Intense competition and economic stagnation are forcing owners of small businesses to close their doors without any intention of reopening. Either the handwriting is on the wall, or they’ve already run out of money. Record numbers of business owners are seeking protection in the bankruptcy courts. They’re underwater, and they just don’t see things getting better anytime soon.
Less Can Be More
A few of the competitors of these sinking businesses are keeping their heads above water though. They’re prevailing and remaining profitable within their own small niche. So, what’s the distinguishing factor? The surviving business owners aren’t trying to be jacks of all trades and masters of none. For them, less is more.
They’ve identified and fitted into the needs of a smaller market segment that remains closely connected, and they’re well-known throughout that segment. Welcome to the world of the sub-niche. There’s less competition in this realm because many of the big players just don’t want to enter smaller markets. The opportunities that they’re failing to capitalize on are there for the taking.
Let’s take a look at a few examples of highly effective sub-niching.
An Eggcelent Example
When it comes to the grocery store, few sections are quite as saturated as the egg case. In an average store, it is easy to have a dozen or so brands to choose from. However, with the movement in eating awareness, people are more concerned about where their food comes from. While many consumers are satisfied with the $.69 dozen for conventional eggs, others are willing to pay a premium price to ensure their eggs are coming from humane sources.
In 2008, Betsy Babcock founded Handsome Brook Farm Pasture Raised Eggs. Prior to then, free-range was the golden standard. But Betsy exposed free range as not being quite as free as the egg industry wanted consumers to believe.
So, Betsy niched down and created a brand where the eggs came from chickens who actually spent their days outside eating bugs and being chickens. She started with a backyard flock, but by targeting a niche market, she grew the business into the nation’s largest organic pasture raised egg brand.
A Niche Children’s Advocate
When thinking about a traditional personal injury attorney, several images might come to mind. They usually involve car accidents, slip and falls, or those cheesy medical malpractice commercials. But who would you trust to represent your case if your child were severely injured in an accident? It is a thought that makes parents shutter and cringe, but accidents happen on a daily business.
One Philadelphia lawyer, Edith Pearce at The Pearce Law Firm Personal Injury and Accident Lawyers, PC., has set herself apart in the personal injury law industry as being the “Children’s Injury Lawyer.” Whether it is because she is a member of Mensa or she is a mom herself, she is exceptionally well respected and quite successful in this niche of the personal industry sector.
The Takeaway
Whether you have identified a hole in the marketplace that you can successfully fill, or you have an existing business that can promote a niched service to a target demographic, niching down can help you expand. There is generally less competition on the niche level, allowing you to capture more of the market share. So long as there is enough demand and you are properly marketing your service, this might be your most successful business scope strategy.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/pexels-pixabay-264537.jpg9601280StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2021-01-22 18:00:492021-01-23 00:36:05How to Stand Out in a Saturated Market: The Benefits of Niching Down
Running a restaurant, eatery, or any business in the service industry requires grit, determination, and intelligence, all rolled up into one. In any case, restaurateurs have to contend with a range of issues such as competition, the economy, and seasonality, to keep their businesses afloat and increase sales.
Nowadays, restaurants are no longer about cooking and serving meals alone, but also about consumer experience, ambiance, convenience, and good service.
If you want to see diners coming back to your restaurant every time, then you have no choice but to improve your operations. Here are a few tips on how to go about it.
1. Utilize Restaurant Technology
Any business in the service industry that is yet to embrace technology stands to lose a lot. Technology has improved operational efficiency by reducing workload, eliminating paperwork, streamlining services, and ultimately increasing sales.
With the emergence of digital menu boards and other restaurant digital signage, restaurants should expect up to 31.8% increase in sales. No. They do not work like magic. Research shows that 80% of consumers are likely to enter a restaurant after seeing attractive signage.
Moreover, these display systems allow you to incorporate full-motion videos into your menus so that you can reach and engage your customers easily.
2. Expand Menu Offerings
Expanding your menu offerings is another great way of improving operations and increasing sales. By giving your customers more options on the menu, they are likely to stream back and even invite their friends to your restaurant.
