I attended a very nice panel discussion yesterday (Using Technology to Grow the Firm, sponsored by Creative Growth Group) and one of the topics that came up close to the end was adoption of new technology.  This is a topic that is near and dear to my heart so naturally, since it is on my mind, it is this week’s topic.

Technology that is under utilized or unused (shelf-ware) is the bane of every company.  What starts out as an well-intentioned investment in the firm becomes, well, a sinkhole for money and time.  We’ve all heard of the multi-year, multi-million dollar ERP or CRM projects that end up getting scrapped because no one in the company can or wants to use the system.

For a small business the lost investment might not reach the dollar size of a failed project for a huge company but the results can be devastating because the failure affects virtually everyone in the enterprise and proportionally the level of investment is usually much higher.  Entire books have been written about project failure, I won’t rehash all the gory details here.  Instead, here are a few questions for small businesses to keep in ask themselves when they are thinking about putting in new technology.

• Is this technology part of an overall technology plan that takes into consideration your overall business goals and objectives?  If it is not or you don’t have a plan you probably aren’t setting yourself up for success.
• Does this project have a well-defined adoption plan?  (Yes, on paper.  It isn’t really a plan if it isn’t written down.)  Just purchasing training, while hugely important, is NOT an adoption plan.
• Do your employees truly understand the value of this technology to the organization and their part in making the implementation a success?  If they aren’t bought into the change you can still be successful but it is much much harder.
• Does this new technology really provide something that makes your employees’ jobs easier and better?  Does it fit with the way they work?  Or is it just another thing to add to the long list of stuff they gotta do every day?  If it changes how they work significantly, has the new workflow or business process been identified and documented?
• Is someone truly accountable for making sure the technology is used and the investment is realized?  I recently heard a story about a dentist that spent tons of money on new software for his dental practice.  As part of the deal he got training credits and he made sure all the assistants and office employees went to training.  Then he never mentioned the system again…he wasn’t holding his employees accountable for using the new system nor did he delegate that accountability to anyone else.  So guess what?

Bringing in new technology is a huge investment of time and money for a small business.  It is important to take the time to think it through.  If you aren’t sure how to do that, get some help from a reputable consultant or technical advisor.    If it is truly worth doing, if it is going to help grow your business, isn’t it worth doing right?

Note:  this article was originally published last week in our newsletter.  If you’d like to receive the newsletter you can subscribe here.

Have you ever thought that you need a better way to keep track of your customers or clients? Have you heard about CRM systems but not really understood how they could help your business?

If you have a service-based business…

If your business provides a service then a CRM system can help you in several ways. First, it becomes the single repository for all of the information about your customers or prospects – you and all your employees are keeping notes about emails, phone calls, quotes, deals and everything else in the same place. In that place you can make ticklers to follow up with contacts, create reports on who is calling on who and keep an eye on your pipeline. In one place you have all the information about the work you’ve done for a customer, making customer support much easier. Having lunch with a prospect you haven’t seen in a while? In your CRM you can look up references to his website, LinkedIn profile or Twitter account – won’t he be surprised when you are up-to-date on his business and congratulate him on his recent wedding anniversary!

Or if you are in the retail or hospitality business…

You can keep track of your vendors and suppliers. Create and newsletter and keep track of subscribers. To that list of subscribers you can provide special offers and incentives – and better yet, measure the effectiveness of those offers and incentives. You can create a relationship with your customers and reward their loyalty.

Of course, a CRM system isn’t one thing for one sort of business and something else to another. All businesses can be more effective, efficient and even more profitable by doing a better job of keeping track of customers and contacts. It is a smarter way to do business.

In my last post I talked about how small businesses can become more convenient for their customers if they allow online self-secheduling.   I promised that this post would talk about what online appointment scheduling services are available.  This is a representative list; it isn’t a formal review nor is it an exhaustive list.  The ones I am going to talk about are cloud-based services (see this post if you don’t know what cloud computing is) that are easily hooked into your website.

So how do they work?  There is some variance but basically:

• you provide information about business hours, who can be scheduled, what services are offered and the appointment length of each service
• you also provide setup information about how you want to be notified about appointments (email or text), what sort of confirmations and reminders you want sent to your customers (email or text).  You can also specify if you want to be able to approve appointments before they are confirmed.
• you are given a small snippet of code (or a widget)  that needs to be included on your website.  Generally these can be customized so they match your website and look like they are integrated.  You can also include “book now” buttons in strategic places on your website or other places on the web (like your Facebook page for example), sending visitors to your appointment page.

Customers can now schedule appointments online!  Back at your office you’ll have a master calendar that shows your the appointments, allows you to confirm them and to book appointments you receive from drop-ins or via phone call – all on a consolidated calendar.

Some of the services provide, in some cases based on the service level you choose to purchase, mobile scheduling, calendar syncing, online pre-payment and smartphone integration.

Service providers include Bookfresh.com; Schedulicity.com, Genbook.com, Appointment-plus.com, Appointmentquest.com, Flashappointments.com and Netappointment.com.  You generally pay monthly based on the options you select – for example it costs more for more people or multiple locations.   Prices start as low as $10 a month.

How many times have you at the end of a busy day (week?  month?  year?) got to the point on your to-do list where you need to make a hair-dog grooming-dentist-doctor-exterminator-repair appointment but it is, of course because you’ve been busy, after business hours?  What happens?  That item remains on your list and, maybe worse, gets shoved further and further down the list.  Aggravating for you, right?  And what about that hair dresser, dog groomer, dentist, doctor, exterminator or repair person?  They are missing out on your current business and might lose your long term business if you find someone who provides their service but is easier to do business with – by allowing you to set appointments when you want, online.

Imagine it, it is in the evening, after the kids are in bed.  You are comfortable on the couch with a nice roaring fire and your laptop (or iPhone) open.  You have your beverage of choice at your side and you are able to actually cross items off your to-list as you make the appointment to get your hair colored and for your son to get his cut (finally).  Your beloved mutt desperately needs a bath after the recent bad weather – in a zip you have a grooming appointment set for tomorrow.  To be able to make short work of your to-list at your leisure…what a wonderous thing!

But wait – you are a small business owner too.  Maybe you aren’t a hair dresser, dog groomer, dentist, doctor, exterminator or repair person (because if you were this story wouldn’t make sense – you wouldn’t make an appointment with yourself!) but you are an accountant, lawyer, designer, photographer or personal trainer.   You have customers that have the same problem you do – they have making an appointment to see you is on their to-do list but they are too busy (or can’t get thru for some reason) to make an appointment by phone during regular business hours.  What is the cost to you of all those missed appointments?  And as more and more people move to using the Internet for convenience what is the cost going to be in the future?

If you haven’t considered adding self-service appointment scheduling technology to your website, now might be the time to do it.  In my next post I’ll talk about some of the vendors out there and the features of their services.  In the meantime, enjoy the fire and the beverage and think about how making  it easier for your customers to do business with you could help you bottom line.