Successful Blog

Here is a good place for a call to action.

Make It Your Business to Know Google Chrome Extensions

by

software-development-diagram-100101781You might be surprised to find out how some of the newest Google Chrome extensions can help your business run more efficiently or improve productivity to increase the bottom line.

You must select the ones that have the best benefits for your company and know how to use them properly.

With that in mind, check out:

Smartsheet

This app allows you to manage projects and work with team members.

It looks similar to a spreadsheet, which makes it easier for anyone to learn. You can set deadlines and even choose the priority level of each project. You can even create assignments within assignments.

One of the big benefits with this extension is that it allows you to attach documents, videos and other files so that everyone can have access.

You can also check your calendar and timeline to see how each project fits into your overall schedule and what is coming due when.

Business Hangouts

For those familiar with Hangouts will appreciate this app.

It includes special features just for businesses, such as the ability to manage who is attending your meetings and send out invites and reminders.

Another benefit that will be important to many businesses is the fact that you can include people who are not part of Google Plus. When you install it on Chrome, it only takes a click to set up a meeting.

Evernote

Listed as one of the top extensions in the article, 7 Killer Google Chrome Extensions for Your Business, Evernote is well-known but not everyone is taking advantage of its features.

For those who are always on the go and accessing information on multiple devices, Evernote lets you keep all of your notes in one place where you can retrieve them from anywhere.

It has been compared to the paper Post-It notes, but it actually does a lot more. You can even search for your notes and place everything together for fast access.

Wave Accounting

You can manage your own finances with this app.

It runs right in your browser and is ideal for small businesses. You have the option of entering expenses manually or allowing the process to work automatically. It also allows you to create invoices for your customers and even send them straight from your computer. You can even accept credit cards for payment.

Like many other complex and expensive software programs, Wave Accounting allows you to create reports and balance sheets so you can manage the financial aspect of your business.

Each of these apps works with Google Chrome and can provide a significant benefit for your business.

By using one or more of them, you can organize your time, documents and work flow so that you can keep your company on track. By automating as many processes as you can and using quick and easy apps to manage certain aspects of your organization, you can spend more time on other tasks.

These apps also allow you to function like any other business no matter how small your company is.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About the Author: Joyce Morse is an author who writes on a variety of topics, including business and technology.

Tech Products Make for Better Business

by

ID-100272109

Technology is making the business world a better place, which translates to better business for companies and consumers.

Whether your business needs a little tech boost or some on the go gadgets for traveling employees, there are plenty of options to choose from.

With a tech-fueled business in mind, here are just a few ways tech products make your business better:

Tablets for Employees on the Floor

Most customers who are on a shopping mission like to find what they want, purchase it, and move on with their day. This means your sales team needs to have your business’s entire inventory in the palm of their hands.

The solution: tablets.

That’s right, tablets are becoming increasingly popular for employees who need to look up prices, search in-stock items, and locate specific items within your store.

Even if your business doesn’t deal in retail, tablets are a great way to keep all the employees in your office connected. Whether on lunch break, in a meeting, or across the hall, tablets allow your employees to take their work with them on the go.

Anywhere Payments

Technology is also improving the payment process for many businesses.

Mobile card swipes connected to smartphones and tablets allow your business to accept credit card payments from anywhere. This not only boosts sales, it also makes shopping more convenient for your customers.

Employee Mobility

If your employees take advantage of telecommuting, then technology can help your remote employees stay better connected to your business. The same goes with employees who travel to clients throughout the day.

From employees who make service calls to employees who work from home a few days a week, major retailers like Walmart carry a full line of smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy 5 that will improve your business’s telecommuting atmosphere.

Technology and Customer Service

It’s no surprise that technology is improving the customer service sector for businesses of all kinds.

For example, call-waiting technology is making the calling process more customer-friendly and less frustrating.

Call waiting services used to simply ask callers to wait on the line until a representative could take their call.

