Few organizations want to be behind the times or appear out of touch. Antiquated processes can drive away customers, frustrate employees, and prevent resource optimization. Modernizing your company’s workflows, processes, and client-facing activities will likely mean introducing new technology and tools. Entire promotional methods such as digital marketing wouldn’t even exist without tech like websites, social media, and search engine optimization tools.
That said, sometimes keeping up with current developments means improving the way you use the tech you already have. Whether communication workflows need a reboot or employees struggle with data quality management, there are steps you can take to improve. Let’s review three ways to use tools to bring your business up to date and produce the best results.
1. Leverage Data Reliability and Quality Solutions
Organizations are collecting and managing more and more information, as web and subscription-based solutions become the norm. With leaders championing decision-making processes that focus on data, the internal systems that handle that information are becoming more complex. A few databases and servers that store separate records have turned into complex data pipelines that require applications to collect and ingest data, process data and transform data so that it can be used to make business decisions.
The reliability and quality of your data can suffer when volume, velocity, and variety increase. Records get lost, data gets out of sync, and duplicate but disorganized data ensues. This is why more organizations are relying on data observability solutions that ensure information remains reliable and of high quality.
Observability tools come with machine learning that analyzes trends to identify errors that may be hiding in plain sight. With observability solutions, your team also gets a complete view of how data flows throughout the company. The causes of performance problems in data pipelines and predictions to avoid system outages are easily identified and corrected with data observability, helping to optimize costs and resources.
2. Streamline the Onboarding Process
Imagine starting your first day of work without any sense of direction. There’s no agenda, you don’t know where your desk is, and your hiring manager is busy in meetings. Worse, you might be joining a company in a remote role, and there has been little communication since your offer. Your laptop hasn’t arrived yet, and you’re not sure what you should be doing.
Unfortunately, scenarios like these do happen. And they can set new hires up for failure, disappointment, and a less-than-engaging employee experience. Research shows that nearly 10% of workers leave an organization because of a poor onboarding experience. Around 37% of surveyed employees also said their direct managers were not significantly involved in their onboarding process. Think about the message this sends to new hires and existing employees.
At best, a lack of a structured onboarding process says your company is disorganized or doesn’t have the right tools. At worst, poor onboarding experiences send the message that the business isn’t concerned about workers’ needs and perspectives. Fortunately, employers can improve and streamline orientation experiences by incorporating HR or onboarding software.
These platforms help get the required paperwork out of the way quickly. New hires can complete it remotely, even before the first day they report to work. Many onboarding tools also have messaging features, where assigned managers and mentors can send announcements or individual notes. Employees can see where they fit in the company’s structure and have a way to get their questions answered quickly.
3. Provide Enhanced Online Customer Support
You’re doubtless aware that future customers turn to the internet when they need information that can solve their problems. Online searches often lead people to content about products and services they might buy later on. Once those leads become your clients, they continue to prefer digital tools for support.
When customers need to reach out to businesses, 41% like to use live chat, while 23% prefer email support. Combined, this surpasses the 32% of clients who still like to use the phone to resolve their questions. Businesses that don’t have robust online support options might be losing the chance to acquire and retain customers. Statistics show that people who use live chat are 2.8 times as likely to convert.
While your company may already be using customer relationship management software, there may be features you haven’t activated yet. Some of those capabilities include customer support tools such as live chat and automated service desk tickets. Your business will meet customers’ support expectations and convert more leads and existing clients by enabling these options. Plus, your website’s support page or microsite will be on par with the competition’s.
Final Thoughts
Getting a business off the ground is only half the battle. A large part of your company’s continued success lies in keeping processes and tech tools up to date. Sometimes all this takes is a few tweaks to existing tools. In other cases, your business could need upgraded applications that support, refine, or recreate current practices.
Whether your company requires one approach or both, there are tools that can prevent you from falling behind. These include data observability, employee onboarding, and online customer support applications. Implementing or more fully exploiting these solutions will help your business deliver improved customer and employee experiences. And by enhancing how diverse stakeholders interact with your company, you’ll be closer to achieving your desired results.
