Investing in New Business Technology Without Added Staffing Costs

As you look to scale operations, you're bound to come across business technology that can help you grow. Tech is a vital resource to help streamline processes and increase both efficiency and revenues. But how do you bring new technology into your company without increasing your staffing costs to maintain that tech?

The good news is that there's a wide variety of ways to introduce new technology in business without increasing your staffing costs. From accounting to customer service and payroll to digital marketing, your business can access tech innovations at a low cost while reaping high returns on your investment.

Accounting software

For small businesses that need to increase revenues while controlling costs, accounting software is a low-cost business technology that will pay serious dividends. The ability to easily and accurately track expenses, issue invoices and receive payments can reduce time spent on manual tasks and boost profits.

For a low monthly cost, businesses can start with accounting software with low to no setup fees. Once you're up and running, you can run reports to get new insights into your most and least profitable cost centers and help identify areas for freeing up cash flow. From there, you can make strategic decisions related to marketing, production and materials costs.

Payroll management

Keeping an accurate payroll is critical to businesses with an eye toward growth, because it helps ensure that various taxes are paid and payroll deposits are made. Payroll management technology can help protect your company and boost employee morale. 

Payroll software can scale with your business and make running this process as simple as a few keystrokes. Full-service providers can impound necessary tax payments for you and even handle direct deposit in a secure and seamless fashion. Come tax time, your payroll provider can even handle your employee tax documents to help make sure you hit IRS filing deadlines.

Digital marketing

Gone are the days of the three-pronged approach to advertising: TV commercials, print ads and direct mail. Today, your customers are mobile and consume media on screens of all sizes, through multiple channels. Digital marketing software can help you streamline how you reach your customers and tailor messaging for each channel.

If your business is consumer-facing, consider one of the many social media marketing solutions available. If you need to build an email list of loyal customers, you'll definitely want to explore email marketing software and the robust analytics that can help you target your communications over the long term. To keep your visual content fresh, check out some of the low- to no-cost online graphic design software available with pre-made templates that can instantly boost your visual brand. 

By choosing targeted digital marketing tools, you can target your messages and create better visuals for your audience, which in turn can create higher engagement and click-through rates and boost sales. Meeting your customers online is key.

Customer service technology

If your business has a significant customer service component, you may already know that in-house staff and outsourced call centers are both costly solutions. However, new AI-driven technology like chatbots offer a low-cost, high-return solution for increasing efficiency in customer service protocols.

Chatbots can be trained and programmed to answer a wide range of your customers' simplest queries. You can even tailor them to your brand's unique voice and tone. Chatbots can also integrate with many CRM programs to help you collect customer data for future interactions. 

For concerns that can't be fully addressed by a chatbot, you can route to a call center or customer service representative. This helps decrease call center costs while upping customer satisfaction with the quick response that chatbots offer along with the ability to escalate concerns that truly need a human touch.

Growing your business is a delicate balance of controlling costs while maximizing revenues. With the right business technology, your company can explore how to add new capabilities without having to add employees to keep those services running.

In the short term, you'll enjoy new efficiencies in your operations. In the long term, you can enjoy cost savings that can be re-rerouted into the areas of your business where capital is needed to fuel growth—a win-win scenario for both your chosen business technology and your business.