The Connection, Inc Blog

Out of all the technologies that have been introduced into the mainstream over the last few years, artificial intelligence—or AI—leads the pack in terms of innovation. Far from the science fiction of autonomous machines bent on the extinction of humanity, AI is now found in many examples of beneficial software. Let’s consider some ways that businesses can now use AI to their considerable advantage.

Providing outstanding customer service is a requirement to be successful in today’s business environment. If you ignore this valuable tenant of business, then you’ve got a competitor who will gladly jump on the opportunity to steal away your customers and prospects by offering better service. What steps is your business taking to make sure that your customer service is second to none?

For this week’s tip, we’ll share four fundamentals of what good customer service looks like, as well as how technology can help.

Be Easy to Work With
Having a customer service team with likable personalities and good communication skills goes a long way when it comes to gaining and retaining customers. That said, it should be fairly obvious that not every employee fits such a profile. It’s, therefore, advantageous if you’re deliberate about putting the employees that are the easiest to work with on the front lines with your customers. Alternatively, having employees with awkward and obtuse personalities serving customers may end up driving them away from your business, and to another company with a more likable customer service team. Depending on what technologies you use to communicate with your customers, some solutions allow customers to rank the quality of service they receive, allowing you to get an accurate picture of your team’s customer service skills.

Meet and Exceed Any Commitments
The customer-business relationship comes with a set of expectations on the customer's part regarding your company’s product and service. Keep in mind that doing the minimum amount of work to meet these expectations will only put your business in the danger zone, seeing as your customers and prospects will be susceptible to being swept away by a competitor that promises to go above and beyond. Remember, if you go above and beyond and exceed customer expectations, you’ll build brand loyalty that will keep customers within the orbit of your organization.

Be Available to Answer Customers
We live in an age where more services are offered 24/7. Maybe your business can’t have a customer service representative on call 24/7, but you can implement communication tools that will allow your staff to be more available to customers.

You can achieve this in two ways: 1) by having your staff carry mobile solutions that allow them to stay in touch with customers while they're on the go, and 2) by equipping your company with multiple ways that customers can reach your team. Regarding the latter, keep in mind that not every consumer prefers to communicate the same way. You’ll want to take advantage of email, phone calls, instant messaging, and more. Even having a designated employee to answer inquiries over various social media platforms will go a long way in serving a customer's needs in a satisfactory manner.

Have an Agile Work Environment
Having an agile work environment really shows when it comes to handling a customer’s request. By having departments equipped with technology that allows them to freely share information and collaborate easily, you’ll be assured that customers will be processed as quickly and efficiently as possible. If you don’t take such efforts, then it’s quite possible for different departments to be their own silos of information, and for a customer’s request to get tied up by a single employee at the top.

For all of these customer service initiatives, you’ll want to collaborate with your IT provider in order to find ways that technology can be integrated into these processes and provide customers with the best experience possible. What technologies can your business implement that will keep your customers coming back for more? To find out, give the IT experts at The Connection, Inc a call at (732) 291-5938.

If you look around your company, there’s a good chance that it has a lot of technology that you completely take for granted. No matter if you run a small retail store, a factory, or a multi-location office, your business needs IT to function properly. Today, we will take a look into several ways your organization can use technology to improve your business.

Customer Service
The relationships you forge with your customers are some of the most rewarding you will build in business; and, unmistakably the most crucial. When businesses fail to support the products and services that they sell, they have a much harder time sustaining positive consumer relationships. There are plenty of technologies that can help a business improve customer service. One such technology is customer relationship management software. Not only does it provide a ticketing system to get customer complaints and concerns in front of decision makers, it also provides several options to help manage support work.

Today, companies are routinely utilizing social media, including social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter to engage with their customers. These platforms in particular give the business the chance to promote their knowledge base, their products, and also hold a public conversation about their products and services. While this may not always work out in the business’ favor, it has proven to be a great outlet for businesses looking to engage in substantive conversations with customers and prospects.

Productivity
In order to be a successful business, revenue needs to flow; and, in order for that to happen productivity has to commence. No matter what your businesses, some value has to be created for you to be doing what you are doing. As a result, companies are looking to make investments in technology that will help build their revenue streams. That’s why you see many of today’s businesses, regardless of their industry or size, using technology to facilitate a boost to their organizational productivity.

One solution that is very useful for any service business is time-tracking software. Typically, this comes as a part of a scheduling solution. Software like this allows managers to assign time for certain tasks, while being able to review how long projects and service delivery takes, providing a way to best monetize the time their employees spend and streamline work processes.

Moreover, many of today’s most useful technology-based solutions for productivity are filled with collaborative options and hosted in the cloud. In utilizing cloud-hosted software solutions, companies are giving their employees the flexibility to do more. Cloud-hosted apps typically are available on any device and are scalable to ensure that the company isn’t paying more than it needs to for the productivity solutions they need.

Finance
It would be an understatement to say that money is a major consideration when it comes to business. Decisions are made every day with the bottom line the major consideration. Technology solutions can help small business owners better manage their finances. They can utilize online invoicing services to help them collect payment and reduce expenses.

The use of software to manage payroll and accounts receivable not only makes those inherently frustrating tasks much easier, they allow them to be handled with care. These are, after all, crucial aspects of your organization’s ability to conduct business. By having software solutions that provide the ability to streamline your organization’s revenue streams and expenses, business simply runs better.

Security
Let’s face it, security is crucial to the sustainability of every single business. Whether it is network security or physical security, if people are free to do other people harm with impunity, there is total chaos. With solutions that include antivirus, firewall, content filtering, and spam blocking, technology can keep the business’ IT safe.

On the other end of things, IT-fueled physical security is a big hit with organizations of all types. With digital cameras, biometric security locks, and more solutions keeping a constant eye (or eyes) out, you can ensure that your workplace, your employees, and your assets are properly protected.

Nowadays, organizations also have to worry about their wireless networks and mobile access. Today there are plenty of solutions aimed at enhancing your business’ mobility, while keeping the increased amount of enemies out of your business’ network and infrastructure.

Growth in the use of technology has been leading the way for quite some time, and, with all the new solutions on the market, this trend doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. Call the technology professionals at The Connection, Inc at (732) 291-5938 to talk about getting an assessment to see how you can improve your business through technology.

Robotics are making leaps and bounds in all sorts of different industries. Robots aid doctors with surgery, work in manufacturing plants, and perform countless other functions. Now, we can add “pizza delivery” to this list, thanks to a somewhat bizarre and extremely welcome innovation by the Domino’s pizza chain.

The Internet gives customers a platform to be heard like never before. A customer’s opinion of your business dealings, when amplified online, can make or break your company. This reality requires modern enterprises to take customer service very seriously, which is easier said than done.

One common characteristic about small-to-medium sized businesses is that they're often stretched thin. When your company is pulled every which way, certain aspects of it begin to suffer. One area that should never suffer is customer service. Managed IT service can make things easier on your staff so they can focus on what’s important, like better serving your clients.

Not everyone you meet on the Internet is going to have the same opinion as you. This ordinarily wouldn’t be a problem, since most people are reasonable and can realize when not to open their mouth; but on the Internet, anonymity breeds a foul creature with a mind for mischief: The Internet troll. They often respond to posts and comments in a condescending or crude, obnoxious manner in a deliberate attempt to anger the original poster.