Tag: Business growth

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News & updates

An introductory guide to customer success

What is customer success?

In a recent report, 80% of customers said that the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services, highlighting a maturing consumer mindset. Customer success occurs when your customers achieve their desired outcome through their interactions with your product. The strategy focuses on optimising the overall experience by proactively providing solutions and/or answers to any given situation that arises during the buy and delight phase. This premeditated approach sends all the right messages to customers, making them feel considered, nurtured and you guessed it, successful.

Why should busiesses invest in customer success?

Traditionally businesses have relied entirely on Sales and Marketing to head their growth strategy, which simply doesn’t cut it in today’s landscape. The focus, now, is pivoting to include the all-important customer. Customer acquisition is becoming increasingly challenging and expensive in today’s crowded markets, so adopting a strategy that focuses on keeping your current customers happy makes a lot of sense. While it is always important to find new prospects it’s even more important to nurture your current customer base. With this focus comes loyal customers, then brand ambassadors, and eventually entire communities. A foundation of loyal, happy customers drives repeat business, renewal and retention and minimises churn, ultimately improving your bottom line.  

How to create an optimised customer success strategy

How your customer success strategy looks will depend on three things:

  • Your customer’s needs 
  • Your product offering 
  • Your business resources 

Every strategy will need to leverage data gathered from consumers, an intuitive team to track and record consumer behaviour, and strong customer success software to collect and display the data for actionable insights. In larger organisations, you may choose to outsource or hire a customer success expert to drive the strategy and build a team to support the trajectory. For smaller, cash-conscious businesses creating a strategy may mean gathering a representative from each business function; product, sales and support to create a roadmap for customer success. 

Who is responsible for implementing customer success?

If you’re wondering whether you need a customer success strategy, the answer is probably yes. If you service customers then you should be looking into investing resources into creating a strategy that enables you, as a business, to partner with your customers. This working relationship will allow you to extract critical feedback and deliver on what the customer deems as most valuable. The task of creating, and maintaining this strategy lies with a Customer Success Manager (CSM) and their team. The CSM provides holistic leadership to the customer-facing team, while the team utilise their working relationships with customers to derive valuable, actionable feedback for the business.

No matter the size of your business, driving a customer success journey starts and ends with a customer-centric mentality, combined with a commitment to providing the best possible outcome using your product. 

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Design & technology

9 contactless services to hire

Here we are again, seeing the effects of COVID-19 all over the country. Over the past year, the majority of us have spent a lot more time at home, seeing our houses transform into offices, schools, restaurants, gyms and more. With this shift, some Aussie’s are using this time to learn new skills, indulge in some long-standing hobbies and tick off long-overdue tasks. And let’s not forget the healthy dose of TV streaming of course. To give you some inspiration on some projects to embark on, we’ve rounded up the top 9 service categories we’re seeing an increase in jobs being posted over the last couple of weeks. 

1. Web Design & Graphic Design

With this time spent at home, often with a lighter workload, many are turning their attention to their “side hustle”, or in the case of the self-employed, their online presence. Physical stores and services have had to rapidly up their internet ante, and many are now are taking the opportunity to turn their entrepreneurial dreams into a reality. 

Whether you want to spend this time giving your existing online business a makeover, a new logo or start a new brand from scratch – you can find a web design expert or graphic designer on Oneflare. 

2. SEO & SEM

While we’re on the “side hustle” bandwagon, don’t forget about the powerhouse that is your Google ranking. Improving your ranking can be a time consuming and complex process, which is often why it’s left in the “too hard basket”. Since many are now finding themselves with more time on their hands – you can always give it a go yourself, or alternatively, find yourself a pro. 

3. Fencing

Another one of those long-forgotten house projects – fencing. It’s no surprise Aussies are starting to focus on ensuring their homes are safe, secure and homely – because we’re all spending a lot more time there. Sort out your own fence now with one of our experts, or read up on how much it should cost you with our cost guide.

4. Accounting & Bookeeping

We’ve noticed that over the last few weeks, many small businesses owners have (finally) had the time to take stock of their suppliers and ask if it’s the best deal they can get. No matter what industry you’re in, keeping a close eye on your balance books is important now as ever. If getting your money matters in order has been on your to-do list for a while, now is the time to tick it off.

