Business Management

“A policy is a plan of action to guide decisions and actions. The term may apply to government, private sector organizations and groups, and individuals. The policy process includes the identification of different alternatives, such as programs or spending priorities, and choosing among them on the basis of the impact they will have. Policies can be understood as political, management, financial, and administrative mechanisms arranged to reach explicit goals. (en . wikipedia . org/wiki/Policy)” Company policies can be used in a wide area. An interesting example is one from a private company, they have been very thorough: www . simplysoaps . com/uk/custom.aspx?id=3
Policies are useful when you are dealing with structural changes. A government for example might want to guide the continuous traffic problems in the big cities knowing that traffic will grow and space will become scarcer. A policy in that area could be to favor public transport and fund this by charging on private transport for parking.
Larger companies have “traffic” problems too. You will find e-mail traffic, phone, post and normal face to face client contact (traffic). These cause all different kinds of flows from clients to agents and back. This shouldn’t be a problem but it may become a problem if you cannot predict the various flows. One day there is a lot of internet traffic, the next day phones are overloaded and yet another day, when you have hired extra employees, the phone queue is empty. Policy and pricing go hand in hand. Providing a free phone number – for client to call you --will attract a lot of traffic, but costs and benefits should always balance. Making your business self-serving could be policy. Internet will be the main platform and all extras -- for clients and prospects who want additional help and care – will be charged as such.
Policies are useful when dealing with complex situations where they support the organization with guidelines that simplify the decision making process. Therefore you should handle these with care and evaluate them frequently so that they will not serve an own goal. Policies should help you business and your client basically because you are clear and straightforward about how you run your business.