The nonstop race that is the world of business is a tough one, especially when your business has a rival that is always seemingly one step ahead. What makes it worse is that during the race, new obstacles and hurdles are thrown in for good measure, all of the time. As of late, said obstacles are more than likely going to be technology based. If you, as a business owner, don’t want your business to always come second best in the race for customers attention with your rival, then you must embrace the technological advances of today. Here are a number of ways your business can keep its finger on the pulse of these advances, as well as utilising them in order to keep up with the market and not let itself slip behind the competition.
Give the latest technologies and services a thumbs up
Merchant Services
A type of bank account that allows businesses to accept payments in multiple ways (typically debit or credit cards). With the pace of change in the UK payment market, showing that over the past five years the debit card has proved itself as being the generally preferred method of payment, it is paramount that if you haven’t done already, you utilise such a service. If a prospective customer automatically thinks that you have technology driven payment facilities, such as a card reader, and subsequently doesn’t think to bring any notes or spare shrapnel with them then you’re not going to be able to serve them. Then, once said customer has left your establishment, they’re going to go straight to your rival and get the product off them, because they have the equipment to take the payment.
Online Marketing
Search engine optimisation, specifically, is of great importance in the marketing of your product online. If a potential customer is searching in your market online, they want quick and accurate information — the business that offers this has that all-important initial attention of the customer. To get this, the customer in question needs to be able see your information pop up on their search engine instantly: they need to see exactly where they can find you so that they can work out how best to get to you; and they need to customer reviews from other, like-minded people as themselves in their area in order to know if they can trust you. Businesses that fail to take advantage of SEO are much more likely to get overlooked in comparison to rivals who have optimised it. Using services such as Sterling Talon will help you take advantage of online marketing.
Mobile Commerce
Shopping from smartphones and tablets, otherwise known as mobile commerce, will hit $114 billion in 2017. And not only are people using their phones to shop, they are using them to search for prospective things to shop for. This means your business’s website must be responsive to mobile devices, simply meaning they must work clearly and coherently when accessed on them, unless you want to turn off your clients, that is.
