Disorganization leads to Dysfunction

Anyone working in a business that requires a high volume of services or products to be completed in order to be profitable quickly runs into a situation dealing with organization.  This is very true in the world of process serving.

In the beginning you might have one or two assignments to work, and the mind can handle keeping track of what is going on with those.  But what happens when you get to where you dozens or even hundreds of assignments? 

If you're not organized, this could lead to crises (as in plural).  Court documents become lost.  The day-to-day status (read: where are we with the progress on serving an assignment) becomes clouded and confused with other assignments.  Deadlines are not met, which means a court appearance may not occur for a client (or perhaps several clients).  Eventually, this leads to your client base dwindling and/or a complete mess on your hands, and productivity and efficiency goes down as you struggle to fix one problem after another because things become so disorganized.

Two critical management tools and one bahavioral practice in our office manages to keep most of the disorganization from causing dysfunctionalism.  I'll address the behavioral practice first.

As the owner of a small private investigative/process serving company, I have come to realize that although I am not a "neat-freak", I do enjoy the fact that everything has a place and at the end of the day, everything goes back in its place when I am done.  And I require that, too, of those who work with me.  Remember when you were a child and your parents would say to you to put things back where you found them.  The hammer goes in the toolbox.  The broom goes in the closet.  The milk goes back in the refrigerator.  Simple stuff, right?  It made sense because then when you needed the hammer again (weeks later, perhaps), you knew exactly where it was without even thinking about it.  The same holds true for the office space.  Have a separate place for everything.  And I am not just talking about where you put the pens and pencils at the end of the day, either.  I am talking about where you place your current active assignments, where to file away the completed assignments, and where do you put your receipts for business-related expenses (yes, even those).  If you do that, then at the end of the day, your desk should be clean enough to eat off of (well, perhaps not literally, but you get the point).  And this also has a psychological impact for you, as well, because the next morning when you come in you don't have to look at a swirling mass of confusion right off the bat that you will have to spend at least a few minutes figuring out before you can get started with the day's task.

So, now for the management tools that go along with the behavioral practice just mentioned.  First, there are a software managment tools out there specific to the process serving world.  We use one of those to input all the information on a particular assignment so that we can track the progress on the assignment, build affidavits, issue invoices, and keep track of all the client information for that particular assignment.  The most prominent software management tool in the industry is Process Servers Toolbox which was developed and is operated by Database Services, Inc.  These software managment tools are a real time saver as you can write notes into the database for each particular assignment, so you know in writing what is the status, and you can even send reports from it to your clients so you do not have to call them or them call you about status.  There are a ton of other neat benefits to having one of these software management tools, and I highly recommend them even if your volume of work is under a hundred assignments a month. 

The other organizational technique I would suggest is a very good filing system.  We have the usual filing system for things like receipts and where we put assignments that need to be placed on hold or assignments that we need to run a skip trace, etc., but we also use a separate filing system that is specifically designed to manage deadlines and to push productivity.  What we do is we have set up one filing drawer that has 31 separate folders each marked 1 through 31.  And we use those 31 folders to place "reminders" (or notes) within so we know when to check on pending assignments.  We also use these folders to remind us of other things, such as calling a business contact to set up an appointment, etc.  Why 31 folders, you might ask?  Well, because each folder is for one day of the month.  So that way when it is the 5th of June, we pull out folder number 5, and we pull out of folder number 5 all the reminders in it so we know those are the things we need to work on that day.  We use a physical filing system for this, which seems very "old school", but you could set something up like this on your computer as well.  We tend to use the physical "old school" method because sometimes computer's crash and lose all their data, and also there is just something about having a tangible (physical) paper reminder staring us in the face that tends to work better on the mind in terms of getting things accomplished than an electronic version might.  We also have extended this 31 folder filing system by adding twelve other folders each labeled with each month in the year, so that if there are certain tasks that should be projected out 30 or 60 or 90 days into the future, we have a place for those "little reminders" as well.  We learned this technique from a business management book called "Getting Organized" by Chris Crouch.  It is not the most entertaining read, but if you want to organize your office, the book is a good start.

