Keep Your Staff Informed

Lack of communication in a business produces many negative results, one of which is lower productivity. It also makes for disconnected employees. One tough area for businesses to keep each employee well informed is in the area of vendor management. The only constant is change. New vendors come and go. You need tools to complete the job, but not everyone knows about them. How do you keep your staff on the same page?

Here are a few practical things you can do to keep your staff informed of new vendors:

• If you have a small company, hold a quick staff meeting with a short vendor introduction and share their specific purpose for the company. Also share key vendor contact information.
• If you have a larger company, consider breaking the news in smaller groups like departments. Let VP's or senior management roll out an official announcement to their staff.
• Write a personal letter or email. Email can serve as a non-intrusive, repeat reminder leading up to the launch of the new vendor.
• Consider using a client onboarding packet to inform your staff.

Doing the hard work upfront to keep your staff informed will save you time and money (and hopefully confusion) on the back end. This will also greatly increase consumer confidence because all of your staff is well informed. When a consumer calls your office from a collection notice or call, your staff is equipped with the knowledge of your vendor and can communicate that clearly to the consumer. Consider ways to smooth out how you communicate change to your employees.