Soap Warehouse Blog

Gone is the day of management gurus telling us to try and save time at work by multi-tasking. This one time fad has been proven to not only not work well but in fact slows your productivity down.

When you try to multi-task your brain must shift between lots of different activities constantly moving between the left and right side of your brain loosing focus. It has now been proven that multi-tasking slows a normal persons IQ down by around 10%, the same as if they were overly tired or were legally drunk.

Batch tasking is where you take similar tasks, group them together, set a block of time dedicated to the tasks and focus on doing them all at once.

Things like:

• Making phone calls, business or personal
• Reading e-mails
• Answering e-mails not at the same time as when reading them
• Setting appointments
• Research. Like doing estimates calculating cleaning square footage.
• Writing quotes
• Submitting quotes
• Writing blog posts
• Scheduling social media posts with a program like Hootsuite
• Making videos
• Writing your monthly customer thank you cards

When you limit distractions even for small amounts of time, like 15 minutes, to focus on one set of similar tasks your brain can work at top capacity.

If you can not set up the same amount of time each day that is ok. You might only need to pick just one day a week and do as much as possible in pre-set time. There maybe tasks you only have to do once or twice a month. Whatever you need to do is fine, there is no right or wrong.

Here is my normal routine with time set for bulk tasks daily, weekly and monthly.

7:30-8:00 Get to my desk, look over my to do list for the day. Open all computer programs I might need for the day, this alone can take 10-15 minutes in two different web browsers on two separate screens. Opening them all now saves time later when I may need one.

8:00-8:30 Help answer phones and with any first customers in the show room. Glance over my e-mails for new orders or anything pressing that I need to make a task on my today to do list, flag e-mails that I need to reply to later.

8:30-9:00 If I have new e-mail or online orders I fill out an order sheet for each one. I will fill as many orders as I can later in one block of time instead of stopping to fill each one or as each new one comes in.

If no new orders, check Facebook, See if I have any direct messages or was mentioned in any posts that I need to address. Check the daily birthdays and say Happy Birthday. Some days this small task can be moved until noon or later if the store is busy or with phone calls.

9:00-10:00 This is my first block of time where I can focus on what ever is a top priority on my daily to do list. Today it was to finish this blog post I started yesterday. Many days it is to enter into Salesforce any new contacts from new orders or that I spoke with the day before. Updates to the websites, Research and searching for useable photos or taking photos and uploading them.

10:00-11:00 Revisit my e-mails. Delete any junk that got through, move any to other folders that did not go to one directly. Answer any e-mail that will only take a few minutes, ex: send out requested data sheets or SDS's, contact a new customer after their order has arrived to ask if they have any questions. If time work on my to do list or anything as it comes. Once every few weeks this is also the time I will run to Costco for office restock.

11:00-12:00 this is when I start to batch process morning orders, enter them in the computer, pack them, print shipping labels etc. If nothing to ship out, I restock the showroom with product or just work on my to do list. Always have general tasks you can do if your to do list was short, I may do research for future blog posts. Read industry magazines check out other company websites.

12:00-1:00 recheck e-mails and this is when I answer any I had flagged from earlier in the day that will require a longer amount of time. Finish up shipments if an hour wasn't enough. This is also when I can go pick up any soap stock that is critical to ship out.

1:00-3:00 This is my largest amount of variable time. Some days I have scheduled online webinars to listen to. If it is the few days before the 8th of the month I will be working on our monthly video submission. On a Monday or Tuesday I am checking and contacting any new customers out of Salesforce who have had time to get and try our products from the one to two weeks prior to make sure things are fine. With these follow up phone calls or emails is when we ask for reviews and testimonials. If it is near the end of the month I am checking for any open accounts for payment or scheduling posts in Hootsuite for the next few weeks or month. And at some time in these 2 hours I catch my lunch.

This is when my little timers come in handy. I have a set of 10, 15 and 30 minute sand timers. These help me stay focused and not let time get away from me like when I am out on Pinterest looking for new pins. If I did not use a 10 or 15 minute timer, those few set aside minutes can turn into an hour!

3:00-4:00 3:00 is our FedEx pick up time so I make sure the pick up sheet is ready and with the outbound boxes. Check Facebook and emails again and continue with my to do list or general tasks, again using the timers as needed.

4:00-5:00 In the last hour of the day is when I may look for and post Pinterest pins as this time is noted as one of the most viewed hours for Pinterest, make my to do list for the next work day. Send out any last e-mails to customers that requested contact. This is also when I restock any large orders of soap or other product that has been delivered during the afternoon. Print out batches of SDS's to replace ones I have handed out or shipped. If it is the last work day before the new month I try to go ahead and change out the cover page on all three of our Facebook pages. If not I do it first thing on the first of the month.

And of course at any time during the day I may stop to answer phone calls, answer chemical questions for in store customers or checking out customers shopping in the showroom which can break up even the best batch tasking schedule. But if I am in the middle of a set aside time, I may let any phone calls to my desk go to my voice mail to return at the end of the task time.

Having a plan with batch tasks will save you time in the long run. Have fun making yours.

Many in the cleaning industry are either taking time off or have slowed way down so there is more time to get things done that can be overlooked during the busier times of your year. Here is a list of things you might want to look at during these slow Winter months.

• Check all your PPE and make sure you have enough, including having backups. Out on a job when something breaks is not the time to realize you do not have another and may not be able to get a replacement right away.
• That all PPE are in working order, ordering these items that you need while companies have sufficient inventory. Later in the year there may be shortages and you are not able to get an item right away or have to pay more for it where you can get it to have it.
• Check and restock your first aid kits, spill kits, parts box for your equipment including tools and needed supplies. Again out on a job is not the time to have a hose bust and have to stop work to go get one.
• Work on your website, check on your links to be sure they are working, read each page to be sure that there are no changes you need to make. Add more content. Content is what drives people to your site, update and add often with proper tags.
• Check your website analytics to see where visitors are coming from, think about ways to improve and increase that traffic. Knowing that you are not getting the most traffic from the area you are spending the most on can allow you to reallocate time and funds.
• Work on all your social media content and connections, you might add a new stream if you are not already using all of the ones your customers are. Never tried Pinterest or LinkedIn, now may be time to try one.
• Go over last years and set up this year’s budget; equipment, advertising, supplies and mandatory expenses. Spending too much on equipment repairs, maybe time to invest in new or increase spending on preventative maintenance, like oil changes.
• Check all monthly expenses to see where you might be able to save; insurance, utilities including phones, etc. Do not just accept yearly price increases to your expenses, price shop each year.
• Make an advertising calendar not just for the expenditures but for what and when you want to make social media posts. Set up and use a program like Hootsuite to do this.
• Go over or start a referral program. Using current customers to find new ones can save you up to 75% of the cost of new customer acquisitions by other means.

Let us know in the comments what besides these we listed that you do in the slower months to make your business more productive during the rest of the year.