Using Technology to Communicate with Your Customers

Read this article for some tips on how to use technology to enhance your small business.

Ten Ways to Use Technology in Small Businesses

In the 21st century, technology is both a bane and a boon to an individual. However, like many other things in life, it is up to a person whether he/she can use it for the betterment of humanity or not.

The modern era also comes with a little bit of a competitive edge. So, in this competitive era, using technology as a kind of support to enhance your business skills and opportunities can be a great way.

Technology is also economical, simple, and cost-effective, and it is convenient for small businesses that are just starting.


1. Connect with People

One of the best features of technology is the ability to communicate and connect with other people right at the fingertips. More people in the United States are leaning towards the use of technology for connectivity.

It has become an essential and worthwhile part of not only an individual's life but also his business. Technology is a great tool to get in touch with customers and employees. Nowadays, even remote working is a theme.

When it comes to modern technology, sending targeted emails and newsletters to the designated customers can lead one to grow his or her business over time.

Thanks to modern technology, there is a significant increase in the sphere of collaboration, with a certain level of flexibility. It has become more convenient, and teamwork has grown to a new level of understanding.


2. Improve Marketing Tactics

Irrespective of the kind of business that an individual is starting, there needs to be specific marketing techniques. It would help in the growth of the business. With the advent of technology, it has now become more accessible than ever to hone on those tactical skills to have a successful business.

There is software that can help one to build a reliable and robust business plan. A brilliant objective to create a business plan is to build a website of the company. Building a website can go a long way as it gives a microscopic view of what the concerned company or business looks like on a virtual stance.

There are various website builder tools that help small businesses to come up with their website that can be used for the promotion of their brand.


3. Use Social Media as a Useful Tool

An elementary yet effective tactic to grow a small business is to harness the power of social media via digital marketing. Gone are the days when one needed to advertise a business physically.

Nowadays, with the introduction of the internet at every nook and cranny of the world, it is easier to deal with adverts and promotions via social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, and many other similar platforms. Using the power of digital marketing is an essential step.

Increase the marketing potential by advertising online and promoting the business online. It is also useful to create an online customer service that would help customers in terms of any queries and/or problems.


4. Resort to Remote Workplace Methods, if Needed

The growth of a particular business is due to the hard work and skill sets of the employees. It is, however, not always possible to get the appropriate skill at a particular place. If there is one thing that has acted as a technological boon, then it is the aspect of connectivity.

With the introduction of technology and the internet, one can work remotely with like-minded people all around the world. Thus, the concept of working from a remote location gives an individual to make as much use of the comfort zone as he or she can and still achieve his or her full potential using the possessed skill sets and techniques to help a business grow.


5. Technology as a Tool of Productivity

When starting a small business, it is often a given condition that one needs to invest in a variety of roles before he or she can get a team of the worker to delegate all these tasks. These roles include social media manager, HR manager, account executive, and marketing expert, and others.

Often, this can be a daunting task due to the amount of work an individual needs to do within a minimal time. However, with the judicious use of time management and productivity techniques, one can easily maneuver through these roles and work effectively on the business, gaining plausible and excellent outcomes.

There are many time-tracking apps and tools, along with productivity tools like to-do lists and calendars that one can use to deal with this kind of situation.


6. Technology as a Mean of Security

Apart from the many benefits of using technology for small business owners, the best one is how it impacts the security of the business. Technology can be used to prevent any hacking done by hackers over the original work of authorship.

In this way, issues like copyright infringement and other copyright laws get easily bypassed. Usage of the right amount of technology or rather information technology can prevent any breach of security. With active firewalls and encrypted passwords, avoidance of this particular problem, in the long run, is possible.

It, thus, protects the private and valuable information on the potential small businesses. The copyright-protected or rather the copyrighted works can help the business owners to protect their information from any kind of theft or plagiarism related issue.


7. Exploit the Benefits of Cloud Features

A useful tool in terms of technology and beneficial for small businesses is the availability of cloud features. The use of clouds and the features can help an individual to reduce the number of computer and software applications in the long run.

They are essential for backups of different documents and other kinds of files, data storage, collection of PDFs and images, for both individual needs and team collaborations. Cloud is a great feature for small businesses as it allows the user to access the files at any part of the world across a myriad of devices, such as computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones, only with a shareable link.


8. Provide Better and Decent Customer Services

If there is a particular lifeline of any business, then that is the customers who are investing their time, energy, and money in it. Therefore, it is essential to take great care of these customers and investors. It should be a priority to make sure that they are perfectly happy and satisfied with the kind of services they are getting from a particular business.

No matter how perfect the business plan is, it can go nowhere in the long run, if it does not provide appropriate customer service to the investors and the users. Thus, as mentioned earlier, this can be achieved by using social media to a business owner's advantage.

Make it a habit to talk to the customers and walk them through any grievances or obstacles they face relating to the business venture. There are usually groups of people employed to take care of these things. Using social media as a means of connectivity with the designated customers is pretty advantageous in this case.


9. Automate Tasks to Save Time

Since a growing business needs a lot of focus and attention, it is sometimes essential to delegate some tasks to focus on the other aspects of the business. One can do that in terms of sharing posts on social media.

Multiple different apps can help an individual with that kind of job. It is called automating posts on social media. With this method, one can schedule different tasks and posts that need to get shared on social media to promote the business.

Some software and applications even have the option of auto-replying to a customer's comment. The automation of social media posts is beneficial to keep consistency in the field of digital marketing.


10. Use the Method of Video Production for the Business

Creating and uploading videos related to the business can go a long way in case of its growth. There are many kinds of software to help with that – animation software, editing software, and many more. It is a very significant step where investment is necessary. Videos are a pretty big attraction in terms of digital marketing and are at the top of the content list.


Source: Anmol Kumar, http://www.finsmes.com/2019/10/10-ways-to-use-technology-in-small-businesses.html
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Last modified: Wednesday, June 3, 2020, 12:54 PM