(Akiit.com) There are few businesses today that don’t run with some level of tech doing the work for them. As businesses grow, so do their reliance on the IT support essential to helping them team do their jobs. But a system that grows without too much planning can get unwieldy pretty quickly. So much so that your tech is causing you more problems than it is providing solutions. In this article, we’re going to look at how you get back on track with your tech.
Nailing your online presence
By now, everyone in business knows that online is the place to be. It gives you access to the broadest range of potential customers for a lot less effort than traditional marketing methods. If you have access to the internet, then you should be taking your business online. There are a lot of tools to use to make it even more effective, too. For instance, using search engine optimisation can make your business website significantly more visible to potential visitors. A strong site with content that’s updated regularly will give those visitors a lot more reason to keep returning, too. Make sure you’re using a broad strategy to hit those online customers in every way you can.
Get it to do more of your work
For a smart business owner, there’s one thing your IT setup can do best for you. That is to take the work right off your plate entirely or at least make it a lot easier to do. Automation is all the rage in businesses nowadays and it can help you eliminate a great deal of the busy work that might otherwise take up your important time. For one instance, it can drastically improve how much marketing power you get for the time you spend on it. From tools like Hootsuite helping you manage your social media to MailChimp helping you send mass emails with ease. That’s only one of the ways you can automate your workload.
Use it to monitor your business
Your tech can do a lot more than connect you with the outside world. It can help you get an even better look at yourself, too. When it comes to your web presence, using analytics tools helps you understand how visitors to your site act. With that information, you can use what works and replicate it through the site or capitalise on the most popular and change the design to make them even better at converting visitors to customers. You can also choose to monitor the real data of employee productivity, from the time taken per task to the tasks done per day. No more having to worry about productive your team may or may not be.
Improving the team’s cohesion
That’s not to say that your IT can’t be used to make the team even more productive, too. One of the problems that a lot of businesses never truly overcome is the lack of proper communication. Good communication keeps everyone informed without taking up too much. With the right tools, like project management software, those dreadfully dull weekly meetings can disappear. Instead, everyone can keep an eye on the progress of the whole team as well as themselves. You can outline objectives and the small tasks that help you reach them. You can also use it to pinpoint where a project is slowing down, so you can get in there surgically and deal with the specific problem, leaving the rest to keep working without the need for interference.
Protecting your network
Whilst your setup can produce a lot of good for the business, it can also leave it vulnerable. An IT system that isn’t thoroughly protected can sink the whole business. From leaving the business’s plans open for anyone to take them to even risking the financial details of customers who might use electronic means of buying from you. If you have a networked system, you need to make sure it’s protected. Using a password-protected firewall, blocking ping requests and scanning your network from vulnerabilities can help you ensure no-one can access it without permission from the outside. Make sure you’re training the staff in proper digital security etiquette as well. Teaching them to be smarter with their choice of passwords can go a long way.
Keeping everything in ship shape
Another way your network can be a real drag on the business is by slowing it right down. If you have to stop everything to deal with the occasional hiccups that will inevitably happen, you’re losing valuable time that might otherwise be productive. Especially if no-one in the team is properly equipped to handle the issue. The idea is to instead outsource to more capable hands. Outsourced teams can not only handle any downtimes and maintenance problems a lot faster. They can even help you sort out those issues with IT security we’ve already mentioned above. A lot of businesses can find it a lot more cost effective than hiring their own IT guys in house, too.
Giving the customer better support
To succeed, every business must have a swift and helpful approach to customer support. Online, that’s easier than ever. On your end, ticketing systems can make sure that reported problems are going to the right place a lot quicker. Meanwhile, for customers, an onsite chat system can make it significantly easier to get answers quickly without having to hunt for the support details themselves. Especially in ecommerce, fast support is essential. The more time a customer has to spend researching the solution to a problem or waiting on an answer, the more likely they are to abandon the whole venture entirely. Make sure your web presence is making it easier to get support, not harder.
Your tech can help you improve your workload, have a better marketing plan than ever and even do your work for you. But you need to make sure it’s safe from error as well as unauthorized access. We hope the points above help you craft the business tech system you need.
Staff Writer; William Hall