This brings us back to the use of digital menu boards. The benefits of using digital menu boards are almost endless. So dynamic are these digital boards that you can add more items to the menu display, include information about ingredients, or change the menu content at the touch of a button.
Nevertheless, you should be very careful when creating your menu and learn about the various digital menu board mistakes you should avoid if you want to attract more customers to your establishment.
3. Take Advantage of Social Media
Social media is a game-changer in almost every sector and the service industry is no exception. You can use social media to expand your reach and retain your current customers for free.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram allow you to connect with your customers by liking or replying to their comments. You can also encourage your fans to share your posts, photos, and menus with their friends for a wider reach and increased brand awareness.
4. Create a Loyalty Program
Many restaurateurs make the mistake of focusing on attracting new customers rather than keeping their existing customers. This can leave a huge dent on your sales as your most loyal customers begin to feel disoriented and start thinking twice about returning to your restaurant.
One of the most effective ways of retaining customers is building a loyalty program. It doesn’t have to be complicated. You can start by issuing gift cards, free dessert, or special discounts to your most loyal customers. By doing so, it won’t be long before you notice an improvement in operations.
5. Offer Online Ordering
Although eating out in a physical establishment is still fun and exciting, things are changing and more people now prefer to order their food online. With this in mind, you should change with the times and offer online ordering. This will not only improve your operations and increase your sales but also retain your customers. Your clientele will have no reason to buy food elsewhere.
6. Adequately Train Employees
If you want to improve operations in your restaurant, it is imperative that you employ staff with the right training. Look for employees who have the right mix of skills and knowledge to avoid spending more money on cross-training. You can also consider providing custom training to your staff to ensure they are competent to handle your specific requirements.
7. Turn Your Customers into Promoters
Your loyal customers are certainly your biggest fans, and they would be more than willing to promote your restaurant to their family, friends, and workmates. However, for this to work, you have to make sure that you prepare tasty, lip-smacking meals every time to ensure your new and existing customers keep coming back for more!
8. Consider Outsourcing
In some cases, your current staff may not be able to handle some aspects of a restaurant business. This is the point where outsourcing comes into play. You should consider hiring experts to help set up the right structures and provide suggestions aimed at improving your operations.
9. Leverage Analytics and Trends
Utilize various reporting and analysis tools to monitor current market trends and know what is happening in your restaurant. Leveraging on analytics and trends will give you an idea of whether you are on the right path to success or not. You can then make the necessary adjustments like employing more staff or scheduling the right software to improve sales.
10. Cross-Train Employees
Cross-training your employees prepares them to be able to do more than one job. For instance, you can cross-train your waiters to be kitchen staff or vice versa. This means your operations will not stall in case one of your most reliable staff is sick or away on leave. However, you should only consider cross-training your most loyal staff to avoid disappointments when they decide to seek employment elsewhere.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/pexels-clem-onojeghuo-375889.jpg8981280StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2021-01-22 17:00:392021-01-23 00:17:3210 Ways to Improve Service Industry Operations
Are you interested in gaining more customers for your business? If so, then you need to work to ensure that you do impress them from the first day they find your company. This is always going to lead to higher conversions. Here are some of the boxes that you need to tick to get this right.
A Killer Website
First, you need to think about your website. For most customers and clients, this is always going to be the first impression that they get of your business. You need to pay attention to load times. If it takes anywhere more than three seconds for a page on your site to load, then you’re going to have problems with your bounce rate. You need to think about the design too. It’s absolutely vital that your site stands out from all the other possibilities in the SERPs. A custom website programming solution is often the best way to ensure that’s the case.
A Fast Call Back
These days, customers don’t want to be waiting long for an answer they need. They want to get results immediately and this does tie back to ensuring that your website loads rapidly. If a customer makes an enquiry, you need to make sure that you are in a position to respond within at least 24 hours. If it’s anything more than this then you can bet that a customer will have turned their attention to the competition and potentially found the solution they were searching for before you could even pick up the phone.