With intuitive call waiting, your business’s call waiting service can actually give customers updates on how many minutes they have left to wait for a representative.

In addition, improved call-waiting technology can actually give your customers the option to have a representative call them back in a timely manner. Intuitive call waiting is just one way technology makes life better for your customers and your business.

Business Apps

Computer technology is improving the business world by digital leaps and bounds.

Such is the case with mobile apps that put your business in the spotlight. With a mobile app specifically designed for your business, you can keep your customers informed on your products and services, send shipping and package notifications, and accept payments for online merchandise.

If you’re looking for ways to improve your business in 2015, the technology above is sure to make a positive impact.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About the Author: Adam Groff is a freelance writer and creator of content. He writes on a variety of topics including technology and small business.

Big Data Could Mean Big Savings

by

abigdataaaaIs your business looking to save money?

Chances are the answer is a resounding yes. Look no further than big data.

The current darling of the business world offers many advantages to businesses of all shapes and sizes, including yours.

So just how can big data save you money? And what can you do to give your businesses the biggest chance of succeeding with big data?

Big Data and How to Use It

Businesses these days have access to huge amounts of data, from sources such as website metrics, customer histories and social media stats.

These sets of data are too big to handle using everyday office software, and so are known as big data. Analyzing big data can offer insights on many aspects of your business. When it comes to your budget, analyzing big data offers insights that make things easier on the purse strings.

Saving Money by Spotting Leaks

When UPS started using big data to make sure their drivers were following the most efficient routes, they saved an impressive 15 million gallons of fuel during the first year. You too can use big data to see where your business is leaking money.

For example, you might track your sales over the course of a year and notice that during November you are buying in more stock than you need, some of which is going to waste. Now you can adjust how much you buy during that month, and save money.

Or perhaps you’ll compare the amount spent on a specific marketing channel with the revenue that comes back as a result of it to find out if the outlay is worth the return.

By using big data to track in-comings and outgoings or, like UPS, to spot inefficiencies in the way your business is run, you can spot potential leaks and take action.

Save Money by Knowing What Works

One of big data’s strengths is its usefulness in tracking customer behavior, and this can certainly save your business money.

Take for example your social media stats.

By getting an overview of which updates are the most liked and shared, which topics are the most popular, you can see what matters to your customers. That means you can give them more of what they want and tailor your business to match their needs, which is a more efficient use of your resources.

By using big data to analyze what is most liked, what provides the best return on investment and what is most popular with your customers; you can save your business a considerable amount of money in the long term.

How to Succeed With Big Data

To make big data work with your business, start small.

As pointed out in “Big Data Meets the Little Drone“, it’s often best to integrate big data with your existing systems at first, rather than going all-out on new technologies.

By starting small and honing in on one specific area, you can reap the rewards of big data without emptying the coffers.

When planning your big data adoption, don’t forget person power.

Big data needs someone to harvest it and analyze it. By having a good idea of who will do that and making sure they have the skills, time and support necessary to carry out the task, you’ll be giving yourself a better chance of getting what you need from big data.

Plan carefully, figure out where it’s best for you to begin, and work in enough time and support for you and your employees to get the job done, and you will soon be using big data to make big savings in your business over the long term.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About the Author: Tristan Anwyn writes on a wide variety of topics, including social media, SEO, big data and saving money in your business.

5 Social Customer Service Tools You Should Know About

by

By Diana Gomez

Gone are the days of customer service phones ringing off the hook.

While some people may still want to use traditional means to connect with companies, modern consumers rarely want to pick up the phone if they experience a customer-service issue.

Instead, they’re turning to social media to voice concerns and ask questions, knowing that a simple tweet is often the best way to address an issue quickly and easily.

Social customer service tools

Did you know that 42 percent of consumers who complain on social media expect a response no more than 60 minutes later?

This may seem unreasonable, but compare that with the time it should take for a resolution via phone. And these days, the advent of social media has not only opened up more communication channels, but it has lowered patience. A recent study showed that people who complain on social media on nights and weekends expect the same service and response time as they would during normal Monday through Friday business hours. How can companies keep up with that? What a beast.

