Advantages of Outsourced Answering Services

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Advantages of Outsourced Answering ServicesOutsourcing different aspects of your business can help you save time, money and focus. You can send your books to an accountant, your calls to an answering service and your intelligence technology management to an IT firm, while you concentrate on the core projects and tasks that build your company up. Some of the benefits you will see from outsourcing your answering and receptionist services include being able to extend your customer service hours, save money and focus your efforts.

Extend Your Call Hours

Many answering services offer call-in hours around the clock and on all days, with the phones being answered by real people instead of an automated system. This gives your customers the opportunity to talk to someone and resolve issues outside of your normal operating hours without you having to keep employees working at all hours. You can even find mobile apps from these services to help you keep track of messages and leads in one place. This can lead to better customer retention and higher profits.

Save Money

Outsourcing can save you money both in terms of salaries and in terms of space needed for the extra personnel. You will not have to hire and train employees to answer the phones and then dedicate a place in your building for them. An outsourced receptionist service will have many clients to help cover their costs as well as the beefed-up phone plans to keep up with everything. Many will offer personalized call scripts so your brand’s voice and culture will be presented to the customer when they call just as it will be when they walk in your office.

Focus on Core Activities

When you do not have to pay for a dedicated employee to answer your phones, you can more closely focus on the core activities that make your company great. For example, if you own a catering business, then having another company answer your phones will give you more time to develop new recipes and finish orders without worrying about the calls coming in.

Outsourcing can help startups survive the first few years of business with less overhead and can streamline operations for huge corporations. When you outsource your call answering with a receptionist service, you can see increased customer service and retention as well as lowered costs. This gives you more time to focus on other aspects of your company such as making new products. You can also extend your customer service hours outside of your office hours and help clients around the clock without paying overtime.

Why Its Time To Turn Your Business Green

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Green Business|Why Its Time To Turn Your Business GreenIf you haven’t started to make “green” changes in your business yet, then it’s time to start now. When it comes to your business, it’s not just about contributing to the sustainability of the environment as there are many benefits to your business as well and many reasons to go green.

Contribute to the Sustainability of the Planet

Let’s start with the most compelling reason for making your business greener and the most obvious one. We all know that the planet is changing and that we need to do our bit. Going greener can benefit our health, it can help endangered species and provide a better future for the next generations. Most people know about this now, and companies are doing what they can. From Starbucks providing incentives to bring your own reusable coffee cups, to other companies working on ways to use recycled frack water or non-potable brine for fracking. No matter what business you work in, there is something you can do to help, so it’s time to work out what that is.

Save Money

One way that you can go green in your business is to minimise your power usage – and the good thing about this is that it will save you money too. It might seem like a cost at first to switch to energy-saving light bulbs and upgrade to other more energy-efficient equipment where but over time it will save you a lot of money. You could try converting a paperless office which will save you money on paper, printing supplies and filing cabinets too.

Tax Reductions

Green strategies often equal tax deductions. Renewable energy will mean savings not just for now, but for way ahead into the future, and the government wants to encourage and are providing incentives to do so.

Builds Your Reputation

Today consumers are pickier over who they choose to buy from and give their money to. This applies to millennials in particular, who would spend more on the same product if the company they are buying from is more ethical than another. Research shows people now want to do business with merchants, service providers and manufacturers that share their values. It would help if you shouted about the efforts you are making, whether it’s on social media, writing blog posts or advertising your efforts. Let people know so that they can make an informed choice on where and with whom they spend their money.

Helps to Attract Talent

Just as people are picky about who they spend their money with, they are also particular about who they work for. If you want to attract the best talent, then you need to become a leader in your industry and stand out from the crowd. Today, employees are more bothered about being environmentally responsible too, so they will want to work from somewhere that they align with in terms of what is important to them. Make sure your home page, About Us page and blog proudly show that you value sustainability, and any potential employees who share your values will definitely notice.

Keeping Your Business Safe: A Guide

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |keep your business safe|Keeping Your Business Safe: A GuideThere are a number of online threats that you can experience while running your business, and while some can be minor, some can be so catastrophic that it results in business closure. Building up a solid business idea and turning it into a profit-turning organization takes hard work and dedication, and the idea that it can fail due to someone else’s actions is devastating. However, it is a very real situation many businesses find themselves in, and all because they didn’t take online security seriously.

Just because you are a small business, doesn’t mean that you aren’t a target for online hackers. Yes, hackers will target big businesses, but as you are less likely to have viable security solutions in place, this is exactly why people will also target small businesses such as yours too. Fortunately, some solutions can help keep your business safe from online threats, and we will explore them in more detail here.

Secure your network

Whether you use your computers every day or once in a while, you still need to ensure that your network is secure. Start by encrypting your wireless access points, as this is a great way for hackers to get into your system and steal sensitive data. Then set about changing the name of your wireless network to something that doesn’t announce to the world that it belongs to you. Instead, make sure to use something more inconspicuous that will make it harder for the hacker to find out your location or business name.

Make this a private network, and ensure like everything you change the password regularly.

Test your company’s defenses

It is one thing to secure your network, but in circumstances where you want to ensure safety to the finest degree, you need to test how good this defense actually is. By carrying out penetration testing, you can test your protection against a number of different threats that hackers will attempt in an effort to steal your data. It will highlight any vulnerabilities and weaknesses within the system and what needs to be done to rectify it.

Antivirus software

One of the best ways to ensure your business is safe is to install the right antivirus software on every single device that enters the company before it joins your network. If a device that an employee has bought into work doesn’t have the right security defenses in play, you are at risk of a data breach.

