The business world has changed more in the last 20 years than it had done in the previous 120. Not since the Industrial Revolution has there been such a rapid change in the way that businesses are run, and that is all because of technology.
Rewind to 1998 and the internet was only just getting started, Facebook would literally have been a book full of faces and a mobile phone could make calls, receive texts and handle a couple of games but that was it.
Now, every single aspect of business is affected by technology, from how we sell to our security to customer service. Here are four areas of your business that technology affects.
Mobile solutions mean customers can buy and you can sell from anywhere
You can handle virtually every aspect of your business now from remote locations with a few touches and swipes of your smartphone or tablet. Everything from sales reports, social media marketing, customer relations, even shipping can be handled from outside of the office. It isn’t just you who can benefit from mobile solutions either. 62% of consumers made a purchase online through a mobile device in the last six months of 2017 and more and more of us will search for business and restaurants while already on the move.
The cloud improves your security and increases productivity
Some small businesses remain skeptical about the benefits of the cloud, not helped by companies such as MegaBackup – read more about What Is Megabackup – but the fact is the cloud can be a real power for good for small businesses. It offers a much more secure space for a business to store its files than a traditional server that is susceptible to hackers or catastrophic IT failure and it also allows employees to work remotely. Eventually, the cloud could provide a world where offices don’t exist; we’ll simply log on and work from the comfort our own homes, saving time and money commuting and leading to increased productivity.
Social media puts customer service at the forefront of business
Before the advent of Facebook, Twitter and the like, you might have been able to get away with just having okay customer services. One unhappy customer could only tell a certain number of friends or family if you hadn’t lived up to there expectations. Now, they can broadcast their feelings and experiences to the world either on their own personal social media channels or by leaving poor reviews on sites like TripAdvisor, Yelp or Google. You can’t afford to attract negative reviews or a bad reputation as nowadays it is extremely difficult to shake.
Segmentation helps you to understand what your customers want
There is so much data floating around, that there is now no excuse not to know what your customers want. Analytics services allow you to segment your customers into ever more specific groups. Even the most basic of Google accounts will tell you where your customers are coming from, how they found you and how long they spent on your website. With this sort of information, you can tailor advertising campaigns and products to give the people what they want and increase your sales at the same time.
