Small Business Tools You Should Embrace for Best Results
Digital tools will reap positive outcomes for your small business
Small business owners don’t have much time and they certainly don’t have time to play around with new tools. What you need is a set of small business tools that you know will work. Because, when you’re running a small business and you need something, you need it now.
We’re not going to mention too many specific tools. Rather, we’re going to point you in the right direction and encourage you to think about the needs of your business. Because every business is different. So, here are some ideas.
Customer relationship management
Customer relationship management (CRM) is the process by which a company manages its interactions with both current and future customers. It uses past interactions and data to analyze a client’s buying behavior and then makes recommendations for future purchases.
A CRM system helps companies to stay connected to customers, improve processes, and increase profits. A win-win-win for every small business.
We’ve recommended chatbots for small businesses before. But they’re so useful, we’ll recommend them again. And, there’s no arena where a chatbot is more useful than in CRM. Chatbots are compatible with several different messaging channels and apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Clickatell’s Touch is one of the small business tools which unifies chats from websites and social channels within one easy-to-use dashboard. It allows you to engage with all of your customers, wherever they are, and on the communication channel they prefer. It enables you to resolve customer queries, whether they come to you via your website, social networks or website chat app — and in no time! It’s also a tool that goes beyond technology trends and allows you, as a small business owner, to truly harness the power of technology to boost conversions and increase customer loyalty.
Related: Your Free Small Business Toolkit
Human resource assistance
Dealing with your staff members, even when you only have a few in the early days, can be challenging for small business owners. Recruitment, leave and resource management, payroll, performance evaluation, and more, are all essential components of a human resources role. It’s likely you’re handling all of these yourself. And that’s why you need that little bit of additional assistance. HR technology tools can do all of that and alleviate the daily pressures that come with employee management.
Chatting
It’s essential that you are in regular communication with your staff members. It’s become pretty common for small businesses to promote remote working to satisfy a modern workforce that craves flexibility, and to counter the downsides of increasingly congested cities. By making use of video conferencing via chatting technology tools like Skype and Slack, you can work with your team as if you’re all in the same office. The benefits of remote working are known, but the lack of contact can sometimes be negative for team members. By implementing smart live chat tools, you’ll be able to easily touch base about projects and keep track of the progress of various team members.
Project management
Project management tools allow you to keep all the information for a project in one space.
Emails, spreadsheets, the random note that John from the development team left on your desk last week… they can all be stored and accessed in one place with a project management tool.
It helps you to plan your and your team’s work, making the entire process simple and easy to manage. It can also act as a collaboration and coordination tool as it allows you to share feedback and updates. This is also helpful to ensure projects are completed on time and on budget. It can also let you know which tasks should be prioritized over others. Many systems offer mobile apps so that team members can be kept updated on the progress of their projects while they’re on the go.
Financial assistance
Every small business owner needs a little help with the financial side of things every now and then. It can be more than a little tough to manage all that owning a business entails while trying to keep up to date with the legalities involved in taxes, paying staff correctly, ensuring vendors are paid in full and on time, and so much more. Luckily, with everything involved in digital business, as everything is these days, there are small business tools for that. It’s safe to say that the way your small business is run, is far more technically savvy than it once would have been.
It can be tempting to explore each and every new technology trend as they flood the market. They all just seem so appealing. The creators of these small business tools are so effusive in the descriptions and praise of their products. But, it’s also important not to allow yourself to become too distracted. As a small business owner, it’s likely you’re wearing many hats, studying data analytics, alternative business models, and emerging technologies. So, keep focused and try to spend more time finding the right small business tools for your business needs. Look at the tried and tested tools and get recommendations from your peers, for example. Test those out first before just diving into trying out every small business tool available.
One thing is certain — embracing machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) is a very important part of the process. If you’re interested in reading more about chatbots and why SMEs should embrace them, read our recent article. It explores the incorrect perception that chatbots are only being used by big business, and why every business — no matter the size, can and should make use of them.
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