The age-old question in business is should you split the profits after a job well done, or should you reinvest that money, strengthening the business? Although it’s always tempting to give yourself a nice big bonus at the end of the month, it could be to the detriment of your company in the long run. If you have a long-term business plan in place, these are the top three areas you should look to reinvest that hard-earned cash.
- Social media
The sheer power of social media as a marketing tool cannot be underestimated. With just a few clicks, you can reach a global audience and far more customers than some simple fliers or business cards ever would. It’s without a doubt the fastest way to build your brand, as well as the best way to respond to customer issues. People are far more likely to reach out to you via channels they feel more comfortable with, and it’s a well-established idea amongst the public that they’ll get a much faster response. Whether it’s allocating a specific member or staff to this task, or a whole team depending on the size of your business, it’s well worth the investment.
- Better delivery services
Speaking of customer service, it can also be improved by investing your profits in a stronger, more reliable delivery service. On the one hand, consider your direct-to-consumer deliveries – do you often get complaints of slow delivery or damaged parcels? Despite this being out of your hands, it’s your company who will get the blame, and you cannot afford for negative feedback to spread like wildfire. Then think about your warehouse and pallet deliveries; incompetency here could affect high street deliveries and contracts with larger clients if stock is late in arrival. Investing in a specialised pallet courier could cut out a lot of the negative comments you’re receiving, boosting consumer satisfaction.
- Employee satisfaction
Customer satisfaction may be top of your list right now, but employee happiness should be valued even higher. It’s absolutely essential that you offer them regular training or their customer service standards will drop purely out of ignorance. Personal development and career opportunities are also important if you want to build a reputation as somewhere people want to work, rather than seeing you as just a stop-gap to a better company. Invest in training programmes, but also team building exercises and outings so that you can build relationships with your workforce. Next on the list should be buying them better equipment and software packages so that they can do provide a much better quality of work, and giving them a boost with a more enjoyable working environment, from colourful breakout areas to ergonomic chairs and desks.
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