Working from home is trending for everyone, but it has always been a great way to start a new small business. When you work from home you’re saving on the startup costs of your business. On the other hand, it can be tough to look professional when you’re a one-man operation working from your kitchen table. More consumers are turning to buying locally but they still want the service of the big guys. They want to know that you’re a stable and reliable business with great customer service.
Appearances can make all the difference. Even if you’re on day one of a new business, you can create an image of professionalism that will make your customer service the talk of the town in no time. Employ these three technological services and you’ll look bigger and more experienced than you actually are.
1. Hire a Virtual Receptionist
There are a lot of reasons to hire a virtual receptionist. It will save you hours out of every day answering cold calls, but virtual reception services are more than the phone answering services of the past. You can keep a receptionist on call 24/7 so you never miss a potential sale. You’ll have a live person working with your customers to deliver your custom script. The receptionist can triage calls so that even if you’re on the beach, if it’s an emergency, you’ll get the call.
In a global economy, you never know where your next sale will come from so being available around the clock is the best way to make sure you never miss a sale. Also, consider adding bilingual services for the same reason. Some services include basic sales transactions without ever patching a call through to you.
2. Add a Chatbot to Your Website
A live person is a great way to do business by phone, but you can also up your online customer service game. Artificial intelligence is changing the way people find the answers to their most common questions. When you add a chatbot to your website, your customers can have their questions answered immediately, no matter the time of day or night. A modern business can’t get away with skipping an online presence, but that doesn’t mean you’re sitting at your computer all the time just waiting for customers, yet 43% of consumers expect you to be there around the clock.
Chatbots use natural language and learn your customer requirements so they continue to get better with time and often your customers won’t know it isn’t a person responding on the other end. Even if the chatbot can’t answer the question, it means you’ll only have to deal with the customer service issues which are truly complex.
3. Use Small Business Social Media Solutions
Finally, use the small business solutions for social media that will keep your marketing campaign on target and engaged with your customers. Social media is the number one way to create and maintain your branding image and marketing campaign, but when you’re working solo, it feels like it takes every minute of your day to plan posts and reply to comments. Add in social media listening for mentions of your business or product and tracking of your competitors across multiple platforms and social media can take up your whole life. Instead, invest in the tools that will do the work for you. You’ll still have to put in time responding, but specialized apps will do the combing for you. They can also help you create effective posts and time them out. Spend one day a week on social media posts instead of all day, every day.
These three tech advances will help your business appear more established, improve your customer service game and still save you time.
