If last year taught us anything, it was that small to medium businesses need to adapt to the times if they want to stay open. Social distancing and crowd restrictions drove all of us to figure out ways to retain our clientele without dealing with them face-to-face. Online business transactions, telecommuting, and third-party suppliers became the norm. In this new ecosystem, how can we focus on automating business processes and staying ahead of our competitors?
Future growth trends point to business automation in every department, contactless deliveries and transactions, and more remote employees and supply chains. To stay competitive, these are the directions we need to focus on.
The good news is that the future is here! Many large businesses are already fully automated, and their innovations are easily adaptable to your needs. Let’s look at some of the new automation trends to give your team ideas of where you can take your business.
AUTOMATE BUSINESS PROCESSES THROUGH AI
According to Google, AI supports three critical business needs:
- Automating business processes
- Gaining insight through data analysis
- Engaging with customers and employees
Whether or not you’re aware of it, AI is tracking and compiling your data and dispersing it to companies that want to use it. Right now, it’s mostly larger companies like Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft, because they can afford to develop it. Their innovations mean you can use the same technology for your business.
OPTIMIZE YOUR SALES AND MARKETING
Sales and marketing tasks go hand-in-hand, so it’s only natural that they work together to maximize customer data. Automated customer relationship management (CRM) programs gather customer information through engagement and actions. This data helps streamline your sales process and can also be used for marketing purposes. The compiled information helps track business trends, customer preferences, top-selling items, and a whole lot more.
Automating this process can also result in better lead generation. And the best news is that this efficient system can run at or below your current budget. Once you optimize the customer experience, you’ll be able to streamline the areas that bring in the most money. And that’s good for any business.
AUTOMATE PRICING AND BILLING
If you’ve been relying on one person to handle these tasks, and your business is growing, it may be time to investigate an automated process. While pricing is usually an internal decision (supply and demand, shipping costs, holding costs, display and web promoting, etc.), billing has been outsourced for years, especially in the medical field.
Outsourcing medical billing has been around for decades. And it makes sense. Doctors went to school to help save lives, not to check the insurance eligibility of their patients. And the HIPAA policy makes everything even more complicated. Billing automation lets medical professionals focus on what they need to do. Automating or outsourcing will help you too.
OUTSOURCE SERVICE AND SUPPORT
If you’re running a bakery or bookstore, chances are you’re not open 24/7. On the other hand, have you ever considered that you might be missing sales when someone tries to contact you during your off-hours?
Besides businesses that require 24-hour support (medical, automobile towing, IT managed services, to name a few), now is the time for everyone to establish a 24-hour presence. Do a little research and you’ll discover that a 24/7 answering service will cost you less than a full-time employee. And that person who answers your phone is only working 40 hours a week, minus vacation, sick time, and paid holidays. It’s worth it to make sure you never miss a call.
CREATE A VIRTUAL STOREFRONT
Every business has a website, but can your customers purchase your goods and services directly from your homepage? Without a strong web presence, you are limiting your business to local customers only when you can potentially have global customers. The internet never sleeps, and neither should your business.
Adding a storefront to your current website is not difficult at all. If you offer products or services that anyone can use, stop limiting yourself to the same group of customers. If the thought of expanding your reach makes you feel like you’re being pulled out of your comfort zone, remember that your competition has already done it. Follow the trends or you may be left behind.
AUTOMATING BUSINESS PROCESSES LEADS TO SCALABILITY
You may not be taking advantage of your workforce scalability. There has never been a better time to hire the best employees to work remotely, from just about anywhere. Here are a few of the benefits you’ll get from scaling your employees to your business needs:
- Hire staff per project
- Use the best people possible
- Set time limits on projects
- Get tasks done around the clock
- Reduce your office space
The biggest benefit you’ll see from this system is gaining control of your budget. By expanding and shrinking your employee pool you’re not wasting money in-between projects. This allows you to streamline your office staff and ramp-up as your projects require. Give it a try! It may be something simple to implement that creates great results.
It’s too early to tell if this year will be as challenging as the last one, but even if it’s not we still need to prepare for the worst. If you’re not sure how these business trends can save money and grow your business, remember that we are here to help. As a managed service provider, we can show you some of the latest business developments and solutions that just may be the answers you’ve been looking for. Contact us today and let’s talk about your future.
