| Productivity | | | | achieve becomes a project. |
| What is it and why is it important even if you are a | | | | · Waiting for - If an action has been delegated and is |
| one-man operation? | | | | waiting for some external event before it can be |
| The simplest explanation, productivity is a ratio to | | | | moved forward. |
| measure how well an organization, individual, industry or | | | | · Someday/Maybe - Things to be done at some |
| country converts input resources such as labor, | | | | point, but not right now. |
| materials, machines, etc. | | | | Review |
| It can also be said that productivity can be measured | | | | Allen suggests the creation of a "tickler file" to jog your |
| by how much value a worker produces per hour. | | | | memory each week with the outstanding tasks and |
| The knowledge and skills base to make improvements | | | | projects. |
| to reduce work content, or time taken, can be found in | | | | Do |
| many different and available guides to productivity | | | | Allen's thoughts are that if you can make it simple, |
| improvement and these can readily be found on the | | | | easy, and fun to take the necessary actions you |
| Internet. | | | | scheduled then you'll be less inclined to procrastinate. |
| A good place to start is to take your annual salary, | | | | For more on Allen's thoughts and system, simply go to |
| multiply it by 5 and use this as your starting target | | | | Amazon and you can pick up a paperback copy of his |
| incentive for productivity improvement efforts. | | | | book Getting Things Done for about $10. |
| If you can improve your earnings or profit by a | | | | Why is productivity important to your Customer? |
| measure of 5 simply by channeling productivity | | | | It's essential for employers and self employed |
| improvements, it obviously is a worthwhile effort. | | | | individuals to be aware of the aspects to maintain a |
| David Allen's popular productivity book and the system | | | | stable and reliable productivity to satisfy their clients |
| on which it's based can help turn 'stuff' into actions that | | | | customers. |
| support valuable outcomes. | | | | A good example of this is Toyota's CustomerOne |
| His first model is the workflow process, which is used | | | | solution. Toyota Canada has created a new kind of |
| to gain control over all the tasks, etc that you need or | | | | retail company that is integrated by sharing knowledge |
| want to get done. | | | | of its customers' needs and experiences among all |
| This is broken down into five phases. | | | | stakeholders, including every Toyota dealer in Canada. |
| Collect | | | | Do you make offers based on what customers have |
| He suggests to start by off-loading what needs to get | | | | bought before? |
| done from your head and then to capture everything | | | | By the way, this relationship started on the web site |
| that should be tracked, remembered, or take action on | | | | and in my experience, you can extend the LifeCycle |
| and put it into what Allen calls a "bucket". | | | | by switching customers to another channel. |
| In other words to store it in a physical location such as | | | | But you don't want to force it; let it play out the way |
| an email inbox, or a tape recorder, notebook, PDA, or | | | | the customer wants. |
| whatever. | | | | Please note "Months Since Last Contact" means the |
| His idea is to get everything out of your head and into | | | | customer showing interest / taking action and |
| some kind of collection device, to be ready for | | | | contacting you in some way say by a purchase or a |
| processing. | | | | click. It is not the fact that you have "contacted" them |
| He states emphatically that all buckets should be | | | | by blasting out e-mails. |
| emptied (processed) at least once per week. | | | | Behavioral analysis is about customer behavior, not |
| Process | | | | yours. |
| When it comes to processing the "bucket", as he calls | | | | This approach tends to preserve margin on the |
| it, a strict workflow is followed: | | | | customer while driving new activity and sets up the |
| · Start at the top. | | | | customer to become re-engaged on a longer-term |
| · Deal with one item at a time. | | | | basis. |
| · Never put anything back into 'in'. | | | | Does customer service record the reason for each |
| · If an item requires action | | | | call? In conjunction with customer service, study the |
| · Do it (if it takes less than two minutes), OR | | | | reasons people call and think about how to reduce the |
| · Delegate it, OR | | | | need for those callers to call. |
| · Defer it. | | | | For your information, most customer-centric |
| · If there is an item that does not require any action: | | | | companies have a meeting on this topic every week. |
| · File it for reference, OR | | | | It directly affects the value of the customer and |
| · Throw it away, OR | | | | customer retention, not to mention word-of-mouth. In a |
| · Incubate it for possible action later. His rule is if it | | | | recent survey less than 30% said increasing customer |
| takes under two minutes to do something, it should be | | | | LifeTime Value is a top marketing objective. |
| done immediately. | | | | Maintaining a high productivity is the life of successful |
| Organize. | | | | business all around the world. |
| Allen describes a suggested set of lists to track items | | | | No matter how much money you invest in your |
| awaiting attention: | | | | business - without productivity implementation |
| · Next actions - For every item requiring attention, | | | | strategies your business will not progress and will |
| decide what is the next action that can be physically | | | | eventually collapse. |
| taken on that item. | | | | It is only the best practiced business with continuous |
| · Projects - Every open loop in one's life or work | | | | performance that can bring quality productivity. |
| which requires more than one physical action to | | | | |