Honesty And Transparency
Next, you need to make sure that you are both honest and transparent with customers. They value this more than most other things. They want to know that they can trust the company that they are buying from and this should always start with the quote that you offer for a product or service. The quoted price should be exactly what the customer is going to pay when the service is delivered. If you can’t quote a price, then you need to be honest about this as well. Don’t end up in a situation where they can catch you out further down the line.
Rave Reviews
Finally, you do need to think about reviews. The latest reports suggest that more than 80% of customers and clients will check reviews online before they even consider committing to a purchase. So, if there’s an issue with your reviews then you could lose a lot of buyers. This is often a matter of knowing how to approach reviews. For instance, you should respond to them publicly as this will send a positive message to any potential customers. You also need to watch out for bad reviews on social media that might be spreading like wildfire.
We hope this helps you understand some of the key steps that you do need to explore to get things right here and guarantee that your customers don’t leave you for a competitor. Impress them from day one and they’ll always come back for more.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/word-image-56.png15002091StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2021-01-22 16:00:302021-01-22 23:35:13Learn The Secrets To Impress Customers From Day One
Law firms can be fast paced, incredibly challenging places to work and can also be chaotic.
There are a lot of moving parts in a law firm. High volumes of files are constantly floating around, there are many clients that need to be attended to, court dates and legal proceedings are time consuming and at some point the business needs to be managed including financial and marketing management. Needless to say, law firms take a lot of effort to manage them effectively.
A periodic review of ways to streamline your law firm operations can lead to a significant reduction in the chaos. Below you will find a few tips to help get you started.
Utilize Technology
Technology is a huge factor in almost every industry across the globe.
The benefits of heavily utilizing technology cannot be understated for law firms. Well known law firms are frequently the targets of malicious hackers, so the latest state-of-the-art technology is no longer optional, but essential. Effective cybersecurity can safeguard sensitive client data, and make sure that the legal process is never compromised at your firm.
Additionally, cloud storage means all the dreaded paperwork that can litter a law firm never gets misplaced, damaged, lost, or stolen. Ultimately, technology helps make the work less manual. Everything is moving online into shared spaces for easier access yet shielded by encrypted servers and other password locked cyberspaces.
Utilizing software that makes case management more efficient keeps your staff smaller and costs lower. It helps your team focus on the important legal work and not be bogged down in monotonous legal administration.
Consult or Outsource to Expert Marketers
Technology and efficient internal operations also play a crucial role in marketing your law firm.
Marketing can get overwhelming, particularly if your law firm is not well-versed in digital marketing strategies. You can take your broad ideas and filter them through some expert consultants for well-polished results. You guarantee that your online advertising will not distract your internal team and will be the most effective by outsourcing your marketing.
For example, Legal Back Office provides highly regarded law firm management consultancy in marketing, accounting and with key law firm operational areas like intake, billing and case management processes. They can partner with you to define your marketing needs, generating new cases and helping you to make your brand identity as impactful as possible. Legal Back Office is in it for the long haul, drafting technical and strategic solutions for you as long as you need them. They offer a variety of services beyond marketing, making them a key business partner for your law firm.
Limit/Eliminate Time Wasting Practices
Perhaps more than any other business, those dealing in law face constant factors that drain their use of time such as holding too many internal meetings, being dependent on paper client files and having outdated processes requiring more steps than are necessary.
A high volume of and poorly run meetings are a consistent culprit in filling your time. Business Insider notes that people should avoid eliminating them entirely and instead make them more productive. Facilitate meaningful discussions and ensure everyone has the time to raise important issues. Communication in a law firm is vital, but only when every word spoken truly counts for something in a dedicated context. Make your meetings internally count so the real focus can be on case work and meetings with clients.
If your law firm is still overly dependent on a physical client file, this is an area of “low hanging fruit” that when transitioned to a digital process will save your lawyers and staff a significant amount of time. Intake process can also be overly burdened by steps that truly are required to get a client retained by your law firm.
If you feel like your firm could use some tune ups in your processes, working with a law firm consultant like Legal Back Office can help you identify where time is being wasted, develop recommendations for change and even implement those changes. When you are focused on doing client work, attending to business best practices always falls to the bottom of the priority list. Working with Legal Back Office to implement efficiency changes can ensure that you will maximize the results you are able to achieve and to reach peak performance metrics for your firm.