5. Courier

It’s not really a surprise to find ‘courier’ on this list, considering so many of us are social distancing and staying home as much as we can. With many stores shutting their physical presences, and online shopping on the rise – not to mention food delivery services – it’s no surprise many are offering no-contact services to pick up and deliver goods. Did you know you can find a courier on Oneflare? 

6. Roofing

One of the most popular categories over the last few weeks has been “roofing” jobs. Whether you need urgent repairs before the next downpour or have some regular maintenance or enhancements in mind, these jobs are completed entirely on the exterior of your home. That means, you can successfully limit contact to almost nothing. 

Find your own roofing expert today, or brush up on how much it should cost with our roofing cost guide.  

7. Gardening & Landscaping

If all this extra time spent at home has given you cause to examine the trees and gardens around your home in a bit more detail – you’re not alone. Landscaping, gardening and arborist are some of the hottest categories on Oneflare right now. If you can’t really venture out into the great outdoors, you may as well ensure your own slice of paradise is looking lush. 

8. Car Painting

While this might sit as a low priority in your regular life, now is the time to tick off those to-do list tasks that would otherwise fall by the wayside. In fact, we’ve seen searches for car painters increase over the last few weeks and with our car respray cost guide being one of our most popular cost guides at the moment. 

9. Interior Designer

Has all this extra time spent at home realised how much you can’t stand your wall colour? Or that you actually want to completely start again in the kitchen? The good news is – many interior designers are offering remote consulting, so you can start creating your dream home from the comfort of your couch. Go on, hop on Pinterest today and get those inspirations flowing! 

Are you feeling inspired to tick off your to-do list? Post a job today, or show us your home projects on Instagram. 

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Top tools

Direct Messaging

Customers can now directly message your business, without posting a job.

Receive high-intent enquiries directly in your Oneflare business inbox and start a conversation with your next customer today. This exciting new feature is free for businesses with an active subscription and at least one of the following plans:

Speak to us on 1300 441 593 for more information.

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How does Direct Messaging work? 

A ‘Message’ button now appears on every eligible businesses’ public business profile. Once selected, customers are presented with a simple form asking them for brief details about what they need done, as well as any photos that help describe the job. 

Upon confirming their contact details, the message is sent directly to your business inbox where you have the option to ‘accept’ or ‘decline’ the request at no extra cost. Once accepted, the customer’s contact details are revealed and you’re now able to continue the conversation.

Frequently asked questions

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News & updates

7 ways to create a professional brand image

Having a professional brand image is just as important as the service you provide. Why? It builds trust and credibility, which attracts more customers. Think about it this way – would you rather hire a cleaner in casual clothes or one that presents himself in a crisp, branded uniform?

Creating a professional brand image is not as difficult as you may think. This checklist will help you create a professional brand image!

1. Have a professionally designed logo

Your logo represents your brand, helps customers remember who you are and builds credibility. That’s why it’s extremely important to have it professionally designed. If you need a logo or need your current one updated, you can find graphic design experts ready to help on Oneflare.

2. Have a company uniform

A smart-looking shirt with your logo will make all the difference when customers meet you for the first time. It shows customers you are a legitimate business they can trust.

3. Have professional photos of your business

Customers always want to know who they’re hiring. Make sure all photos of your business are professional and not like one you uploaded from your phone. Need a photoshoot done? Find your local photographer on Oneflare.

4. Brand your vehicle

This one is really a no-brainer! Take advantage of free advertising by having your business name and logo clearly on your truck, van or ute, so it’s visible to everyone you drive by.

5. Have a business website

Customers turn to the internet to find what they need, so be right where they can find you! Being on Oneflare is a great start, but having your own unique website will help increase your professional image. Link your website to your Oneflare profile page so you can show off your reviews. Need help? Just give Customer Care a call!

6. Jump on social media

It’s free, easy to update and when you connect with customers, you increase customer loyalty. Show off your portfolio, answer customer enquiries and provide them with the latest information about your business. It’s the easiest way to be discovered by new customers too!

