Morning Brew - Small and Medium Business Edition

Good morning! This month, we're talking about what's going on with technology for small businesses.

One thing on the mind of small and medium businesses (SMB) right now is the measures they should take to prepare for the possibility that we experience a recession. These measures include weekly check-ins on their cash flow, finding ways to cut costs, refocusing on their most popular products rather than expanding, and applying for financing.

To manage their cash flow, SMBs use ledger management software, an electronic record that contains all of a company's financial transactions, including purchases, sales, payments, and receipts. Popular software includes Quickbooks and GnuCash. There are also applications provided by many banks that can help small business owners understand their cash flow better.

It's not always possible to have predictable expenses in a small business. But whenever SMB owners can know what they have to pay, they can better anticipate their cash flow needs and plan for unexpected expenses. This allows them to make informed decisions about investments, expansions, and other business opportunities. Therefore, when selecting services, SMBs will prefer those who help reduce surprises on their bill.

For small banks, consulting firms, and service-based businesses, personal and reliable communication with customers is critical. First, they need tools that support a Customer Communication Management (CCM) strategy for the creation, delivery, storage, and retrieval of communications. Secondly, they need tools that allow them to communicate with their customers on the channels they prefer, calls, SMS, and social messaging, and more.

The perfect tool will let businesses efficiently manage communications across these channels in a unified way. It will also ensure that the tool is easy-to-use for the frontline communication team; they shouldn't have to learn a complicated interface or multiple applications to manage their communications with customers. Being able to use the tool seamlessly from desktop and smartphone is also important in an increasingly mobile or remote workforce.

71% of customers prefer personalized interactions. Personalized interactions are also a major driver of revenue, resulting in as much as a 10 to 15 percent revenue lift. Personalized interactions include knowing what products and services are relevant to the customer, tailored messages, knowing their tastes, offering something "just for them", celebrating milestones, and timely communications.

To garner customer loyalty, successful companies are using data and analytics to uncover opportunities for personalization and investing in tools powered by advanced analytics to respond quickly to customer signals. They're adopting an agile operating model and using cross-functional teams to deliver personalization at scale. They're also hiring talent and training to develop the skills necessary to support personalization initiatives.

MultiLine by Movius offers an excellent solution for SMB because it offers a two numbers, one phone solution. It deploys in a way that is absolutely respectful of employees. Privacy and security are built-in and employees can configure their business schedule so that they only receive business communications when they are working. There is no learning curve, because the app is built to mimic typical call and message applications that people are already familiar with. All their work communications will be accessible in the MultiLine app, separate from any personal communications on the phone.

The SMB manages their fleet of numbers from a simple web portal, where they can apply any desired communication policies, and assign and reassign numbers with ease. They can easily view their organization-wide data and cellular minutes usage in the portal and prepare for how much they'll be spending on communications. SMBs that provide or plan to provide employees a separate business phone can cut costs with the app-based approach. While cutting costs, they can provide their frontline employees a tool that improves their customer service and expands the communication channels available to customers.

Thank you for reading this issue of?Morning Brew. If it gets you thinking, please like and share! Learn more about Movius products or schedule a demo at?https://www.movius.ai.

Author: Melanie Allen, Product Marketing Content Writer

#smallbusiness #SMB #smallbusinessweek #communications #technology