One of the most important lessons I have learned over my years as a small business owner and manager is that some of the best ideas for improving your business can come from your staff and other team members. All you have to do is ask for their input.
I recommend that you develop an environment that encourages input from all your staff. One way to do this is to have regular brainstorming sessions. These should be conducted in an informal manner, with seniority within the business being put aside and everyone attending being encouraged to have their say.
I recently sat in on a brainstorming session for a client of mine. The business offered professional services to a large number of clients. The aim of the session was to identify where the business needed to improve its customer service. The person who offered the best input and the most logical suggestion was the receptionist. When you think about it, this is understandable. The receptionist spoke to all of the firm's clients at some time. She dealt with their frustrations, with unreturned phone calls, documents not being sent out on time, unreasonable waiting times in reception, and the daily mail. She knew which departments in the business got the most complaints, which individuals were the slowest at returning phone calls, and what the most common enquiries were from customers, and she had opinions on a host of other day-to-day matters. Her opinions were welcomed by the group, and her suggestions and observations were taken seriously. The end result was that virtually all of the business's customer service related problems were eliminated following the two-hour brainstorming session.
Every member of an organization has the potential to provide excellent input in areas that will ultimately improve the over-all level of customer service. Welcome their ideas and suggestions and thank them for being involved. If you ridicule ideas or suggestions put forward, your staff will stop giving their input. These types of brainstorming sessions need to be well-controlled and chaired, otherwise it's easy to get sidetracked or bogged down on a particular issue. I always assign someone to chair the session, and when it starts to go off the trails, their job is to keep it moving forward. Some ideas may need to be followed up, and complex issues may need more than one session to be resolved.