Smart companies are catching on that social media is their strongest customer service tool. KLM, for example, the leading airline in customer service, realized the importance of social media in 2010 when Icelandic ash left tens of thousands of customers stranded in airports everywhere. It was the biggest interruption to European air traffic since World War II.

Those customers turned to social media for solutions to their travel woes, and KLM responded. Soon after, the airline made social media the focus of its customer service efforts. Resolution time was cut to one day, and one social media post is responded to within one hour — and it all happens via social media.

There are several tools out there ready to help companies get their customer service needs under control as efficiently as possible using social media. Here are a few I’ve found to be worthwhile.

Salesforce

Salesforce is the tool that drives the customer-service machine of KLM. How does it work? Its system extracts customer-service requests from over 150 million social media networks, blogs, forums and more using customized keyword identifiers. The tool’s technology works its magic by searching comments and phrases combining, for example, #KLM, @KLM, and any KLM mentions with customer-service trigger words like “help” or “my flight is late.”

The cool part is that the software can then prioritize the results automatically using the purchase history of the customer and their activity level on social media. So if you have a big Twitter following and you’re a frequent flier, you’ll probably be placed at the front of the customer-service queue. Pretty nifty.

LiveOps Social

Another social customer service tool, LiveOps Social, is a cloud-based contact center/virtual call center software. But instead of tickets submitted through voice, online contact forms, or email, it searches requests on Twitter and Facebook and then submits a ticket that way. The concern is then placed in a service queue alongside all the other requests, but it is prioritized according to the customer’s social and service history.

Social Dynamx

This social customer service tool lets companies manage one-on-one, real-time social conversation. The system automatically routes customers to an agent based on his or her expertise, work group, current caseload, average time to respond and service satisfaction rate. Work groups represent different issues, so say a product has a very specific issue — a work group is created to address that particular concern, and they’ll receive all the tweets relating to that issue. If a customer prefers a different agent, or expert, that change can be easily made.

SparkCentral

Companies that handle a high volume of customer service requests are turning to social media helpdesk platform SparkCentral. Formerly known as TwitSpark, the key to its success lies in the response time. This tool provides super fast and efficient follow-up customer service over Facebook and Twitter. From seemingly petty problems to crisis management, it’s all automatically prioritized and attended to promptly.

ConverSocial

Used by big companies like Google, Barclaycard, and Hertz, ConverSocial is a cloud-based social service solution for large-scale monitoring. Using sophisticated technology, the service decides for itself whether or not a social media complaint warrants a response.

Any Tweeter out there can understand that not every tweet deserves an agent to spend his or her time responding to it. ConverSocial totally gets that. Like other tools, it prioritizes a response according to social and customer history. More serious issues of course would go to the front of the queue. If a response is delayed, the system automatically reroutes the issue to a new agent.

Has your company used social media to resolve customer service issues? Please share your experiences in the comments!

Author’s Bio: Diana Gomez is the Marketing Coordinator at Lyoness America, where she integrates social customer service and business marketing strategies for USA and Canada. Lyoness is an international shopping community and loyalty rewards program, where businesses and consumers benefit with free membership and money back with every purchase.

Fly Past These Cloud Computing Concerns

by

acloudyCloud computing has been seeing rapid adoption around the world over the past few years; because it is a truly beneficial IT solution that can help businesses achieve greater growth and success.

While many businesses have already jumped on the Cloud bandwagon, others prefer to take a cautious stance. Despite its many advantages, Cloud adoption comes with certain risks and challenges.

Here is a look at the five biggest Cloud computing concerns and how you can overcome them….

Security and Privacy

Security is one of the top priorities for businesses, especially those that have to deal with sensitive data on a regular basis.

Many businesses are hesitant to adopt Cloud computing because having their sensitive data residing in the Cloud means leaving it in the hands of outsiders.