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Technology is on the rise in every sector of the world, including the business sector. Technology demands for business have made it a necessity to have a department managing IT. Management of IT has today become a vital aspect of every business.
As a result, most businesses have opted to have an internal IT department to help manage the technical aspects of a business. However, some companies have opted to outsource IT management services from professional managed IT service providers. Being that technology is an integral part of business IT, it is essential to always choose a provider with high levels of skills that will provide you with excellent services. Settling on a provider is not easy because there are numerous managed IT service providers.
Here are some if the important factors that you should consider when choosing a managed IT service provider.
Security
With the high levels of cybercrime, security has become an important aspect of a business. However, ensuring a high-end securing can be difficult and costly. With that in mind, you must choose a service provider that does not just monitor your information system and infrastructure. But you must consider a company that can also offer strategic security plans.
With a rigid and reliable IT security, you can ensure all customer and employee data remain safe and secure. Reliable IT managed services ensure to encrypt your network to prevent people from accessing it not unless with permission. Network encryption also allows you to monitor any activity that is conducted on your network. This gives you a straightforward way to detect suspicious activities, giving you an opportunity to come up with an appropriate measure to counter it. With this, you can guarantee that you can minimize and prevent risks of cybersecurity threats from infecting your IT system and infrastructure.
Due to the nature of their work, IT support providers gain access to sensitive company information and private data. As a result, you should ensure the company has a high level of confidentiality. Or you can limit the extent of information they access to have some discretion. You should identify the initiatives the company will take to guarantee the confidentiality of your sensitive information and customer data.
Availability
One of the most essential factors to consider about manage IT companies is their service availability. The company should provide service and support 24/7/365. Quality IT managed services company will provide you with qualified IT personnel to take care of your IT needs on a shifting basis. IT service providers assure constant delivery of top-notch managed IT services through continuous and round the clock IT support.
Determining the availability of the company is crucial. This is because it will help you ascertain how proficient the IT service provider can be. 24/7/365 IT monitoring means that the company will be in a position to offer updates and provide technical support as quickly as possible. On top of this, the constant monitoring of systems also allows them to detect IT related issues in a timely manner before they became a major problem in the organization.
With early detection of problems, your provider will be able to quickly come up with solutions to the problems. This guarantees that your business can prevent worse system problems and IT disasters in the future.
The managed IT service provider you choose must be capable of addressing all your concerns. Apart from 24/7 system monitoring, the company should also provide a responsive service desk where your employees can be able to reach them for support, either through call, email or chat. This allows you staff to have a faster resolution to any IT challenge that they might face, such as problems logging in.
Scalability
You should always remember business growth when selecting an IT managed services provider. Your business demand today may not be as critical to what your business will have in a few months or years. That is why it is important to hire a service provider that understands your ever-changing business needs.
Reliable and experienced IT managed service providers offer scalable services. This means that their IT services will adapt to all the technical needs of your business. For instance, if the number of employees in your organization increases by a large number, say from 3000 to 4500, the IT service provider should be able to provide you with enough skilled personnel to provide quick and timely resolutions to prevent a decrease in productivity. This allows the It service providers to meet all your IT requirements smoothly and effectively. Through this, you can ensure that your IT system and infrastructure will be able to adapt to the changes as a result of business growth.
Experience and expertise
It is imperative to consider the experience and skill of the company. Should the personnel have the right skills, knowledge and expertise? The IT service company should have a team of professionals in IT who are certified to offer these services, thereby preventing amateur companies from experimenting with your IT infrastructure. Reliable service providers are ones that have successfully handled a number of clients from different industries.
Every industry is unique. Similarly, every organization and company has its own way of handling day to day operations. Consequently, every business has varying and different IT requirements. As a result, you must choose a provider with a proven reputation and experience of handling IT needs of a diverse set of clients. This shows the company can offer unique IT services that your system needs.
Additionally, you should choose a company with the ability to provide cloud back up and data recovery services. Generally, the company should be able to provide solutions to any problems with your network and computers. If you hire a company that does not offer full IT support, then you will have to incur additional costs of hiring a new company or losses from unsatisfied customers or clients.
