If you manage a small or medium sized business, or even if you work as a middle manager for a large national corporation, you know the feeling that there’s never enough time to accomplish what you need to get done for your company. So, what can you do to help your business run smoothly while also balancing everything else in life? Read on for a few great business “hacks” to make your life easier–at least while you’re at work!
Hire Help and Delegate
It’s normal to want to do everything yourself, especially if you’re used to running your business that way. But hiring help to assist you can help increase your efficiency in a major way. Investing in labor will use some resources, but it will also free up your time so you can focus on the big picture and remain committed to the overall vision of your company. You can hire staff to help interact with customers, handle your books, or simply hire contractors to come in and make sure your brick and mortar store is spic-and-span for your customers. Pro tip: if you’re handling everything from mopping floors to answering calls to creating the marketing campaign, then you could probably use some help!
Use Digital Tools
Technology can sometimes feel like just another headache to deal with, but leveraging digital tools can help give your business a major efficiency makeover. From creating a strong social media presence to attracting potential customers, to using automated calendars and schedulers to ensure all of your employee shifts and/or customer appointments get booked and run smoothly, technology can definitely be your friend when it comes increasing your efficiency. A good idea is to start small, and integrate just one or two tech tools into your business so you don’t get overwhelmed. Try a new app that will let you manage all of your social media accounts from the palm of your hand and pay close attention to how much time it saves you in the long run. There are a variety of affordable tools such as Hootsuite, Buffer and Sprout Social that allow you to manage, schedule and monitor all of your profiles – take a look and find the one that best suits your needs.
Partner with a Professional Answering Service
Having more staff and utilizing the power of technology will help jump start your efficiency in no time. But, if you really want to go the extra mile, consider choosing a professional answering service. Using an answering service to field calls, provide information to customers, take orders, answer questions, and book appointments will free up you and your staff from the tedium of repeating the same information over and over. What’s more, a dedicated answering service will ensure that you and your staff remain focused on the customers who are currently in front of you and the job at hand, instead of getting distracted by a ringing phone. Best of all, no matter when your current–or potential–customers call, they’ll get a live person on the phone and will feel right away that your business is committed to hearing their needs, literally! This means you can retain and attract customers more easily, which in turn makes your business even more efficient.
The key to making your business more efficient is to not be afraid to use help when you really need it! Delegate, get tech savvy, and partner with an answering service pro so you can stay focused on your customers’ needs. For more information on how an answering service can help your business be more efficient, contact MAP Communications today!
Here are some related articles you might be interested in:
Incorporating a Virtual Receptionist into Your Business Strategy
