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Every business needs a form of investment to help it grow and hopefully provide more success as a result. Due to the pandemic, many are now in a position where they need to make up for money lost. Many businesses have been affected and whilst control over COVID-19 has somewhat improved, there’s still a long way to go.
Thankfully, there are a lot of resources, particularly in the way of software to help improve and grow your business in many ways.
In this guide, you’ll get an understanding of how software can benefit your business and what’s available for your organization to utilize.
How can software benefit your business?
Investing in software can provide a real benefit for your business in more ways than one. With 80% of businesses already using at least one SaaS application, it seems that more companies are making use of the technology available.
The software-as-a-service industry is growing exponentially, but what are the benefits of using these types of software?
Alleviates some of your employee’s workload
If you give your employees too much to work on, they’re most likely to burn out. It’s important to know that not everyone can handle the same workload as the next person. So with that being said, any type of software can be a real help in alleviating some of that employee’s workload.
By giving your employees the tools to handle their work more efficiently, it can certainly help their mental well-being in the workplace.
Speeds up work processes
Some tasks can often be repetitive and others can take a lot longer than an employee would like it to take. This eats into the working day and it means work schedules for the day may not be fulfilled.
Software like the ones mentioned in this article can help speed up work processes so that tasks get done quicker. That way, more of the work that goes uncompleted, can get the attention it needs. It allows your workforce to get more done throughout the working day.
Improves customer/client relationships
Using client management software can help greatly with many of your customer/client relationships. Whether it’s interacting with them more successfully over social media or finding ways to help protect their safety and security.
Software to help improve and grow your business
With that being said, there are plenty of software options for your business to invest in. Most software that is accessible online is likely going to be more affordable and easily understandable to any employees, regardless of their tech knowledge.
Evernote for creating notes
Organization of your employees can be challenging when there’s a lot going on. With Evernote, this online software allows you to make notes and keep tabs on what needs doing throughout the working day.
It works anywhere, meaning you can use it whilst on your morning commute to remember what needs prioritizing. Or you may want to use Evernote when you’re in a meeting and you need to take notes.
Software like this can help structure the workday so that you’re making better use of the time available. It can often be the case where the time is flying by and you need something that will better track your work efforts.
Evernote is free to use for anyone who only needs a limited amount of note-taking opportunities. For those that need some extra features, it’s £5.99 per month and for a top-level professional subscription, it’s £7.49 per month. It’s an extremely affordable note-capturing software that can be useful for your business.
Osano for privacy policies
In order to grow your customer base, there needs to be trust in and loyalty from your existing customers. A survey by Zendesk found that nearly three out of five consumers report that good customer service was vital for them to feel loyalty towards a brand.
A way to build that loyalty and trust is to ensure their privacy and data are being handled correctly. There are stricter laws in place when it comes to businesses that handle and use data.
Osano is a good way of putting those relevant privacy policies and consents in place. These can then be updated and regularly managed to stay current with local, national, and international law. The platform has a lot of helpful guidance on understanding privacy and data laws, such as Osano’s ccpa vs gdpr guide. Being more informed on how to best handle customer data is going to show your customers that you are actively looking out for their privacy rights.
You can try Osano for free for 30 days and they also have a basic plan that doesn’t cost you anything. However, there are other subscriptions available for those needing more user profiles or who have a site with higher traffic.
Lightspeed for POS systems
For those working in retail, hospitality, or distribution, then a POS system can be helpful to improve business operations.
Known as a point-of-sale system, this commerce platform helps enable multichannel sales, track and manage inventory, and lots more. Restaurant pos systems can help utilize the number of covers over the course of a working day to keep tabs on each table’s total spending.
It’s a handy piece of software that can make your employees’ lives easier and provide a better customer experience for those who buy from your business.
This type of technology can be easy enough to install and use when onboarding your staff members. It helps save a lot of time and can help process sales quickly to hopefully boost your profit.
Lightspeed offers the basics for $59 per month. There are also add-ons available for those needing more.
Slack for team management
Team management is a practice that you want to maintain from the very beginning. Whether you’re a small business of half a dozen or a larger business with upwards of 100 or more staff, it’s good to ensure your team is managed properly.
In the US, the percentage of managers promoting engagement in the workplace is as low as 15%. That’s not a great sign when it comes to business productivity levels, an essential part of helping improve your business.
With that being said, in order to ensure managers are managing their team members enough, a platform like Slack is necessary.
Slack is a great management platform that helps with collaboration between team members and departments. It allows users to delegate tasks between teams so that everyone is doing their bit to contribute to the business.
The platform has worked with brands like Natwest, PWC, and Uber to name but a few. Slack uses a monthly subscription with a free option available and Pro/Business levels from £5.25-£9.75 per month.
Zoom for business calls
Zoom has helped many businesses survive and thrive throughout the pandemic. Without it, many may have ceased to exist and there would likely be fewer businesses in operation as a result.
Business calls whether internal or external, help build a rapport with those clients you’re trying to impress and keep up communications where needed. Effective communication is critical for a lot of business relationships and the opportunities that can come from it.
With that being said, if you haven’t already got software like Zoom in place, then you’ll want to take advantage of it. It’s another software that’s easy to use and doesn’t take much in the way of training your staff on how to use it.
It can be helpful for remote working and those businesses where not all employees are regularly available and in the office to take video calls. Zoom is free to use, however after your first free unlimited call, it caps your available time at 45 minutes.
Their plans include a small team option for £11.99 per month/per license to large enterprises at £15.99 per month/per license.
Hootsuite for social media management
Managing your social media is definitely important because an online presence on any of these platforms can provide growth for the business.
Hootsuite is one of a few great platforms that can help you manage your social media. It can be challenging to go from one platform to the other, so why not have it all in one place? With Hootsuite, not only can you schedule social media content but it can inform you of any interactions.
From comments, mentions, and direct messages, it’s a great way of keeping up to date with what customer interactions are going on. With 54% of social browsers using social media to research products, it pays to invest in software that can manage it all effectively.
Always look to invest in your business
Software is just one example of how you can invest in your business. Particularly for startups and small businesses, it can be important to reinvest the money you’ve made, back into the company. Over time, you’ll likely see bigger growth in your business from using the software mentioned above.
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