Have You Done Your Quarterly Review?
It’s official – The first quarter of 2015 has passed. So, how is your business doing so far?
Believe it or not, March is behind us, signifying the end of the first business quarter. With the year flying by, have you stopped to review the first quarter of your business?
Although the official periodical Quarterly Review ceased publication in 1967, there are still several reasons why businesses around the world pause to take stock after the first three months of the year. For most businesses, putting together a quarterly review is standard procedure. It gives a good overview of how your business is performing, and how internal teams are adapting to any new procedures or simply serves to highlight any opportunities or problems you may have missed on the day-to-day grind.
So what kind of data should you be gathering to make up your Quarterly Business Review?
- Return On Investment (ROI) – You’ll find that there are a lot of numbers involved in working out just how successful your business is. Although that may sound daunting, it really helps to motivate your team if they know just how well they’re getting on. Take the mathematical strain off (or at least divide it up into manageable chunks) and work out your ROI following the first quarter. Unsure on how to calculate your ROI? Check out this article.
- Customer Sentiment – How is your brand being perceived out there? Who’s talking about you and what are they saying? Advancements in technology and the rise of social media means that there’s an abundance of social data out there for your company to tap into. So, what’s the general sentiment of the chatter about your brand? Are people positive or negative? Evaluate your social listening to find out how you’re doing. Haven’t been listening in? Find out more about social listening here.
- Staff Satisfaction – What’s going on internally? Do your staff feel that the current processes, protocols and environment are beneficial? Distribute a simple questionnaire asking for their feedback, perhaps even incentivise it, so they know that their opinions are being taken seriously!
- Your NYBR – Don’t know what this is? You must’ve missed our New Year’s Business Resolution blog post in which we encouraged businesses to set targets and evaluate their performance. Your quarterly review should cover these targets to start a discussion on how well the targets are being met.
- News – What has happened throughout the first quarter of your business year? Have there been any major news stories in your sector, or surrounding your competitors? Be sure to include these in the review and evaluate whether or not they should herald a change in the way you do business or in the way you run things internally. Learn from your competitors! Is there anything you’ve learned – perhaps from a UK2 blog post – that you want to share? This is where to use it.
Once you’ve gathered all of your relevant information, what do you do with the findings?
- Schedule a meeting – Make sure your entire team feels involved in the development of the company by discussing the successes and failures of the first quarter with everyone. Be it on a one-to-one basis or in individual team meetings, make sure everyone is up to speed on which areas of the company need a little TLC.
- Reward excellence – While your quarterly review will more than likely highlight the areas within the company which need work or re-evaluation it should show you just how much hard work your staff are putting in. Listen to their feedback (from the Staff Satisfaction questionnaire) and make improvements internally where possible. Why not treat the team to a lunch, or organise a staff appreciation event? If your company is big enough, you could organise staff awards, congratulating individuals you feel have contributed the most to the company.
- Set targets – Taking into consideration the targets that you’ve set for the year, set the team and your company as a whole some targets to aim for when the second quarter comes to an end (considering how fast this one flew by – you might find yourself halfway through the year sooner than you think!).
Celebrate! You made it through the first quarter. Here’s to a successful summer…