There are certainly tons of other things you can do to get organized, but these tips will turn you in the right direction.  But whether you use them or not, I strongly suggest that if you are going to run a process serving company that you do some sort of organization of the office ... otherwise, you might find yourself working until midnight just looking for a missing court document and only figuring out where your hammer is, and that the milk in the refrigerator is cold.


Also, check out, "The Business End of Process Serving", by Bob Hill, available at Amazon.com, for more useful information on running a process serving company. 

The 80/20 Rule

This past month was a sparse one for our blog posts, and we have good reason for it, too.  Recently we have been composing and putting together a book on how to start up and run a process serving company.  It is a basic primer that provides some of the nuts and bolts to get new process serving companies going, and perhaps provide tips for those of us who are more experienced on how to run more efficiently and/or become more profitable.  Hence, the blog suffered a bit while we worked out things to get the book published and ready on Amazon.com.

For those who might be interested, the book is titled, "The Business End of Process Service" by Bob Hill, and as far as we know it is available on Amazon.com, as well as available on Kindle as an ebook.  If you want us to send a copy to you, then please contact us at www.rtr-i.com, and we will be happy to send you a copy as well.

Now, as for the 80/20 rule, it is an axiom in business that states that 80 percent of your company's revenue will come from 20 percent of your customers.  Naturally, that means the remaining 80 percent of your customers will only provide 20 percent of your revenue. 

So what does this tell you?  Well, it says a lot about how to manage your overall book of clients.  First, in my opinion, those 20 percent who give you 80 percent of your work, you should really focus on giving them top notch and superior service.  That's not to say that you give the others poor quality service, not be any means, but just keep in mind who might be helping pay the mortgage versus who is only helping you pay for the cable bill.  There might come a moment when you might have to make a decision as to which customer to take care of first (the one that is part of the 20 percent, naturally).

The other thing the 80/20 rule can tell you is that it works in the opposite manner when it comes to the actual labor you will have to employ.  Although the 20 percent who give you 80 percent of your revenue will be labor intensive because of the volume of work, studies have shown that the remaining 80 percent of your clients who give you only 20 percent of your revenue will work you much harder (which is partially the reason, but not the entire reason, those customers only provide you with 20 percent of your revenue).  In other words the revenue generated by doing services for those remaining 80 percent of the customers will be demonstrably more labor intensive than it is for the 20 percent.  Don't ask me why it is like that, but it has been examined by top scientists, and that is their conclusion.  And, in my experience, that seems to be the case.

When comparing side by side an assignment from one of my larger client accounts (part of the 20 percent) and one from a very small client account (part of the remaining 80 percent), invariably the small client account's assignment is fraught with difficulties, an exaggerated increase in teeth gnashing on the part of the client (but sometimes by me), and perhaps more than would be necessary "hand-holding" for that particular client.  Additionally, the small client account customer sometimes wants and oftentimes asks for discounts on the service, which of course also effects your bottom-line.  The larger account (the one nestled within the 20 percent of your work and 80 percent of your revenue) tends to be less inclined towards these things for various reasons, such as since they are in frequent contact with you for your services, they are often comfortable and familiar with you, so there is less "hand-holding" and less anxiety on their part.  They understand the ebb of flow (your routine) of things in "your world", too, and so that tends to make things smoother.  Lastly, your larger client's (read: larger law firms) tend be able to absorb expenses better, so they are less likely to ask for discounts and/or special favors, and are willing to pay you what you are worth.  Remember, you are not just some trained monkey delivering papers.  You are a professionally trained process server with technical expertise in the area of executing court summons and other writs.  And the larger client accounts understand this, so they are willing to pay you a reasonable, competitive rate for your services. 

Just remember to take care of them.

The Process of Cloning

You may be wondering what does cloning have to do with running a process service business.  What does cloning have to do with any business at all other than the world of ... well ... making organisms in test tubes and petri dishes?

Well, I assure once you get started in the process serving industry, and then you start growing even a small book of regular clients, you will become intimately involved in the process of cloning.  And it won't be about trying to figure out how to make viable, living, breathing little sheep, either.  No, the creature you will be cloning will be "you".

