Owning and running a small business can be tricky at times. Not only do you have to ensure that your customers are happy, you have to keep your business running smoothly and efficiently. And this is why you should look into the benefits of outsourcing your business processes.

You can choose to outsource processes such as customer service, IT maintenance, and even data capturing. Outsourcing companies provide highly-skilled professionals to help provide customer satisfaction as well as other BPO services.

If you are wondering why businesses must outsource their call centre, there are a number of reasons. One of the benefits of outsourcing call centre services is that your customer service levels will be maintained without your staff having to drop everything to answer a phone call or an email.

There are numerous ways to streamline your business, however, so keep reading for some top tips on making your business a success.

Related: 5 Things Small Businesses Should Do To Make It Big In South Africa

Outsource some business services

Outsourcing your customer service is a sure-fire way to ensure that your customers are kept happy and that their queries are answered quickly, efficiently and accurately.

If your staff have to continuously drop what they are doing because you are inundated with phone calls, then both customer service levels will drop as will their productivity.

Having everything done in-house can also put you at risk of opportunity and productivity cost, which means that you need to move someone away from their usual role in order for them to focus on something else.

It is important to recognise when you should outsource certain processes as this can help you to manage your employees’ time and productivity levels. You can also ensure that administrative processes are performed correctly.

Consider the Cloud

If you are a business that operates online and uses computers, in order to streamline for success, you should look into using the Cloud for storing data and information. You can choose from options such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and others.

Sharing documents easily online will ensure that there is no miscommunication between colleagues on projects.

There are options to scale your cloud to your business size as well as stringent data and information protection acts in place. This means that all the data you store on here will be safe from prying eyes.

You can create an organised and efficient structure with the cloud, even allowing your employees to work remotely on days that they need to. For small businesses, staying on top of technological trends is the way for the future.

Related: In-House Versus Outsourcing: How To Decide What Is Right For You

Think about time tracking

Now, you might not think that tracking time is that important. After all, you are a small business and want to focus on building your client base and brand awareness. But, if you have no idea as to what your time is spent on, you cannot streamline your business and remove processes that are time-consuming and costly.

You will also have a better idea of how much time goes into each client project, allowing you to provide accurate quotes to your clients. Many time-tracking software options or apps offer detailed reports on how time is spent, so you can find broken processes and fix them or eliminate them altogether.

Be sure to remind your employees that this is not a way to overtly monitor them and their time keeping but a way to become more efficient and cost-effective as a company.

Go paperless

Going paperless can save time, money and effort for a small business. Instead of having to print out memos and distribute them to your employees, you can send out an email to them and put in a “read receipt” option. This way you can ensure that everyone has read the email and it is not simply piling up with the other paperwork on their desks.

Related: 4 Top Tips For Outsourcing Your Customer Support

By using the Cloud, you are already one step closer to going paperless, which means that other areas of your business should also be paperless.

For example, you could assign Cloud folders to your clients so that they have easy access to the work you are doing for them or so that you can send them important documents and invoices for projects. Going paperless will also save you money on printing and copying costs.

Time management is key

Managing your time is the number one key to success as a small business. You can do this by outsourcing your business processes that might be taking too much time away from important processes.

You can consider using the Cloud and time tracking software to streamline services and try going paperless to save on time and money.

Related: 6 Free Courses That Can Help You Become A Successful Entrepreneur