What is a “Time Keeper”

We have heard our customers and what they need through both positive and negative feedback. Negative feedback often is some of the best feedback and organization can hear. It’s not because we want that feedback but because the person believes either in (1) driving traffic away from us as they feel scorned or (2) they deeply believe, like us, in local small business and helping them improve. Not every business will choose the improve process and be themselves scorn. We believe no matter the reason for someone giving positive or negative feedback opens an area for not only self-improvement but company improvement. This is why we have opted to create an entirely new position now rather than waiting months, even years, down the road. We pride ourselves in our customer service and what we’ve learned is that a dedicated person between the customer and the team is necessary for success.

A person in this position is an added cost to the company. When our profit margin is $20 for each client we are having to raise our prices but only by the most minimal amount we can. Our current plan customers get no increase as we always price lock them in for their faith in us from the beginning (or when they signed on). We don’t believe like Comcast (Xfinity) of giving you an introductory price and increasing it after a year or more of being a loyal customer.

We found that our team needs to focus on “getting things done” but clients also want meetings to go over things and have that person make certain things get done on-time, on-budget, and coordinated well. This has actually thrown a huge wrench into the process as the team at the beginning of the week allocate time to work on all of their projects. Often sitting in a meeting is the time they had allocated for the client which pushes and delays the work being done. This is why we are in the process for a “Time Keeper” who will be this person that acts as the communicator between the client and the team members doing the work. This allows projects to meet deadlines and get the items the client wants completed.

This person will make certain all of this happens! That will be their only job which makes for an improved customer experience. So, what does this mean for our current customers, our future customers, and our team at JM2 in Valparaiso Indiana? These are all great questions and one’s that we will partially answer here in this post and why you also want a “Time Keeper” in your company. The reason we say partially as this is a new role within our company. We’ve defined many of the requirements on the job post at https://www.jm2marketing.com/Detail/JobPosting/TimeKeeper but we know this is only the start as the role will certainly evolve.

Let’s start out with what the “Time Keeper” role isn’t. For many they may consider this a project manager role or a customer service role. This role could be seen as a barrier between the one’s doing the work and the client (we call customers clients). Personally, I don’t see this as a barrier but a check and balance in the overall system. This person will keep the entire team, including myself (e.g. “The Boss”) in check on all things related to customers. This new role will keep communication at the highest level.

With all of that what does a day look like for a Time Keeper?

The day will start out like it does with many. Starting with emails, then phone calls, and communication. Let’s outline how we see a typical day:

• 8:00-8:30 – Check emails, prepare for the meetings for the day
• 8:30-12:00
  • In-person and/or phone call meetings going through all for current SEO Plan and Social Media Plan customers
    • This will rarely involve other team members but may require them; again this will be more rare than every time as the core objective is to let the team work
  • In-person and/or phone call meetings with new clients
    • Often this will involve the main web developer and other team members that will be working on the project
  • Any need breaks
  • Meetings with team members
  • Entering tasks and assigning it to the appropriate team members
  • Quality checks of work completed
    • A single pixel off should be noted to be fixed as that is the level of detail we are looking for
    • Are manuals created, do they read well, and can someone actually understand them
  • Asks questions for clarification and never assumes
  • Weekly meeting with the boss (me) that cannot be skipped to go over everything
    • Recommend ways to
      • improve the overall processes
      • improve communication with clients
    • State what we're doing right
    • State what we're doing wrong
• 12:00-1:00 – Lunch (yes, we let you eat)
• 1:00-5:00 – Same as 8:30-12:00

During the meetings a few key things will happen that we have found that many of our clients don’t fully grasp. I consider this a failure on our part in not letting people know all that they get and why starting back when there was snow that we went back to the way we listed our services five years ago. That being in a grid. You can see our new grid at https://www.jm2marketing.com/Services/SmallBusiness which lists our three main services that we offer along with a bulleted list of what each plan includes.

This communication is crucial as for many they have more available to them then they truly realize. It’s never good when a person says they are unhappy as they were hoping we would do X and we didn’t even know they wanted to do X. That’s where the communication breakdown happens. Often what a client wants they had available but never asked for it. I wish we could read minds but that is just not something we can do (yet – it’s on our to do list – but at the very bottom).

Even communication with marketing and branding companies that hire us do so for our web design, search engine optimization or SEO, or social media as they don’t do that themselves. We become their quiet “employee” behind the curtain where any emails come from them with no reference to JM2 at all. Their client we might be working on but they aren’t our client. The marketing and branding company that hired us is the client.

What you will notice out of all of this is our “Time Keeper” will definitely be a very well-organized person that is meticulous to detail, that keeps track of their time very closely, and has a true eye for quality.