When you think of business templates, you probably thought of templates that would be used by online businesses, accounting practices, even engineering firms. But, if you have a small, local business you probably said to yourself, “Templates can’t possibly help me.” You should reconsider this position.

Templates can be exceptionally valuable for all types of business. For example, a carpet cleaning company in Mobile, AL used our templates to improve how their technicians clean carpets. What do I mean by that?

They were having issues with customers complaining because the technicians weren’t being thorough enough with the cleaning. Sometimes they would skip steps, or skip areas that should have been cleaned. The result was a less than perfect finished product. The carpet cleaning company came to us ready to fire the offending technicians and really at a loss for how to manage the problem.

Our solution was simple. We created a template for their technicians to use. It was a step by step guide that brought them through every stage of the cleaning project. It included everything from first greeting the customer to walking through the job with the customer to ensure the scope was properly understood, all the way to a step-by-step guide to doing the work to ensure that nothing was missed or forgotten.

So before you dismiss the ability of templates to help your business improve how it runs, consider how helpful even something as simple a step by step guide for interacting with customers, or a training package for tasks that are done repeatedly in your business. I am confident that our templates can help your business, just like it helped the carpet cleaners in Mobile.

Consider creating your own templates by watching your best employees do the work. Take notes of what they’re doing, and what you would like them to do. Then create your own templates by writing everything down and using it so your employees are all doing the task the same as your best employees.