Majority of businesses are still recovering from the 2019 pandemic and economies are reeling from an effects of weakening global economy. Many companies are laying off workers, but as the case in all crises situations, every season must produce winners and losers.
Making the right choices for your business will place you among the winners regardless of the state of the economy.
Here are a few things you can do to remain profitable in financially uncertain times;
1. Take good care of your customers
Customer is king, and without customers your business will not run. Customers pay your bills and finance your operations, so you need to treat them very well. One of the most effective ways to keep your customers happy is by meeting their needs fast and efficiently. At the lowest cost ever.
Technology is helping many companies to meet this goal, and if your company is not yet there you can start with small changes. For instance, you can replace your analog business telephone line with a modern VoIP office phone. This technology ensures that you direct all calls to the right department automatically.
In addition, VoIP office telephone system allows you to take your office with you everywhere you go. You can answer all calls that come through past working hours via a mobile phone app and retain those clients. At the end of the day or month, you get a consolidated report of the number of calls that came through, missed calls among others. In short, you will be running your business like a mega call center even if you are just a micro business. Get in touch with AirTouch for help with VoIP configuration.
2. Leverage sales
Your existing customers are important, because most revenue comes from your repeat clients. To keep your clients buying, you need to run regular campaigns to woo them with discounts. There are many ways to run campaigns, but SMS marketing still remains the most effective of them all. With an open rate of over 96%, bulk SMS campaigns can help you increase your customer LTV and boost your revenues.
Even without existing customers, using branded SMS to nurture leads and maintain communication with potential clients can grow your sales tremendously. Partner with a branded bulk SMS provider in Kenya like AirTouch to achieve your SMS marketing goals faster.
3. Automation
Well, every industry has its low season and high season. However, you need to pay attention to all your potential customers throughout the year by ensuring that there is someone to respond to their queries. Automating your processes can take a huge load off your shoulder and boost productivity without necessarily affecting your human capital budget. One of the ways business owners in Kenya are achieving this is through USSD menus.
USSD menus allow you to put all your services on a simple menu accessible through a special phone command. This service is accessible to both smartphone users and owners of feature phones. The setup fee and monthly maintenance costs are far less compared to operating a 24 hour customer service department. Further, many people can access your USSD service at the same time without affecting service delivery. Depending on how you set it up, the margin of error is 0.00% as it retrieves accurate information whenever a request is made. Contact us to begin the automation process.
4. Listen to your customers
You cannot make products for yourself. To stay in business, you must always collect feedback from your customers and keep improving on your service delivery. While most Kenyans are not cultured to write reviews, you can use SMS solutions to collect feedback as soon as a client interacts with your business. The opportunity to give feedback in less than 160 characters will increase your chances of collecting feedback from people who matter and make the improvements needed to stand out against competitors. AirTouch offers shared and dedicated short code services to businesses of all types and sizes, depending on your needs and budget. Get in touch to reserve yours.
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