Here's how it all happens.  You start blowing and going with the business.  You're serving papers, making clients happy, they refer more clients, you're serving more papers, they refer even more clients, until suddenly you find yourself -- little ol' you -- out there night and day dropping paper because you are doing a great job.  Your clients love you and they are referring more and more clients to you, until the book of clients has grown so large that it turns into a chaotic maelstrom of activity with you are the center of it all. 

At first, it's great.  You're busy, you're making money, and everyone is happy.  But over time, you start to find that you have no downtime.  So forget the family or the vacations, or Monday Night Football.  Then you also start to find that despite your best efforts at organizing and planning your day and the route you will take that your level of performance and the speed at which you typically can work starts to slow.  It isn't just because you are becoming mentally and physically drained (you are), but there is simply too much volume for you to serve the papers as quickly as you first did when starting out.  It's a good problem to have, but if you don't resolve it, the problem will linger, fester, and then it will re-solve itself in a negative way through the loss of clients.

That's where cloning comes in.  If you want to keep up with demand, continue to grow, and keep from burning out, then you must begin the painful process of cloning yourself -- as in hire or subcontract some of the work out to others. 

Now, there are a number of objections to doing this.  I have heard them all, and most from myself.  But in the end if you want to grow while maintaining your sanity, cloning is essential.  Now you could do it by hiring other servers, and paying them a percentage of the unit cost for the service done, or you could hire other people to do other types of business functions within the business while you continue doing all the serving yourself.  After all, when you run a process serving business, you still have to balance the books, market and advertise for new clients, pay the bills, file the affidavits of service, run to this law firm and that court house, etc. 

So, make a choice and/or do all of the above.  Start bringing on an extra server to take overflown.  I don't mean give him the assignment and also all the money for doing the assignment for one of your clients.  No way.  After all, you put in the sweat equity to obtain that precious client.  So, find an extra server who will do the assignment the way you would like it done, pay him/her a percentage and keep enough to be profitable.  And, oh, by the way, you be the point of contact on those assignments with the client, not the extra server (that alleviates the objection from those who would argue that once you start giving overflow work that your extra server might try to take your client away from you).

The other thing you can do as an alternative is to contract out all those ancillary, supporting tasks that are required to run a business.  Find someone who can just sit there and do the paperwork to get an assignment generated and ready to go out to be served.  It doesn't have to be a full-time employee, either, especially if you don't need one full-time.  Find a temp or someone who is willing to work on a freelance basis.  Contract out the accounting, and the courier runs to the court house and the law firms.  Contract out the skip trace/relocate work to someone who specializes in that sort of thing.  There are plenty of skip tracers who can offer affordable rates to take that out of your hair if you are getting too busy to do it yourself.

But no one can do all of these things as perfect as me.  That is the biggest objection to cloning (it was certainly one of mine).  And that may be true.  Perhaps you are a super-being incapable of making mistakes and able to bend the laws of physics and twist the space-time continuum to your own ends.  But if you could do that, you certainly wouldn't need to be running a process service company, would you?  Sure, other people that you might hire or subcontract to do various tasks might not do things the way you like them, they might not do them perfectly, and they might even make mistakes (heaven forbid).  But that is just part of being human.  Mistakes and imperfection exist and they become exponential in their prevalence the more clones you have, but it is certainly better to have a few problems here and there, while your business grows, than to have multiple problems and a lot of disappointed clients because you couldn't let go.  In fact, you might find your clones may be better at certain tasks then you could ever imagine to be yourself, despite the occasional hiccup.

In the end, and I have experienced this in my own business, what you will find is that the turnaround time on your assignments increases to probably even faster than what you were able to do in the beginning on your own, your downtime is greater, allowing you to be tanned and rested, there is more free time for you to do more marketing, and more advertising, and then the revenue of the company grows exponentially thereby allowing you to have enough funds available to pay for the extra server, the freelance book keeper, the subcontracted courier, and the full time office clerk to keep the paperwork flowing properly through your business.

Sure, it may not be perfect.  Nothing is.  Clones are merely carbon copies of you.  But which would you prefer, ten different people doing a hundred different things all at once, or just one person (you) doing a hundred things one thing at a time?


