How To Mitigate The Risks Of Outsourcing

/in , /by

Visit any business-related website, and you will find articles telling you why you need to outsource. They will tell you your business will grow. You will discover how it can be a worthy investment. And on this very website, you will find out how outsourcing can save your business. But what about the risks? Despite the benefits, it is wise to take a step back before designating important areas of your business to another company. In this article, we will take a look at two of the major risks involved, and we will give you some handy tips to mitigate them.

Risk #1: Does the company have the ability to work for you?

This is the biggest risk of all. You don’t want to hand over a project to a company that is going to make a mess of it. Not only will you lose credibility as a business, but you might also waste money by hiring somebody not up to the job. So, what can you do about it?

Tip: Quite simply, do your research. Start by looking at their website and look at what they have to offer. Do they have evidence to back up their service claims? Consider Bespoke Excel. This professional consultancy firm has clients as respected as Adidas and Aston Martin, with case studies to support the work they do. That’s the kind of testimony you need to look out for. Then find out how long the company has been in existence. We aren’t saying a fledgeling company will offer you a less quality service, but if the firm has been open for a number of years, they are probably doing something right. So, find out as much as you can, from reviews to testimonials, as positive responses will give you some peace of mind.

Risk #2: Will you lose control of your project?

You will lose some control. After all, you are handing your project over to somebody else. While this is normal, it’s understandable that you, as the business leader, will have some fears around this. Will they leak valuable data? Will they produce something you hadn’t envisioned? How long will it take to get the project done? All good questions and you need to find the answer.

Tip: While you will lose some control, you can still mitigate some of the risk by collaboration. When you initially speak to the company involved, lay down a few ground rules and even draw up a contract between yourselves. This can include the request for daily communication, opportunities to see the work-in-progress, and a reasonable deadline to limit the time frame. You also need to be as directive as possible. When hiring a web designer, for example, you may not have the skills needed for the job yourself, but you can still outline what you are looking for, ensuring the web design firm has a clear idea about what you want. If you are in any way unclear, you can’t blame the outsourced firm for not giving you what you wanted. So, talk to the people involved before the project begins, and make sure there is a clear understanding before you hand your work over to them.

Final word

Outsourcing is risky, but for the business leader, there are many advantages. With the right research and effective collaboration, you will mitigate the risks involved, and hopefully benefit from what other companies can offer your business.

Three Tips To Improve Your Product Or Service

/in /by

As a small business owner, one of your top priorities should be improving, or, at the very least, maintaining the quality of the service or product that you sell to your customers. After all, if what you provide isn’t of satisfactory quality then you aren’t going to make any money, and your business isn’t going to survive for very long. It’s relatively easy to do what your competitors are doing, but this will only ever get you so far, and if you want your business to grow, then you need to be doing something even better. Unfortunately, this isn’t necessarily as easy if you don’t know where to start. If you’re in a slump and don’t know where to start when it comes to improving your products, then here are some great tips for you.

1. Know Why They Buy

Even if your sales have slumped a little recently, people will have needed to have bought from you at some point, or you wouldn’t be here now. What you need to figure out is why. Luckily, there are plenty of ways that you can do this. For example, you can ask those customers and clients who buy from you frequently to fill out a survey. This survey should be professionally designed and should ask customers what you’re doing right, what you’re doing wrong, and what needs to be improved. This information can help you out a great deal, as it will identify areas you need to work on.

2. Identify The Negatives

Of course, you need to make sure you keep doing the things that you’re doing right, but you also need to figure out what you’re doing wrong. Once again you can do this with a survey, and use the information that you collect to improve. For example, if you own a bait store and customers have stated that the packing isn’t very enticing, then you need to adjust the design of your bait pouch. You also need to pay attention to any complaints or negative comments that you receive. It won’t be fun to hear the negative things that people have to say about you and your business, but it is necessary if you want to improve.

3. Create A Plan

Once you’ve gathered all of this information, you need to create some sort of plan. You can start by making a list of things that should stay the same, good things that you can improve on, and bad things that you need to improve on. The negatives should always take priority, so start with those first. Assemble a team of people that can deal with each problem, such as a design team for packaging, and work towards your goals by taking small steps. It will likely take a lot of work, so it’s important to stay focused, set targets and goals, and remember what you are working for.

