We live in a high tech world – it is changing incredibly fast. As a business owner it can be both good and bad, new software is making running a business more and more simple and efficient, but it can also be difficult to keep up. Here are some of the programs you need to make sure you use it as a business owner to stay on top of the competition.
CRM software
When you give people a more personalized experience when shopping at your business, it empowers them and can lead to heightened personality. While you might not know all of your customers personally, customer relationship management software makes it look like you do. Features like emailing coupon codes for customers’ birthdays and wishing them a good day, or recommending products based on their previous purchases can all help you achieve this. You can get CRM software specially designed for your industry, for example if you own it you will get CRM software related to real estate.
Human relationship software
HR employs everything related to their employees and includes hiring, firing, bullying and harassment, absences, etc. You can’t replace your service with software, but you can give them the software they need to make them run faster and more efficiently. No need for paper logs or huge information files, with HR software everything is in one place.
Online cloud backup software
Cloud software protects information on your network by encrypting data. It sends it to secure servers outside of your office. This way, whatever happens to your computers or your original copies (fire, flood or theft), you have a secure version. If you have employees who work remotely, they can securely access the information they need from any computer they use.
Legal software
Legal advice is expensive and therefore can be problematic for small businesses. However, you can avoid some of these costs by using good legal software. This allows you to create legally binding documents and also provides general guidelines. Much cheaper than consulting a lawyer every time.
Accounting software
When you are in business, it is important that you keep proper bookkeeping. Do it wrong and your tax return will be wrong, and if you underpay you could run into serious trouble. You will still need an accountant to manually complete the return for you, but the accounting software keeps your daily records clean and organized, and at a lower cost to your accountant, it costs less.
Live Chat
Live chat is something that customers love. If they have any questions while browsing your site, they can get an immediate response by talking to a real person. Not everyone will have to make a phone call, but chatting is quick and easy, which may be enough to get them to complete an order instead of giving up or shopping from one of your competitors.
