Personal Service From the Smaller Team

As our business has grown over the last few years, I have always regarded larger competitors in the market with a certain amount of envy, because they have greater resources to exploit the opportunities before them. Right now, even with four serviced office centres running and an additional 150,000 square feet leased, we remain far behind those big industry players. But then, just the other day, something happened at one of our business centres that made me realise that rather than competing with the huge teams and grand scale of the competition, we should be happy with doing what we do, not only well (as we do), but also on a personal level.

Recently, a centre manager at Carrwood Park received a unknown parcel destined for one of our brave service men in Afghanistan but it had been returned to us. With no obvious markings on the package for a return to sender we opened the package and discovered it contained certain items prohibited to post by the army. It had only reached Carrwood as it had been repackaged in a box with our address on and had nothing to do with us.

Without a second thought we decided it best to remove these items and get the parcel back on the road (paying the fees) with an explanatory note to the soldier who was no doubt eager to receive it. The removed items were then returned to sender once we established who they were. A situation was encountered, and it was swiftly dealt with by the team in a professional manner that I hope helped the soldier in whatever little way we can. It was an obvious answer that I hope any individual with autonomy would have done to represent their company sensibly and help our troops.

Now let’s picture the same scenario but in a much larger organisation. You’d think that the people power and resources of a huge company would make the process even more efficient, right? Wrong! It’s hard to even ascertain from larger companies how far up the chain something has to go before a final decision can be made. Needless to say it would have sat in the corner of a store room or done its rounds in the postal service before been put in a lost post container.

In his article “The Smaller the Better”, Jeffrey Phillips outlines the advantages of having a smaller team working in a department or on a project:

1) Focus and clarity - each member is aware of what they have to do and what everyone else is doing

2) Better chance of good cohesion between team members

3) Less time required on training and administration of each employee, thanks to less people being on the learning curve

4) Easier interaction and communication between all team members

5) No single team member can hide or take a back seat from their assigned duties so common sense has to be used.

At Carrwood Park, the smaller team is empowered with the right to use their own judgment to get a task done when it needs to be done, not when someone upstairs says it can be done. Such an operation brings enormous benefits to everyone:

*A staff with which you can become familiar with their abilities, working style, strengths and weaknesses

*Every member of staff has a name, a face, a number, an e-mail - it’s a true personal service

*No waiting around - the job gets done because the team is empowered to take the right decision when they see it

So when looking at your competition with envy or their size and resource, spend a second to think what disadvantages this brings with it and often it is in a place you can exploit and excel as a small personal business.

So on a final note which of the above scenarios do you think best represents the image you want your business to portray? If you are a small dynamic business or division put your trust in a team that has been trained and trusted to do the job right. Visit Carrwood Park and witness what good it can do for you and your business.

Personal Service From the Smaller Team

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