Coming Soon!  "The Business End of Process Serving" by Bob Hill.  Soon to be available on Amazon.com and Kindle.

Did You Know There Are Three "I"s in Marketing?

You might only see one letter "I" in the word "marketing", but I see three.  "I"ntroduce, "I"nvolve, and then "I"ncrease.

This is all about growing sideways through your client base.  Once you do have a client, a good way to get more business is to, firstly, do a great job for them, and then, secondly, keep them in the loop and engaged in the process (no pun intended), including educating them a little on what you are doing for them, and then, thirdly, increase the amount of work you do for them by introducing them to new, additional services.  Same client, just offer a different service.  It’s what McDonald’s does everyday.

It works like this at McDonald’s.  You come in and ask for a hamburger.  The attendant asks if you want cheese on it.  It wasn't something you were thinking about, but it sounds like a great idea, so you say, yes.  Then the attendant asks if you want fries.  Again, you were just thinking a hamburger, but fries sound like a great idea, so you say, yes.  Then the attendant asks if you want a large order of fries.  You say, yes.  Then the attendant asks if you want something to drink.  And you say, yes.  Get the point.

In fact, the whole process with ordering something at McDonalds has become so routine, that most people now walk into their restaurants and before the attendant can even ask if you want a hamburger with cheese and a large order of fries with a drink, the customer already knows what they are going to be asked, and they just spew it all out at once as the customer has been trained into these responses over time through exposure to the various products McDonalds puts forth.

You can do the same thing in process service.  How do you do that when all you are doing is serving a paper.  Here’s an easy example.  Your client contacts you to serve a subpoena.  And you respond by telling them that you can do that, and then you ask, do you want us to place a rush on that.  And they say, yes.  Or, you ask them, do you want me to prepare the subpoena (which under certain circumstances you can legally do), and they say, yes.

Here’s another example.  You may already know how to serve court documents, but you also know how to locate people who need to be served.  This is called skip tracing.  This is an additional service you can provide.  Or perhaps you can offer to do courier service for the client, or act as a notary public for sworn documents.  If you are qualified and licensed, you can also offer the client to do private investigations.  Plenty of attorneys have a need for investigative services.  If you are already working on their process service, it is easier to give you the investigations, seeing as they already know you, than for them to locate an investigator, get quotes, vet them, retain them, etc. 

So, in that way you "introduce" the client to a new service, you "involve" them in the new service by providing quality customer service and education into the process, and then you "increase" the level of services by introducing yet another new or additional service.  It could become an endless cycle if you could find an endless number of services to provide.  You could start serving court documents for one client, but before too long, you could be serving the court documents, running investigations, locating witnesses, notarizing documents, completing courier deliveries, retrieving court records, researching court files, preparing subpoenas, and on and on and on.

What would be easier from a marketing standpoint; provide eight different services for one client, or find eight different clients to provide just one service?  Even better -- eight different services for eight different clients.  Now that's a lot of cheeseburgers on the grill!

Service With A Smile

Customer Service

Although you might not think so, customer service is a part of, or at least a close cousin to marketing.  After all, the key purpose of a business is not just to make money, but to obtain and keep a client.  So customer service is critical, even when you are having a bad day.  Remember, you are there to help the client achieve success in their own endeavors.  You are there to provide good service and keep them out of trouble.  You are there to solve problems and provide solutions.  You are not there to create more, so do an excellent job and do it as quick as possible. 

Customer service starts with communication.  You must have strong communication skills and abilities if you desire even modest success.  Now that does not mean that you need to be eloquent (although that would help), or have a vast vocabulary.  No, communication requires, first, the ability to truly listen to the client.  Don’t just hear what they are saying, but really listen.  And that requires your undivided attention with both ears.  I heard it once said that you have two ears and one mouth.  So wouldn’t it be smart to listen twice as hard to your client’s needs?  And then provide a succinct solution for them.  Take the problems they may be having, and are the reasons they are contacting you, and resolve them.  Do it correctly, do it efficiently, and do it cost-effectively.  But remember the key point here is not that you spoke, but rather that you listened.

