If you have ever felt that your business could be doing better but you’re worried about bringing in new technology in case it goes wrong, don’t be. The only thing you are achieving here is not growing your business – it is always worth trying new technology that will (or might) help you because you can learn how to use it properly and then boost your business easily. Without including new and improved technology in your business, you will find that your competitors are easily getting ahead of you.
Remember, running a business isn’t just about what you find most comfortable; it’s about creating an income for life, so you need to try new things from time to time and keep up to date with what is happening in the world of business tech. Here are some ways that you can use this fantastic technology to increase your productivity levels in your business.
Better Access To Information
Your employees are going to need to have access to plenty of company information if they are going work efficiently and productively for you. To start with, you are going to need to have a reliable way of storing this information. This could be a cloud-based option which is an entirely up to date way of keeping everything safe but also easily accessible to those who require it. Another option is a VPN (virtual private network) that all those who have been given access to can log into.
Backing up your information to an external hard drive is also a good idea; it’s another security measure that will, again, ensure that all of your hard work is kept safe. You can even turn your webpages into PDFs using DocRaptor API to give your employees every possible resource when it comes to impressing clients.
It’s frustrating for you and your employees to need something and not be able to find it, especially when there is an important meeting set up or a crucial presentation due. Therefore, the more reliable your store of information and the easier it is for your employees to get to it, the better. You will be able to vastly increase both employee and customer satisfaction, which, turn, can improve profits and authority.
Better Availability
Although a few decades ago it was possible to lock up at the end of the day and forget about work until the next morning – even if you owned the business itself – these days, that is not the case. Customers expect businesses to be open if not 24 hours a day seven days a week, then almost so. Technology will allow you to at least give the impression of always being available, even if you simply send out an automated message saying that you have received the message and that you will be in touch as soon as you open in the morning, for example. What customers don’t like is sending an email or leaving a phone message and then not hearing anything back at all – it can make them worry that their message hasn’t been received.
Other useful technology that can improve your availability is AI (artificial intelligence) in the form of a chatbot. A chatbot is a piece of software that will ‘speak’ to your customers and offer them solutions to any issues they may have. If the chatbot can’t help, the customer can be put through to someone who can, but using such technology can save a lot of time and manpower if the query is a simple one.
The option of working online through a VPN as mentioned above will also be a good thing in terms of your availability. You and your employees can work from anywhere at any time, so there will always be someone available. Homeworking gives your employees more freedom and comfort, and this can help make them more productive as well with greater job satisfaction.
Better Working Together
Technology can also improve and increase the productivity of working in a team because a collaboration suite such as G-Suite, Slack, or Microsoft Teams can enable those working together to discuss, plan, and implement their ideas, even if they are not in the same office. This means that teams dotted across the world can all work together with a central point of reference for any information that needs to be shared and any ideas that need to be discussed.
This is particularly helpful for those who might be less confident in speaking up in a face to face environment. They may feel more able to express their ideas and opinions in a chat-like space. This means that everyone is able to have a say, and as a result, better ideas will be brought to the table. Not only that, but these programs will eliminate the need to hold time-consuming meetings, plus it is easy to motivate your employees.
This, in particular, is an exciting development because it means that geographical location isn’t important anymore – as a business owner you can hire the best people to work for you, not just the best people who happen to live within an hour’s commute.
Better Customer Service
If all employees have access to the relevant information regarding a customer, they will be able to give excellent customer service every time. This will increase customer satisfaction because no matter who they get through to, either on the phone or through email, all the important facts (such as whether there is an ongoing issue that needs to be dealt with or what someone might have called about in the past – as well as details such as the customer’s name and address or account number) will be there at the click of a button. That means no waiting around for those details to be found, or having to go through the same information yet again.
Using a CRM solution will enable this to happen, giving your employees the confidence to communicate easily with any client who happens to get in touch.
