Peer-to-peer car sharing startup Car Next Door has doubled its marketplace revenue, with 100 per cent year-on-year growth since 2015. With that growth rate comes a lot of new hires, training and systems to make sure the organisation can handle the fast progression, while maintaining its reputation and work culture.
Car Next Door Chief Operating Officer Merryn Clancy explains how businesses can scale up, while minimising growing pains. Clancy said hiring new staff in a short period means businesses need to get it right. “First step is to really understand what you’re looking for in new team members,” she said. “If you are not getting the right candidates, you might need to go back to the job description and re-write it. Have a rigorous hiring process – first a phone screen, then an at-home test, interview, trial and finally meeting the team to make sure there is a cultural fit. It’s a big investment of time, but it’s worth it because hiring the wrong people is a huge setback.”
Training comes next, getting new members up to speedy quickly on products and services, and how the business communicates with its customers. Quality control is also important. “You should regularly be providing staff with feedback on specific interactions they’ve had with customers; what they’ve done well, and what needs improvement. If you’re doing it across a number of people, you should be able to identify trends, do group training or improve procedures and clarify policies so that you’re continuously improving your business and your team’s workflow.”
Alongside a great team of people, it is critical to ensure technology and systems are in play to support the team and customers. As the business grows, tools need may change. Finally, Clancy recommends keeping oversight in mind. “Make sure your day-to-day operations teams work as seamlessly as possible, whilst also ensuring that everyone across operations, customer service, marketing, communications and product are aware and engaged in our company goals. Making sure that we are all pulling in the same direction. It helps to have someone in this role, as it’s hard for busy team leaders and managers who are ‘in the trenches’ to have the time and headspace to take a high-level view.”
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