2016 is certainly an exciting time to be alive. It seems that every other day there’s some new software or gadget that the whole world raves about. Everyone’s feeling the rapid pace of technology, and as a business owner you should be too. There are countless ways you could be utilising modern technology to improve every aspect of your business. From HR to marketing to R&D, you’re at risk of falling behind the competition if you don’t use all the tech at your disposal.
Here are some of the big things you should be supporting with modern day tech:
First of all, data management and analytics. At one time, data analysis was something reserved for the corporate giants of the world. Now though, even the smallest of start-ups can benefit from collecting and analysing data. When you’re drawing on all the data you possibly can, you’ll be giving yourself access to some really valuable insights into the way your niche is changing. It will show you which marketing drives are being effective and which ones aren’t, which is the key to better sales figures. Once you can see the immediate effects of all your marketing efforts, customer conversion, retention and the all-round improvement of their experience becomes a lot easier. You may not know it, but you’re probably collecting a lot of important data as we speak. Start paying attention to the way your customers behave on your website, which products are the most popular and which ones barely sell at all. If you’re running a physical branch, then even having casual chats with your customers can give you some incredibly powerful insights. It’s still a good idea to go looking for data through things like customer satisfaction surveys. Whatever you do, you should be using data analytics software to ensure your it doesn’t go to waste!
Organising your HR can also become much easier with the implementation of certain technologies. Okay, if your business is fairly small, then HR probably isn’t a big deal. However, after you’ve grown somewhat and taken on enough employees, you’ll find yourself in the middle of an organisational nightmare! Getting through the recruitment drives is hard enough. From there, you may have to deal with staff who fall behind targets, abuse their annual or medical leave, steal supplies, and so on. At the same time, there will be some seriously promising professionals working at your company. Some of them will be doing more for the business than some of the people on your board! If your HR is disconnected and chaotic though, you’ll have a hard time identifying and developing these stars. If they don’t feel like their career is progressing, then they’ll be liable to leave for more fertile pastures. The key to good HR is tight monitoring, so make sure you’re using all the tech that can help you in this area. Start using cloud tech for submitting and reviewing completed work. This will help you keep tabs on how productive everyone is being. From there, you could consider things like FMLA tracking programs, which will show you how much your employee leave is costing the company as a whole.
Marketing automation is another class of technology which you should really be looking into. With more and more people buying things online, a lot of your customer base is going to be used to making purchases without ever interacting with a human. However, people still want to feel like they’re appreciated by the business. Take a moment to look at any big company’s social media pages, and you’ll see customers talking about their experiences with them – both good and bad. If you’re receiving these kinds of posts but not responding to them, then you’ll start to lose customers faster than you can imagine. With marketing automation, you’ll be able to take some of the time and effort out of your online marketing, while still being able to throw in that human touch which your customer base is going for. This may sound like a large and expensive move. However, all it really does is organise your consumer data in a clearer way. Forms, landing pages and list segmentation all come into play with marketing automation. If you want to identify customers who are ready to buy, and win over those who aren’t, then marketing automation is certainly something to consider.
There you have just three ways your business could benefit from more tech. As we move into the future, keep your eyes out. Being the first in your niche to use the next handy tool will give you a considerable edge!
