Wow, we are part 5 of the series on how to use technology to improve customer service with your small business.  No foolin!

Today I want to talk about online chat, also known as live chat or click-to-chat.    This is a feature you can add to your website that allows your customers or prospects to choose to communicate with your company real time, using text.  It can be implemented in a number of ways and can provide a variety of service-related benefits to your small business:

• Your customer service folks can be involved in multiple chats, allowing them to help more people at one time than they could on the phone.  Not only can your representatives have multiple chats going at once, you can “can” responses to frequently asked questions and your reps can use them by pressing a single button.   You can increase customer service while reducing operational costs!
• It allows your customer service people to engage in communication that is more conversation-like than asynchronous email.  The number of people that engage in live chat or instant messaging is on the rise so this a communication channel that many are very familiar with.  Finally, while it is real-time and comfortable, it allows for a level of anonymity that some people prefer.
• Customers or prospects that engage in online chat generally have a higher tolerance for waiting for service (but not too long!) – by definition they are online and can easily multitask while they are waiting for answers to their questions.  When they are on hold on the phone they are usually much less patient.
• Most, if not all, live chat implementations allow you to push content, via links, to the recipient.   You can provide FAQs or a how-to videos easily, for example.
• If you have an e-commerce site where you sell a product, most live chat vendors provide “shop with me” functionality that allows you to gently guide your customer thru your site and address any questions.
• You can set up live chat to proactively engage users if they spend a long time on a page or repeat actions that indicate they are having a problem.
• All of the chat conversations are logged and saved to a database.  You can use them identify frequent customer problems or diagnose customer-service issues.

Live chat can provide benefits beyond improved customer service.  Most of the vendors provide functionality that helps you better understand how users interact with your site and to optimize it.  You can proactively engage prospective customers at key place in your site, perhaps speeding up the acquisition or conversion process.

As with any new technology, there are a lot of best practices you can employ to improve your chances of success – just as there a lot of way to screw it up and annoy your customers and prospects.   This is definitely a place where you should get professional help to make sure you are doing the right thing for your business.

If you are interested in learning more about live chat, contact your technical advisor and see if live chat needs a place in your technology plan.

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?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/juhansonin/ / CC BY 2.0

What kind of planning do you do? Do you take some time to think about your business and set goals for the coming months? A lot of us do this at the end of the year for the coming year but of course it can be done at any time and should be done regularly. Without some sort of planning your business has no direction. Your strategy or plan tells others (and yourself!) where you want to go. If you think this is only for big businesses you’re making a big mistake. This planning doesn’t have to be fancy; you’re the audience so write it down however you like. (I do recommend writing it down though, if you don’t does it really exist?)

A technology plan is an extension of your business plan that addresses how you will use technology in your business to support the business goals you set. Simple as that.

Ok, saying it is simple, putting it together is a little more involved but not complicated. Here is how it goes:

• First, review your business goals and objectives. Even though you are putting together a technology plan, it is really about your business and any investments you make have to support your goals and objectives.

• At a high level, outline your current environment. Who are you customers? What technology do you currently have in place? How do your employees and customers use the technology you have? Are there any risks or vulnerabilities in your current environment? For example, can your systems and processes handle more business? Are they outdated or out of support? Are you covered in the event of unavoidable outages? Are you covered in the case a key employee leaves or is unable to work?

• Determine if there are opportunities to further your business goals and objectives by adding or removing technologies. Can you save time or money but using an email service instead of sending your newsletter manually? Do you have a good way to keep track of your customers? Are your  employees able to fully serve your customers’ needs when they are out of the office?

• Look at your current state and the opportunities and determine a strategy or set of strategies to tie them together. Think about what might have to change operationally if you make these changes. Will you have hire more people or can you do with fewer? Who will be responsible for maintaining and using the new system?

• Determine the cost and benefits of executing on a specific strategy and make sure you know how you will measure success. Are you expecting your sales people to be more effective and make more sales if they have the ability to produce quotes at your customer site? How many more?

• Define a list of activities, including how long they will take, how much they will cost and whether there are any dependencies. Take small bites; make one change and see how it does before making another one. You don’t want your business to implode or your customers to be confused as you work through your technology plan. You also won’t want to make a lot of big investments at once.

The result of this is your technology plan. It is a road map to how you will move forward with technology to accelerate your business. It might look intimidating; it doesn’t have to be, though you may need help. An experienced technology adviser or consultant can lead you thru the process, especially where you are evaluating new technologies. New applications and tools spring up almost daily; an expert will keep up with what is going on and help you identify possibilities.

For an example of technology planning go to http://clearlysimplesolutions.com/what_we_do_tech.php.

Most of the small businesses I talk to, even the tiniest of them, know that when they need legal advice, they need to see their attorney.  Beyond that, they will proactively seek the counsel of their attorney on a regular basis as things change with their business and as they have to make decisions that affect it.

The same goes for their financial needs; most of them have a CPA that they see at least once a year at tax time.  Most accountants would recommend more regular visits at key times in the business cycle to help with future planning.  For example, if you need a new vehicle for your business you should consult with your accountant BEFORE you purchase to make sure the type of vehicle you choose will maximize your tax benefits.

Yet, when it comes to the technology businesses use, they are often left adrift with no help.  Some businesses have a simple website set up by their cousin along with some boxed software they use for billing and accounting.  Others have had consultants build fancy websites and other solution providers in to set up networks and more complicated systems.  In both cases though, these businesses have set no overall technology vision that supports their business plan.  They don’t know if the “pieces” they have fit together, if they are paying too much for overlapping technology, or how much they are wasting on “shelf-ware” they never use.   It is like they are standing way to close to an impressionist painting.  All they see are the dots, not how they combine to create a beautiful flower.

Worse than that though, they don’t have anyone helping them identify opportunities where technology could accelerate their business.   Often there are ways to leverage technology to increase revenue or reduce costs…if businesses only knew what was available.

Today, every kind of business is more and more dependent on technology (like it or not!).  This dependency will only grow.  As a small business owner it makes sense to seek out the advice and counsel of an overall technology advisor.  Someone that can help you see the painting for the dots.  You have a business plan, and maybe marketing plan and a sales plan.  You also need a technology plan that ties these all together.

For an example of what a technology plan is and how it works you can go to http://clearlysimplesolutions.com/what_we_do_tech.php.

It is almost the beginning of 2010 – do you have your technology plan in place?