2005 and 2006 were interesting years for Site Street. We experienced explosive growth... tripling revenues and going from one staff member to six people. But part of that explosive growth was an out-of-control customer service and web development process. We found ourselves not only with more work than we could handle... but without a good process to accomplish the work we did do. It was a challenging scenario to say the least.
But in January of 2007, we hired a consultant to help with the problem. Doing process redevelopment from within was not working... we were too close to the problem and it was only getting worse. After two months of intensive meetings and some difficult discussions, we developed a new process for how we do business.
This new website design and development process has not only improved the work we do, but it has had some unintended consequences. The biggest improvement was in employee morale... with projects running on time and ahead of schedule, suddenly we weren't getting calls from upset clients anymore. Suddenly everything was no longer a last-minute emergency. Suddenly things just started working right.
It's still a work in progress, as is any work process... but we're now positioned where our work process is a competitive advantage, not a disadvantage. It's a much happier place to be and our clients can already see the difference!