10 Smart Ways of Incorporating Technology Into Your Service-Based Business

This post is also available in:

Learning ways of incorporating technology into your service-based business can make an incredible difference to the quality of your company.

Using smart technologies can help you reach more potential customers, offer better services to your current clients, and work towards being a better business owner. From collecting email addresses for an email newsletter to issuing digital receipts, there are hundreds of ways to begin using tech in your service-based business.

Ways of Incorporating Technology Into a Service-Based Business

1. Time Tracking

As a business owner, one of the main things you need to consider is employee productivity, as nearly $11 billion is lost to time theft annually.

The less productive your team is, the fewer sales you’ll make daily. This is where time-tracking software comes into play, allowing you to optimize your core business expectations.

These software programs will track employees’ progress throughout the day. They can give supervisors a good idea of who’s logged in and when, who is completing projects on time, and where hours of the day can be used more effectively.

Aside from ensuring your employees complete their tasks, time-tracking software can assist with process improvement and keep team members accountable.

2. Project and Task Management

Project and task management tools are a fantastic alternative to time-tracking software.

In the modern day, employees don’t want to feel like they have eyes on them at all times, especially if they’re working from home. Instead of using time-tracking software to hold each team member accountable, task management can be a better option.

With task management software, you assign specific projects to individuals or groups of people. From there, each team member is responsible for completing their portion of the project to ensure it’s submitted before the deadline.

It’s a fantastic way to keep your team up-to-date with projects and is often seen as a far less invasive approach.

Project management tools are a fantastic solution for businesses that care more about the results than how teams get there. As long as the project gets submitted by the agreed-upon due date, how and when your team members get it done is less of a concern.

3. Digital Bookkeeping

Finances are by far one of the most important aspects of owning any company, whether it be a library or a doggie daycare business.

With digital bookkeeping, you can eliminate the headache of maintaining your accounting, as the software does all the hard work for you. Of course, you can consider hiring an accountant to manage the software to help save you time.

However, these programs are a fantastic way to streamline invoicing, accounts payable, and accounts receivable.

Accounting software is a must-have, whether you own a brick-and-mortar or entirely online business. Not only does it help you stay on top of your expenditures, but also the needs of your employees.

For example, when you’re incorporationg digital accounting technology, you’re also streamlining payroll and benefits management for your entire team.

Did you know that approximately 93% of employees state their pay is always on time, thanks to digital bookkeeping tools?

4. Social Media Marketing Management

One of the most important aspects of owning a service-based business is to learn more about social media marketing. To run a successful business, you must reach out and build customer relationships across various platforms.

Fortunately, there is an endless list of tools designed specifically to make social media marketing easier than ever before. You can even find software programs to help you develop your marketing plan from the ground up.

Email marketing tools can create email newsletters to collect customer feedback and share information with loyal audiences. You can use content calendars to schedule content to be posted regularly across your social media channels.

Truthfully, there are numerous top-rated tools that your team needs to use to master the art of marketing to a larger audience. Once you have a strategy in place, your sales have the potential to double.

5. Human Resource Management

As a service-based business owner, your company’s success relies primarily on your employees’ happiness. Aside from focusing on marketing for digital service-based businesses, spending more time on your employees is essential.

With the help of technology-based human resource management, you can offer a higher-quality work environment that all your employees will appreciate.

Digital HRM solutions are an amazing way to streamline the needs of every team member without requiring one-on-one discussions. Employees can review their benefits packages, ask questions about other entitlements, and even seek assistance through a digital platform.

They’ll no longer have to worry about booking an appointment with HR or waiting for their supervisors to get answers to their questions.

Another massive benefit of digitizing your human resource department is it ensures every employee is treated equally. With these programs, you’re eliminating biases, guaranteeing everyone gets equal treatment regardless of the question or issue at hand.

6. Team Collaboration

In the day and age of working from home, collaboration and staying up-to-date with your team have never been more important. It’s a good idea to give your employees time to work independently, but you should also be kept apprised of what they complete each day.

Telecommunication software is bound to be your best friend when it comes to establishing a schedule for team collaboration and upkeep.

Some of these programs allow you to host video and audio conferences throughout the day, checking in with your team. Others also come with built-in task management tools, allowing you to assign specific projects to specific team members.

You might find other amazing tools, like private messaging, chat boards, and team tagging, allowing you to assign more than one person to each task. Regardless of what tools you use in these unique programs, they are essential for streamlining day-to-day operations with your team.

It also helps to foster a healthier workplace environment, even with a hybrid workplace, by keeping everyone connected and working towards the same objective.

7. File and Data Sharing

Files are an important part of owning a business, whether a file containing email promotions or a collection of client documents.

As a company dealing with service items, you need to guarantee your amazing clients get top-tier and efficient service every time. Using technology for file and data sharing is a must-have in this industry.

Gone are the days when your staff would manually flip through files to find client documents. Today, your team should be able to share non-physical items within seconds, streamlining your operations while serving customer needs as quickly as possible.

One of the best options for this task is to utilize the cloud, a digital space where you can store non-physical items.

