Fear, Chaos, Uncertainty, Doubt… and Hope
2023 is shaping up to be a year of challenges.
As collectively we begin to emerge from Covid… battered and scarred… we face a new set of challenges staring at us…
Rising costs
Diminishing budgets of our customers… both business and consumer
Shrinking resource pool to hire from
Uncertain economy
The list of challenges is long
And the result is Fear, Chaos, Uncertainty, Doubt…
So, what do we do about it?
Which way do we turn?
Often during such challenging times leaders instinctively turn to solutions like:
Budget cuts
Reduction in headcounts
Curtailing employee benefits
Minimizing Customer Service
But instead of going with these obvious short-term solutions, which in the longer-term create more challenges than they solve, this is the time for business leaders to look for less obvious solutions, which may take more work to implement but will yield long term benefits for the company as well as the individuals working in it.
These long-term solutions could include:
Increasing efficiency – Looking for ways to increase efficiency in how we market, sell and serve our customers. This could include using data to identify and remove bottlenecks, introducing customer self-service, changing operating hours or mode of operation, and so on.
Automation – Using chatbots, automated emails or texts, voice-bots, etc. to preempt customer questions and provide them with the answers they need. Providing sales agents with reminders and information just when they need it. Automation takes on different forms with many benefits.
Customer Retention – As every product and service is becoming more and more commoditized, businesses need to look beyond their base product or service offering to differentiate themselves from competition. Although customers are increasingly focusing on costs, the true value of a product or service depends on how much and for how long customers are able to use the product/service to realize its benefits.
Data Analytics – Instead of focusing on cost efficiencies, businesses can use data to create better offers that appeal to their market segment, use automation to improve their outreach, better personalize their services to retain customers, not to mention improve their processes and increase productivity.
If you would like to know more about creating sales processes and how ConvergeHub can help you get through these challenging times by enabling you to implement these long-term solutions, talk to us.
Or, if you would like to check it out yourself, go ahead and create a free ConvergeHub account here.