Technology has always impacted the way businesses function. Recent technological advances have forever changed the way businesses communicate, sell and market. Yet, information technology doesn’t just help a company and its staff: It also assists the customers that interact with the business. Take a look at these four ways that technology can help your company expand and generate more revenue.
The Rise of Automation
The technology behind automation gets better year by year. This means that many businesses are already using automated processes to improve efficiency. Some companies employ Online Transaction Processing Systems (OLTP) to gather and update online transactions. This process relies on operational databases to hold the information. Once the gathering process is done, a finance department can easily review the information to analyze the data and make changes. This is just one way that automation can free up your staff to work on other projects.
Advances in Customer Service
A company’s customer service department is the first point of contact for clientele. As such, it is directly responsible for keeping your customer base satisfied. It can also be a point of attraction for new customers, thus helping to increase revenue. As far as technology goes, service departments need the tools to communicate effectively. Some of the tech that is becoming more common includes face-to-face communication devices, real-time messaging and the use of chat bots. The intent behind customer service technology is to reach more customers at any time of the day. This type of availability will help a business expand into untapped markets.
Intelligent Point-of-Sale Technology
However, modern POS systems also host a number of other capabilities besides tracking inventory and sales that can help a business grow. First of all, most POS systems are scalable. This means that when your company grows, the software will be ready to follow. POS tools also give you immediate information as to the performance and growth of your business. Furthermore, analysts can use the software to generate data that identifies the best returns on your investment.
You can also use a POS system to run financial reports. Accounting is hard enough when you don’t have single store modifications to pricing and promotions. That’s why more and more companies are turning to hosted POS software solutions that can manage the complexity. A POS system can help you decide what inventory to buy and how much to sell it. This software can even run possible discount scenarios for you. The best part is that you can generate reports at any time.
Streamline the Onboarding Process
When you scale up your business, you’ll also need to hire more employees. This presents an immediate problem for your HR department. Yet, if you leverage technology, you can make the onboarding process quick and easy. You’ll be able to add additional team members as soon as you need them.
Think about using apps to handle a large portion of your onboarding procedures. Specially designed apps can process personal paperwork and provide new hire training. Some apps can even integrate new employees into the workplace by assigning system logins and creating email accounts. By using technology this way, you can grow your company without using a lot of staff resources.
Each business in the modern world leverages technology in a unique way. To start, you need to figure out where your company needs help. Once this is known, you can search for the right technology to fill in the gap. The increase in efficiency and cost-effectiveness will help your business expand at a fast rate.