These Technologies Can Help Your Small Business Stay Competitive

By Lorcan Malone

If you’re a seasoned entrepreneur, you’ve undoubtedly noticed the rise of small business-focused tools and technology over the past few years, particularly when it comes to sales and marketing. While many of the tenets of small business success remain constant—hard work, good planning, access to capital—technology can be a bit of a moving target.

Frankly, it can be a real challenge just trying to keep up with the latest software and devices; things seem to change so quickly!

Technology has revolutionized the way we do business and it’s already ushering in a fourth industrial revolution that will bring with it unprecedented levels of automation and artificial intelligence. In other words, we’re just getting started.

Of course, as a small business owner you can’t adopt every new innovation—you don’t have the time, money, or infrastructure to continually transform your business on the fly. So, in a sea of new tech promising to do everything from answer your phones to increase your sales tenfold, what technology should you adopt to stay competitive?

First, consider your customers, the lifeblood of your business. What do they expect from you in terms of communication and customer service? Think beyond your current customer interaction strategy; instead focus on how you would approach customer communication if you had the resources available. Only then can you determine the technology you might need to execute that strategy.

How do your customers prefer to hear from you? Is it via a phone call, email, text message, in-person visit—or some combination of the above? When are they most likely to be receptive to your communication? Is it during the week or on the weekends? Mornings or evenings? Would they rather have a conversation or receive a response in writing?

This is valuable information your small business can potentially capture and analyze based on previous interactions. You just need the right technology that can store those details while allowing you the flexibility to reference them from anywhere using cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software. With the right cloud-based CRM tool, you and anyone else on your team can quickly and easily access important customer data from any desktop computer, smartphone, or tablet.

Your small business can no longer afford to keep such communication details on note cards, Excel spreadsheets, or Word documents. The information is too important—it must be aggregated and analyzed to determine the best way to communicate with current and prospective customers.

Consider this: Wouldn’t you want everyone on your team to have that kind of complete information about a customer before they respond to them? Before they reach out for a sale? Before they address a problem?

I’ll assume your answer is yes! This is where technology really has made it much easier to meet customer expectations more quickly, with greater accuracy. It’s important to recognize their preferences and proceed accordingly, so they feel valued and well served. Effective communication with clients is key to increasing profits and maintaining a competitive advantage.

When customers contact your company, they expect the employee receiving their communication to know their history and personal details. They don’t have the patience to explain their unique situation or problem multiple times, to multiple different people. Once they provide their information, they expect anyone who deals with them to be fully capable of assistance and picking up where the previous person left off.

When customers visit your website, they also expect to find a place for them to provide their contact details and receive updates or offers from your business. They expect online interactions to be precise and efficient with a personal touch.

To sum it up, from a customer standpoint, expectations are high for small business technology to be on par with larger enterprises. No longer do customers set expectations for customer service and communication based on the size of the organization. Be it online, on the phone, or via electronic communication, how can you utilize the right small business tool to give your consumers a remarkable customer experience?

When looking at small business customer service technology, automation and email marketing solutions can be very helpful. Research by Salesforce shows that 67% of small businesses which use marketing automation rate it as very effective or effective.

Furthermore, you may want to give each of your customers customer personalized attention; the right technology can help you deliver high-touch service, even if you have limited time, staff, and resources. If your customers prefer connecting through email and you’re not reaching them through that avenue, you may be missing out on some of the best marketing ROI.

Times are indeed changing, and so, too, are your customers’ expectations. Most small businesses cannot afford to operate as they have in years past. The good news is that serving your customers well and leaving new prospects with a positive impression has never been easier to do—with the right technology.

Post by: Lorcan Malone

Lorcan Malone is president and COO at Swiftpage. He has over 20 years of industry experience working with companies around the world, delivering major IT solutions for Fortune 100 organizations, implementing high-profile e-government initiatives, and selling and delivering large scale outsourcing and IT transformation projects. Lorcan was previously VP for Infor CRM and, prior to that, served as SVP and GM for Swiftpage’s Saleslogix software, and GM at Sage CRM. Prior to joining Sage, Lorcan held a number of senior level positions at IT services company Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in Ireland and the Middle East, including Managing Director EDS Ireland and regional manager for EDS Middle East and North Africa. Lorcan was also the Chief Operating Officer of Injazat Data Systems based in Abu Dhabi. Lorcan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from University College Dublin.

Company: Swiftpage
Website: www.act.com
Connect with me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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