With the cloud, every team member can access your catalogue of items and documents as long as they’re signed into the network. It allows instant file sharing while also acting as backup software, protecting your documents from being lost forever on a physical hard drive.

The best part is the cloud is an excellent tool for future growth and scalability, as your business has more needs for storage solutions.

8. Social Media Customer Service

Social media customer service is something every business needs to consider, especially in the service industry. Whether you rely on automation with chatbots or assign a customer service member to your socials, the benefits are extensive.

You’ll make your social media profiles a harbor for customers to ask questions and contact your brand. From there, they’ll be more likely to share your pages with their friends, expanding your audience tenfold. 

According to Likes.io, If you miss social media services in the 21st century, you miss 89% of the future game. 

Making your socials a known customer service platform is also a fantastic way to lead more prospective consumers down your sales funnel. You can give them more information about your products and services, who you are as a brand, and how they can benefit from your services.

Another massive benefit of using social media to manage your customer relations is it makes it easier from a business perspective. You’ll no longer have to worry about keeping individualized records of customer complaints and concerns.

You can easily answer questions quickly rather than putting customers through a multi-step ticketing process.

9. Help Desk and Ticketing Systems

Image Source

If social media isn’t a massive part of your customer service strategy, a help desk and ticketing system should be. With a help desk, you can add chatbot functionality to your website for customers to access.

They’ll be able to ask common questions and be assigned a ticket number that a customer support agent will respond to.

In most instances, help desks and ticketing systems can help solve customer inquiries within 24 hours. These systems organize the importance of customer problems on the back end, helping your team prioritize specific issues to offer the most reliable resolutions.

While offering answers to questions, they can also use survey tools to get feedback based on your customer’s opinions and experiences.

10. Digital Appointment Scheduling

The final must-have gadgets for office productivity are digital appointment scheduling tools, especially for service-based businesses. If you’re ready to put more effort into growth, digital appointments allow you to save time while giving customers more control.

Instead of having your customer service team book appointments, you can offer a digital form to accommodate hundreds of clients simultaneously. It helps save your employees’ time and improves customer experiences.

Your customers can pick the perfect appointment time, schedule the services they’re most interested in, and browse your company’s site simultaneously. The best part is they can book at their earliest convenience, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Rather than only calling during business hours.

All you have to do from a business perspective is double-check your daily schedule to ensure you’re up-to-date. Fortunately, digital appointment scheduling software acts similarly to a personal assistant, managing your time effectively.

The Importance of Incorporating Smart Technology In Business

In the past, the concept of technology added to business was something to be fearful of. Today, it’s a phenomenal way to streamline human operations while offering more efficiency and stability in day-to-day operations.

Using smart technologies helps to offer the best services to your client base while helping you focus on other elements of product-based businesses.

Companies have the opportunity to scale their marketing strategy using tech tools. There’s even the option to manage business finances without requiring an entire accounting department.

Technology is a surefire way to transform your business model so you become one of the better options for customers to rely on. Other notable benefits of using smart tech in business include:

Higher Positive Reviews

Customer reviews are essential for any business. Customers spend up to 31% more at a business with excellent customer reviews. You’ll attract more positive reviews by implementing technology to improve your business operations.

Over time, this can lead to higher customer satisfaction and remarkably more positive reviews.

Operating Your Business Online

Gone are the days of standard brick-and-mortar stores as more businesses transition to purely online operations.

Implementing technology is essential if you’re ready to future-proof your business machine. You can eliminate the headaches of traditional business settings and streamline your operations entirely online.

Boosting Customer Retention

The easier it is for customers to shop with your online business, the more likely they will return.

The most successful businesses get the best customer feedback thanks to easy checkout processes and top-tier customer service. With high-tech tools, you can boost your customer retention to get the highest possible number of sales.

Reducing Daily Operating Costs

If you’ve noticed that running your business has become too expensive, incorporating technology can help to reduce your costs. You can save on energy costs by transitioning to a primarily online workplace, using free conferencing tools to keep in touch with your staff, and focusing on future growth while reducing your overhead.

By reducing these costs, you can also make a larger impact on your business landscape, creating a more cost-effective way to operate.

Consider this quick chart to better grasp the pros and cons of incorporating technology into your daily operations,

Smart Tech in Business Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Saves employee time and effort Streamlines processes Boosts customer experiences Increases customer retention Assists with daily business operations Reduces the amount of manpower required Most services are available outside of business hours	Some software can have a massive learning curve Can be costly depending on what solutions are needed. Requires individual team training Could require third-party troubleshooting

Start Incorporating Technology Into Your Business Today!

There’s nothing better than incorporating technology into your business, whether it be B2B or B2C. With streamlined processes, user-friendly tools, and better customer experiences, it can improve the quality of your business tenfold.

Transform your ordinary company into a future-proof business model everyone will love to use.

---

About the Author:

Uday Tank is a serial entrepreneur and content marketing leader who serves the international community at Rankwisely. He enjoys writing, including marketing, productivity, business, health, diversity, and management.