The concept of the paperless office has been around for decades. Unfortunately, the available technology was never quite good enough or cost effective enough to give most businesses a good return on investment (ROI)... until Now!
Read moreDigital Transformation... Why Now?
"By 2020, every business will become either a digital predator or digital prey… The prey will remain Digital Dinosaurs, unable to evolve their proven business model until it’s too late”
- Forrester Research
In other words, NOW is the time for you, as a small or midsize business (SMB) to embrace Digital Transformation. Doing so will have a dramatic impact on your business and its bottom-line. It’s crucial that you evolve, stay relevant and use the right technologies to keep you competitive, make your people more productive and grow your business.
Read moreChange is the Law of Life - JFK
Back in 1963, President John F. Kennedy was quoted as saying... "Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." Such a profound quote. We can't help but wonder what JFK would have thought about today's speed of change.
Read moreTop 12 eCommerce Options for Small and Midsized Businesses (SMBs)
The Digital Transformation megatrend that we are all experiencing today is causing many Small and Midsized Businesses (SMBs) to evaluate their current business strategies and technologies. One of the fastest ways to improve your business is to upgrade your website and add a modern eCommerce function. The following is a list of the top eCommerce platforms and websites for Small and Midsized Businesses (SMBs).
Read more5 Sales Leadership Best Practices for Team Personal Development
"When you take the time to focus on your employees' personal needs and goals (in addition to your business goals), you gain loyalty and increased productivity. Everyone wants their boss to care about them. It's not just the Millennials.... everyone feels that way."
Over the years, I've had the benefit of being managed and taught by some really great executives. The following are a few of the best practices for developing people that I learned and implemented in my own organizations.
Read moreTop 18 Tips for Using an iPad in Business
A few years ago, I invested in an Apple iPad, an iPad case and a Bluetooth Keyboard to supplement my laptop. I've researched and tested over 200 iPad Apps so far. The following are my favorite Apps that help me get my job done in 18 key areas of our Business.
Read moreTop 7 Benefits of New Customer Service Technology
We all know that Customer Service has always been a critical component of all successful Businesses. However, you may not know about some of the latest Customer Service System Benefits.
If you are still using the same Customer Service Technology from 3 to 5 years ago, you may find this information helpful to help Increase your Customer Satisfaction, Improve Staff Productivity and Increase your Sales this year.
Here are the Top 7 Things New Customer Service Technology Can Do for You this Year:
1. Customer Service Feedback You can now automate customer surveys after each request for help is completed and get feedback on how you are doing. If something went wrong or was delayed, this allows your customer an opportunity to give you the feedback directly vs publishing the feedback on a public social network like Facebook, Twiter, LinkedIn or Yelp.
2. All Customer Service and Support Requests are Consolidated in One Place The new systems allow you to consolidate the many ways your Customers want to request help or support. Facebook, Twitter, Website Forms, Chat Forms, Phone Calls and eMails can be automatically converted to tickets or requests in the system. Some of the new Customer Service Systems automatically convert a voice mail into a Ticket. Having all your requests, in one location, saves time and makes you and your staff much more productive.
3. Real-time Reports & Dashboard How fast do you respond to your Customer Requests for help? Do you know how many requests are overdue? Do you know the status of the top 10 critical customer service requests placed this week? How much time do you spend each month preparing activity reports for management? The new systems have real-time reports and special dashboards that give you this information 24 hours / 7 days per week.
4. Workflow Automation You can automate many aspects of your customer service workflow. For example, when you receive a help request, you can automatically send the customer or prospect a confirmation that you received their request. You can also automatically send them updates as you progress answering their question. If a help request is received from a key customer executive or a manager, the request can be automatically escalated and put on a special report or flagged. These features greatly improves staff productivity and improves the Customer's impression of your responsiveness.
5. Knowledge Base for Employees You can replace procedure manuals with a Knowledge Base for your internal staff. The new systems are easy to use and update. You create one central location for all documentation. New and existing employees can use them for references and training material.
6. Self Service Help for Customers and Prospects You can reduce the number of help requests by publishing easy-to-use self service help information for many customer questions. The new systems can help identify repeat questions that can be answered once and put on the Self Service Help page. Most people prefer Self-Help these days. Surveys confirm that most bank customers prefer going to an Bank ATM machine now vs going into a bank, waiting in line and talking to a Bank Teller.
7. Mobile App for Smartphones and Tablets In 2014, Smartphones will represent over two-thirds of all phones sold in America. During the last two years, small 7” Tablets exploded in popularity. Many of the new systems have Smartphone or Tablet applications that keep you updated all day long. You can process service requests at the office, at home, out having coffee or on-site at a customer.
These are just seven of the many ways the new Customer Service Systems can help you profitably grow your business. Some of the new smaller systems are free for 1-3 users and the larger systems can cost $200 per user per month. Many of the Customer Service and Support Systems can be implemented in a few days or within 2-3 weeks.
Photo Credits: Courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Top 5 Reasons the New iPads are Really Hot
Apple rolled out the new iPad Air and the iPad Mini with Retina in November 2013 and many of the reporters and analysts complained that there was nothing new or exciting in the new products. They questioned if Apple still had it....
Well, I beg to differ with them!
Here are five technology reasons why the new iPads are really HOT and why you should consider buying them.
- A7 CPU Chip - Specially designed by Apple. It's a new 64-bit processor. Only Mainframe computers and Engineering Workstations used this type of chip before this year. Prior to this 64-bit chip, all major tablets (and smartphones) had 32-bit chips or smaller. Why is this important? Starting in 2013, just about all the developers are writing and rewriting new Applications for this new 64-bit chip... allowing for much more powerful and larger tablet (and smartphone) applications for business and for personal use. In 2014, look for amazing new apps and new solutions that were never thought of before for a tablet.
- M7 Motion Chip - Specially designed by Apple. The M7 does two things: increase battery life (up to 10 hours) and add the ability to monitor and report internal sensors (It measures motion from your iPad by pulling data from the accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass) and in the future external sensors (devices). In the next 3-5 years there's going to be an explosion of wearable computers, office sensors, home sensors, retail shopping sensors and sensor monitoring apps. Again, look for new exciting apps and solutions that never existed before... starting in 2014.
- Retina Screens - Both Tablets now have high-resolution screens to help see display information. Your ability to read text and see numbers on spreadsheets just improved. The iPad Mini Screen is bigger than most other similar sized tablets. It makes a big difference when reading web pages. You have less scrolling up and down while you view information.
- New Apple iWorks Apps - Apple's version of MS Office (Word, Excel & Powerpoint) are now Free with the purchase of any new Apple Tablet (or iPhone). iWorks (Pages, Numbers and Keynote) auto syncs with each Apple iPad, iPhone, Mac Computer and the Cloud Storage (iCloud). The user interface for iWorks Apps is wonderful. The iWorks Apps are not perfect... but a great addition to the iPad world.
- Weight, Size & Feel - The weight and size was dramatically reduced in the iPad Air. You just have to pick the iPads up and use them to truly understand the improvement. There are lots of great tablets out in the marketplace. However, when you pick up and feel an iPad there's just something just different about the whole experience. Try it!
The new technology in both these Apple tablets should be good for the next 3-5 years. Overall, a very smart business or personal investment.
Note: This article is only focused on the new Apple iPad technology. We do not try to compare the iPad with the other tablets.
Photo credits: Apple