These 4 Things Will Make Or Break Your Business.
December 10, 2018 by ThySista
Filed under Business, Opinion, Weekly Columns
(ThySistas.com) Running a business will always be difficult; everyone experiences bumps and issues along the way. If you were to chart the success of a company via a line graph, then you’ll always see peaks and troughs throughout the life cycle. Having said that, when you break down a business, it’s surprising to see how simple things can be. At the heart of every company are a few things that essentially make or break it.
This brings us nicely onto today’s post, where we’ll look at a few essential aspects of your company that you really need to put a lot of thought and attention into. If you nail these things, then it usually results in a more successful business.
Customer Service
It’s tough to reach your potential when you don’t offer excellent customer service. This refers to how you interact with your customers and deal with their complaints, questions, and just general stuff as well. When you provide superior customer service, then everyone is happy. Your customers enjoy using your business as they feel valued and taken care of. It encourages people to keep coming back for more, while also giving onlookers a favorable view of your business. If a consumer sees that you have great customer service and plenty of positive feedback, then they’re more likely to become a new customer themselves!
Alongside the customer retention and attraction benefits, it also serves to improve your public image and brand credibility. Businesses that are renowned for awful customer service are never viewed positively by anyone – it ends up damaging their brand.
As a consequence, it’s critical that you focus on customer service at all times. Do whatever you can to improve this aspect of your business. It’s highly recommended that your employees are continually learning about customer service so they can perfect their techniques and methods of interaction. The main aim is to ensure you’re always there for your customers and provide instant support and information. You can make use of a website chat support software for this. The more informed a customer is, the more valued they feel. It should be easy for them to contact you, and every interaction with your business should be positive!
Sales & Marketing Strategy
I’ve coupled sales and marketing in the same bracket as it’s crucial that you get the two working together. Your sales strategy is useless without a good marketing campaign, and the whole aim of a marketing strategy is to increase sales! So, there’s one tip for you right there; align the two strategies and get everyone working together across sales and marketing. This helps you develop a marketing strategy that focuses on any weak points for the sales team. For example, if they complain that they’re dealing with loads of leads that just aren’t interested in your business, then the marketing strategy must be tweaked to bring in more targeted leads.
Naturally, when you nail your sales & marketing strategy, then it basically means you’ve got a nice fluid sales funnel. Leads are generated via marketing, they’re pushed through the funnel to the sales team, who will then convert as many as possible into paying customers. It’s the ultimate way of gaining new customers, which will help bring a constant stream of cash into your business.
It’s not brain surgery; if a business isn’t making sales, then it’s not making any money. What’s more, it’s natural to go through periods where your sales figures dip. That’s fine, it just means you need to re-adjust your sales and marketing approaches.
Employee Retention
Most businesses will need employees to help it function as well as possible. If you ever want to grow a small business, then the first step is hiring more staff to take on a greater amount of work. One of the most significant issues revolving around your employees is the retention rate. This refers to the percentage of employees you keep every year. Realistically, you want to retain as many people as possible. You may wish to look into seeing if your company is able to qualify and make a claim for employee retention credit, for retaining your employees during recent events concerning partial or total shutdown.
Why? Well, let’s break things down here; what happens if your retention is poor and loads of employees keep leaving? It means you have to continually go out and hire new people, which can cost a fortune. Not to mention how much time it wastes as well! Then, there’s always a period where you have to integrate new employees into your organization, which usually results in a dip in productivity until they get settled. When this happens all the time, it means your business can be missing out on sales as you can’t function at peak capacity.
Furthermore, it means you’re potentially losing talented individuals to rival companies while bringing in new people that can’t match their standards. Again, this makes your business suffer!
So, you want to reduce law firm attrition or attrition from any company in fact, and focus on employee retention and keeping as many people onboard year after year, so your business benefits. Everything is more productive and streamlined as you have the same core group of employees working together all the time. They know how things are done, they know how to work as a team, and this results in fewer hiring costs, more productivity, and a business full of the most talented people around.
Brand Management
The fourth and final thing that will make or break your business is brand management. With good brand management, you always convey a positive image to the public. People see you as a trustworthy source of information, and this encourages more consumers to buy your products/services.
Looking at things from the other perspective, a business with terrible brand management will be viewed in a negative light. Your brand will be seen as toxic as you’re not making an effort to avoid controversies and negativity. This puts people off, and you’ll find it hard to gain new customers – or retain current ones.
A lot of the time, businesses can see loads of success on the strength of their brand alone. Even if other companies supply equally good products/services, your brand can sway consumers to choose you.
When all four of these things are absolutely nailed, then it usually leads to a more successful business. But, when you mess up one or two, then it can break you. Look at your business and see if you’re maybe not giving enough focus to one of these areas. Get them all in a positive place, and you’ll rise to the top.
Staff Writer; Lisa Poole
