Short-Term Cost Cutting Is Not The Long-Term Solution

11th October 22

Cost cutting sounds like a great idea at first, especially if you believe you can find short-term ways of doing it. 

But if your business is already a lean operation, with no surplus to cut, short-term fixes could be detrimental. For example, it could mean:

• Your customer satisfaction levels take a hit and customers are not looked after as well as before
• Reduced output quality causes your overall standards to dip 
• Certain jobs don’t get done and vital things could be missed

Cost cutting continually can cause damage to your brand, and eventually impact negatively on your revenue.

Our recommendation is to search for a long-term solution that your business can adopt and stick-to for a much longer period of time. We offer a range of services, specifically designed to improve business efficiency, gain critical insights and discover new opportunities.

But are there any “quick wins” I can implement?

We do, however, appreciate the need for “quick wins”. Good operators are always on the lookout for tweaks and changes that will improve what they do. Here are a few examples of where you may find opportunities:

• Is there anything you could stop doing? For instance, are there parts of your operation that are not as central to your strategy and important to your customers as other areas? Review what your teams do and understand what it would mean for the operation if you stopped it – or at least did it less often
• Speak to your team – Ultimately, they are the ones dealing with systems and processes every day and so they know where the sticking points lie. Creating a culture that enables colleagues to suggest changes and improvement opportunities brings wider engagement benefits as well as surfacing good ideas
• Can you cut down on admin? For example, is every report needed? Is there scope to cut back on the number of internal emails, calls and meetings? Can external phone calls be moved away from the local stores to a centralised team, improving service for in-store customers, as well as leading to a quicker response time for the caller?

We strongly recommend reviewing your operation regularly to discover “quick wins” – it is a great way to keep things agile and enable you to respond to changing customer expectations, as well as competitive markets.

Want to know more? Download our whitepaper for practical know-how and advice on finding productivity “quick wins”.

Need some help? 

There are many reasons why a business needs to think about cost cutting. If you’re in this position and you’d like some guidance, get in touch with our team of business improvement consultants.