Secondly, smile when you dial.  Literally, try it.  When you pick up the phone, actually smile.  It will come across the phone conversation in your tone of voice and the client will intuit this.  The reverse is also true.  If you are having a bad day, trust me, they will know it, and that isn’t always best for the relationship.  And when you communicate through correspondence or email, be succinct, be grammatically correct, be polite, and be certain that you choose words that sound friendly, warm, and most importantly, that you are receptive to whatever it is they require of you as if you were chatting with a good friend.

Which brings up another issue.  In the beginning I used to treat my clients just like that – a client.  I was all business and very much to the point.  But over time I learned that the best approach was not to exist in a vendor-client status, but rather to build rapport with the client and thereby create a relationship.  Take the time to find out what their personalities are like and what hobbies they enjoy.  Become familiar with aspects of their personal life if they are willing to share.  And trust me, they will if you are open and friendly and share with them those things about you that make you unique.  When the time permits take yourself out of the professional mode with the client (while still maintaining a professional demeanor) and establish something lasting as if you were developing a friendship.  Because, in fact, that is exactly what you will be doing.  I do not even refer to my clients as clients when I correspond with them.  I call them my friends, and that is very much how I feel about them.

What's In A Name?

 

It may not seem important to some, but having a business name can be crucial.  Not only does it give you legitimacy, as opposed to calling your business, “Joe Smith, Process Server,” it can give you brand recognition and a marketing hook.

Don’t get me wrong, just going out there with business cards that say Joe Smith, Process Server, may be fine.  Especially, if you want to be identified as just a regular “Joe” who serves papers.  There’s really nothing wrong with it.  And depending on the type of clients you might want to attract, that might be perfect. 

But that is also the point I am making.  How you name the business will identify the type of business you have and it will shape the psychology that the name inevitably employs upon you, any future employees, your clients’ perceptions of the type of business or service you are providing, and whether you or the company will grow up, out, or sideways.

 And that’s what you should think about when coming up with a name.  If you’re focus is to be a process serving company that is very professional, then a name like Professional Process might be better.  If it is important to have your family name on your “shingle”, then by all means, call it Thompson’s Civil Process.  Just remember, the name says it all, and it gives your company a distinct identity as well as (especially, if it has a recognizable, catchy name) a marketable slant that perhaps gives you an edge on your competition.  

Quality Versus Quantity

Proper pricing of your services is critical.  Yet, to the newcomer (and also some of the more experienced), this can be a difficult thing to consider.  Some would think the obvious thing to do when starting out is to be the cheapest.  But is it really the smart thing to do?  Let me point out two rules of capitalist economics.  First, charge what you can afford.  Second, charge based on demand. 

For the first rule, don’t set your price so low that your expenses eat up all your profit (hence you have no profit).  As with the fuel costs and other expenses of running a business, if you decide to price things so low in an attempt to undercut your competitors, you may find yourself out of business and possibly in foreclosure or bankruptcy while your competitors are still running strong.  Secondly, and this will play upon the second rule to a degree.  If you do price yourself too low, you might find yourself so busy that you cannot perform quality service, and eventually this leads to mistakes, missed deadlines on court appearances for your clients, and then the eventual exodus of your entire book of clients.

Which leads to the second rule that the charge should be what the market demands.  If the typical going rate for service of one court document in your market is $60.00, and you charge $55.00 the price will lead to demand for your service based on the lower price.  But if you get too busy because you are cheaper, then you will get overloaded with assignments and provide poor service.  That, and you will also work yourself to an early grave.  But, if you keep your price competitive at $60.00 or even a little higher, you will gain a share of the market amongst your local competitors, considering everyone is charging the same relative price, or you might be working less if you charge $65.00, but end up making the same amount of money as your competitors or perhaps even more. 
So what you would rather do?  Work harder for less money per assignment?  Or would you prefer to work less for the same amount of money, be tanned and rested, and then therefore not be overloaded with too many assignments, and be able to provide superior service to your current book of clients, who then tout your good name and superior performance to others who might have a need for your services?  In other words, do you want to do quantity or do you want to quality of work? Think about it.