However, most Cloud service providers are now able to offer the same level of protection as on-premise computing systems.

When you are choosing a Cloud service, it is important that you find out about the security solutions that the provider is using and the assurances that it is willing to provide in the event of a data breach.

Also, you can make your data more secure by implementing a strong user authentication solution.

Regulatory Compliance

According to an article entitled “The 5 Biggest Security Concerns with Cloud Computing“, businesses in North America are required to comply with certain data security regulations.

There are numerous regulations that apply to the handling of sensitive data, and this makes achieving and maintaining compliance a daunting task. Make sure you select a provider that is truly compliant.

Loss of Control

When you are using a Cloud service, you have to rely on your provider to keep your workloads up and running, protect your data and perform backup and recovery.

The lack of visibility and control that comes with Cloud computing can make you feel vulnerable.

You can alleviate this concern by choosing a provider that has an excellent track record and using management tools that enable you to gain good visibility into your entire Cloud environment.

Reliability and Availability

Service disruptions used to be a relatively common part of the Cloud experience, but most Cloud providers have improved their uptimes dramatically over the years.

Many providers have created multiple redundancy levels in their systems to enhance the reliability and availability of their services, and they have also developed excellent backup and recovery plans to mitigate the impact of Cloud outages. Selecting one of these providers will give you a better Cloud experience.

Interoperability

Being locked into a Cloud service is another challenge that you may face after you switch to Cloud computing.

Businesses value the freedom of being able to move data and workloads in and out of the Cloud with minimal issues, and lock-in is one of the factors that make them think twice about adopting the Cloud.

In order to overcome this challenge, you need to make sure that your provider can seamlessly integrate your Cloud computing needs with its IT operations.

Once you get past these concerns, you will be able to take full advantage of the benefits of Cloud computing.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of Pixomar at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About the Author: John McMalcolm is a freelance writer who writes on a wide range of subjects, from social media marketing to Cloud computing.

Plug in to Importance of Computer Knowledge for Your Business

by

asuccess82714As a business owner, what are your greatest needs?

Safe to say, many running companies these days still lack all the resources necessary to run their office computers, business website and more.

Whether due to finances or not seeing the bigger picture of how important computer knowledge is to a company’s fortunes especially in 2014 and beyond, some business owners need to stop and rethink their approach to technology.

If you’re running a business where technology is on the back burner, consider the following:

  • Not being computer savvy and relevant likely means you are losing potential and even some current customers to competitors;
  • You are missing out on chances to promote your company website, interact with consumers on social media and more;
  • Your employees are not as useful to you as they could be if you had the latest in computers and approaches to using technology at your disposal. Many people applying for jobs today have computer experience either from school and/or prior jobs, so use that to your company’s benefit.

With those three among a number of reasons computer experience is important to your business, how do you go about finding the right people for the job?

Computer Science Backgrounds Pay Off

According to a salary survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), those who graduated college just in the last year with a degree in computer science can expect to make in the area of $60,000, an increase of more than four percent from 2012. Surveyed employers to the tune of a little more than 65 percent indicated they would hire graduates in this major. For those with expertise as senior software engineers, $98,000 is the average income.

As more and more businesses are discovering and addressing, being Internet savvy is not enough in today’s world. Taking a mobile approach to promoting your brand and meeting the needs of customers is critical too.

Whether those you hire are in the areas of computer programmers, software developers, computer technicians or even SEO strategists, there must be a sizable degree of computer knowledge involved.

As your business grows its computer operations, make sure those you hire are effective communicators, team members and leaders that bring not only a high degree of computer science knowledge to the table, but also the ability to look to the future. Remember, your business must always be thinking about tomorrow and not yesterday.

Computer science jobs are only likely to increase in the years to come, with more employers coming to the realization that this field is a necessity and not an option in order to compete.

The question then becomes, is your business plugged in to the importance of computer knowledge?

If the answer is no, act today and not tomorrow.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers a variety of topics for various websites, among which include small business and technology.