Conclusion
Outsourcing managed IT services allow you to focus on other vital needs of your business. With the best IT service, you can ensure that your network is secure and stable. This allows you to maintain smooth business operations. You need to ensure you only outsource services from a well proven and reliable company.
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How to Stand Out in a Saturated Market: The Benefits of Niching Down
/in Marketing & Sales/by StrategyDrivenLess Can Be More
A few of the competitors of these sinking businesses are keeping their heads above water though. They’re prevailing and remaining profitable within their own small niche. So, what’s the distinguishing factor? The surviving business owners aren’t trying to be jacks of all trades and masters of none. For them, less is more.
They’ve identified and fitted into the needs of a smaller market segment that remains closely connected, and they’re well-known throughout that segment. Welcome to the world of the sub-niche. There’s less competition in this realm because many of the big players just don’t want to enter smaller markets. The opportunities that they’re failing to capitalize on are there for the taking.
Let’s take a look at a few examples of highly effective sub-niching.
An Eggcelent Example
When it comes to the grocery store, few sections are quite as saturated as the egg case. In an average store, it is easy to have a dozen or so brands to choose from. However, with the movement in eating awareness, people are more concerned about where their food comes from. While many consumers are satisfied with the $.69 dozen for conventional eggs, others are willing to pay a premium price to ensure their eggs are coming from humane sources.
In 2008, Betsy Babcock founded Handsome Brook Farm Pasture Raised Eggs. Prior to then, free-range was the golden standard. But Betsy exposed free range as not being quite as free as the egg industry wanted consumers to believe.
So, Betsy niched down and created a brand where the eggs came from chickens who actually spent their days outside eating bugs and being chickens. She started with a backyard flock, but by targeting a niche market, she grew the business into the nation’s largest organic pasture raised egg brand.
A Niche Children’s Advocate
When thinking about a traditional personal injury attorney, several images might come to mind. They usually involve car accidents, slip and falls, or those cheesy medical malpractice commercials. But who would you trust to represent your case if your child were severely injured in an accident? It is a thought that makes parents shutter and cringe, but accidents happen on a daily business.
One Philadelphia lawyer, Edith Pearce at The Pearce Law Firm Personal Injury and Accident Lawyers, PC., has set herself apart in the personal injury law industry as being the “Children’s Injury Lawyer.” Whether it is because she is a member of Mensa or she is a mom herself, she is exceptionally well respected and quite successful in this niche of the personal industry sector.
The Takeaway
Whether you have identified a hole in the marketplace that you can successfully fill, or you have an existing business that can promote a niched service to a target demographic, niching down can help you expand. There is generally less competition on the niche level, allowing you to capture more of the market share. So long as there is enough demand and you are properly marketing your service, this might be your most successful business scope strategy.
10 Ways to Improve Service Industry Operations
/in Tactical Execution/by StrategyDrivenNowadays, restaurants are no longer about cooking and serving meals alone, but also about consumer experience, ambiance, convenience, and good service.
If you want to see diners coming back to your restaurant every time, then you have no choice but to improve your operations. Here are a few tips on how to go about it.
1. Utilize Restaurant Technology
Any business in the service industry that is yet to embrace technology stands to lose a lot. Technology has improved operational efficiency by reducing workload, eliminating paperwork, streamlining services, and ultimately increasing sales.
With the emergence of digital menu boards and other restaurant digital signage, restaurants should expect up to 31.8% increase in sales. No. They do not work like magic. Research shows that 80% of consumers are likely to enter a restaurant after seeing attractive signage.
Moreover, these display systems allow you to incorporate full-motion videos into your menus so that you can reach and engage your customers easily.
2. Expand Menu Offerings
Expanding your menu offerings is another great way of improving operations and increasing sales. By giving your customers more options on the menu, they are likely to stream back and even invite their friends to your restaurant.
This brings us back to the use of digital menu boards. The benefits of using digital menu boards are almost endless. So dynamic are these digital boards that you can add more items to the menu display, include information about ingredients, or change the menu content at the touch of a button.