The quality of your product or service is incredibly important for the success of your business, so you need to get it as high as possible. More often than not, simply listening to your customers will give you all the information you need to know to get this done, so always be open to feedback.

Launching Your Business With a Bang

/in /by

When launching your business, you want to ensure that you reach as many people as possible. You might have a steady stream of family and friends who are happy to use your business, but you cannot rely on these forever.

Understanding what services to take advantage off, then, is essential to building a strong reputation early on and avoiding much of the uncertainty that is fraught with many a business is its early months. The world of business has changed dramatically in just the past few years, and so ignoring the potential of what you can achieve with the right tools will only leave you struggling.

EVENTS

Using your launch in tandem with events will give everyone in the neighbourhood an opportunity to see what you are all about as well as get the chance for vital facetime with locals. This will allow you to discuss any concerns they may have as well as provide absolute transparency about your company.

Demonstrating a sustainable and considerate business strategy will raise your profile in the local area and safe any suspicious eyes from glaring at you and your employees as they step out of the car on those early mornings. Furthermore, you will have the option to work with local vendors to perhaps work out collaborations that can benefit the both of you. This can include discounts and deals for customers who use both services, which will help build loyalty and trust between you and both local businesses and customers.

ONLINE

In an age where everyone is online, having a substantial online presence is essential for building your reputation in the early weeks of your company. This will give potential investors and customers the opportunity to discover how you can help them and bring more business to you.

To achieve this, it is essential that you have a complete website. If web design isn’t your thing, then working with a verified Kentico web agency can help you achieve the best results and make your endeavours look as prepared and professional as you want, even if you don’t feel it just yet.

MARKETING

Without marketing how can you expect anybody to know about your business? The world of marketing has evolved a lot in recent years, and companies are no longer relying on merely print and TV to get their name out there.

Therefore, investing in a robust marketing campaign can announce your business to the world with a bang. Platforms such as social media and services like Adwords will give you the chance to show off your business to the relevant consumers and allow customers to flock in earlier than you might imagine.

A BIGGER BANG

You might have the strongest and most unique business idea the world has ever seen, but you can’t rely on mere word of mouth to get your name out there. Engaging with the community and taking steps towards taking advantage of all of the services on offer in the modern world will announce your company to the world in a way that it will be hard to not take notice of.

How to properly execute an online review management program

/in , , /by

StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article00As a business owner or manager, if you are thinking about assembling an online review management program, you are already on the right path to managing the reputation of your company online. Properly executing an online review management strategy in order to benefit your company takes some critical thought, training, and repetition, but the payoff is ultimately being able to provide potential customers with professional profiles that are truly indicative of the quality service and goods you provide.

Executing on Your Online Review Management Program

If you are looking to make sure the process you’re implementing is successful, you’ll want to make sure that you are constantly checking in with staff and the results to see what’s working and to detect weak areas early on if any exist. We always recommend auditing your current online reviews prior to putting a new plan in place, so that you can set goals appropriately and log progress against the original values.

As you are setting up your review management program, make sure you also appoint a single person (whether this is yourself, a manager, or another staff member) to head this project. By allowing this program to “free float” between staff members, it is more likely to get dropped by the wayside or slip through the cracks when it comes to execution. Similarly, make sure you are scheduling time each week to review progress.

Once your plan is in place, you’ll want to complete the following steps:

Set Expectations

Part of your online review management program is going to consist of setting expectations, or goals. This could mean that you’d like to have 5 new reviews left on your business’s Google My Business profile within two months.

But setting expectations should also mean that you are clearly outlining that you expect staff to treat customers, clients, or patients with a set level of quality care. Similarly, let staff know that you’d like them to ask each customer for a review and to ensure that they specify a designated professional profile, like Google.

These expectations should also be held for yourself; are you asking for reviews and working to ensure that customers have a positive experience? Make sure the expectations surrounding this program are entirely positive and aimed at bettering the company as a whole.

Follow up with Staff

Once your online review management program has been set into action, make sure you’re taking time each week to check in with staff. Ask them what kind of reactions they get from customers after they’re asked to leave a review to see if an alternative method, like using a reputation management software that sends text messages, may work better.

Make sure you’re also asking staff how they feel! Do they feel awkward when asking? Has one staff member developed a great flow of conversation that leads into asking for a review much more seamlessly? These are details that should be shared and accommodated to make sure everyone is successful.

