Are you taking full advantage of your business website?
Moving some of the processes you do every day online can really save your business precious time. Time is one of those things you can’t get back and it adds up to more money in the bank!
Online Paperwork
One of the most common ways businesses save time is by moving their paperwork online. Interactive forms can make your life a lot easier. Not only do you save on paper and ink costs, but also time to print and prepare the paperwork. Interactive forms can also ensure that your paperwork is being filled out more accurately. Form validation can help guide your users if they enter in something incorrectly. This can be a big time saver if you have to go back and forth with your customers so paperwork is filled correctly.
What if your paperwork requires an electronic signature? RightSignature is a great online tool you can incorporate into your website to accept signatures. You can also use it to move all of your paperwork online without creating interactive forms directly on your website. Depending on your needs, this could be a big cost saving measure for your business.
Sales Funnel
Sales – The reason you have your website up in the first place.
Do you spend a lot of time dealing with unqualified customers? Not every person who contacts you will be your ideal customer. But how can you take advantage of your website to allow you to attract more qualified visitors?
Providing your users with answers to their most common questions can save your sales team incredible amounts of time. Use your website to educate your customer about your products or services before they contact you. Pay attention to the hesitations they have when your customers do contact you and make sure you are addressing them online.
Be direct and honest about who your product and service is right for. Elaborate on your pricing, if your pricing structure is fairly flat. This way you aren’t spending time selling to a customer who can’t even afford you in the first place.
If your price structure varies, you may want to include some budget questions in your contact form and/or inquiry material to help you prepare for solutions in those price ranges.
Billing
Moving your billing system online can save you time on paperwork, payment processing and save your customers time too. Passing on these savings to your customers is an added benefit. The costs to do this could be high, depending on your company’s billing structure, but in the long-run it will pay off and give you more time to focus on improving other processes and customer relations.
There are many components to online billing. Here are a few to consider:
- You’ll want to consider how the system will integrate with your current accounting programs
- What the email correspondence might include to your customer when a bill is ready and after it has been paid
- Who will support the system and help customers with any questions they might have
- What types of payments will you accept?
Reservations & Time Management
Even the smallest businesses could benefit from booking time with their clients online. Every email you receive, even if it only requires 5 minutes of your time, adds up when you put them all together. To help alleviate the time your spend in your inbox arranging and booking time slots, why not automate the process?
Adding a calendar on your website that allows clients to book your time is a great way to save yourself a few hours each day setting up appointments.
Travel website owners may find it helpful to invest in a system that manages reservations online and takes payments too. Making reservations easy for your visitors can give them a positive perception of your business before they even decide to book. The easier you can make any process for your customer, the better!
Some businesses that might find this useful are:
- Fitness Instructors (yoga, personal trainers, health coaches, etc)
- Creative Businesses (photography sessions, writers, designers, illustrators, developers)
- Hotels, Bed & Breakfasts, Motels, Inns
- Restaurants
What business processes do you want to save time on?
Contact us today about improving your website!
