If you’re running an online business, you need all the help you can get to survive this highly competitive marketplace. Having the knowledge and expertise to successfully drive business operations isn’t going to be enough. Likewise, while hiring a smart team can accelerate your growth, it can be expensive to train and pay your team.
Investing in the right productivity apps is the right way to go to maximize efficiency and output. These tools can help you position your online business for rapid growth without overextending yourself. While there’s the initial cost of investing in new technology, the benefits will be worth it.
Below, we explore some of the benefits your online business would reap from using productivity apps.
Improve Time Management
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Time is one of the most essential resources for any business, and using it wisely can make a significant difference in productivity. Yet, most businesses struggle with time management and end up wasting thousands of valuable hours each year.
By investing in a time tracking tool like Traqq, you increase the visibility of your business. The app tracks how much time you spend on tasks or projects so you can structure your work days for maximum work output.
Likewise, it enables you to prioritize your duties, attain your goals ahead of time, and focus on goals that have maximum returns. Time tracking exposes time wasters and identifies flaws that aren’t otherwise obvious.
In addition, time tracking software allows you to track performance, increase transparency and accountability, calculate profits, and automate timesheets and payroll.
Data Storage and Security
For a business that operates predominantly online, you’ll need to save plenty of data crucial to the company. Thankfully, with cloud computing, you can use storage platforms like Google Drive, OneDrive, and Box, which also offer collaboration and file-sharing services.
This allows for a more organized system that simplifies and fastens access to information. In turn, tasks can be completed in a short turnaround time, consequently improving productivity.
Most productivity tools offer a high level of security measures to prevent data leaks and limit security threats. They ensure your company is safeguarded against data breaches and keeps customer data safe.
Collect and Analyze Customer Feedback
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The key to boosting sales in your online business is to improve customer experiences. You can’t do that if you don’t know what the customers really want or feel about your business. That’s why getting their honest feedback can help you improve products and services and deliver an excellent customer experience.
Customer feedback tools make the process of feedback collection more efficient and keep things organized, so nothing slips through the cracks. Some feedback collection apps to consider include:
- Typeform
- Canny
- Feedbackify
- TrustPilot
Streamlines Communication and Collaboration
In the course of running your business, there will be a time when you have too much to do and little time to do it. The solution is to take advantage of project management software to get more done while you focus on pertinent issues.
A solution like Hubstaff Tasks uses Kanban boards to increase the visibility of tasks. Everyone can see task progress, completed tasks, and what’s next in line. Likewise, the tool can help you streamline workflows, optimize resource management, and help move projects forward.
Google Workspace is another excellent productivity and collaboration tool built for e-commerce businesses. Apart from offering all the tools a modern business needs, teams can access the entire family of cloud-based apps from anywhere.
Save Costs with Automation
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While you need people to help you grow your business, automation can handle repetitive tasks faster and more accurately. You don’t have to pay someone else hourly for tasks that technology can take care of.
In turn, this frees up time for you and your team to focus on high-priority tasks that need your attention. An area where automation can prove helpful is the HR department. With a tool like KinHR, you can streamline onboarding, record the performance review process, and manage employee data in one place.
Zapier is another well-known automation software that connects all your apps and automates workflows. It helps reduce team workload and a variety of repetitive tasks like invoicing, data entry, and social media marketing.
If you want a platform that automates customer conversion and engagement, check out Drift. This chatbot helps online businesses engage customers in real-time via video, voice, chat, or email.
The tool reduces the workload of your customer support team, giving them time to focus on more urgent requests. Drift offers customers a personalized shopping experience, helping you generate more revenue from your traffic.
Increases Customer Satisfaction
You can improve customer satisfaction with automation. As an online business, your customers will judge your services by the response time. When you eliminate delays in product or service delivery, customers will be more satisfied, and this can push your sales.
The result? You get repeat customers who will be more than willing to spread the good word around, thus increasing your traffic and revenue.
Identify Weak Points
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Using productivity apps like project and time tracking software gives you access to analytics that allows you to learn from previous projects. The data makes it easy to pinpoint areas of weakness in your business processes and devise more efficient strategies.
In addition, you get a clearer picture of what needs to be adjusted to increase your business output.
Inventory Management
Since your inventory is the most important asset, you’ll naturally spend more time managing it. The last thing you want is your stock to run out and fail to deliver products to eager clients.
The problem with inventory management is that it’s a tedious and repetitive task that can waste a lot of your time. That’s where inventory management tools come in. They are designed to automatically track your catalog, and prepare and send purchase orders to relevant suppliers whenever inventory drops.
QuickBooks Enterprise excels in inventory management. It tracks your products, sets pricing, and manages orders. The system presets reorder points to make sure you never run out of stock.
Other tools to check out include:
- ShipBob
- Kibo Commerce
Facilitates Remote Work
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You probably outsource some of your work to freelancers across the globe. If that’s the case, choosing the tools that will allow for efficient remote working will play an integral part in maintaining and improving productivity.
From communication tools and collaboration software to project management, cloud systems, and data security solutions, these tools will increase the overall efficiency of workflows.
Enhance Availability
Implementing a unified communication system using multiple communication channels allows for non-stop availability for your customers. For example, a chat app like WhatsApp offers instant messages, video, and voice calls, giving customers various options to communicate with you.
What’s more, by streamlining communication, you can keep an eye on customer complaints and employee performance. That way, you can quickly identify and react to any signs of annoyance or incompetence. As a result, you’ll maintain a reputation and a strong company culture.
Conclusion
Time tracking tools can help you detect and eliminate time wastage and work inefficiencies. Project management software ensures you stay on top of tasks and projects, while automation tools save time and costs for repetitive tasks.
Your biggest challenge would be to choose the best productivity tools that fit well into your business. Select tools that will streamline your workflow and improve engagement. Ultimately, you’ll discover that investing in productivity apps was worth your time and money.
