Business like a Pro 2024 – Managing a Modern Company

If you run your own business, you know how difficult it can sometimes be to get everything under one roof. Especially when you have to deal with a large number of customers. If you miss one, you can easily get a bad reputation.

From a certain company size on it is, therefore, useful to establish technical solutions for the coordination of your customer relations. The so-called CRM system helps you to keep everything in view. This article shows helpful tips for improving your business in 2024 and what advantages the use of a CRM System provides for you and your employees.

1. Public Calendar access:

This tip is for small to medium businesses. Meetings are simply essential for coordinating many businesses. Scheduling meetings is, therefore, an indispensable part of the daily routine. Companies that make their calendars visible to their employees can save time here. Google Calendar, for example, provides a remedy here. An employee would like to make an appointment for an appraisal interview? No problem, if they have access to the calendars of the responsible persons. So an appointment can be found quickly, without unnecessary much email exchange.

2. Invoicing

Invoicing and dunning are essential components of the accounting department of every company. Invoices must be checked and late payments must be reminded accordingly if a certain payment discipline of the customers is to be achieved in the long run. Whoever does not remind his customers or does not check the invoice numbers and amounts of incoming payments runs the risk of losing thousands of Euros – unknowingly. There are high-quality billing programs, according to Teamleader, which prevent exactly that. They are indispensable for any company with a large number of appearances.

3. Flat Hierarchies

The times when tasks were dictated from top to bottom are gradually over. Companies whose corporate structure still follows conservative approaches will have more and more problems to find adequate personnel for vacant positions over the next decades. Young and qualified employees have a good chance in Germany, partly because of demographic change.

Companies that want to continue to be attractive for these employees must not only offer good pay but also take one or two steps towards flatter hierarchies. For the first time in the history of the labor market, young employees have a much better experience and knowledge of digitization than experienced employees who have been working in the respective company for many years.

4. Flexible Working Hours:

Commuting in Europe’s conurbations can be a particularly annoying business. Especially those who live in densely populated areas have to struggle with traffic jams and train cancellations every day. Hundreds of kilometres of traffic jams spread out over the motorways of the state during rush hour. The resulting loss of time is not only a waste of time for the employees but also has a negative effect on their morale. If you want to make sure that employees appear more motivated at work, you should provide flexible home office possibilities. Especially for parents who have to take care of their little ones on the side, such a regulation is appropriate and extremely useful. More and more jobs can be done from home in the future.

5. Gain control and valuable insights with a professional CRM system

5.1 Customer reviews: Curse and blessing of every company

Customer ratings play an increasingly important role in customer acquisition. Anyone who neglects this factor has bad chances on the market. No Amazon product is sold without plenty of positive reviews. Although the majority of Internet users now know that these reviews are often bought and faked, the five yellow stars still influence the purchase decision of potential customers as one of the biggest factors.

5.2 Negative reviews: how they endanger your business

They are rather rarely purchased illegally but are at least as significant. In most cases, they may even influence the customer’s buying decision more than positive reviews. A company that has once started to collect negative reviews will find it particularly difficult to rebuild a positive reputation in the future. A Shit-Storm can possibly mean the end of your company.

5.3 Customer neglected: loss of reputation

Neglecting a customer happens faster than expected, even in well-organized companies. If an employee falls ill spontaneously and has not passed on any information to his colleagues, an important callback or an important e-mail may be lost. This leads to the neglect of the customer.

5.4 Deletion not possible

If this mishap is not compensated within a reasonable time, in the worst case it can lead to a negative review of your company from Google. And what is once there will not disappear so quickly. Only in the rarest of cases can bad reviews be removed and this usually involves a disproportionate amount of effort.

5.5 CRM System: Do not leave reputation to chance

Small and medium-sized companies, in particular, can keep a functioning and effective customer management system out of this type of predicament.

A so-called CRM system works wonders. CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management and, as the name suggests, manages the relationship you maintain with your customers. Establishing such a system in your company means that no customer will be forgotten. By improving the management of your customer base, you will not only achieve less bad ratings. You create trust and, in the best case, you can achieve even more sales.

5.6 Functions of a CRM system

A CRM system can take over the most diverse functions in a company. For example, a CRM system can also be extremely helpful for invoicing. It helps to understand which invoices have already been paid and which are still outstanding. In general, it depends on the management in which tasks should be integrated into the CRM system.

CRM systems help to systematically manage the relationships your company maintains with your customers. No matter if you prefer to reach your customers by mail or phone. It provides you with precise data on sales and customer behavior and can, therefore, ensure more growth for your company. By 2024, most businesses should be using one of the tools available from the many vendors to keep up with the competition in terms of efficiency.