I can still remember being on stage last year with the other finalists at the 2012 AFA Adviser of the Year awards… and my name not being called out as the winner.
While I was truly honoured to be a finalist, this year I really wanted to win it. But in order to do so, I realised I needed to dig deep and push myself to make a difference to my clients and my business.
The judging process was incredibly detailed. After completing the initial nomination, application and phone interview, it was then through to a short list of 10, where we provided Beddoes Institute with a full list of our active clients. They used the list to survey our clients, and create a fully comprehensive report on our business, followed by a practice benchmarking survey, comprising 38 pages of questions into all financials, staffing, number of clients, referrals, KPIs etc.
The process enabled me to view the results from the client engagement survey, and an opportunity to really go for it in terms of improving the areas identified in the business. As a team, we ‘white boarded’ all the comments and consistently tested and measured, asked and questioned – how can we do this better?
Here are a few of those steps we took:
– Implemented ’10 at 10 on a Monday’. Each member of the team explains what exception service they have provided for a client, colleague or team member. This ensures ‘service’ is top of mind at the start of the week, and also outlines what each team member or group has planned for the next week over and above what is expected in their KPIs
– Streamlined our systems and processes within our software program XPlan, built threads, templates and worked on every document
– Turned emails that explain various steps and processes into videos that are short, sharp and to the point
– Consistently test and measure, ask and question – how can we do this better?
– Refined and developed further our digital / on-line message
After implementing many new measures of various sizes, we also received a four to five hour site visit. This was our chance to really showcase what we do for our clients, our systems, processes and procedures. The questions came thick and fast from the judge and a huge amount of information was required.
We got through to the final six, and then it was off to Sydney to present to the seven person-judging panel. Nerve racking yes – a great learning experience definitely. As the winner, it was the most amazing and unbelievable experience that I’ve had to date to be recognised firstly by my peers and then by the panel of judges!
Here is a video of my acceptance speech on the night. Enjoy…
