During this busiest time of year it is very important that CPA firms focus on client service as a large percentage of client interactions will take place over the next few months. Great client service is all about managing your client's expectations about your fees and then doing what you say you will do rather than having them form in their mind their expectation of your services and fees. Why leave this to chance? Most client disagreements involve fees. In this first of several articles on client service I discuss fees and their impact on client expectations and client service.
Fees
Most conversations with clients about fee disputes occur after the engagement has been completed which puts many accountants on the defensive. Have you had some of these discussions?
"I had no idea it was going to cost this much".
"You said the fee would be between $20,000 and $25,000 and now you're billing me $40,000".
"My fee was $7,500 last year and now you're billing me $10,000".
Clients don't like to be surprised with your fees just as you don't like to be surprised by professionals you engage. Here are five things you can do immediately to substantially eliminate the confusion and misunderstandings with clients about your fees.
1. Stop quoting fee ranges. The moment you quote a range you are setting your client's expectation for the maximum fee. Rather than say "We estimate our fee will be between $10,000 and $12,000" use the phrase "We estimate our fee could be $12,000 or more". This dialog helps to eliminate the upper limit fee expectation and allows you to have a discussion with your client if additional fees are warranted. In all of my years of practice I very seldom experienced an engagement where we were at the lower end of the fee estimate so why even include it in your quote. If a client insists on a maximum fee be sure to build in the contingencies you might experience during the engagement. Fee estimates always need to be realistic rather than overly optimistic.
2. Initiate the conversation about fees with all of your clients. Draft a general letter about fees that you can include with your engagement letters and in addition formalize and distribute a copy of your firm wide credit policy. The general letter about fees should start with a discussion that you want every client to receive the maximum value for the fees they pay and that there are certain instances where this can occur. Follow with examples of how additional fees are often incurred. These examples might include incorrect accounting records, incorrect accounting methods, failure to provide agreed upon information and starting and stopping work. If you need an example please send an email to Steve@SteveEricksonLLC.com with the subject line Fee Letter and I will send you one.
Another essential document is a Firm Credit Policy. It should cover your receivable policy, interest on unpaid balances and the fact that the firm will stop work if payments are not made as agreed to in your engagement letter (this is not a substitute to having a stop work clause or receivable terms in your engagement letters) simply it is a document that partners can use to take the edge off of fee conversations with long standing clients. "The partners of the firm have agreed to abide by our firm credit policy. I have no ability to override the policy". Of course you want to be sure that your credit policy is in compliance with the laws of your state.
3. Negotiate the scope of work not your fees. The moment you agree to unilaterally reduce your fees you then have lower fees. I'm encouraging my clients to negotiate the scope of services rather than just lowering fees without consideration. If clients continue to insist on a unilateral fee reduction consider calling the reduction a "2010 Recession Rebate" so you don't permanently reduce your fees. I know that times are tough out there but firms really have to look at their pricing decisions strategically for the long-term viability of their practice.
4. Use scheduled billing techniques. The only thing worse than doing work for a substantially reduced fee is doing the work and not getting paid. Firms need to stop extending excessive credit. Get retainers (50% of estimated fee is due before starting work, the balance is due upon delivery of the product) especially for new work. Use scheduled billing techniques for larger engagements (i.e. 30% now, 30% in one month, 30% in 2nd month and 10% due upon delivery of the product) to mitigate your risk. Before discounting your fees please consider how you have to pay just about any service provider you engage. I can't think of too many that don't get some money before they start work. After you deliver the work many clients think there is no rush to pay until they need more services.
5. Call before sending an unexpected bill. The absolutely biggest fee mistake an accountant can make is to send a client a big bill that they didn't expect. I've actually seen cases where clients refuse to pay anything until they have the invoice adjusted in their favor. If you find yourself in the situation where you have cost overruns that have not been discussed with the client rather than just sending the invoice (I call these letter bombs) and wait for the client's reaction make a call before you send the bill. The conversation might go something like this, "Mr. Jones I was just going through the time on your engagement and wanted to explain why we were over our budget estimate. (explanation here) Before I prepare the bill I wanted to make sure you understood what happened". At this point there are three possible outcomes.
a. The client tells you they understand and to send the bill. You get paid.
b. The client wants to negotiate the overrun. You agree on an amount, send the bill and get paid.
c. The client informs you that your engagement letter stated that you would inform them before incurring any fees in excess of the estimate. You did not inform them and they will not pay for the excess. Send the bill for the estimated fee and get paid. Evaluate the client relationship and decide if you want to provide further services.