7. Promote your brand

Hand out business cards, fridge magnets or any other merchandise you may have. The more your brand is out there, the more likely customers will remember your business! You can find trusted printers on Oneflare.

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Design & technology

How SEO drives business growth

The 21st century has seen the world turn digital and thus so should your marketing efforts. Traditional print media is slowly becoming a thing of the past. Now, businesses can track the return of every dollar they spend through their marketing efforts through digital marketing.

Through digital marketing, businesses have access to a wide array of avenues to grow their online presence. Traditional-style online directories are a common starting point. However, more complex channels, including social media, pay per click (PPC) advertising and search engine optimisation (SEO) lead the way.

Through these marketing channels, businesses can drive targeted traffic to their websites. Thus, resources are spent as effectively as possible. Alongside PPC advertising, SEO is one of the most effective inbound marketing strategies that businesses utilise. In this article, you will learn what SEO is and how you can grow your business through this digital marketing strategy.

What is SEO?

The purpose of SEO is to be the first organic result on search engines. Thus, SEO is the set of practices that are employed to achieve that first place. Why is this important, though? Here are some facts:

  • Over 90% of all internet traffic starts from search engines – whether people are looking for information or buying a product
  • In terms of looking for products, over 81% of people turn to search engines as a starting point to perform their research
  • After conducting an online search for a local business, 72% of people will go ahead and visit the physical location

These are just some of the facts that outline why focusing on search engines is important. SEO is important, thanks to something known as the click-through rate (CTR). This is the percentage of people who visit your website after seeing your link.

On average, SEO has the highest CTR of any inbound digital marketing channel. Thus, you are driving targeted traffic to your website more efficiently than any other related channel, for example, Google Ads.

Website using SEO / Source: Nucleo Pty Ltd

How does SEO work?

There are three parties to think about when it comes to SEO ~ the user, the search engine and the website. We’ll explain how the relationship works between the three in the shortest way possible:

  1. The user enters a query into the search engine
  2. The search engine generates a list of relevant search results
  3. Websites at the top of those search results inherit traffic

For a site to show up at the top of search results, it must be correctly optimised, so that search engines can determine whether it’s the best fit for the query.

One of the easiest ways to make sure your website is correctly optimised is to engage in a marketing agency that performs SEO services. Otherwise, you can learn about SEO and go it alone.

How does SEO drive business growth?

Each month there could be tens, hundreds, thousands or millions of people searching for a product or information that you offer. For example, there could be 100 people who search for “lawyers in Sydney” on a monthly basis.

If your website is optimised to target the keyword and you’re the first to pop up in the search results, then you’re likely to inherit 30% of the traffic. That’s 30 people who are looking for lawyers coming to your website every month, and that’s just for one keyword.

Though in reality, websites compete for many variations of a keyword and many completely different keywords. Also, as the target visiting your website is targeted, it is much more likely that your visitors will become customers as well.

Contact local SEO & SEM experts

SEO FAQ’s

Those who are new to SEO – particularly if they’re looking to hire someone – often ask two main questions. We’ll cover them here for you.

What’s the difference between SEO and Google Ads?

Search engine optimisation focuses on ranking for organic search results and is thus commonly considered a long-term digital marketing strategy. Due to the nature of SEO, you would almost never run a three-month campaign. This is because things take longer to unfold in the SEO world.

By comparison, Google Ads is all about immediate results. Thus, you pay for clicks. In exchange, Google sends traffic to your website, and you hope to land a sale. With Google Ads, you can run a one-week or one-year (or longer) long campaign. It is both short- and long-term oriented.

There’s no one better strategy either if that’s your next question. If you can only have enough in your budget to engage in one of the two channels, then it’s entirely up to where you’re at as a business. If you have no existing source of income, then Google Ads may be the way to go for you. On the other hand, if your business already generates an income, you might prefer an exclusively long-term focus.

How long does it take to get to the first page?

Every case is different. It depends on your website and how competitive your market is. In general, though, it could take anywhere from six to twelve months to get to the first page of Google for a low- to mid-level competition keyword.

