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The Tech Tools Your Business Should Begin Investing In
Your business already uses some technology and tech tools to optimize different aspects of your day-to-day. However, you shouldn't become complacent.
Customer security, for example, is an area where the overall situation is rapidly evolving and customer needs are becoming more complex. To meet these needs, you have to upgrade to the right tools.
The same can be said for marketing, workflow, and customer support. No area is without evolution. Below, you can learn about 5 business areas where specific tech tools can greatly improve overall performance.
Better Customer Authentication
These days, customer data security is at the forefront of policy development as well as a top business concern. Hackers and scammers are attacking more businesses than ever, large and small. They not only want direct resources but frequently try to gain access to customer data either to use themselves or to sell.
Right now, however, there are only two major tech tools a business can use to ensure the safety of their customers.
- Biometrics – Biometric authentication authorizes customers at the highest security level. These systems, when programmed to detect not only biometrics but also the presence of a live person, are one of the toughest things for hackers to beat and the tools are more limited. This type of authentication can be done over the phone, via an app, or using standalone tools in-person.
- Single-Use Tokens – If you have a website that allows customers to log-in, it may be worth investing in single-use tokens. If you host any sort of sensitive data, or customer accounts would be worth something on their own, these tokens can provide an added layer of security and peace of mind to your customers.
Workflow Optimization or Task Management
Increased productivity leads to less stress and more revenue as long as you're working on the right things. Though these types of tech tools may cause a slight slow down in the beginning, they will only do so due to a learning curve or resistance to new technology.
Apps like Zapier, for instance, can help you take the in-between time out of tasks. IT can help you seamlessly move from one task to the next one, no need to open a new tab, type a URL, copy or paste. Whatever you can do repetitively, you can get Zapier to automate much of the process.
If you can use any tool to make a workflow go more smoothly, it can help save time, reduce stress, and improve overall concentration. These tools can be worth more than just what they are labeled to do. The more you can simplify a task for yourself or an employee, the more focus and willpower they have to spend on more important things.
Automated and Scheduled Marketing
Automated marketing saves time overall, reduces missed opportunities, and can be more effective than marketing that's just sent or posted whenever. The easiest kind of automated marketing, and the kind with both free and paid tools, is meant for emails, SMS, or social media.
With scheduled marketing, all you need to do is create all your posts and campaigns in advance and then schedule when they send. This can be as simple as making sure your company blog posts every Monday morning.
The schedule can also be more complex. For example, many email list management tools will allow you to create emails that will send every X days for new members and have scheduling that adapts around any other emails you send to those members. This can help you reduce the overall number of emails you send and avoid overwhelming your customers.
Secure Collaboration
If any of your team members regularly work from home, you may already have a service like this set up. Apps and software like Slack and BaseCamp have become almost synonymous with work communication, whether your team is just a handful of people or a few hundred broken up into dozens of different teams.
Secure collaboration is key for several reasons. First, it creates an easy method of accountability. Every message is dated, timed, and files are tracked. Further, you know who is who at a glance, unlike email.
Second, collaboration environments like these are more secure than email or Skype, where there is less verification for who can join and what privileges they have in a group. This can make it much easier to easily contact the relevant party as well as make sure no one is involved who shouldn't be. Still, a communication platform hosted on a company's intranet is always the most secure option, though not feasible for many smaller businesses.
Support for Customers and Team Members
You can create resources for your customers to use as self-service resources but they'll still likely come to your customer support team for most questions. The more people your customer support team can help, as efficiently as possible, the better for everyone.
To that effect, your customer support team needs the tools to organize information, queries, and more. Then they need the ability to easily escalate or transfer a customer service issue without the next team member having to double back and start from square one.
Meet The Author:
Susan Ranford is an expert on career coaching, business advice, and workplace rights. She has written for New York Jobs, IAmWire, and ZipJob. In her blogging and writing, she seeks to shed light on issues related to employment, business, and finance to help others understand different industries and find the right job fit for them.
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