For many years I have contemplated why it is so difficult for accountants to discuss fees with their clients and have come to the conclusion that most don't like conflict and don't want to risk their client relationships. In my opinion not talking about fees with your clients leads to a much greater likelihood that misunderstandings, hard feelings and the loss of clients will occur. It is very important that both the client and the accountant feel they are getting a fair deal if the desire is to perpetuate a long-term relationship.
It takes a little time to deal with client fee issues but the rewards are well worth the effort. Become not only a great biller but also a great collector of fees and watch your stock in your firm soar. Here's wishing you a prosperous 2010.
The Profitable CPA Firm . . . A creative forum for moving your CPA firm to 50% profitability.
Showing posts with label cpa profitability. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cpa profitability. Show all posts
February 10, 2010
November 29, 2009
Actively Manage Your Practice for Higher Profits in 2010
Many accounting firms are managed by continually looking at past events to analyze their practice and make business decisions. Whether it is discovering job overruns in their work-in-process that can’t be billed or reading their financial statements 3 or 4 weeks after month end only to discover that significant losses were incurred the previous month. These events are history at that point in time and cannot be changed. The conversations between partners and employees usually focus on finding fault and to blame the guilty parties. Have you had many of these conversations lately?
• “Why do we have all of this extra time in the ABC audit”?
• “We did this return in 8 hours last year. Why did it take (pick a time) this year”?
• “What happened last month? I had no idea we were going to lose so much money”.
• “Why did (pick a name) only have (pick a number) charge hours last month”?
• “Why did we have such a bad year”?
• And the list goes on
These are not productive conversations. It takes time, spends emotional energy and costs money to measure and respond after the fact or event, waiting to see what has happened and then reacting. Passive management is very costly, especially during these economic times when business decisions need to be made sooner rather than later.
It is most difficult to run any business successfully without current information, defined roles and responsibilities and communicated decision rights. Yet in many public accounting firms this is the case as typically there isn’t the availability of current information, especially concerning hours, budgets and production, roles are confused and in many instances people in the field defer significant responsibility for the job to the partner or manager back in the office. This lack of responsibility does not work in these times of rapid change and economic turmoil as significant economic events often take place quickly. To support this fact you only have to look at what has taken place in the profession since the end of tax season last April. In many firms revenues are off 5%-20% for the year as clients hold back on their discretionary plans and transactions and limit their spending for accounting, auditing and especially consulting services. Requested fee concessions have become routine. In many cases relationships between accountants and their clients have become strained as loyalties have been set aside as competing firms bid for the work at ever lower fees. Where will it stop? I don’t know but I do know that salaries and benefits are now approaching 50% and in some cases exceeding 50% of net collected fees and utilization percentages are near an all time low. The present accounting firm fee structures and costing strategies cannot be sustained in the long term. 2010 is the year to start actively managing your practice for profitability and success.
Active Practice Management
Active management techniques do not require more people or ever increasing layers of management. It does require individual accountability and self-management. Start your profit planning process now by gaining agreement on what needs to be accomplished in 2010 and how it will be done. Here’s what I consider are some the most important profit improvement steps.
Take Action Now
1. Have every partner prepare a plan for 2010 by month which includes net fees by month, hours managed by month and a budget of their time by month. The total of these partner plans will equal the revenue and production budget for 2010 by month. If you need examples of a plan email me Steve@SteveEricksonLLC.com with the subject line Partner Plan and I will send you a detailed excel worksheet.
2. Have every employee prepare an annual plan for 2010 by month that includes charge hours, marketing hours, admin hours and personal time.
3. Prepare a firm wide budget by month for 2010. As the months pass add on another month and make a rolling monthly budget your format.
4. Adopt a firm wide credit policy. Profitable firms must not over extend credit in these difficult times. Also collect your money sooner by using a payment schedule to get payment in advance of the work rather than after the fact. Make sure you are using “stop work” clauses in your engagement letters to limit losses for those clients that can’t pay.
5. Adopt and implement a change order process and use it! “Scope creep” is rampant in auditing and you must manage the process and your clients’ expectations.
6. Prepare budgets for all jobs. Make sure that everyone in your firm understands what is expected of them. Schedule weekly and make sure everyone has something to do.
