frequent basis. These KPIs are usually geared toward monitoring the health of your company, the projection of your future profits, and the performance of your team as a whole. Common KPIs that you are probably already tracking at your business include customer acquisition cost, operating margins, order fulfillment time, gross margin percent, and other profit focused indicators.
While the traditional set of KPIs are invaluable in the insights they can give you, they aren’t the only indicators of success. In fact, there are numerous KPIs that never make a traditional business list that are also hugely indicative of the health of your company. Here at the Commercial Finance Group, we help companies access unique forms of funding such as factoring and asset-based lending. Our goal is to set you up for future growth and success by matching you with quality funding solutions. Once you have that money, though, you will need to ensure you are tracking the right KPIs to ensure it is used wisely. Beyond just your normal KPIs, consider tracking the following in 2019.
Employee Satisfaction Rating
How often do you touch base with your staff to ensure they are satisfied with their work? Do you have any method that you utilize for tracking this important indicator? If you haven’t been keeping track of the happiness of your employees, make 2019 the year you do so. Your employee’s satisfaction will directly impact how successful your company is. Dissatisfied employees can poison your company from the inside out. Unhappiness can also lead to frequent staff turnover, which is extremely costly for your small business.
It is easy to set up employee satisfaction ratings as a KPI. You can utilize an anonymous survey that your employees can take each month. Keep things simple and look for any trends in the wrong direction. If you notice that happiness ratings are plummetting, carve out the time needed to figure out why. When all else fails, open up your door and invite employees to offer you honest feedback. Ensuring your staff members are happy and satisfied with the workplace will be vital for your long-term success.
Customer Ratings Of Service
Perhaps you track online reviews of your company. Maybe you monitor how many of your customers come back for further purchases. These are all good indications of how well you are serving your customers, but don’t stop there. If you haven’t already put into place a customer rating program for the service they receive, do so this year. A quick and simple survey after a customer has interacted with your customer service team can go a long way in tracking how satisfied people are with the support you offer.
This is a vital KPI for ensuring that you are not dropping the ball when it comes to support. You might have the best product on the market, but if your customer service team isn’t leaving your client with a smile on their face then you might lose future sales. Monitor ratings every week and coach your customer support team on improving the stats. Choose a goal number for customer satisfaction with support and ensure everyone is on the same page for reaching this point.
Website Related KPIs
Your online presence is vital to your success. Whether you are a software company, a local restaurant, or a clothing boutique, having a quality online presence is a must. There is simply no industry that is untouched by the world of digital marketing. If you don’t currently track any KPIs that are related to your website and online presence, now is the time to do so.
Spend some time digging into important information about internet marketing. Hire a consultant to help you if website analytics is not your strong suit. You will want to constantly monitor your website’s health through KPIs such as bounce rates, conversion rates, click through rates, and more. As the world becomes increasingly dependent upon the internet, you need to ensure your company has a strong presence online.
Your Own Well-Being
Finally, when is the last time you spent any focus on your own well-being? While you might not think about your mental and physical health as a trackable KPI, it is an important factor in the future success of your company. When you suffer from exhaustion, stress, and burn-out, you can put your entire company at risk for failure. Make it a priority over the next year to track your own well-being. You can create a few questions to ask yourself each week, such as the following:
- How would I rate my physical health this week on a scale of 1-10?
- How would I rate my mental well-being this week on a scale of 1-10?
- How satisfied was I with how I handled the previous week on a scale of 1-10?
Add as many relevant questions as you want to your own personal survey and each week, spend some time mulling over these insights. If you notice that your numbers are sinking rapidly, it is worth looking for a fix. Whether you need to spend a solid day each week unwinding, away from technology or you need to hire someone to pick up some of the extra work that is piling up, make sure that you invest in your own health over the next year. A healthy leader is the key to a healthy company.
Start 2019 Off Right
As you set up KPIs to track over the course of the next year, be sure you are starting out the new year on the right financial foot. If your company is in need of additional funding but traditional solutions are not an option, consider reaching out to our team to learn more about factoring and other unique lending opportunities. Our team operates out of Atlanta, but we offer factoring and asset-based lending to clients around the nation and even into Canada. Talk to us today about starting 2019 off on the right foot.