Taking your business online, automating aspects of it and digitizing the way you work can have remarkable effects on your productivity, staff engagement and marketing reach.
In a world which changes, ensuring your business changes with it is critical.
No business owner wants to be left behind and, if you haven’t already, digitizing your business could be your next big transitional step.
Increased productivity
Taking elements of your business online could increase your productivity by speeding up systems, modernizing your operations so that they work better with business partners, investors and customers and permitting remote working.
Particularly relevant in the current COVID-19 climate, the ability for your staff to work from home or from remote offices will encourage your business to continue operating as much as possible during the pandemic.
This can be done by holding meetings on video calls rather than in person, sharing information via the cloud and even selling your product or service online rather than in a physical store.
Productivity will rise as staff can work from anywhere – removing long commutes from staff’s days will mean they are less tired and more comfortable – and as your business becomes more of a 24/7 operation, there is much less time where you aren’t attracting new customers or clients.
Better staff engagement
As well as productivity, digitizing your business will benefit your staff in several other ways. One of these is the ability to increase staff engagement.
This can be done, for example, with an Employee Engagement Survey through which they can report back to you how they feel about work, what current emotions they are experiencing and how they think the workplace can be improved.
Staff want to be listened to, and their needs are essential. Using digital software such as these surveys will help you become an employer who listens and makes them feel valued, which will encourage them to stay with you for longer and work harder.
Less storage space
From an environmental point of view, digitizing your business is hugely beneficial.
With fewer physical documents and communications, there is less need for vast amounts of storage space, which could even mean you save money on the size of your office.
Using less paper benefits your business but also global health.
Opens you to a broader audience
Moving to a more online-based system of working will open you up to a much larger audience.
The marketing possibilities that open up to you once you have digitized your business such as e-newsletters, social media channels and pay per click advertising will tap into a previously untouched number of people, spreading the word of your product and increasing leads or sales.
This one is huge for getting ahead of your competitors. Likely, your business rivals are already using the internet for their marketing and sales, so you mustn’t be left behind.
Automation
Finally, automation is a digital aspect of business that can speed up purchases, engage your customers and stakeholders alike and truly create around-the-clock operation.
Automatic card payments make it easier for both your loyal and new customers to make purchases online.
At the same time, you can also automate the way your staff accept and reject shifts if your business works on a schedule.
This makes your life easier and improves customer and staff happiness.