Technologies that drive efficiency have become vital to getting ahead in business. Today’s markets are so fierce, and startups continue to put pressure on the top companies to improve. In fact, it’s starting to become not just beneficial, but also essential to develop into a leaner and meaner machine if you hope to continue to attract new customers that can fuel further growth.
This is especially true in the design agency world, where companies are now positioned better than ever to fully focus on their core competencies and get some tech help in the less-critical areas of the business.
In striving toward that goal, the following areas represent some of the low-hanging fruit. While constant improvement and further adoption of tech tools is always a good idea, simply making some of the small changes listed below can yield significant efficiency and productivity gains.
1. Collaboration Tools
In the design world, there’s nothing more important than communication and collaboration among team members. While email and some shared network folders may have been sufficient 10 years ago, there are now so many more options. Don’t pass up on those that help elevate collaboration.
Among the most used are Slack, a platform featuring a user-friendly chat interface and some project coordination tools, among other features. Evernote can also be a great way to organize strategic planning and individual projects. Then there are Kanban-style workflow management platforms — such as MeisterTask, Trello and Wrike — that allow team members to all push various tasks throughout a customized start-to-finish journey.
2. Customer Experience
Customer service is necessary throughout all industries, and design is no different. While some have chosen to manage everything through their existing, in-house protocol, using cloud-based call contact center technology has allowed many design agencies to revolutionize their lead flow and customer service. Better customer engagement is critical — particularly in creative fields — and has been proven to grow business. Indeed, this is too important to leave to ad-hoc solutions.
Customer loyalty and old-fashioned word of mouth testimonials (even if they’ve moved online) are fundamental to running a successful design company. So, any advantage and new technology that helps you improve is usually worth the investment — especially if it helps cut costs at the same time.
3. Accounting Services
Many creative companies are looking for better solutions to complete their accounting and payroll requirements. This can range from contracting with a third-party firm that has experience and expertise in these services to merely embracing modern, powerful cloud-native software.
Many companies have managed to improve operations significantly just by implementing accounting and invoicing solutions like QuickBooks, Bill.com or Zoho Books. Each platform allows you to manage everything in one centralized location, rather than constantly emailing invoices back and forth and storing financial documents in a managed server.
Both can be good options depending upon the resources available and how comfortable employees are when it comes to trusting an external partner with financial bookkeeping. Ultimately, peace of mind is necessary, but don’t forgo these capable (and often cheaper) options without considering all of your options.
Combined Strategies Will Help You See Real Improvements
Collaboration, customer experience and back-office accounting work represent three very different areas of a company, but each is fundamental to day-to-day operations in very different ways.
Collaboration is a day-to-day facet that will help create better work. Customer experience will drive client satisfaction and, ultimately, growth. And accounting is something of a necessary evil that you need to do properly but, hopefully, with as little effort and cost as possible.
Combined, they represent a holy trinity of areas to seek out when looking for new technology solutions that will actually make a difference. By focusing on these practical benefits, you will see real improvements rather than simply adopting a slew of new bells and whistles.
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