As an agency consultant nothing drive me more crazy than to watch the team say I’m too busy but then use a notepad to then enter data into the management system. Talk about duplicate entry! The pad of paper tends to be the safety blanket for a lot of people. However, there are too many challenges with that system and we need to move to a more stable, non-paper system.
Let’s start by explaining why the notepad hurts the agency:
- If someone wins the lottery at lunch, it will be hard to dive in and provide the best service to their clients
- You really have no idea what is on people’s desks to help balance out work
- E&O, E&O, E&O
- Duplicate entry means duplicate time spent
- If the client calls back in with a question there will be no notes in the system for anyone to jump in and answer them.
Now, many Account Managers hold their notepads like a safety blanket. So this may be shocking. However when they break up with the notepad, everything starts to work better. The best advice I have ever heard is to replace the notepad with a mini whiteboard. Everyone has to put details in the management system in order to make more room on the whiteboard.
Go grab your whiteboards and get rid of the paper. People will be grumpy for a month and then it will all get better.