4 Business Areas You Should Pay More Attention To

We don’t need to tell you how hectic the last year or so has been for business owners. We have been trying to keep enough money coming in to keep our bills and employees paid. We have figured out how everyone can work from home with minimal disruption and maximum efficiency.

We have been through furlough schemes and government grants, had the difficult conversations about whether we need to let employees go, and we have done all of this knowing that things are going to be just as hard when we punch out at the end of the day. We’ve had to worry about the health of our loved ones and ourselves. We’ve missed once-in-a-lifetime family events both beautiful and tragic. We’ve juggled everything from mental health issues to keeping our kids busy during school closures.

In short, there are many good reasons why some key areas of your business may have not had the kind of attention they deserve over the last year or so. We’ve all been focused on the immediate issue, the thing that could cause us real difficulty right now, that we’ve lost sight of some of the elements that could actually help us to grow and move forward. Here are just a few ideas for areas of your business that could benefit from a little more care, a little more time, and a little innovation.

Is Your Cybersecurity Strong Enough?

If you have managed to make it through the pandemic without having at least one major security scare, then you have done very well indeed. The statistics have shown that cybercrime went into overdrive in the last fifteen months or so. The reason? Everyone went online.

All those people who would usually do their shopping in person had to figure out how to buy their groceries and pay their bills virtually. Businesses that relied on traditional hardware to protect their money and information had to navigate the online equivalent. There were too many people without the experience or education to avoid getting scammed or robbed, and the criminals took advantage. Huge ransomware attacks are still happening. It’s high time that you gave your security systems an upgrade. Talk to a professional security firm about how you can protect yourself and look at how AI tech is helping to fend off threats faster and more efficiently than ever before.

Are You Able To Provide Quality Customer Service?

We mentioned how the pandemic drove everyone online. Now, there is a greater demand than ever for good, conscientious, efficient customer service. The customers who have been conducting their business virtually all their lives expect to have their issues resolved immediately, and they know how they can publicize their complaints very quickly if they aren’t satisfied. The people who are less familiar with using this space need more handholding. They may not know exactly what it is they are looking for, but they know that you need your help.

With the marketplace as competitive as it is right now, you simply cannot afford to be letting your customers down. A disappointed customer is one who may not conclude their business, or who may not return. And, as we just mentioned, a reputation for bad customer service can be something that is very difficult to shake. Given that things are so frantic right now, and that we all have several fires to be putting out at any given time, hiring a professional customer service team makes a lot of sense. Live customer service chat is actually a very simple thing to organize.

Additionally, if the business is witnessing growth in the customer base then it is advisable to deploy a comprehensive customer relationship management system like Salesforce CRM and upskill the workforce with the right training program like Salesforce certification.

The benefits of customer service chat include improved customer satisfaction, faster customer onboarding and acquisition, and offering you a direct line of communication with your customers without the need for phone conversations or lengthy email exchanges. STAFFVIRTUAL can help you outsource your customer service needs no matter what size of team you require, and they offer round the clock support all year round.

Are You Making The Most Of Your Social Media Presence?

When a business is operating in a frantic state, keeping everyone’s noses to the grindstone, one of the first things to drift down the to-do list is social media. It is so often seen as a luxury, something that gets attention if there is enough time to do so. It’s easy to post regularly and creatively when there are spare hours in the day, after all. However, for businesses looking to grow in a post-pandemic world, social media is not a luxury, it’s an essential tool.

This is where you can really start to build your brand personality and reputation, setting you apart from the competition as you demonstrate your expertise, experience and what makes you unique. Do the research to find out which social media channels your target audience use most frequently and adapt your strategy accordingly. Look at how you can use trending topics and look for opportunities for partnership, collaboration and conversation.

Employee Health And Satisfaction

This is a hard one to bring up without making it sound like we are suggesting that you are not looking after your employees, but it is impossible to ignore quite how difficult everyone has found the past year or so. That goes for people at every level of business, from the CEOs to the unpaid interns.

If you want to make sure that your business continues to run at its highest capacity, and that it continues to develop and thrive, then you need to make sure that everyone who is part of that journey is being taken care of. If you are considering a return to the office in the near future, be sure to talk to everyone about how they would feel about it. Discuss flexible working hours to allow your employees to juggle their other commitments. Keep organizing social events, even if they’re online, and keep checking in. Above all, make sure that they feel supported when it comes to their mental health. We’re all going to need to look out for each other in the months to come.