3 Secrets to Growing Your Small Business

Among the biggest challenges that small business owners face are increasing revenue and expanding their customer base: in a word, growth. Whether your business is a new player or a long-time community fixture, there is always room for carefully planned growth and expansion. Follow the tips below to help your business grow at a manageable rate:

Create a Vision for Your Business

Concrete growth starts with an abstract plan. What do you want your business to be? There are many successful business models: single-location institutions, local chains and franchises with multiple locations, and national companies that are always expanding into more markets. Before you start thinking about growth, first decide what you want your business to look like five, 10, and 20 years down the road.

Draw Up a Business Plan

Once you have a vision in mind, the next step is to draft a business plan. Set concrete goals, such as increasing revenue and sales by a certain percentage within a certain time period, or opening a second location in 12 or 18 months. You may need to streamline procedures, hire more staff, or invest in more staff training to meet your business goals, so make sure you crunch the numbers and incorporate a realistic budget into your plan.

Retain an Excellent Team

It’s much easier to expand your business if you have a qualified, efficient team. But don’t hire based on resumes alone—make sure that you evaluate a potential employee’s personality and attitude in interviews, and take this into consideration when hiring for each specific position. When hiring file clerks, for example, chatty candidates may waste time socializing, whereas you want a more outgoing person to sit at the front desk or answer your phones.

At Contact One Call Center, we help businesses serve their customers by providing answering services that will connect them to a live person, even after hours. Make sure your customers never have to leave a voicemail or navigate an automated menu again! Call us today at 1-800-278-3347 to learn more about our services.

Tips for Improving Patient Experience

When you work in the medical field, it is important to give your patients convenient, reliable services that entice them to come back to your business. No matter how strong your customer service already is, there is always a way that you can improve it even more. Keep reading for some tips on enhancing patient experience:

Use a Top-Notch Medical Answering Service

You should make an effort to cater to your customers even when your office is closed. With the help of a reputable answering service, you can do just that. Work with a call center that provides the kind of after-hours support you need. This includes abiding by HIPAA patient confidentiality regulations and relaying important information as soon as possible.  You can also get bilingual answering services to cater to all of your patients.

Improve Your Appointment Setting Services

If your patients cannot get through to anyone when they need to make an appointment, they may look elsewhere. With an integrated appointment or reservation system, you can ensure that your patients can always make an appointment when they need one. This is a service that customers love and can even increase your business’ revenue.

Increase Reachability with Live Chat

You can take your new customer service venture one step further with live chat services. This is another way that your patients can contact your business at all hours of the day. If your patients have questions that require immediate attention, the live chat representative is there to answer them. This service does not cost a lot, but brings huge benefits to your business.

Contact One Call Center is here to enhance every aspect of your customer relations. We offer reliable and confidential medical answering services, appointment setting services, and live chat services to make your business as efficient as possible. Visit us online or call 1-800-278-3347 today to sign up for services that will instantly improve your patient relations.

More About Improving Your Business Can Be Found At These Sites

Whether you are new to the world of owning a business or have years of experience, there is always room for improvement. Use the links below to make the most of your customer relations. If you need some business help, Contact One Call Center is here for you. Call 1-800-278-3347 today to learn about our answering services and after-hours support.

 If you want to grow a successful small business, follow these tips from Forbes.com.

This article from Time helps you turn failure into success.

Get some tips on raising money for your business in this article from Entrepreneur.

Visit this article from AMedNews.com to learn about ways to improve customer service in the medical field.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services gives a summary of the HIPAA privacy rules on this page.

Other Answering Service Articles:

1. Customer Service Secrets from Richard Branson
2. For Additional Resources About Our Recent Posts, Visit These Sites
3. 3 Ways to Improve Customer Service
4. Learn More About Improving Your Business At These Sites
5. Tips for Managing Business Growth

Download this App to Get Small Business Tips on Your Phone

Are you looking for a way to expand your business and your profits? The Small Business Tip of the Day app available on iTunes can help. With it, you get useful and important business tips that improve the way your company functions right on your phone. Whether you want to limit your viewing to one tip a day or browse through a few, you are bound to gain new perspective from this app.

Contact One Call Center also offers business help that allows you to enhance your company. With our answering services, after-hours support, and live chat customer services, we give you an industry advantage. Call 1-800-278-3347 to learn more.

Why E-Commerce Is Becoming a Must-Have for SMBs

As a small business owner, it’s important to understand the market into which you are trying to enter. One growing trend is e-commerce. If you already own a small business or are planning a startup, e-commerce helps you get ahead. Keep reading to find out how:

 

Display Your Business to a Wide Range of People

In today’s technologically-driven world, most people do their research on the computer. If your company has a strong internet presence, you are more likely to attract potential business. E-commerce gives you a premium opportunity to cater your business image to your specifications and control how potential customers see you. Utilizing e-commerce also enables you to show your business off to a wider range of potential clients.

 

Take Payments Online

If you want to be successful as a small business owner, you should make it as convenient as possible for your customers to take advantage of your services. E-commerce payment processing continues to gain popularity because it makes it even easier for your customers to buy and use your services.

 

Improve Your Customer Service

Shifting your focus to the world of e-commerce is a great way to improve your customer service. When you have such detailed records of what items and services your customers are buying, you can start to pay more attention to these areas of your business. Not only does this help you meet supply and demand, but it also keeps your customers happy.

 

With the help of Contact One Call Center, you can start to use e-commerce and watch your business thrive. We also offer after-hours support, disaster preparedness, secure messaging, and medical answering services to meet all of your business needs. Whether you are just starting out or trying to improve your company, we can help. Visit our website or call 1-800-278-2247 to learn more.

Stay Informed in the Business World With This App

As a business owner, you need to stay informed to give your company the edge it needs. If you are looking for the best way to stay in the loop, download The Business Insider app from Google Play! This app makes it easy to read about current business trends to see what works and what doesn’t.

The Business Insider app contains the latest news and updates about finance, tech, strategy, and other business-related media. You can easily look up information or share content with colleagues through Facebook, Twitter, or email!

Download the app now!

Another easy way to boost your business is by hiring Contact One Call Center. Find out how our answering service and other services can help your business reach out to new customers by calling us at 1-800-278-3347.

These Resources Provide Additional Information About Customer Service And E-Commerce

If you are a small business owner and you have not invested in around-the-clock customer service or Web-based customer relations, Contact One Call Center can offer customizable, affordable solutions to help you stay competitive and current in your industry. To learn more about what we can do for your business, visit our website or call us today at 1-800-278-3347.

• This article from Mashable.com takes a look at the most effective strategies to boost E-commerce sales.
• Check out Inc.com for tips on turning negative reviews into positive customer remarks.
• Are you looking for ways to gather more customer feedback? You can explore the benefits of online customer surveys for this type of feedback at HowTo.gov.
• Entrepreneur.com takes a look at the various strategies that you might use to make your company’s customer service fit for your clientele.
• Chron.com discusses the importance of providing excellent customer service in any industry.