The financial health of your business is likely something you keep a close eye on, but what about other aspects of your company? When was the last time you checked the pulse of your customers and employees? 

With supply chain issues continuing to slow productivity and access to abundant inventory, take advantage of this downtime by doing a full health check on your business. Use the feedback to make improvements where necessary to ensure your business, employees, and customers are better-positioned when inventory returns to optimal levels.

The following information will help you gauge the health of your business and shine a spotlight on areas where improvements should be made.

Gauging Customer Satisfaction

Important questions to consider when gauging the customer’s overall satisfaction:

• How often are customers buying? 
• Can you use sales data to determine the average length of time between repeat purchases? 
• How many customers purchase only one time? Is there a reason?
  

With this data you can schedule a personalized email or SMS reminder that encourages customers to return for repeat purchases. Consider ways to incentivize people to return with maintenance specials or a loyalty program. Retaining your customers is much less expensive than finding new ones, so look for creative ways to bring them back to your store. With the holidays around the corner, consider holiday specials or events to get customers through the doors.

• What products are your customers buying? Is one product driving a majority of sales?
  

If the answer is yes, consider related products or an accessory that you could promote as an add-on or cross-sell purchase. Through segmenting your customers based on their purchases, you can share relevant information about related products that may appeal to them.

• How many service calls or questions do you receive from your customers? 
  

Review any questions or complaints that you regularly hear from customers and look for solutions to resolve them. Fixing issues related to common questions and complaints will save the company time while providing a better experience for the customer.

• How active is the business in your local community?
  

Customers want to buy from local businesses they know and trust, and your community involvement can help make that happen. Look for opportunities to host seasonal events, celebrate local high school accomplishments, host a training class or hands-on demonstration, or commit to a local community service project. 

NOTE: If you do not already have a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform, you may want to consider using one to help monitor and track real-time, relevant data about your customers.

Gauging Employee Satisfaction

It's essential employee satisfaction is regularly gauged and, when necessary, improved. Happy employees are productive employees. Here are a few great ways to check how satisfied employees are with their job.

• What is your Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)?
  

To get your company’s eNPS, ask employees, On a scale of 1-10, would you recommend your job to a friend or family member? To get their honest response, place a box in the employee break room with a blank pad of paper and pen ensuring their answer will be anonymous. Once all employees have answered the question, add up the values to find the average. Anything below a 6.5 indicates that improvements should be made to secure a happy, productive workforce. 

Don't stop at the eNPS. Continue to gauge employee happiness with one-on-one meetings to review employee satisfaction. Get the conversation moving freely by asking the following questions.

• Is there toxicity in the workforce?
• What improvements can be made by leadership?
• Is there a way to improve the work environment?
• Are there any tools needed to increase sales and overall satisfaction?
  

Engaged, happy employees lead to increased productivity and a lower rate of attrition. A lower rate of attrition saves the company both money and time, and even customers who are loyal to their salesperson. Good employees are hard to come by, do everything you can to keep yours.  

PowerChord’s Analytics Dashboard is an exceptional tool for gauging your company’s health in terms of digital impact and customer satisfaction. Website analytics provide a wealth of real-time information on your customer’s geographic location, the time they spent on the website researching products, and if the website visitor requested more information and how. Analytics also provide a clear picture of how well your digital efforts are paying off. To learn more about our robust website tracking capabilities and the many data points available, check out this information on our Analytics Dashboard. 

The bottom line is that inventory may continue to be stagnant for the next few months, so use this time to gauge and improve the health of your business. Nurturing strong relationships with your customers and employees will help carry them through tough times and ensure that you have a healthy business for years to come.