Nevertheless, you should be very careful when creating your menu and learn about the various digital menu board mistakes you should avoid if you want to attract more customers to your establishment.
3. Take Advantage of Social Media
Social media is a game-changer in almost every sector and the service industry is no exception. You can use social media to expand your reach and retain your current customers for free.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram allow you to connect with your customers by liking or replying to their comments. You can also encourage your fans to share your posts, photos, and menus with their friends for a wider reach and increased brand awareness.
4. Create a Loyalty Program
Many restaurateurs make the mistake of focusing on attracting new customers rather than keeping their existing customers. This can leave a huge dent on your sales as your most loyal customers begin to feel disoriented and start thinking twice about returning to your restaurant.
One of the most effective ways of retaining customers is building a loyalty program. It doesn’t have to be complicated. You can start by issuing gift cards, free dessert, or special discounts to your most loyal customers. By doing so, it won’t be long before you notice an improvement in operations.
5. Offer Online Ordering
Although eating out in a physical establishment is still fun and exciting, things are changing and more people now prefer to order their food online. With this in mind, you should change with the times and offer online ordering. This will not only improve your operations and increase your sales but also retain your customers. Your clientele will have no reason to buy food elsewhere.
6. Adequately Train Employees
If you want to improve operations in your restaurant, it is imperative that you employ staff with the right training. Look for employees who have the right mix of skills and knowledge to avoid spending more money on cross-training. You can also consider providing custom training to your staff to ensure they are competent to handle your specific requirements.
7. Turn Your Customers into Promoters
Your loyal customers are certainly your biggest fans, and they would be more than willing to promote your restaurant to their family, friends, and workmates. However, for this to work, you have to make sure that you prepare tasty, lip-smacking meals every time to ensure your new and existing customers keep coming back for more!
8. Consider Outsourcing
In some cases, your current staff may not be able to handle some aspects of a restaurant business. This is the point where outsourcing comes into play. You should consider hiring experts to help set up the right structures and provide suggestions aimed at improving your operations.
9. Leverage Analytics and Trends
Utilize various reporting and analysis tools to monitor current market trends and know what is happening in your restaurant. Leveraging on analytics and trends will give you an idea of whether you are on the right path to success or not. You can then make the necessary adjustments like employing more staff or scheduling the right software to improve sales.
10. Cross-Train Employees
Cross-training your employees prepares them to be able to do more than one job. For instance, you can cross-train your waiters to be kitchen staff or vice versa. This means your operations will not stall in case one of your most reliable staff is sick or away on leave. However, you should only consider cross-training your most loyal staff to avoid disappointments when they decide to seek employment elsewhere.
Learn The Secrets To Impress Customers From Day One
/in Customer Relationship Management/by StrategyDrivenAre you interested in gaining more customers for your business? If so, then you need to work to ensure that you do impress them from the first day they find your company. This is always going to lead to higher conversions. Here are some of the boxes that you need to tick to get this right.
A Killer Website
First, you need to think about your website. For most customers and clients, this is always going to be the first impression that they get of your business. You need to pay attention to load times. If it takes anywhere more than three seconds for a page on your site to load, then you’re going to have problems with your bounce rate. You need to think about the design too. It’s absolutely vital that your site stands out from all the other possibilities in the SERPs. A custom website programming solution is often the best way to ensure that’s the case.
A Fast Call Back
These days, customers don’t want to be waiting long for an answer they need. They want to get results immediately and this does tie back to ensuring that your website loads rapidly. If a customer makes an enquiry, you need to make sure that you are in a position to respond within at least 24 hours. If it’s anything more than this then you can bet that a customer will have turned their attention to the competition and potentially found the solution they were searching for before you could even pick up the phone.
Honesty And Transparency
Next, you need to make sure that you are both honest and transparent with customers. They value this more than most other things. They want to know that they can trust the company that they are buying from and this should always start with the quote that you offer for a product or service. The quoted price should be exactly what the customer is going to pay when the service is delivered. If you can’t quote a price, then you need to be honest about this as well. Don’t end up in a situation where they can catch you out further down the line.
