What’s the impact to your bottom line when an employee screws up?

This is a follow-up to last week’s post about my customer experience with the Salvation Army.   Yes, customer experience. They may be a non-profit, but they are big business ($2.9 billion in revenues in 2015) and they rely on donors for their success.

What’s the negative impact to the Salvation Army because of my disappointment? It’s a double whammy: lost revenue and added expenses.

Here’s what that screw-up cost them from the revenue side:

• I will never call them again to donate furniture = definite lost revenue
• I am telling everyone I know about how they screwed up = potential lost revenue
• I will not donate money to them = lost short-term revenue
• I will not consider them in any legacy planning I do = lost long-term revenue

Hard, but not impossible, to put a dollar value on that. Here’s a stab at it:

According to the Salvation Army website,

• 10 million people donated in-kind donations this past year.
• The value of that in 2015 was close to $565 million.

So an average annual donation of in-kind gifts brings in approximately $56.50 to the SA.

If 10 people that I tell about my experience don’t donate again, that’s another loss of $565 per year.

And that’s just for one year. Multiply that over my and my friends donating lifetime and it gets up there.

Here’s what it costs them from the added expenses side:

• training costs for the new hire when the employee gets fired or quits,
• loss of productivity during the training process,
• loss of productivity during the first 6-12 months of the new person’s employment due to the newbie getting up to speed,
• unemployment compensation insurance rates go up the more people claim unemployment.

Money touches every part of your business. CFO services don’t just include review and approval of the bookkeeper’s work, consultation with the CPA for the best tax advice, or communicating key performance indicators and metrics to the owner. That’s just the beginning. Financial operations management is so much more

Because what gets tracked gets noticed and acted upon, I quantify the hidden costs of doing business, so the owner can make better decisions about policies and procedures.

Are you wanting to take a clear look at your numbers? If so, take the first step and schedule a Financial Clarity Call with me.

Here’s to your financial health.

Best, Monique