Peter Drucker once said, “Profitability is the sovereign criterion of the enterprise.” A profitable company is able to generate more sales, make better decisions, and consistently improve its market position. After years of strong growth, many companies are now facing a slowdown in sales and earnings. As a result, the company’s leadership must take heed to not only provide the ultimate solutions for customers but also invest in solutions for the issues of the home team. Each of a business’ core activities is mission critical, from initial finance and accounting to end production. However, focusing on the human component of business over arbitrary economic benchmarks will be a decision that will soon influence the success of a firm year over year.
Demystify Customer Service
Customer relationship management is one of those corporate innovations that emerged due to a novel business need. As more businesses went digital, and as technology progressed, there became a need for these giant tech companies like Amazon and Google to have a one-stop-shop to manage customers from the sales prospecting step to final delivery and beyond. Beneficiaries of CRM include a host of industries. There are CRM tools for such business models as dropshipping for retail sales, medical billing reconciliation, and even the national military, who serves a plethora of customers.
When it comes to providing customer service, remind your workforce through training or guidance that the CRM application is idealized for their benefit. If there are functionality issues or if there’s a poor workflow preventing ease of use, the customer service professionals must have contact with the CRM tool’s product management team. These individuals are highly motivated to render their software to be a help and not a hindrance. Leads could generate boilerplate templates for defect management logs to record the most precise steps that caused a malfunction and with what kind of device and operating system.
Decrease Employee Turnover
Let’s face it, the life of the enterprise employee is essentially sedentary. Office barometers gauge on the dry side. Fluorescent lights offer all of the white noise pollution and none of the vitamin D. Even with the latest in workplace decor, your human capital spends 40 hours a week more or less in the same rigged positions. Offering radical benefits that reward workers for living a healthier lifestyle for themselves translates to healthier profits and wages.
Because employees are the most important asset to any business, it’s crucial to take care of them by offering benefits that help them be more productive and happy. As an example, flexible hours give workers more control over when they can work on projects or leave early for events. Work-life balance is significant for employees and allows human resources to simplify recruitment and enhance talent retention.
Develop Your Research
Do you know what features your customers want from you? How do you stack up against your competitors? If you want to improve your business, there’s one instinctual action you must take: listen. When it comes to what customers want from your company and how they expect you to provide it, their opinions are the most important ones. That doesn’t mean that you should always incorporate each of their wishes, but it does mean that their feedback should be taken into consideration.
Perhaps the competition has committed to redesigns with jazzy graphics and new fonts. Nevertheless, the best way to find out what your customers want is by asking them directly and checking in with them on a regular basis. Take advantage of all the tools available today for gathering insights, including social media networks and surveys (both automated and manual). Focus groups offer another way of getting real-time reactions from customers and prospects alike.
Businesses are always looking for ways to improve their bottom line, and it’s important to keep in mind that changes don’t happen overnight. If you’re looking at ways to grow your business, this author recommends exploring new strategies in key business functions that can help make a noticeable impact immediately or down the road. With strategy and mutual respect, prosperity becomes tangible.