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News & updates

4 ways to get more reviews

For any business – operating online or offline – reviews are an integral part of acquiring new customers. Research shows that as many as 91% of consumers will read online reviews before making a purchase decision.

1. Add it to your signature

Sometimes it can be tough to remember to request reviews, you’re busy running a business! Think about high traffic places customers will see the request, somewhere you can easily link to reviews. Start with your email signature, and consider where else you might place it.

2. Use our Sync Accounts feature

Did you know on Oneflare you can sync your accounts to all appear in one place? Showing reviews across multiple sites (like Google and Facebook) helps boost your credibility and trust with potential customers. 

3. Use Word of Mouth (literally)

Reviews are an important part of any business’ marketing strategy, and its important to consider other avenues. Websites like Word of Mouth can be a great option for a quality small business looking to harness their good referrals. With over a million hits each month, Word of Mouth provides a platform where businesses can be promoted based on merit, and not how much they charge.

4. Simply ask!

If you’ve done a great job, most people are more than happy to leave a review – but sometimes they’ll need a reminder. Think about your timing when asking for a review, consider if you’ve completed the job yet, and whether you’ve developed a good relationship with the customer.

You could consider setting up an automated email after the final invoice is paid asking for a review, or manually sending a request every few months to recent customers. For those starting out, consider asking any friends or family who you’ve performed a service for to write you a review to get the ball rolling.

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News & updates

4 ways to grow your margins through automation

Staying ahead of the curve for trade companies is notoriously tricky. The number of moving pieces involved in carrying out a job means that from the initial job request through to invoicing there are thousands of points where a job can go south.

The sheer scale of staying across every single facet of two or three jobs, let alone 20 or 30, is a task that nobody can or should be expected to complete flawlessly. In a lot of cases, there’s a sense that trade businesses are too much trouble past a certain point.

Over the past five years, however, we’ve seen trade companies start to emerge from piles of paperwork and mountains of debt by automating repetitive tasks and adopting smarter organisational tactics.

To spread the good word and help our tradie mates out, we’ve put together a list of tactics we’ve seen take trade companies from ditches to riches.

1. Accounting software

In the early days of running a trades business, there can be a tendency to want to learn how to do everything yourself. It, however, often a much better use of your time to hire a bookkeeper to look after your accounts for you.

To support this, it’s invariably in your best interests to move your books onto accounting software like Xero. Xero is a simple way of staying across all of your financials in a straightforward interface that both you and your bookkeeper can access remotely. Among other smarts, Xero can read photos of all your rogue receipts and turn them into expenses in your dashboard, easily create financial reports, and track inventory.

2. Online Price Books

Flicking through 20kg supplier price books all day is enough exercise to cripple the heftiest of footy players let alone a wee office manager. So put down the deep heat and pick up a job management software solution that does the heavy lifting for you with online price books. Online price books are the new kid on the trade block: they allow you to significantly reduce time spent on manual data entry by saving supplier price book files and auto-populating materials with their respective costs when you’re building quotes and estimates.

3. Just in time stock control

It’s often the little expenses that eat away at trade and service business profits, so it’s pivotal to make sure as little falls through the cracks as possible. Just in time stock control is a framework employed by some of the world’s most successful manufacturers to help with loss mitigation and cash forecasting. This is a methodology for managing materials costs. It requires you only to buy the materials that you need when you need them so that you’re never left with expenses that won’t ultimately be covered by the customer. Here’s how to do it:

  • Quote exclusively what you purchase: Quote with surgical precision and make sure that all the materials you’ll need will be accounted for.
  • Order what you quote: Only purchase the materials required to complete a job.
  • Charge what you buy: If you’ve purchased materials for a job that you know you need to complete the job, make sure you charge them to the job.
  • Control what you buy: Be disciplined in buying (or instructing your team to buy) the correct amounts of materials that have been included in quotes. An easy way to do this is to use the quote as a shopping list.

For many companies, it’s not as easy as going to the supplier a few times a day for materials specific to a job (and moreover, that would be inefficient). If you’re miles away from the nearest supplier, plan and buy all the materials you need for several jobs at once.

