How To Leverage Smart New Technology For Efficient Client Management
For millennials, the technologies they enjoy, like the internet, are nothing new. They lived with them the moment they were born. But for people who are a bit older, digital technology can be daunting and overwhelming. While most people nowadays wouldn’t argue that most businesses should modernize, some still cling to the old-fashioned ways of doing things to run their companies.
If you’re one of them or you need to convince someone that they need to leverage smart new technology to make their client management processes and business operations more efficient and profitable, then you’ve come to the right place.
Get a client hub that can act as a 24/7 self-serve portal
The concept of self-serve has never been this flexible. Nowadays, people can order food, groceries, and even landscaping services by themselves from the comfort of their own homes. There’s no need to call or message anyone. Everything can be done in a self-serve web page or app.
Thankfully, specialist business software providers, much like this landscaping management app from Jobber, come with a client hub that can act as a self-serve portal. At any time of the day or night, customers can conveniently request estimates, approve quotes, confirm appointments, and pay invoices with ease.
Client portals can have other features aside from the self-serve functions such as becoming a location where you can build a community for your clients. It can also act as a treasure trove of information related to your industry and niche. Also, with a good client portal, you can rest assured that all data that comes in and out of it will be secure.
Self-serve portals aren’t just convenient for customers, but they’re also highly advantageous for businesses. For one, you can considerably reduce the amount of time spent on office administrative work. Also, having this technology available to your customers can improve your reputation as an innovative service provider and indirectly help you to grow your business.
Be available in multiple channels
Making sales is one of the most important goals for most businesses. With this, you need to open many avenues to guide customers to reach that goal. You can start by creating social media accounts in the channels that your customers are present, getting a 1-800 number, and acquiring a business SMS shortcode.
Being available in multiple channels can expand your reach and make it far more convenient for your prospects and current customers to get a hold of you and request your services or products.
Use automation and bots to help your customer service
In the service industry, treating the customer as king is standard. However, not all companies can do that without the help of innovative tech. For instance, clients can’t expect that you can operate 24/7 with someone answering their questions in the middle of the night. Even if you have a client portal, for some, it won’t be enough.
For that reason, you need to take advantage of automation and bots. With bots, you can have the capability to attend to all your noble customers without allocating much of your workforce’s time to them. These bots can answer questions and guide them to the information they’re looking for. You can use them to provide your clients and prospects with the personalized customer service they need without worrying about who’s awake or available in your team.
On the other hand, automation can get a lot of things off your back. For instance, you can let your business software schedule and send notifications to your customers whenever your crew will be on their premises, be late, or decide to cancel because of accidents and other valid reasons. If you are in the service industry, be sure to always be open to learning new tips on how to get better at customer service.
Utilize data analytics
You need data analytics in your company to have better business intelligence (BI), which can help you maximize your client management processes. Together with data mining, text analytics, and data visualization, BI allows you to obtain actionable insights on the market’s climate and your customers’ thoughts.
For example, with BI tech, you can identify current trends in the market and capitalize on those trends to generate offers your customers can’t refuse. You can even use analyzed data to further streamline your sales funnel and refine your client portal, communication channels, and automation. You can even use it to ensure that you can build long-lasting relationships with your customers through tailored communications based on data and trends.
Conclusion
Doing business the old fashion way isn’t bad. However, if you want your company to grow, get new customers and become more efficient, you must leverage and embrace smart new technology. Thankfully, everything you need is available to you as long as you’re willing to invest some of your money and time to learn how to use it.
