Photo by CC user janitors on Flickr
Is your business doing all it can to stay up to speed on the technology curve?
If the answer to that question is no, then you might very well want to refocus your efforts on doing just that the remainder of this year and beyond that.
With all the technology floating around out there, those businesses using it to their advantage tend to stand out from their competitors.
Here’s why you should be providing consumers with more technology…
Be a Leader in Your Industry
In order to be one of the leaders in your industry, accommodating customers should always be a high priority.
Face it; many customers have choices in today’s shopping and purchasing world, so you need to stand out as a brand that consumers will flock to, not away from.
One of the ways to go about getting more customers coming your way is by reducing the paper trail and being more comfortable with technology.
You need to remember that many consumers are using mobile devices for not only their shopping needs, but also to essentially schedule their daily lives. From doctor appointments to class schedules and much more, many of today’s consumers essentially live on their mobile devices a good chunk of each day.
With that in mind, here are some ways being friendlier with technology can mean more business for you now and over the long haul:
- Leave the paper trail in the dust – If you’re looking to transform your practice or any number of other smaller businesses, you know how much of a paper trail can get built up over time. As a result, you and your customers can find it all too cumbersome, something that can stifle the process of moving customers in and out in a relatively short period of time. To alleviate this mess, you are better served keeping all your information (and that of your customers) online. Going the electronic route also pays dividends (see below) with customers not having to worry about misplacing important paper documents;
- Ease the concerns of customers losing paper documents – Anyone that has ever had a bunch of documents sitting around their homes or offices has at one time (oftentimes multiple times) misplaced them. As a result, there is a sudden frenzy to find one or more of them to check the costs of purchases and/or services, when the item or service was purchased etc. With online documents, customers can easily pull up a document and/or folder and see all the necessary information in an organized and compact layout. In doing so, the need to scurry around for misplaced papers becomes no more;
- Expediency never hurts – Whether you run a medical practice, a real estate office, a small legal firm, or a host of other businesses, time doesn’t always seem to be on your side. With all you have to do in running a business, it sometimes seems like you need more than 24 hours in a day. By turning your business over to technology, you can expedite appointments, transactions and much more. Instead of having customers signing what seem like endless pieces of paperwork, having everything in a simple online layout can be so much more practical. In turn, the customer doesn’t have to go around with copy after copy in their possession (unless they want printed out copies). If you’re up to speed on accepting mobile payments, you can even text or email receipts to your customers, once again cutting down on the hand-held paper trail.
Being an innovative business in 2016 and beyond doesn’t have to be as hard as some might make it seem.
In using technology to your advantage, your company can position itself as a true leader in your respective industry. Even better, your brand can use that positioning in your marketing and advertising initiatives, giving you a leg-up on the competition in trying to attain and retain customers.
With all that technology has to offer, why wouldn’t your business want to give consumers more technological options when it comes to doing business with you?
While some paper transactions/receipts might very well still be important to your business, going in the direction of technology over the paper trail just makes sense.
