Slack IPO, QuickBooks Competition, and Chatbots - do you need one?
Slacking Off or Slacking On?
In the world of small businesses, a lot is going on these days. The biggest news this past week? The small business app, Slack, well-known for its innovation in workplace communication is going public. If you own a small business and want to keep up with the competition, you need to take notes.
During the week of February 10, Slack made the announcement that they had filed for an IPO. Slack is known for its multi-level communication capabilities and the innovation it has brought to the modern-day workplace. Headquartered out of San Francisco, California, Slack boasts 10 million active users and over 3 million of which hold paid accounts.
At the beginning of its time, many people doubted Slack would ever be able to hold up to the fierce competition of big names like Microsoft, Apple, and Facebook. After over five years of hard work, however, they have made quite the name for themselves and are preparing for the public sector.
Small businesses should take note of the success Slack has achieved over such a short period, because it shows that making an investment in your business, your business technology, and your business methods truly pay off. Moreover, if a startup is as hardworking and dedicated to growth as Slack, they might make it big someday.
FreshBooks Offers a New Way To Manage Your Business Financials
Everyone is familiar with Quickbooks as a way of managing small business accounting. Likewise, businesses who are keen on using the cloud are undoubtedly familiar with Freshbooks. Up until very recently, however, Freshbooks lacked many capabilities that made cloud-based small business accounting manageable. In early February, Freshbooks announced the launch of more capabilities that will take the services it offers to small businesses to the next level. These services include a Chart of Accounts, General Ledger, Accountant Access, Bank Reconciliation, and other exciting features.
For small businesses, the announcement of these additional features to FreshBooks is quite a big deal. They not only make it possible for small business owners to do a great deal of their accounting (if not all of it) through the cloud but also allow small businesses access to an affordable option for keeping their finances on track.
Users of FreshBooks are already raving about the extended capabilities of the program and the opportunities it affords their businesses. Judging by the progress, FreshBooks has made recently; it is also likely that even more features will be added in the near future to make it more effective and accessible than ever.
As a small business, if you do not have an accounting application as part of your suite of tools, there is no better time to get on board with something new than now. So it seems like FreshBooks is likely a good choice.
https://support.freshbooks.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000030828-2018-Recent-Updates-to-FreshBooks
Chatbots Can Improve Your Customer Service Experience - Do You Need One?
If you've wandered through the internet lately checking out your favorite web pages and top competition, it is likely you've noticed a new trend popping up - chatbots. Chatbots are automated messaging systems used to simulate a real conversation between a company and user. Chatbots can handle small tasks, automate processes, and provide prompt service to online users.
For small businesses or growing startups, chatbots can be an answer to their pertinent customer service needs. As small businesses scale, it can be difficult for them to hire enough workforce to keep up with customer service requests. Order returns, general inquiries, and problem-solving take much time and, therefore, money. Unfortunately, hiring people and providing benefits is exceptionally costly.
Enter, chatbots. Chatbots can take care of a bulk of small customer service tasks, and direct consumers to the correct human customer service representative if the issue qualifies. Furthermore, chatbots can answer questions and provide service in many situations more promptly than a human customer service representative. This factor helps to improve customer satisfaction across all levels of the business.
In addition to providing excellent customer service, chatbots can also add valuable opportunities for customer engagement. If chatbots aren't engaged to help solve an issue, they can suggest trying a new product, leaving a customer review, or signing up for an email newsletter from the company.
Businesses that plan on growing their customer base within the next year should seriously consider adding a chatbot to their team. Although the purchase of chatbot technology can be costly, it is a valuable investment for the business that will prove its worth both quickly and over time.
SOURCE: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/323622
https://www.coredna.com/blogs/chatbot-improve-customer-experience