In today’s world, we have so much technology that we barely know what half of it does, let alone how to use it. We tend to stick to what we know and forgo the rest. However, once you understand how you can optimize the relevant tech in your business, you can radically improve efficiency and communication.
One easy way to increase your business’ efficiency and keep everyone on the same page is by using a group-based calendar.
Staff can see what the plans are for the day, who’s going to be out of the office, schedule meetings and appointments, and more. Everyone can plan their day around each other’s availabilities and come in every day knowing what to expect.
Shared drives, either on a network or through a hosting service like OneDrive for Business, can also save time and increase work efficiency.
Shared folders and drives can be divided by department (like Marketing) or use (like Scanned Documents), ensuring files can be accessed instantly in their current version by all allowed parties. You can also filter out who has access to certain folders.
If it would be a right fit for your business, it might be worth looking into a customer relationship management (CRM) system.
A CRM system does what it sounds like: it tracks your relationships with your clients. It does much more than digitize your client files; these are a powerful tool that can do a lot of heavy lifting in organizing your business, managing your clients and workload, marketing, collaboration between employees, and client satisfaction.
There are many, many webpages written on the topic and many CRM options to choose from at all different price points, so some independent research will benefit you here.
We use a CRM program at Tech Experts to track all of our clients’ service tickets, manage invoicing, build marketing campaigns, monitor statistics, and more.
Back to the tech that’s easier to implement. If you use a fax line, you may be able to switch to an email-to-fax/fax-to-email service or an online fax service.
These solutions function just like a regular fax line (make sure the provider you’re considering is HIPAA compliant, if needed) and are often cheaper than a traditional fax machine when compared. These faxes can be sent from anywhere, to multiple parties at once, and save on paper and equipment costs.
Many companies, including ours, use an online library (also known as a knowledge base) to store employee training and reference materials.
This makes it easy for both new and established employees to check procedures without having to interrupt another employee; they simply log in and find the article they need to complete their task.
Additionally, if someone does need to ask for help, they can be directly linked to detailed processes, saving time for everybody involved.
These also allow you to control who has access to what spaces. Services like this are typically browser-based, but something similar could be set up on shared network drives as well.
With the amount of people that are currently working remotely or people who will be working remotely in the future, communication is key.
Not only can these help with communication inside of your business, but also assist in communication with your customers.