Customer Service: When is Automation a Good Idea?

Automation with customer service has to be handled with care. While customers are now used to computerized answering services instead of a receptionist picking up the calls, there’s also usually a decline in the service level when having trouble getting hold of a real person. Companies must strive to use automation in a manner that is a net benefit to the customers – not just the bottom line.

Women making a phone call

When approaching automation from this perspective, it tends to work well for everyone concerned.

Routing Calls Better

Using speech recognition software, it’s now possible for VoIP call center software to route calls better.…

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3 Ways to Improve Your Business’ Online Flexibility

Around 67% of businesses now offering a flexible working arrangement, allowing their staff to work remotely, set their own working hours, and compress their working weeks into fewer days. Flexible working schedules can hugely benefit staff. One survey showing that 73% of staff saw increased work satisfaction while 78% agreed that the system made them more productive. Other studies suggest that it can also reduce stress and improve mental health.

Remote employee working

But in order to successfully implement a flexible working strategy, employees must have the tools to work efficiently outside of the office. Staff will need access to data and be able to perform their tasks, as well as communicating remotely.…

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5 Key Features to Look for When Choosing the Best CRM Platform

Operating a company isn’t without its challenges. Daily tasks include generating leads, cultivating new clients relations, retaining customers, and closing sales. Customer relationship management (CRM) programs make daily tasks easier and streamline operations. The software’s features define which product is most helpful for businesses.

CRM brainstorming session

Knowing what to look for in a CRM — what features best fit your company and it’s customer’s needs is crucial to long term sales and service success.

1. Customer and/or Contact Management Features

Customer or contact management helps you categorize and segment your customer list. The data mining practice shows you key attributes about customers stored in your database.…

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How to Build Your Own Online Forex Business from Home

Building a successful home business takes time and effort. Many people believe it’s nearly impossible to build a fruitful business without having an edge. An edge is important as it allows you to differentiate yourself from other businesses. For example, selling electronics from home, means that you are competing directly with Amazon and Best Buy which makes it difficult for you to create an edge.

Home-based online forex business

One of the best ways to build a home business is to use a blog or website especially if you have some knowledge of the capital markets. If you have been following the capital markets and have been writing about them or a considering this type of venture, then you can make money from home by directly becoming an affiliate partner.…

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The Best Online Business Tools to Start a Profitable Business Website

Among many other innovations that the digital era has brought, there is also a noticeable shift in people’s approach to business. Thus, having a home-based or freelance job while working online has become more of a common occurrence than a rarity nowadays.

Running online business

Due to this drastic change in business model over the years, there are now plenty of tools and services available that will help your online business reach its full potential and bring you desired profit.

In order to have a prosperous online business, you need to have a well-equipped website that will be capable to cover your needs and bring you the results you seek.

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How Small Business Owners Can Harness the Power of SEO to Grow Their Brands

It seems like everyone and their mother has climbed aboard the content marketing train, pushing out everything from blog posts to whitepapers to tutorials online. You can quite literally find an answer — or multiple answers, really — to any question that comes to mind. Although helpful in many ways, this wealth of information poses a problem: We’re drowning in the stuff, which makes it that much harder for your audience to find your content.

SEO

If you want audiences to discover your content, SEO needs to be part and parcel of your content journey. Adhering to SEO best practices ensures that any content you produce meets Google’s standards, making it easier for bots to crawl your site, index your content, and rank its relevance.…

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How Your Website A/B Tests Can Benefit From Artificial Intelligence

How successful is your landing page? Could it be better? Should you place that Call-to-Action button at the top or bottom of your page?

A/B testing for landing page optimization

A/B tests help you test and control against a variable and find out which variable option determines the best response. Artificial intelligence (AI) is capable of measuring the same type of responses, albeit, in a better way. In this post, we will explore the benefits of AI and how it can complement your A/B tests.

How AI is Surpassing A/B Tests

AI surpasses A/B test

Marketers have depended on A/B or split testing to find out the best performing aspects of their website.…

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Proper Domain Name Considerations For New Business Owners Going Online

Just imagine how much business you’re losing every time a user mistyped your domain name or worse – forget it. Sometimes the word is hard to spell, maybe it doesn’t make sense, or perhaps it’s unremarkable.

Online consumers are prickly people. They won’t spend precious time looking for your location and most of them would just consider other similar product or service on offer.

Domain name choices

Understanding how to name your website can help you distinguish your brand from competitors, attract new customers to your website, and even prevent spammers from stealing traffic. Confusing or generic domains cause customers to end up at a competitor’s site.…

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Taking Account – The Benefits of Upgrading Your Financial Systems

For most business owners the day to day running of their company makes huge demands on their time and energy. It may not even have occurred to them that their business could run more efficiently or that their cash flow could be increased and their customer experience be enhanced, simply by upgrading their accounting software.

Finance team meeting

Often this is a case of ‘if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it’. Unfortunately, in many instances, this can be an expensive mistake. To truly appreciate the advances made in small business accounting software and to understand how they can benefit your business, I have devised a few pertinent questions which can identify how your current accounting system may be letting down both your business and your customers.…

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Connecting with Customers in Ecommerce: Why CRM is a Must-Have

Ecommerce isn’t a forgiving industry. If you’re one of the millions of online retailers that’s competing to earn the business of new customers, the lack of proper tools at your disposal could be what’s holding you back. The good news is that with the right marketing weapons, you can expand reach and nurture new as well as existing customer relationships to great success.

CRM for Ecommerce

Along the way, make sure you don’t overlook the benefits of a CRM for ecommerce. Here’s how it can help you earmark new accolades.

How Ecommerce CRM Works

Unlike traditional CRM, which is a lead-gen tool, ecommerce CRM has changed the game for this newer and evolving industry that’s currently undergoing explosive growth.…

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