7. Manage and limit time wasters. Meetings and email waste more time than just about anything else. Hold more efficient meetings and teach your staff how to manage their time and email.
Take Action Monthly in 2010
1. Drive monthly revenue and production goals by managing weekly performance by partner, employee and job.
2. Modify the budget for changes and unforeseen events that invariably happen.
3. Schedule! Schedule! Schedule! Resource management has never been more important. On average the loss of 20 minutes per day per person represents over 5% of your net revenue. The little things have a huge impact on profitability. Keep people scheduled and working.
4. Make sure everyone in the firm knows their assigned roles and responsibilities.
5. Revisit your plans regularly and adjust the rudder. People are dynamic and plans need to be dynamic to make sure they continue to be relevant.
Profitability will soar by managing in the present and making sound decisions for the future. Yes we learn from the past but we want to keep the cost of that education (school of hard knocks) to a minimum. Wishing you improved profitability in 2010!
• “Why do we have all of this extra time in the ABC audit”?
• “We did this return in 8 hours last year. Why did it take (pick a time) this year”?
• “What happened last month? I had no idea we were going to lose so much money”.
• “Why did (pick a name) only have (pick a number) charge hours last month”?
• “Why did we have such a bad year”?
• And the list goes on
These are not productive conversations. It takes time, spends emotional energy and costs money to measure and respond after the fact or event, waiting to see what has happened and then reacting. Passive management is very costly, especially during these economic times when business decisions need to be made sooner rather than later.
It is most difficult to run any business successfully without current information, defined roles and responsibilities and communicated decision rights. Yet in many public accounting firms this is the case as typically there isn’t the availability of current information, especially concerning hours, budgets and production, roles are confused and in many instances people in the field defer significant responsibility for the job to the partner or manager back in the office. This lack of responsibility does not work in these times of rapid change and economic turmoil as significant economic events often take place quickly. To support this fact you only have to look at what has taken place in the profession since the end of tax season last April. In many firms revenues are off 5%-20% for the year as clients hold back on their discretionary plans and transactions and limit their spending for accounting, auditing and especially consulting services. Requested fee concessions have become routine. In many cases relationships between accountants and their clients have become strained as loyalties have been set aside as competing firms bid for the work at ever lower fees. Where will it stop? I don’t know but I do know that salaries and benefits are now approaching 50% and in some cases exceeding 50% of net collected fees and utilization percentages are near an all time low. The present accounting firm fee structures and costing strategies cannot be sustained in the long term. 2010 is the year to start actively managing your practice for profitability and success.
Active Practice Management
Active management techniques do not require more people or ever increasing layers of management. It does require individual accountability and self-management. Start your profit planning process now by gaining agreement on what needs to be accomplished in 2010 and how it will be done. Here’s what I consider are some the most important profit improvement steps.
Take Action Now
1. Have every partner prepare a plan for 2010 by month which includes net fees by month, hours managed by month and a budget of their time by month. The total of these partner plans will equal the revenue and production budget for 2010 by month. If you need examples of a plan email me Steve@SteveEricksonLLC.com with the subject line Partner Plan and I will send you a detailed excel worksheet.
2. Have every employee prepare an annual plan for 2010 by month that includes charge hours, marketing hours, admin hours and personal time.
3. Prepare a firm wide budget by month for 2010. As the months pass add on another month and make a rolling monthly budget your format.
4. Adopt a firm wide credit policy. Profitable firms must not over extend credit in these difficult times. Also collect your money sooner by using a payment schedule to get payment in advance of the work rather than after the fact. Make sure you are using “stop work” clauses in your engagement letters to limit losses for those clients that can’t pay.
5. Adopt and implement a change order process and use it! “Scope creep” is rampant in auditing and you must manage the process and your clients’ expectations.
6. Prepare budgets for all jobs. Make sure that everyone in your firm understands what is expected of them. Schedule weekly and make sure everyone has something to do.
7. Manage and limit time wasters. Meetings and email waste more time than just about anything else. Hold more efficient meetings and teach your staff how to manage their time and email.
Take Action Monthly in 2010
1. Drive monthly revenue and production goals by managing weekly performance by partner, employee and job.
2. Modify the budget for changes and unforeseen events that invariably happen.
3. Schedule! Schedule! Schedule! Resource management has never been more important. On average the loss of 20 minutes per day per person represents over 5% of your net revenue. The little things have a huge impact on profitability. Keep people scheduled and working.
