Here’s How to Future Proof Your Business
January 5, 2021 | Read: 6 minutes
Change isn’t always bad, not if you’re prepared to deal with it, but how exactly do you future-proof your business?
Join us as we explore some of the best ways that software can help you to modernise your business.
Discover how you can prepare for change, grow with confidence, and take on new challenges!
We’re not just talking about supporting staff, or customers, either. We’re highlighting how software can improve the efficiency of your business, ensuring you’re always future-ready.
The best way to look after your business is to roll with the times.
All sorts of digital tools exist to make your daily work life easier than ever before. And if you’re not already using job management software, you should be.
Choosing software can seem intimidating and there are a lot of choices, but when it comes to future-proofing your business, considering the following can help:
1. Look for Software with Continued Support
Unexpected changes can be troublesome. That’s why you need software that’s always updated, is innovative, and ready to help your services thrive. Rather than worry about creating tools yourself, you can instead rely on a product that grows and works with you.
Of course, as technology improves and changes, so do customers’ expectations: it’s another reason you need adaptive software to help you keep up.
If you’re shopping around for software, ask about how regularly it gets updated. Find out what tools could be of most help to you, too. The more questions you ask, the more confident you can be that you’re future-proofing your business. In fact, tell them you’re looking for a product to do just that!
Without continued support from innovative software, you’ll find your business will stagnate. After all, if tools aren’t upgraded, they’ll just weigh you down—for instance, there’s a reason you’re not using a brick-sized phone or laptop anymore: there’re better solutions!
It’s the same for software. The last thing you want is to damage your productivity or your reputation by using ineffective tools. That’s how you’ll end up with customers who turn to your competitors, instead of sticking with you.
Adapt to meet your customer’s needs:
As mentioned customer expectations are changing. From the way they search, shop, and make decisions, not to mention the services they need. If you carry on the same old way, you’ll miss out.
If you’re looking to grow your business and expand your service offerings, you’ll know this takes time. And that’s ok! Future-proofing your business is about being aware of what’s possible as well as understanding your current needs.
Just because you don’t need every solution provided now, doesn’t mean you won’t want them later, right?
For instance, perhaps all you needed was a comprehensive customer database system and a job scheduling tool. These worked great, but now you’re ready for more: like a sales management platform.
Knowing your software provider has this solution, you know you can upgrade to use this new tool. Having an awareness of what’s available is a great way to future-proof your business. And any good software will offer tiered packages that cater to different needs.
2. Establish Quality Communication
Bad communication is so often the root of many problems. If growing your business is a goal, then you need to improve the way you communicate with customers and staff.
If you want to make sure that everyone’s on the same page, you need a system that’s user-friendly and makes communication easy. That could be because user data syncs in real-time, or because automated comms reduce admin time.
For instance, automated service reminders can give customers a helpful nudge and take the hassle of writing emails from scratch away from your staff thanks to auto-fill and send features.
3. Use Customer Insights to future-proof your business
The best way to discover how to improve your business is to listen to your customers.
Their feedback could highlight a need you can fulfil, like a desire for self-service tools.
In other cases, you could take a proactive approach and implement changes because your staff noticed they were out of date. Or perhaps it’s because a competitor is doing something you’d like to adopt for yourself, like vehicle tracking.
Think of it like preventive maintenance for your own business.
What you don’t want to do though is introduce a change when there’s no demand for it. That’s where gathering insight comes in handy, helping you make informed decisions.
Ultimately, rather than guess what customers need, you can back up this decision with data. With that in mind, a robust CRM system that lets you access and organise customer data makes sense.
Software tools can help you make changes that will make an impact, like a better way to manage scheduling.
Data can be put to great use when it comes to admin. As mentioned, automation can save time filling out forms, or software with a single customer view and help speed up customer service interactions.
4. Focus on Balancing the Books
Time, patience, and planning: these are all important to the future-proofing process. However, it’s also true that you won’t get far in implementing changes without money.
Still, that doesn’t mean you need thousands of pounds to get the ball rolling. Software is often flexible, with plans you can select, upgrade, or even downgrade as needed.
It’s useful to look at the solutions a job management software offers so you can decide what fits your business. That’s how you’re going to future-proof your business.
After all, it can be reassuring to know your options so you can make smarter purchasing decisions!
Not only that, but when the tools that you gain access to—much like the customer insights above—inform the decisions you’re making about how to manage money, thus making it easier to get paid by your customers.
What’s more, along with all the other jobs you’ll be able to complete, that’s money you can reinvest back into your business. Faster invoicing, easy-to-use payment portals, and essential accounting integrations with programmes like Xero and Quickbooks, are just a few powerful tools that can help you.
Here’s how to future-proof your business:
With the right technical support and efficient processes in place you can save time, effort, and money. All of these will help keep your business functioning, thriving and protect you into the future.
When you know that the software you’re using will grow and develop with you, you stand the best chance future-proof your business.
Don’t be afraid to take risks, but make sure you look before you leap. The main thing is to establish a strong, reliable foundation first, and build yourself up from there.
Here are 10 steps that can level up your field service business offerings!
