5 business processes you need to map out and the tools that make it easy

In today’s video, we’re going to talk about five key processes that you need to map out in your business.

To save time, get everyone on the same page, and wow your customers. Let’s go.

If you’re new here, I’m Hazel, I run a plumbing business and a consulting business, I help trades become more efficient and more profitable process mapping the idea of mapping out your business processes, you can do this in a simple bulleted list.

Or you can do fancy flowcharts and diagrams. And it’s a way of really clarifying and writing down the processes that your businesses follow.

So why process map it can help you clarify what you do. And it can then help you minimise paperwork minimise chaos in your businesses, get everyone on the same page, it can reduce manual intervention and human error. And it can also lessen your team’s workload.

process mapping of any kind ensures that the process is followed consistently, so it guarantees that something is done the way it needs to be done.

So let’s get into the five process maps that your business needs. 

So number one, the first one I’d recommend is that you create a customer service customer communications type map, this is often mapped out as part of a customer journey mapping process. But it basically covers all of the communications that are going to and from your customer. The mapping style that’s best suited to this kind of process is a flowchart, because there are inputs and outputs and the communication follows a flow.

So the second process that you need to map out is your sales and marketing funnel. This is a visual model that lays out your marketing process from start to finish, including all of your touch points and traffic sources, and your landing pages, the stages of your funnel, your customer touch points, and more. In terms of which diagram style for us here, again, a flowchart, that kind of approach can be quite useful. But you’re thinking about it like a funnel, you want to funnel your customer touch points and funnel your customers in through to make a sale, the diagram style that’s going to suit this the best is effectively a funnel. But it can also be a flowchart.

That process that you need to have fully mapped out for your business is your hiring, onboarding, an exit process for your staff. So no man is an island, you will need to hire people for your business, whether that takes the form of a VA, or virtual assistant, or a full time member of staff or even part time members of staff, you need to have it written down, how you’re going to find them, the stages you’re going to go through to hire them, how you’re going to onboard them, as in, introduce them to your business and let them know your culture and your preferences and take them through their training. And then when they choose to move on, you want to have a clear process for how they leave. So the exit process normally involves an exit interview. And there is an entire process around that. So this is really important because the faster you clarify this, the easier it will be for your business to expand. If you wait until you’re burnt out or overwhelmed before you actually write this down and get this into a diagram or a list, then it’s already too late. Because you can’t ask people to help you. If all the information about how you run your business is still in your head.

The visual style that suits this kind of process is actually probably more of a checklist. Because this is an HR thing. You need to make sure that you’re getting this right and you’re covering off all of the legal requirements as you bring somebody into your business. So one piece of software, I think will help you in this area is something called process Street. And they have a simple system of chat ready made checklists and processes that you can follow. You can customise and you can share with your team. But really simply you can write this list down. If you’re a service mate user, you can write it using knowledge articles. If you are not a service user, or even if you are, you can use anything from Google Docs, Microsoft Word, just have it written down so that you can follow the steps through.

The fourth process that I recommend that you map out is your knowledge map. And this is really an extension of the idea of standard operating procedures. So there will be a whole load of topics in your business that you need to write up and make sure you’ve either got process mapped or you’ve got written down. And so a knowledge map will help you see what you still need to create and And really you can get down ideas of things that that need to be documented within your business. Still, the type of diagram style that’s best suited for this process, in my opinion, is a mind map. Because a mind map really helps you throw down your ideas and expand upon each topic. one bit of software that I’ve come across that allows you to mind map for free, is a tool called coggle. Coggle gives you a number of keyboard shortcuts so that you can Mind Map and get everything out of your head as quickly as possible. And it’s a really good visual way of mapping out everything you need to write down for your business, or every process that you run in your business, or every kind of service that you offer in your business. It’s a great way of getting your ideas out of your head, and onto paper on to software.

So we’re on to the fifth kind of process that I think you should map and that service specific or product specific processes. So if you were a plumbing company or heating company, for example, you might want to map out and write down how your employees should do a boiler service. For example, you might want to map out how to do the diagnostics for a situation where an appliance isn’t working, or there’s a problem that needs to be solved. By creating a flow chart with choices then you give them the structure to work out what questions they need to be asking, and how to solve the problem themselves. In the heating industry, all of the boiler manufacturers have flowcharts in the back of their instruction manuals that take you through troubleshooting if there’s something going wrong. And this is a great way of helping the engineer or helping a member of staff help themselves. It gives them a nudge for what they should do next, what questions need to be asked, and really what order in which to do things.

If you liked this video, you might also want to check out my video on the profit first system and how I use that to run my plumbing business and my consulting business. I’ll put a link in here for you. And yeah, enjoy.