The world of business is exciting, and more especially for tech lovers. We are in the age of amazing technology that can propel your business miles ahead of the competition that has not leveraged such tech. There are several tools that boost productivity, communications and provide the data needed to make data-driven decisions.
When it comes to starting a business using the best tech has to offer, you first need to understand that different businesses require different tech solutions. But some are common to all, and this article explores the common elements involved in the launch and operation of any business, and the tech tools required for each.
Gathering Data
Before any business venture is explored, it is wise—especially in our world—to gather as much data as you can to help inform your decisions. Gathering data does not mean storing and piling up any piece of information you can get your hands on. It means obtaining data that is relevant to your niche, industry, or particular situation. A great tool for this is Trends by Google. This tool provides data on the popularity of the search term over a chosen period. It can also break the data down by location.
Another tool that can be used to gather data is an analytics tool. These tools track user behavior on a website, processes the information and present it using chosen metrics. This is an invaluable tool for any business owner looking to make data-driven decisions.
Asset Tracking
Whether you’re running a delivery service, a supermarket, or a warehouse, you need a way to keep tabs on your assets. In the old days, people took stock by counting manually and using logbooks. This way proved inefficient for huge volumes of assets or hyper-frequent usage.
The more modern and efficient method of tracking your asset is using an automated asset tracking system. A fully equipped system can handle everything from tracking by the person to maintenance schedules, to bulk reallocation and GPS tracking.
Marketing
This is a crucial aspect of any business, and the future of your business depends on your ability to market. Marketing has become specialized and hyper-efficient thanks to advancements in technology. Marketing has also become diverse as new technologies gave rise to new forms of marketing. For example, there is email marketing, social media marketing, search engine marketing, and others. But now there is an innovative way of marketing that uses GPS coordinates, zip codes, etc to create a personalized experience.
It is called geofencing marketing and is offered by forward-thinking companies like Demand Local. It is done by creating a digital perimeter over a real area of land on digital mapping software, then programming the geofencing system to take a specific action when an authorized device enters the geofence. The specific action taken could be several things. In this case, it’s sending the device (i.e. your customers’ cell phones) notifications or targeted ads. The geofence is usually placed around your business if it is a physical store, and this technology can be used to direct customers to your location, remind them of appointments and several other useful actions. However, for all this to work, the customer would need to opt-in to location services.
Customer Relations
Once upon a time, customer relations was done in person. All your customers lived close to you or traveled far and wide to buy from your store because you were such a nice person. Fast-forward to the present and you’ll find that’s not the case. If you run an online business, your customers could be from any part of the world and will not be willing to travel down just to get their problems solved. And with technology, they don’t have to.
CRM technology enables you to interact with customers and improve business relationships. CRMs also enable seamless communication across various channels. For example, a customer could reach out via telephone call and continue communications via email without any hiccups.
