The role technology plays in the service industry is only going to increase, so it makes it doubly important to implement smart solutions to meet the ever-rising demands of the market. Taking your business to the next level means taking advantage of current technology, which will ensure your company grows and stays ahead of competitors.
Automate and consider new software options
Automation minimises labour and substitutes humans for mundane and repetitive tasks. It also decreases the likelihood of human error. However, even the most cutting-edge technology still needs human supervision, troubleshooting and improvements.
Automation has proven that it improves, creates, and streamlines jobs. It collects data on precisely how a job was done, which means you can streamline processes and allocate resources where they are most needed.
Key benefits of automation also include:
- Saves your employees’ time;
- Increases productivity and operational efficiency;
- Standardises processes;
- Guarantees superior customer service;
- It increases visibility and transparency into processes and helps teams stay informed.
The service industry is also growing at a rapid rate, which means there has to be someone to service that growth. For example, the increase in business buildings’ square footage means more work for service businesses like cleaning and pest control. Automation and robotics can significantly enhance those businesses by improving cost-effectiveness and operational efficiency, freeing up resources for expansion, and improving the skill base of the employees.
Real-time tracking for your client’s peace of mind
Running a company can be stressful, especially if you have no visibility of your teams and jobs are not completed on time. Furthermore, it can be dangerous and expensive for your business or can make you seem unreliable in the eyes of your customers.
With real-time tracking, you can significantly improve the efficiency and safety of your vehicles and assets. More importantly, you can greatly enhance your customers’ satisfaction by sharing your driver’s location with them. And last but not least, the money and time you save can significantly improve your overall efficiency.
GPS tracking devices offer features like:
- Route Replay, which is an excellent way to determine if your team was on the correct route and how efficient they were at performing their duties;
- Driver behaviour tracking can help you determine which driver behaviours are costing you money and give you ideas about how to fix the issues;
- Sharing location with your customer, so they can be better prepared for your team’s arrival (which eliminates the waiting game of delivery and increases your customer’s satisfaction with your business);
Real-time tracking will improve communication between you and your teams and your customers. This will also help you build trust, which is crucial to having more returning customers.
Tracking will also provide you and your customer with peace of mind knowing that everyone is where they are supposed to be. And improved ETA’s can cut fuel and labour costs, as well as improve your brand’s reputation significantly because customers will have visibility and can play their day accordingly.
Move your booking process online
With revenue from online booking increasing more than 63% in the last years, it’s never been more important to have an effective online booking process. As more than 4 billion internet users are constantly browsing for the best products, pricing, and services, it makes sense to have the most streamlined booking process possible.
The question isn’t whether you should have an online booking process. It’s whether it’s up to par or not. That will determine whether you will save hours from your working day and whether clients will be happy.
An online booking system allows your clients to:
- Check your availability and prices;
- Choose a preferred date and time;
- Provide you with their details;
- Make a payment.
If you want to make the most of it, you should keep the booking process as short and straightforward as possible. First, you want to check your site’s Google page speed and ensure it’s up to standards. Then enhance the mobile experience as well, for you will get more than half of your customers through mobile devices.
Furthermore, an online booking system:
- It saves you time (you don’t have to be by the phone all day);
- Ensures you always have all the required information and can find it in record time;
- Makes sure you don’t lose money because of no-shows;
- Gives you booking and revenue reports;
- It saves you the hassle of confirmation and sending reminders.
Be where your clients are – social media
Social media has many benefits when it comes to your clients. It can help you sell and promote your products and services, reach new customers, and improve customer loyalty. Furthermore, consider that there are more than 4 billion active social media users, and if you are not taking advantage of that, your business is undoubtedly missing out.
Social media will also:
- Improve traffic to your site and search engine ranking;
- Attract clients and increase your market reach;
- Increase brand awareness;
- Allow you to partner up with influencers;
- Help you keep an eye on your competitors;
- Increase your revenue by creating customer networks;
- Help you with market research and advertising and reduce marketing costs.
Before starting, however, you should develop a social media strategy with specific goals and targets in mind. You want to select the right tools and types of social media for you and then create strong content to generate sales. You also to make sure you engage your customers at the right time.
Some of the disadvantages of social media may include:
- Relocating additional resources to run your online presence;
- Social media needs active daily monitoring to be effective;
- You may get unwanted behaviour or risk getting negative feedback, information leaks or hacking.
Use lead generation tools
Lead generation tools are great at capturing your potential client’s interest and contact information. The software itself focuses on the top of the sales funnel and helps increase sales and turn your site’s visitors into customers.
Last but not least, they help you fine-tune your customer strategy by seeing the exact needs of your potential clients without having to resort to paid advertising.
A lead generation software will:
- Save you time;
- Let you automatically generate more leads;
- Automatically updates contact information;
- Help you close more sales;
- Increase your brand awareness.
It is rather challenging to find and engage the right customers, even with the most dedicated teams. That’s why lead generation tools will help you attract more customers and people who are genuinely interested in your products and services. This makes your sales team’s work much easier and ensures more quality customers and thus more revenue.
Here’s a complete list of the Best Lead Generation Tools in 2022.
Use modern customer relationship management (CRM) tools
CRM platforms help keep everything related to managing your customer relationships in one place. This streamlines many processes, saves your business lots of time and resources, and helps it grow faster. In other words, if your company is going to last, it needs a modern CRM focused on your clients and enabled with the software options.
A cloud-based CRM system:
- Allows you and your team to work from anywhere and updates information in real-time;
- Gathers information from different apps and platforms and makes sense of it;
- Keeps IT and administration costs low;
- It helps you identify and categorise leads;
- Allows better customer support with a more personalised approach;
- It gives you a better understanding of your clients and shows you where cross-selling and upselling opportunities are available;
- It gives you insight into your customers and what they are saying about your business;
CRM doesn’t need hardware or complicated installation, so it’s fairly easy to implement in your business. One of its best features is that different systems are usually priced on the number of users who can access them and the kind of features you choose to use. This makes it a very cost-effective and flexible option, as you can gradually upgrade depending on your business’s growth and needs.
Conclusion
The ever-growing service business will require companies to utilise automation and the latest technological solutions to reach new customers, meet the market’s demands, and stay competitive. Implementing even some of these solutions will surely improve your company’s effectiveness, increase your revenue, and surely take your business to the next level.
