If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! Right? Wrong!!
When it comes to your business, you need to get your head and your operation out of the past and into the modern world.
If you are still reliant on outdated technologies and methods within your business, you will struggle to stay ahead of the competition, alienate the Millennial generation, and slow down your productivity.
You see, change is good – some of the time – and the newest technologies and ideas are there to help your business, rather than sabotage it.
And so, if you are still reliant on old-school tech and methods in your business, it’s time to bring yourself into the 21st century.
Look at what is available to you, and start to implement anything that can benefit your business.
Get to grips with social media.
Use it as a means to market your business, and to stay in touch with your customers.
This is cheaper than traditional methods – photocopying endless amounts of flyers, taking out expensive ads – as social media is free to use.
You need to reach people where they are, and for better and for worse, people are basing their lives around Facebook, Twitter and the like, on a daily basis.
Get yourself a website.
Use a free website builder to get something up and running in a matter of hours.
Of course, you may not be as old-school as we think, and you may already have a website. Still, have you considered mobile optimization?
Your customers are now accessing the internet through their smartphones and tablets, other than desktops and laptops, so you need to ensure your website (if you do have one) is optimized for smaller screens.
Use VoIP.
VoIP is short for voice-over-internet protocol. In short, VoIP is the technology that allows you to make voice calls over the internet.
It’s much different from analog or traditional phone companies. Before there was VoIP, the only choice you had for business lines would be to connect through the phone company.
Your calls would run through copper wires to the phone company’s central office. The call would get routed to another central office that was closest to the person you were calling. The transmission would then go from the central office to the person’s phone terminal to their phone.
The disadvantage for businesses is that the copper wire came only in batches of 23 lines. Even if you had 5 employees, you’d still have 23 potential phone lines (and you’re paying for them).
VoIP runs through the internet instead of copper wires. The phones are very similar to traditional phones. VoIP phones offer more capabilities and they have an ethernet connection.
If you love using traditional phone systems, you can still use VoIP by using an ATA (Analog Telephone Adaptor).
Since VoIP calls are placed over the internet, you can place your calls over your computer, too.
Benefits of VoIP
Should you have VoIP in your business? There are plenty of advantages of VoIP, but here are two big ones to consider.
Scalable
You just learned that with traditional phone systems, you’re stuck getting phone lines in batches of 23. VoIP lets you scale up and down as your needs change.
For example, your business may be experiencing a busy time and you need to hire temporary staff. You can set up more phone lines and remove them as things slow down.
Telecommuting Made Easy
VoIP gives your staff the flexibility to check messages and make calls from anywhere. This suits the need to have a workforce that’s on the road or working from home.
Does VoIP Eat Bandwidth?
You might be wondering about your phone lines taking up all of your internet bandwidth. It’s a valid concern because should your phone lines take up all of your bandwidth, everything else would slow down.
That would defeat the purpose of having a VoIP. The way around that is to use hosted VoIP services, which host your telecommunications needs off-site. That frees up bandwidth in your office.
VoIP Is a Gamechanger
Good communication is a must for any business. You can make communications easier by installing a phone system like VoIP.
Ditch old technologies.
Those things in your office that are now pretty much redundant. Your fax machine is one such tech – outdated and expensive to operate.
Instead, consider network fax which lets you and your staff send faxes through email.
Rather than pick up the telephone to make calls, use video communication software instead.
Skype is the common one, but there are other services at your disposal. And you don’t need to use USB sticks to save your valuable data, as the power of the cloud is a safer way to store your files.
Cut out manual processes.
You can save both time and money using apps or automation tools to manage your business.
There is software available for nearly every facet of your business, from managing your accounts to organizing your staff schedules.
The only software we haven’t been able to find is something to pour you a coffee in your office break. But then again, there are also apps to order from local food retailers, so those needs can also be met.
Don’t keep your customers waiting on the phone.
You are going to aggravate and turn them off your business. In today’s modern business world, there are better ways to talk to your customers, using communication tools that don’t involve them waiting for very long.
By upping your customer service, you will raise your profits and strengthen your business.
Change is good, so if you haven’t caught up yet, now is the time to do so. Failure to keep up with the times could be detrimental to your business. Something to think about, anyway, when you are still waiting for your next web page to load up through your dial-up modem!