For small business owners, being a mom-and-pop operation may be part of your business’s charm. Be that as it may, there is nothing charming about losing to the competition. The world of technology has gone digital, fiber optic, and smart—and business has evolved right along with it.
Being a small-business owner means that you have a smaller budget than mid-sized and large corporations. Don’t let the big buck blues get you down. With the abundance of new technological wizardry, there are plenty of affordable—and even free-—products to enhance your business. Continue reading to see what tech you must-have for your small business.
Home and Office Automation Technology
As a small-business owner, the greatest responsibility you have is to protect your business. In a perfect world, you wouldn’t have to worry about that. In this real world, you should be wary of people whose interests conflict with your business’s security.
Personal assistant technology allows you to control your security system and utilities from your smartphone. You can check your security cameras, lock doors, and control your lights and thermostat from anywhere your phone gets reception.
Smart speakers like the Amazon Echo or Google Home have made themselves at home in homes across America. Whether or not you’ve invited Alexa or Google into your home, you should try them for your business.
Amazon recently rolled out an app called Alexa Blueprints for Business. It’s an app that allows you to create business skills for Alexa without doing any coding. This new app enables you to turn Alexa into the office assistant of your dreams.
Customer Relations Management Software (CRM)
As a small-business owner, you’re acutely aware of the importance of great customer service to your bottom line. In the good old days, shop owners knew most of their customers by name. You may think that’s impractical in today’s lightning-round paced, comfort-gadget obsessed world, but there’s hope.
Ironically enough, technology—in the form of CRM—is the solution to how to connect with your customers like the good old days. CRM is software that makes customer data available for company personnel who deal directly with the customers.
Armed with information like your customers’ names, buying habits, and other personal details, you can engage customers like old friends. CRM helps you to tailor your service and marketing strategies to each individual customer. CRM systems have reached perfection – from small-scale personal CRM apps to huge systems that corporations can use. Expertise in your business’s market field is just something your customers expect. When you take that next step—getting to know your customers like your business—you’ll truly begin to set yourself apart from competitors.
Workforce Management Software (WFM)
After your customers, your employees are the most important people to the success of your business. Having the right people working in concert to make your customers’ experience the best it can be is key to your success. If you haven’t guessed it yet, there’s software for that.
WFM software helps you with hiring, makes it easier to update team members on directives, and helps track employee performance. It’s technology to get your team working like a well-oiled machine.
Help desk software like Trello and Slack allow you to delegate day-to-day operations and stay updated on their progress. Some vendors even offer free, cloud-based versions of this software.
Employ candidate assessment software to sift through prospects to find the most qualified and best-fit person for the job. In this brave new world, you can manage employee workflow, recruit candidates, and keep your team connected through WFM tech.
Be the type of small-business owner who thinks big! Leverage technology to provide customer service your competitors will envy, build a great team, and protect and optimize your facilities.
______________________________________________________
Interesting related articles: