Three Unique Ways Technology Can Grow Your Business

Growing your business depends on smartly leveraging technology to your advantage. Successful businesses depend on high volumes of customer interaction to gain exposure and create continual value for potential consumers. Here are three unique ways technology can grow your business:

1. Building Connections: Using Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is a major component of business technologies. Consider that 71% of companies are using Facebook to connect with their customers, and interactive marketing continues to be one of the fastest growing fields of advertising. Mobile clicks on ads saw a 135% jump, recently. By connecting with the millions of people who spend time, energy, and money online, you increase your chances of discovering potential customers who may not otherwise find you. Once your business is connected, keep your visibility high by interacting with them on a regular basis; 67% of consumer businesses report gaining a new customer through Facebook. We suggest: Setting up social media accounts on two major sites.

2. Tracking Satisfaction: Using Customer Surveys

Comment cards may not yet be obsolete, but online tools make for much better tracking and organization of customer feedback. Developing specific categories for feedback and actively soliciting information gives you insights your business predecessors likely did not have. Consider that very satisfied customers are six times more likely to recommend your business to others and keep coming back. Small increases in loyalty equal large increases in profit. Offering incentives like gift cards and making it easy to participate are crucial to increasing customer participation. Once you find out what makes your customers happy, you can use that information to improve your business. We suggest: Offering customer experience surveys by Mindshare.

3. Designing Better: Using Design Thinking 

Connections and customer insights are only as useful as your action afterwards. Taking proactive action means quick response times, improved products, and, perhaps most importantly, a continual edge over the competition. More and more customers are researching products online, comparing prices, and looking for the businesses with the most satisfied customers. Consequently, the best businesses are taking it to the next level and integrating that customer feedback into the design process. Rather than pushing out products and services you hope will work, put the satisfaction and feedback at the center of your design model and produce a unique product or service that your customers have been waiting for. We suggest: Designing a Minimally Viable Product or service using customer feedback.