The Most Important Job

If you ask ten different people what is the most important job within a business you will likely get ten different answers.  The salesman will say making sales, because without sales there would be no business, the accountant will say invoicing customers because without asking for money there would be no income, the production team will say making the product, because without the product there is nothing to sell.

But there is one task that EVERY role within a business needs to do, and if it is not done properly it can bring a business to its knees!

FILING!

Filing is the one job that most people loathe in the office, it’s boring, unglamorous, and the job that is always left until last, as though it has little importance.  But in fact the opposite is true.

The salesman would not be able to make sales if he did not keep a record of his contacts, their names and addresses and previous purchases.  The accountant would not be able to invoice for goods if there was no record of the sale being made and the production team would not be able to make the product if there was no record of an order being placed.

With every step of the journey, from first contact with a potential customer, through to producing their order, and onto invoicing and receiving payment there is filing to be done.  Some of it will be traditional filing i.e. placing physical pieces of paper into a file in order but nowadays there is a lot of information stored electronically which also needs to be filed, such as organizing emails into folders.  Other filing jobs will be collating paperwork to send on to the next department for processing.

And while everything is running smoothly, the filing will always seem to be the least important job, but when things go wrong its value becomes clear.

When you receive a complaint from a customer because something has gone wrong with their order you will need to know where all the paperwork for their order is being kept. You will need to know what has been agreed for every step of the sales journey for this particular job, you will need the invoice and the despatch note and the courier’s consignment note, and you will need them fast!

Your customer will not want to wait for half a day while you gather paperwork before you can even think about solving the problem.  They will expect an answer immediately, while they are on the phone, and having all of their information filed properly will allow you to explore a solution while they wait.

Mistakes happen, and things do go wrong, but what matters is how quickly it can be put right.

If you need help ploughing thought a filing backlog, or want some advice on how to set up filing systems please email jamie@jamiegoodenough.co.uk