Situation: A CEO wants to determine whether and to what extent his company’s service model is scalable. He wants to determine whether it is possible to add additional clients by adjusting the ratio of clients to staff. The tricky part is determining whether the company can increase the client to staff ratio while minimizing the impact on client service. This is critical because client service is the company’s “secret sauce”. How do you balance scalable growth with quality service?

• Start by profiling the current client base from high to low maintenance. For example, set up a grid with axes of sophistication and frequency of desired contact as follows:
  • A – unsophisticated and desire frequent contact
  • B – sophisticated and desire frequent contact
  • C – unsophisticated and desire infrequent contact
  • D – sophisticated and desire infrequent contact
• Analyze the client base and assign each current or new client to category A, B, C or D.
• Distribute client relationships so that no member of the team has too many A’s. This may make it possible to assign more clients to each staff member.
• Also consider matching staff to client type. Some staff may be better working with unsophisticated clients, while others are more adept with sophisticated clients.
• As this model is developed and built, try different alternatives for matching staff to clients. This can help to identify additional alternatives for achieving the company’s objective.

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