Rave Reviews
Finally, you do need to think about reviews. The latest reports suggest that more than 80% of customers and clients will check reviews online before they even consider committing to a purchase. So, if there’s an issue with your reviews then you could lose a lot of buyers. This is often a matter of knowing how to approach reviews. For instance, you should respond to them publicly as this will send a positive message to any potential customers. You also need to watch out for bad reviews on social media that might be spreading like wildfire.
We hope this helps you understand some of the key steps that you do need to explore to get things right here and guarantee that your customers don’t leave you for a competitor. Impress them from day one and they’ll always come back for more.
How To Streamline Your Law Firm & Achieve Peak Performance
/in Managing Your Business/by StrategyDrivenThere are a lot of moving parts in a law firm. High volumes of files are constantly floating around, there are many clients that need to be attended to, court dates and legal proceedings are time consuming and at some point the business needs to be managed including financial and marketing management. Needless to say, law firms take a lot of effort to manage them effectively.
A periodic review of ways to streamline your law firm operations can lead to a significant reduction in the chaos. Below you will find a few tips to help get you started.
Utilize Technology
Technology is a huge factor in almost every industry across the globe.
The benefits of heavily utilizing technology cannot be understated for law firms. Well known law firms are frequently the targets of malicious hackers, so the latest state-of-the-art technology is no longer optional, but essential. Effective cybersecurity can safeguard sensitive client data, and make sure that the legal process is never compromised at your firm.
Additionally, cloud storage means all the dreaded paperwork that can litter a law firm never gets misplaced, damaged, lost, or stolen. Ultimately, technology helps make the work less manual. Everything is moving online into shared spaces for easier access yet shielded by encrypted servers and other password locked cyberspaces.
Utilizing software that makes case management more efficient keeps your staff smaller and costs lower. It helps your team focus on the important legal work and not be bogged down in monotonous legal administration.
Consult or Outsource to Expert Marketers
Technology and efficient internal operations also play a crucial role in marketing your law firm.
Marketing can get overwhelming, particularly if your law firm is not well-versed in digital marketing strategies. You can take your broad ideas and filter them through some expert consultants for well-polished results. You guarantee that your online advertising will not distract your internal team and will be the most effective by outsourcing your marketing.
For example, Legal Back Office provides highly regarded law firm management consultancy in marketing, accounting and with key law firm operational areas like intake, billing and case management processes. They can partner with you to define your marketing needs, generating new cases and helping you to make your brand identity as impactful as possible. Legal Back Office is in it for the long haul, drafting technical and strategic solutions for you as long as you need them. They offer a variety of services beyond marketing, making them a key business partner for your law firm.
Limit/Eliminate Time Wasting Practices
Perhaps more than any other business, those dealing in law face constant factors that drain their use of time such as holding too many internal meetings, being dependent on paper client files and having outdated processes requiring more steps than are necessary.
A high volume of and poorly run meetings are a consistent culprit in filling your time. Business Insider notes that people should avoid eliminating them entirely and instead make them more productive. Facilitate meaningful discussions and ensure everyone has the time to raise important issues. Communication in a law firm is vital, but only when every word spoken truly counts for something in a dedicated context. Make your meetings internally count so the real focus can be on case work and meetings with clients.
If your law firm is still overly dependent on a physical client file, this is an area of “low hanging fruit” that when transitioned to a digital process will save your lawyers and staff a significant amount of time. Intake process can also be overly burdened by steps that truly are required to get a client retained by your law firm.
If you feel like your firm could use some tune ups in your processes, working with a law firm consultant like Legal Back Office can help you identify where time is being wasted, develop recommendations for change and even implement those changes. When you are focused on doing client work, attending to business best practices always falls to the bottom of the priority list. Working with Legal Back Office to implement efficiency changes can ensure that you will maximize the results you are able to achieve and to reach peak performance metrics for your firm.