4. Make sure everyone in the firm knows their assigned roles and responsibilities.
5. Revisit your plans regularly and adjust the rudder. People are dynamic and plans need to be dynamic to make sure they continue to be relevant.
Profitability will soar by managing in the present and making sound decisions for the future. Yes we learn from the past but we want to keep the cost of that education (school of hard knocks) to a minimum. Wishing you improved profitability in 2010!
July 13, 2009
HOW TO REALLY DIFFERENTIATE YOURSELF AND YOUR FIRM
When I’m working at a retreat, a seminar or speaking at a conference just about everyone in attendance rushes out of the door at the break and immediately calls their voice mail. Once they come back in the room I usually ask them why they are so tied to their voice mail and now email. The answer is always the same, “To provide my clients with great client service” but is this really the case? More often than not there eventually will be a client service failure when an individual tries to use a reactionary client service strategy. This is especially true as an accountant grows their practice and their managed work increases significantly. I wonder how an accountant can go to the office every day with the client service strategy that they are going to react to 50, 100 or even more clients they are serving.
EMERGENCY ROOM SERVICE MODEL
The reactionary service model is used in emergency rooms in hospitals; they staff up and wait to see who comes through the door. If you have been to an emergency room lately you have seen that during certain times there are few patients but on the weekend, especially during the night, the waiting area is overflowing and patients are upset about the length of time it will take to be seen. Does this sound like how it is around your office during the middle of tax season? We have the best of intentions however at these times we are just not able to deliver our services to our clients as well as we would like. Almost universally, managing partners tell me that the quality of their client service is not where they would like it to be.
There is one very big difference between our work and the work performed in an emergency room; our work is not dealing with life or death. Some client work might be urgent but most of the work we do is routine, predictable and can be scheduled. Why then are we using a very expensive and hard to manage client service model to deliver our services?
I DON’T KNOW WHEN THE CLIENT WILL GET THE INFORMATION TO ME
The greatest pushback I get from most accountants is that they simply don’t know when their clients will get required information to them. As a result most accountants must react to the actions of their clients rather than execute their own client service strategy which can be very risky. I like to improve my odds of being successful more often rather than less often. In my opinion outstanding client service is the one true differentiator of compliance based practices. Outstanding client service involves defining and then managing your client’s expectations about your services. If you don’t take the time to tell them what to expect they will develop their own expectations which in many cases is not reality.
MANAGING CLIENT EXPECTATIONS
Several years ago my wife had to have some very serious surgery and was understandably worried, concerned and anxious. On the morning of the surgery her young surgeon visited her in the pre-op area of the hospital and we both listened intently as he told us about the surgery and how he planned to accomplish it successfully, what would happen in the recovery room, the pain management epidural in her back that would be used for 3 days and how she would experience significantly increased pain when they removed it and finally, how they would use oral pain medications to again control the pain. He literally painted a picture of the process and clearly managed our expectations and on the third day after surgery when they removed the epidural and she began to experience significant pain I was able to reassure her that it was only temporary and to try to relax and not panic. This young surgeon was a master at managing client expectations; wise beyond his years. It then struck me “This is one reason we don’t always meet client expectations in public accounting because we don’t tell them what to expect”. How could anyone know exactly what our services are and how they will be provided unless we tell them?
SETTING EXPECTATIONS
Partners tell me that they aren’t able to communicate client service expectations to their clients mainly citing three reasons:
1. My clients will not comply with my expectations as to when I will receive their information so why try.
2. If I try to hold my clients accountable and responsible for their required information they might choose to use another accountant that won’t have such a requirement.
3. What happens if we can’t perform as promised?
After hearing these excuses I usually ask them what would happen if they had a dental appointment today and called their dentist stating they couldn’t be there for today’s appointment but will be able to be there at the same time tomorrow. Of course they laugh and say that’s not possible as it might take a month or two to get another non-emergency appointment. This is just my point. The dentist and for that matter most other professionals are better at managing their client’s expectations. Would we change dentists if they told us we couldn’t have another appointment at the same time tomorrow? Of course not as we value the relationship we have with them. As a profession we need to get much better at managing our routine services and not making every engagement a fire drill. Getting the work done becomes too stressful, our employees burn out and our client service suffers.
