It’s hard to adapt in the business world when you’ve been doing the same thing for a long time. The problem is, it’s hard to get the attention of new customers today if you keep doing things the old way. You need to put digital technology to use if you want to compete in business today. Insurance companies have levelled up their game to using digital insurance solutions. Healthcare businesses have advanced their service to telehealth. The manufacturing industry has improved processes in automation. What about your business?
The good news is that you have a lot of options when using online products to help your business. Below are eight of the best online services you can use today that will make the biggest difference.
1. Calendar Manager
Do you work with a lot of clients? If so, it can be troublesome to keep track of who you need to talk with and the meetings you have scheduled throughout the day. An online calendar can help you stay on top of things.
Find a product that allows you to share your schedule with co-workers so they know when they can talk with you. Keeping things on your calendar will also allow you to schedule work time where you won’t be talking with anyone.
There are also calendar products that allow your clients to schedule time with you. This feature will enable people to fit themselves into your schedule without having back and forth phone calls and emails.
2. CRM Software
It’s hard to keep track of where customers are in the sales cycle if you do everything by hand. A good CRM software will solve this problem for you.
CRM software provides you a central location to store all your customer information. Put in the details you know, and most software will look for your contact online and fill in the information it finds.
You can also categorize your contacts by where they are in the sales process. Doing this will give you insight into the people you should focus on during the workday.
3. Document Collaboration
It’s hard to manage documents on your own. If you don’t have an IT infrastructure, you’re going to be sending files back and forth with your team you may even need to look for ways to fax without a fax machine. If you have a server, then everyone needs network access if they want to see the most up to date information.
Document collaboration software like Google Suite and Office 365 allows you to collaborate in the cloud on your documents. As long as someone has an internet connection, they can access all the documents they need.
This software also comes with built-in version history. Version history will allow you to roll back documents in case someone makes a mistake. You won’t need to worry about losing important information anymore.
4. Project Management
Even the best project management strategies still have problems when all you use is email. You need to use a tool designed for the job.
An online project management tool will give you the ability to manage all your company projects in one place. You create projects, create tasks, and assign people to those tasks.
Your online portal gives your team a place to sign in to see what they need to do during the day. It will reduce the time your team wastes going back and forth to figure out what needs to be done.
5. Web Hosting
It’s hard to advertise your company online if customers can’t find you. Your website will help them find your company.
But you can’t put a website online with web hosting. Make sure to look at the options available to find one that works well with your type of business.
If you run a store that sells products, it makes sense to work with a host that acts as an eCommerce platform. Shopify and BigCommerce are good options for stores.
If you don’t sell anything and don’t get much web traffic, a regular shared host will work in the beginning. These hosts will give you space on the web to upload your website files for the world to see.
6. Accounting Software
If you’re still using spreadsheets to manage your business finances, you’re doing things the hard way. There is now accounting software online that will remove a lot of the manual work for you.
Once you sign up for an accounting program, the only thing you need to do is link your business bank account. Your software will automatically download all your transactions for you to see. Once it finishes, it will categorize everything so that you can review your finances.
7. Email List
It isn’t enough to get a potential customer into the front door. The chances are that they won’t buy from you the first time. You’ll need to promote your products to these people several times before they buy from you.
If you don’t have a way to reach these people, getting in front of them again will be hard to do. Luckily, an email list will help you do that.
Your email list will allow you to send content and promotions to everyone that shows an interest in your products. You’ll be able to get in front of people without spending a ton of money on advertising.
8. Document Signing
It used to take a long time to go through the signing process in the past. If you are working with someone across the country, you had to send them the paperwork to sign. You would need to wait for it in the mail or spend the money on faxing it to the other person.
Things have changed now that you can use a digital signature. Online document signing platforms let you handle the singing process online. Upload your documents, tell it where a signature needs to be, and you can get your documents signed immediately.
Now You Know the Best Online Services to Buy
You need to use every resource at your disposal to increase the chance of success for your business. The best online services above will help you get there. Try them today so you can see first hand how much they will help.
If you’re curious about other technologies that can help your business, then head back to our blog. Our latest posts will tell you about the newest tools on the market.