Factors to Consider When Choosing Managed IT Services
/in Managing Your Business/by StrategyDrivenAs a result, most businesses have opted to have an internal IT department to help manage the technical aspects of a business. However, some companies have opted to outsource IT management services from professional managed IT service providers. Being that technology is an integral part of business IT, it is essential to always choose a provider with high levels of skills that will provide you with excellent services. Settling on a provider is not easy because there are numerous managed IT service providers.
Here are some if the important factors that you should consider when choosing a managed IT service provider.
Security
With the high levels of cybercrime, security has become an important aspect of a business. However, ensuring a high-end securing can be difficult and costly. With that in mind, you must choose a service provider that does not just monitor your information system and infrastructure. But you must consider a company that can also offer strategic security plans.
With a rigid and reliable IT security, you can ensure all customer and employee data remain safe and secure. Reliable IT managed services ensure to encrypt your network to prevent people from accessing it not unless with permission. Network encryption also allows you to monitor any activity that is conducted on your network. This gives you a straightforward way to detect suspicious activities, giving you an opportunity to come up with an appropriate measure to counter it. With this, you can guarantee that you can minimize and prevent risks of cybersecurity threats from infecting your IT system and infrastructure.
Due to the nature of their work, IT support providers gain access to sensitive company information and private data. As a result, you should ensure the company has a high level of confidentiality. Or you can limit the extent of information they access to have some discretion. You should identify the initiatives the company will take to guarantee the confidentiality of your sensitive information and customer data.
Availability
One of the most essential factors to consider about manage IT companies is their service availability. The company should provide service and support 24/7/365. Quality IT managed services company will provide you with qualified IT personnel to take care of your IT needs on a shifting basis. IT service providers assure constant delivery of top-notch managed IT services through continuous and round the clock IT support.
Determining the availability of the company is crucial. This is because it will help you ascertain how proficient the IT service provider can be. 24/7/365 IT monitoring means that the company will be in a position to offer updates and provide technical support as quickly as possible. On top of this, the constant monitoring of systems also allows them to detect IT related issues in a timely manner before they became a major problem in the organization.
With early detection of problems, your provider will be able to quickly come up with solutions to the problems. This guarantees that your business can prevent worse system problems and IT disasters in the future.
The managed IT service provider you choose must be capable of addressing all your concerns. Apart from 24/7 system monitoring, the company should also provide a responsive service desk where your employees can be able to reach them for support, either through call, email or chat. This allows you staff to have a faster resolution to any IT challenge that they might face, such as problems logging in.
Scalability
You should always remember business growth when selecting an IT managed services provider. Your business demand today may not be as critical to what your business will have in a few months or years. That is why it is important to hire a service provider that understands your ever-changing business needs.
Reliable and experienced IT managed service providers offer scalable services. This means that their IT services will adapt to all the technical needs of your business. For instance, if the number of employees in your organization increases by a large number, say from 3000 to 4500, the IT service provider should be able to provide you with enough skilled personnel to provide quick and timely resolutions to prevent a decrease in productivity. This allows the It service providers to meet all your IT requirements smoothly and effectively. Through this, you can ensure that your IT system and infrastructure will be able to adapt to the changes as a result of business growth.
Experience and expertise
It is imperative to consider the experience and skill of the company. Should the personnel have the right skills, knowledge and expertise? The IT service company should have a team of professionals in IT who are certified to offer these services, thereby preventing amateur companies from experimenting with your IT infrastructure. Reliable service providers are ones that have successfully handled a number of clients from different industries.
Every industry is unique. Similarly, every organization and company has its own way of handling day to day operations. Consequently, every business has varying and different IT requirements. As a result, you must choose a provider with a proven reputation and experience of handling IT needs of a diverse set of clients. This shows the company can offer unique IT services that your system needs.
Additionally, you should choose a company with the ability to provide cloud back up and data recovery services. Generally, the company should be able to provide solutions to any problems with your network and computers. If you hire a company that does not offer full IT support, then you will have to incur additional costs of hiring a new company or losses from unsatisfied customers or clients.
Conclusion
Outsourcing managed IT services allow you to focus on other vital needs of your business. With the best IT service, you can ensure that your network is secure and stable. This allows you to maintain smooth business operations. You need to ensure you only outsource services from a well proven and reliable company.