DIFFERENTIATE YOURSELF AND YOUR FIRM
Delivering a quality product is the minimum ethical and legal requirement for CPAs. Delivering that minimum requirement makes a firm just like everyone else. I do know that a few firms have quality issues but that is clearly a much greater problem than being differentiated in the marketplace. If you really want to stand out in the crowded world of public accounting you have to have client service at a level significantly higher than your competition.
CLIENT SERVICE
As Susan Scott says in her great book Fierce Conversations, you must have great conversations to have great relationships. Break through service starts by having great conversations with your clients. When was the last time you sat down with your best clients off the clock and had a conversation like this?
I want to provide you with the absolute best service and the greatest value possible for the fees you pay me. In order to meet that objective I need to know what decisions you anticipate having to make in the near future and in the long-term with regard to your personal goals and your business?
These conversations are essential because they define your client’s current life situation and their value perspective. Without the conversation you can only speculate about what is really important to them.
After learning more about what they want and where they are going you can participate by helping them get where they want to go and achieve their goals. Your value will skyrocket in the eyes of the client as their perception of your service increases.
Action steps to differentiate yourself and your firm.
• Over deliver and under promise
• Explain your service to your clients
• Change your voicemail daily telling your clients about your availability
• Schedule time to meet with your clients to discuss their life and how you can help
• Pick up the telephone and call your clients to discuss your services. Email isn’t as nearly as effective
• Create a culture of client service in your firm
• Survey your clients and make it easy for them to give you feedback
There are many more ideas to improve client service but these should give you a start.
AS always I would very much like your thoughts and feedback.
EMERGENCY ROOM SERVICE MODEL
The reactionary service model is used in emergency rooms in hospitals; they staff up and wait to see who comes through the door. If you have been to an emergency room lately you have seen that during certain times there are few patients but on the weekend, especially during the night, the waiting area is overflowing and patients are upset about the length of time it will take to be seen. Does this sound like how it is around your office during the middle of tax season? We have the best of intentions however at these times we are just not able to deliver our services to our clients as well as we would like. Almost universally, managing partners tell me that the quality of their client service is not where they would like it to be.
There is one very big difference between our work and the work performed in an emergency room; our work is not dealing with life or death. Some client work might be urgent but most of the work we do is routine, predictable and can be scheduled. Why then are we using a very expensive and hard to manage client service model to deliver our services?
I DON’T KNOW WHEN THE CLIENT WILL GET THE INFORMATION TO ME
The greatest pushback I get from most accountants is that they simply don’t know when their clients will get required information to them. As a result most accountants must react to the actions of their clients rather than execute their own client service strategy which can be very risky. I like to improve my odds of being successful more often rather than less often. In my opinion outstanding client service is the one true differentiator of compliance based practices. Outstanding client service involves defining and then managing your client’s expectations about your services. If you don’t take the time to tell them what to expect they will develop their own expectations which in many cases is not reality.
MANAGING CLIENT EXPECTATIONS
Several years ago my wife had to have some very serious surgery and was understandably worried, concerned and anxious. On the morning of the surgery her young surgeon visited her in the pre-op area of the hospital and we both listened intently as he told us about the surgery and how he planned to accomplish it successfully, what would happen in the recovery room, the pain management epidural in her back that would be used for 3 days and how she would experience significantly increased pain when they removed it and finally, how they would use oral pain medications to again control the pain. He literally painted a picture of the process and clearly managed our expectations and on the third day after surgery when they removed the epidural and she began to experience significant pain I was able to reassure her that it was only temporary and to try to relax and not panic. This young surgeon was a master at managing client expectations; wise beyond his years. It then struck me “This is one reason we don’t always meet client expectations in public accounting because we don’t tell them what to expect”. How could anyone know exactly what our services are and how they will be provided unless we tell them?
SETTING EXPECTATIONS
Partners tell me that they aren’t able to communicate client service expectations to their clients mainly citing three reasons:
1. My clients will not comply with my expectations as to when I will receive their information so why try.
2. If I try to hold my clients accountable and responsible for their required information they might choose to use another accountant that won’t have such a requirement.
