This week I ran an Entrepreneur’s Circle meeting on presenteeism – i.e. being TOO available in your business!! The more available we are to our customers and our team, the more we work to others’ agendas and on their time, rather than controlling our own. The result can be really dramatic to our business. While we think we should always be at the end of the phone or email for our customers, it can be such a time zapper that we actually have no time to grow the business to where we want it to be.
We talked through things like giving away your mobile number. Do you think you could easily find and get hold of Richard Branson via his mobile?!! And checking your email way too often! I’ve been a big advocate of only checking my email twice a day. It’s freed up so much of my time and I’ve missed nothing as a result!
But one point I really want to make in this blog, is presenteeism on social media. There is a sense that you should be always ‘on’. That if someone tweets you, you should respond straight away. But being this available on social media is not the right action for your business. In fact, you’ll end up wasting a lot of your time on social media. Yes, there are some businesses that should have a permanent and fast customer service presence on social media. But, if you are the owner of your business and managing your own social media, and are very quick to respond each time, you are undoubtedly wasting time you could be spending on growing your business. So, turn off those alerts. Set aside time each day for you to check and respond on social media rather than doing it as updates come in. Tell people what you are up to in your updates, so they don’t expect an immediate response. Don’t be glued to your phone! And use the time to grow your business!!!