Review the Results

At set intervals, you will want to make sure that you are reviewing the results. By this point, your goals and expectations should be realistic, so seeing one review gained after two weeks of action shouldn’t necessarily be taken as a failure.

Reviewing results monthly and quarterly may be a good way to see trends and manage outcomes by working one-on-one with staff to develop better methods of asking for reviews!

How to improve your business sales in 5 easy steps

/in , /by

There are so many ways for a business to make their sales these days that it can be all too easy to focus on one area. By neglecting alternative avenues to explore, you could be doing your business some lasting damage by not taking advantage of every sales means at your disposal. Often this is down to becoming set in a daily routine, or finding that your day to day schedule too often takes you away from your key skill area, so it’s important that both you and your sales team are utilizing those areas where you excel. Failure to maximize your sales is the fastest way to lose your customers and your business, here are the easiest methods to concentrate on when working out the best way to increase your sales revenue.

Streamline your internet

With so many customers in the modern age willing and able to buy what they need with a click of a button, it’s never been more important to make sure that you are getting the most out of your online presence. Whether you’re alerting customers to a new product by using your social media page or launching a total rebrand on your website, people need to know what you’re selling and what they can benefit from your product or service. Making certain that your website runs perfectly and without glitches will go a long way to making sure that your conversion rates are as high as you hope, and by interacting with customers on social media, you are able to release information about your brand.

Outsource to save costs

Even if your intention when going into business was to be on the phone all day making sales, you may have found that you’re spending more time organizing office activity and dealing with paperwork than closing a sale. There are a number of ways to tackle to issue of not doing the work that you are best at, from hiring more staff to reducing your working hours, but the current trend of outsourcing is proving popular because it enables you to refocus on your skills. By using companies that specialize in the areas that you aren’t so clued up on, be it your delivery service, your social media management or even your marketing campaigns, using experts benefits you two-fold. You get to go back to what you’re good at, and you also lose the headaches as you let professionals lend a hand.

Don’t give up on potential customers

If someone has expressed an interest in what you’re selling, then chances are that half of the work is done for you. The habit of following up on a long-forgotten potential customer can reap huge rewards no matter what industry you may be in. Email alerts and social media updates are one way of reigniting a potential sale, but a willingness to use those expired listings system is the easiest way to increase your bottom line. The trick to attracting the custom of a dormant or unconvinced customer is to find out why you didn’t make that sale. Once you know the why, you can action plan ways to solve the issue, and you’re not going to be able to do that if you simply accept lost sales as gone forever.

Target your customers

If you want to maximize your sales, then you need to know your customers. You need to know who your product or service is going to appeal to, and then you need to target your advertising so that it has the optimum reach in your targeted demographic. This simple truism is the key to your marketing strategy, and without it, you run the risk of wasting advertising money (and time) on targeting the wrong people. You need to build relationships with customers and use the vast array of tools available to find out what they want. Whether it’s a POS conversation about the longevity of the product, or a social media poll about how your customer base feels about changes to stock, a conversation is the easiest way to retain clients and continue to make sales.

Offer options

Not everyone uses the internet to buy, and not everyone can get to your brick and mortar store. In order to get the most profits, you need to make certain that no matter what your customer needs you are able to provide with minimal fuss. Is your website optimized for sales? Can customers use a variety of options to pay you, be it PayPal, credit card or Bitcoin? If you’re not replying to Facebook comments or answering emails, then you’re losing customers. Too many people use ‘offer options’ as code for ‘offer discounts’, but they can often be counter-productive. Coupons and seasonal specials are far more useful, and, of course, you can never go far wrong with easy upsell items. The best way to offer options is simply to make every stage of the sale as convenient as possible for your customers, whether they’re spending money in-store or on your website.

Once you have learned who your customers are and what they want, you are able to concentrate on finding them exactly what they need. Earning a customer’s trust is beneficial both short, and long-term, and failing to do so is damaging to your profits. As long as you are able to provide an efficient, value for money service, then you can be sure that your customers will remember that, even if they then do need the occasional reminder. Making sales boosts confidence and inspires more sales, so concentrate on your customers, and your business will thrive. Consistent analysis of your sales means and methods will ensure that your company is not left behind by the competition, and a happy customer is a paying customer. Whether you have a sales team to work with or you’re limited to one phone and an online catalog, you should be making full use of your skills and the technological advantages that businesses now have access to.