Pump Up Your Profitability with These 5 Resolutions – for Any Time of Year

A new year is here, and with it comes the urge to start fresh and do things better than ever. Here are five business resolutions that will help your company crush it in 2018.

Resolutions for Your Small Business

1. I resolve to put our data to work.

Every business has almost unlimited data available about customers, employees and business operations. But are you taking advantage of all that information, or just letting it pile up? While the sheer amount of data available today can seem overwhelming, analytics tools can help you drill down to key information. Look for products that enable you to create custom dashboards, graphs, tables and visualizations. That way, you can see and share complex data in whatever format makes it easiest for you and your team to understand.

2. I resolve to streamline our systems.

Based on what your analytics uncovers about your employees, your customers and business processes, in 2018 you can streamline your business to focus on what matters most. For example, if you identify a bottleneck that’s slowing down customer service response times, you can come up with ways to eliminate it. Is a particular sales or marketing tactic getting great results? Then do more of that. The right analytics tools can even help you automate workflows to save time and boost efficiency. Be sure to ask your employees, especially those on the front lines, for suggestions when it comes to simplifying processes and systems. They’ll often have great ideas about improving the processes they engage with every day.

3. I resolve to focus on employees.

Low unemployment is rapidly creating a job seeker’s market. With competition for qualified employees getting fiercer by the day, keeping employees satisfied and engaged should be a key area of focus for every business in 2018. Of course, you also want to continuously improve your team’s performance. Using gamification to promote friendly competition among teams or individuals can help you accomplish both goals at once. Gamification has been shown to dramatically boost employee engagement, while also motivating your workers to improve their performance — and being lots of fun.

4. I resolve to communicate better.

Ironically, the sheer number of communication tools now open to businesses, plus the need to customize communication formats for different customers’ preferences, can sometimes make communication harder, not easier. Which platform should you use? How can you reduce redundant communications while still making sure everyone gets the message? What channels work best for reaching which customers? Nextiva’s new NextOS helps unify all of your fragmented communications technologies into one platform. No matter the size of your business, you’ll get access to enterprise-level customer communication and team collaboration tools. For instance, Nextiva Chat is a browser-based chat tool you can use to provide live chat with customers on your website, and internal chat within your business. The Nextiva ServiceCRM database puts customer history, relationships and employee information at your team’s fingertips.

5. I resolve not to settle for less.

Have you been trying to make do with the lowest-cost solutions for your business or cobble together tools from multiple providers? In 2018, it’s time to stop settling for “meh” when it comes to the tools you use. Look for a solutions provider that offers true 24/7 service the way you want it — email, phone, chat or self-service — from in-house customer service teams, and pairs you with a personal account manager so you get consistent guidance from the same person.

Follow through on these 5 resolutions, and you can make 2018 your business’s best year yet.

Republished by permission. Original here.

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This article, "Pump Up Your Profitability with These 5 Resolutions – for Any Time of Year" was first published on Small Business Trends