Train your staff

Many problems regarding company data are the result of uneducated staff. Companies that don’t train their staff are at more risk of experiencing breaches. Therefore, you should make it mandatory training every year for your staff to learn more about cybersecurity and what they can do to maintain the safety of your business.

Educate them on how to spot potential security issues, such as phishing emails, but also reinforce how serious it is to uphold. As cybercriminals improve their techniques and strategies, you need to also improve your training. This is why it is recommended to carry out the training regularly and keep it relevant to on-going security issues.

Managing Your Business with Location Mapping

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What are businesses to do with the explosion of data occurring in the marketplace? The ideal solution is to put it to work.

Chances are, you already knew that. However, we’re willing to bet that you aren’t using your data to its full extent. For example, are you using the locations of your current customers to find hidden insights about your business? Didn’t think so.

But how can you find these insights in your data without burning yourself out? With location mapping tools, it’s a piece of cake.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Managing Your Business with Location Mapping

Location heat mapping in action, courtesy of Maptive.com

Let’s look closer at what location mapping is and how it can help manage your business.

What is Location Data?

Most location data is information that comes from a mobile device, such as a tablet or a smartphone. This data provides the current position of the user. It can also simply come from spreadsheet data that you have collected from your customers.

With smartphone use on the rise, location data only continues to grow. At first, it might seem that all of this data would add to the complexity of the business landscape. However, this information brings power and makes the information easier to understand.

Location Mapping Can Help Your Business

As you exploit location mapping, you gain the information needed to make smart business decisions.

Location intelligence showcases the relationship between the data in a way you might not have seen without the analytics. With these advanced insights, you can quickly see where your customers are, where there is room to grow, and so much more.

You can also use location mapping to set boundaries, label points of interest, segment the demographics, analyze interest and assess risk. Instead of relying on spreadsheets, bar graphs and pie charts, you can showcase your data with the help of a useful map.

Location Mapping Case Study: Starbucks

Wondering what companies are using location data? Look no further than the coffee in your hand.

Starbucks has found incredible success through location intelligence. By using their rewards app to offer freebies and special offers, Starbucks has received valuable data worth far more than a free coffee.

The coffee giant now knows what products each customer likes; and they can quickly extract information about purchasing habits from that data. On its own, this would create overwhelming amounts of data, but Starbucks uses the information to personalize content, laser-focus their marketing, and make ordering coffee easier than ever.

This information also helps Starbucks determine where to put up new locations; and it also helps them decide what items to add to their ever-growing menu.

While you might not be as big as Starbucks, it doesn’t take millions to achieve the same results for your small business.

Getting Started with Location Mapping

If you want to turn your data into an easy-to-understand map, here are a few simple steps to follow.

  • Think Spatially: Determine how the place and location data will make a difference for your organization. How will this information help you understand the problems you face and allow you to craft solutions?
  • Perform Due Diligence: Go through the data you have to see how you can enhance it further. What steps do you need to take to ensure its integrity?
  • Collect More Data: What tools can you implement that will give you access to further data? Could you add a rewards app to gain more information about your clients?
  • Be Careful with Partnerships: You don’t want to choose just any location intelligence vendor. It’s vital to gain reputable data and high-quality support. Vet any company you plan to work with.

Most mapping solutions offer a free trial, making it super easy to import your location data from a simple excel spreadsheet.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Managing Your Business with Location Mapping

The key to starting with location mapping is to take the first step. Begin with the information you already have and see what new insights you can glean from using mapping software.

Managing Your Business From Afar

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |managing your business|Managing Your Business From AfarIf you are the kind of manager who likes to have a real hands-on approach with your business and what is taking place inside it, then you probably want to be able to do that no matter where you are. You might be travelling the world or on break, but you still want to be able to look into what is going on in your business and work out how to make the changes you want. Actually, it’s always possible to manage your business from afar, and as long as you are aware of how to do it, you will find that it is easier than you think.

Remote Viewing

One of the best ways to maintain a real hands-on approach even while being nowhere near the office is to use remote viewing, which is a means of taking control of a computer screen from somewhere else. There are many ways of doing this, but the best ones are those that allow you to have a whole overview of what is going on in your systems from a piece of software on your own computer or smartphone. Something like teamviewer might be helpful here – and if you are lucky you can find a teamviewer coupon to help reduce the cost a little.

The Cloud

More and more businesses are using the cloud, often without even really knowing what it is or how it works. In essence, the cloud is just a server that is held externally, and used by you the client from whatever device you happen to be on. It’s actually much simpler than it might seem. If you have ever used Google Docs, or shared files in Dropbox, then you have used a cloud service of some kind. This is obviously very useful if you want to manage your affairs from afar, especially if you have previously shared the right files on the cloud.

Your Smartphone

Your smartphone is likely going to become one of the most important things that you have on you if you are going to want to travel and still be in touch with the business back home. With a smartphone, you can send and receive emails, do some twitter marketing, access a cloud service, and of course take phone calls. It’s a great way to stay in touch, and you will find that it is hard to really go without it these days if you want to manage your business no matter where you might be.

Putting Someone In Charge

Of course, whenever you are away, you will also want to put someone in charge whom you trust with proceedings. You can also then communicate with them directly if you want to get a sense of what is going on in the business, and that is something that you are going to find incredibly useful indeed. With that kind of person on board, managing your business from afar will feel like a much easier thing indeed, and it will help you to have trust in what is going on too.