3. What happens if we can’t perform as promised?
After hearing these excuses I usually ask them what would happen if they had a dental appointment today and called their dentist stating they couldn’t be there for today’s appointment but will be able to be there at the same time tomorrow. Of course they laugh and say that’s not possible as it might take a month or two to get another non-emergency appointment. This is just my point. The dentist and for that matter most other professionals are better at managing their client’s expectations. Would we change dentists if they told us we couldn’t have another appointment at the same time tomorrow? Of course not as we value the relationship we have with them. As a profession we need to get much better at managing our routine services and not making every engagement a fire drill. Getting the work done becomes too stressful, our employees burn out and our client service suffers.
DIFFERENTIATE YOURSELF AND YOUR FIRM
Delivering a quality product is the minimum ethical and legal requirement for CPAs. Delivering that minimum requirement makes a firm just like everyone else. I do know that a few firms have quality issues but that is clearly a much greater problem than being differentiated in the marketplace. If you really want to stand out in the crowded world of public accounting you have to have client service at a level significantly higher than your competition.
CLIENT SERVICE
As Susan Scott says in her great book Fierce Conversations, you must have great conversations to have great relationships. Break through service starts by having great conversations with your clients. When was the last time you sat down with your best clients off the clock and had a conversation like this?
I want to provide you with the absolute best service and the greatest value possible for the fees you pay me. In order to meet that objective I need to know what decisions you anticipate having to make in the near future and in the long-term with regard to your personal goals and your business?
These conversations are essential because they define your client’s current life situation and their value perspective. Without the conversation you can only speculate about what is really important to them.
After learning more about what they want and where they are going you can participate by helping them get where they want to go and achieve their goals. Your value will skyrocket in the eyes of the client as their perception of your service increases.
Action steps to differentiate yourself and your firm.
• Over deliver and under promise
• Explain your service to your clients
• Change your voicemail daily telling your clients about your availability
• Schedule time to meet with your clients to discuss their life and how you can help
• Pick up the telephone and call your clients to discuss your services. Email isn’t as nearly as effective
• Create a culture of client service in your firm
• Survey your clients and make it easy for them to give you feedback
There are many more ideas to improve client service but these should give you a start.
AS always I would very much like your thoughts and feedback.
March 27, 2009
IS 50% PROFITABILITY REALLY POSSIBLE?
Yes it is if you change the way that you do business. And this is what this blog is all about, finding ways to improve accounting firm profitability through process improvement, process efficiency, revenue enhancement and expense management. These improvements are necessary due to what I like to call the “perfect storm” that is now taking place in the profession: age and gender demographics, technology, labor costs and the commoditization of core services. CPAs will have to change the way they practice by better utilizing technology and redesigning processes. My premise is that as long as this transition is taking place why not seize this opportunity by redesigning the client service delivery model to increase profitability. Let’s start with some low hanging fruit.
Inefficiency
From current surveys of accounting firms the total utilization of all personnel in most public accounting firms range between 50% and 55%. This means that 45%+ of the total labor efforts in most firms is not being charged to clients and the value of these efforts are not being captured. Increasing the utilization by 5 percentage points (i.e. 50% to 55%) in a ten million dollar firm would drop an additional one million dollars to the bottom line.
The Question: What could you do to improve overall utilization in your firm?
My first thought is to schedule weekly to make sure everyone’s plate is full. After tax season you will start getting those “need work” emails usually from some of your less experienced staff. Keep them busy by requiring that more experienced people push down work that they shouldn’t be doing anyway. Hold a very brief scheduling meeting every Wednesday or Thursday afternoon for the following week. You want have everyone fully scheduled so they can hit the ground running on Monday morning. When firms implement this system 10% improvement in utilization is fairly common.
Inefficiency
From current surveys of accounting firms the total utilization of all personnel in most public accounting firms range between 50% and 55%. This means that 45%+ of the total labor efforts in most firms is not being charged to clients and the value of these efforts are not being captured. Increasing the utilization by 5 percentage points (i.e. 50% to 55%) in a ten million dollar firm would drop an additional one million dollars to the bottom line.
The Question: What could you do to improve overall utilization in your firm?
My first thought is to schedule weekly to make sure everyone’s plate is full. After tax season you will start getting those “need work” emails usually from some of your less experienced staff. Keep them busy by requiring that more experienced people push down work that they shouldn’t be doing anyway. Hold a very brief scheduling meeting every Wednesday or Thursday afternoon for the following week. You want have everyone fully scheduled so they can hit the ground running on Monday morning. When firms implement this system 10% improvement in utilization is fairly common.
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