Many small businesses today have a business mobile plan so that employees can field calls, texts and emails when they’re away from the office. While that’s a valuable reason to get mobile, there are many other ways businesses can use mobile to both enhance their customer experience and increase their productivity.

 

“Gone are the days when so many applications—whether customer relationship tools or inventory management tools—are only available to large enterprises,” says Danny Bowman, chief mobile officer for Spectrum Business. “Today, small businesses have access to a vast range of applications that they should be using to stay competitive, enhance their customer experience and increase their productivity.”

 

And thanks to the ongoing rollout of 5G cellular networks, many tasks on mobile are becoming faster and easier than ever, Bowman adds. Here are just four of the ways businesses can use business mobile to engage customers, increase productivity and drive sales:

 

  1. Helping customers more easily find and buy things

For small retailers, mobile devices and tools allow you to provide faster, more responsive customer service. An inventory management tool accessible via a mobile app such as HandiFox can let the sales team easily check if a product is in stock. “Consider a shoe store where the salesperson doesn’t have to go to the back of the store for 10 minutes to figure out whether they have a particular shoe style and size available,” Bowman says. “They can do it in seconds from their app.” Tablets and phones with checkout and payment processing tools such as Clover or Square can then be used to help customers buy their items quickly. “Mobile can be a real game-changer for a small retailer,” he adds.

 

  1. Managing a mobile workforce

If you have employees who are always on the go—such as a house cleaners or delivery drivers—you can use GPS-enabled mobile tools that can help you better manage their time and make their routes more efficient. Such tools can also help track their mileage, if that’s important to your business. Timeero and allGeo are two such apps. “You can have much greater visibility into where your team is and use that information to be more efficient about where to dispatch them,” Bowman says. Moreover, such tools also generally provide an employee communication tool and other features that can help you manage a mobile team.

 

  1. Providing customers with real-time updates

Today, apps such as Housecall Pro can make it easy for employees to communicate with customers in real-time from wherever they happen to be. A home service provider such as a plumber or dog groomer, for example, can let the customer know they’re exact arrival time and give them a heads up if they’re running late. “There are apps that will automatically generate texts to customers for you so you can easily keep customers in the loop,” says Tim Singleton, president of Strive Technology Consulting in Boulder, Colorado. “That’s so important for small businesses, which often stand out because they offer better customer service.”

 

  1. Updating customer data and records 

Many customer relationship management (CRM) tools today have mobile apps that let employees add customer information remotely. Using a CRM on mobile is especially valuable because it allows the employee to look up customer information and input customer details on-the-spot or immediately after meeting with that customer rather than having to wait hours or days to access the CRM when they’re back at the office. “Imagine how much more valuable a CRM becomes when you can take it with you when you’re out in the field with customers,” Bowman says. 

 

Spectrum Business Mobile—available to all Spectrum Business Internet customers—offers unlimited data, talk and text plans with 5G capabilities starting at just $29.99 a month. To learn more, contact us at 855-299-9353.

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