4. Digital job card apps

If you run a trade business and you’re just hearing about job card apps now, it’d pay to take a seat as you might get a little light headed when you realise how much time, money and stress you could save by adopting this system. Within job card apps office managers, project managers and tradespeople alike can make real-time updates to job briefs. Whether you’re rescheduling a job, adding hazards, changing an address, scheduling a second job or adding photos/notes – the job card is your oyster. The benefits here speak for themselves; it’s a game changer.

All things considered

Trade and service businesses aren’t an easy game, and things will always go wrong, but it’s on business owners to create a business structure that eases the pressures on their employees and minimises room for error and ultimately grows their margin. There are plenty of ways to do this, but they won’t come knocking at your door, so it’s best to think creatively and be resourceful to find solutions to suit your business.

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Top tools

Auto quoting

Auto quoting

We’ve streamlined the quoting process to give you back time.

Auto quoting sends quotes on your behalf when a lead, matching your preferred job criteria, is posted by a customer. Filling your calendar fast with the work you want has never been easier!

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Simply set your service areas, service types and daily budget, and we’ll do the rest. Auto quoting is here to take the hassle out of quoting so you can spend more time focusing on what you do best.

Benefits of auto quoting for your business

  • Cap your daily spend
  • Block out dates that don’t suit or take a break
  • Be one of the first quotes to land in a customer’s inbox

What do our businesses think?

“For us, [auto quoting] has been a godsend! Most of the leads we close, we speak to in the first 5-10 minutes of auto quoting. Knowing that we no longer have to manually sort, manage and respond to every single lead as it comes through to our dashboard is making our sales operations a lot faster and smoother.”

– Eden from Accentuate Web Design & Marketing

Frequently asked questions

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Top tools

Sync accounts

Sync accounts

We’ve re-invented how you collect and manage online reviews.

Sync your ratings and reviews from your Facebook and Google accounts directly to your Oneflare public profile to boost your credibility and increase your chances of winning work.

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Sync your external accounts to grow your total number of reviews, increase your average rating and improve your search ranking in just a few minutes. Then, centrally manage and respond to your reviews all from within our mobile app.

Benefits of sync accounts for your business

  • Never miss a review
  • Increase your win work rate
  • Control your online reputation all in one place
  • Sync your ratings and reviews from your Facebook, Google and Word of Mouth accounts directly

Frequently asked questions

Categories
News & updates

3 ways to progress your business career

Whether you’re running your own business or working in a role for an organisation, there are a few things you can pay attention to, ensuring you’re on the path to continual progression. The number of small businesses in Australia is growing; according to ABS data, there were 1.2 million sole-trader businesses in Australia in June last year, up 32,000 over the previous two years.

According to social commentator, Bernard Salt, “The bottom line is that business activity is blossoming across suburban Australia where a nation of tradies, professionals and shopkeepers is building and servicing whole new communities.”

If you’re a business person, it’s sometimes tempting to put your own needs last as you focus on your business’ goals. This is rarely a good idea. Here are three strategies you can employ to progress your business career and keep continual improvement on your radar.

#1: Check your mental health

Mental health in the workplace is a continuing growth focus for many sectors of government. An employee or worker who looks after their mental health takes fewer sick days, is more productive and has a greater impact on happiness and stability.

According to the Human Rights Commission, a total of 3.2 days per worker are lost each year through workplace stress and stress-related workers’ compensation claims have doubled in recent years, costing over $10 billion each year. It quite literally pays to keep your mental health in check.

At work, you should be on the lookout to identify possible workplace practices, actions or incidents which may cause, or contribute to mental illness and stress, and then you need to take actions to eliminate or minimise these risks. Take frequent breaks from work, speak to a medical professional if you feel your mental health could be improved; and reach out even if you feel the issue you are experiencing is minor.

Organisations like Headspace have now begun to offer programs specifically tailored to people who are at work, and might feel too stretched to concentrate on their mental health. Simply, employers are obligated by law to provide a safe and healthy workplace, and this organisation provides a helpful list for employers and employees to offer simple strategies that can be incorporated daily to make the lives of workers more safe, satisfying and secure.

#2: Look after your fitness

One sure-fire way to keep your health in check is to look after your physical fitness. Often, the more absorbed we become in a business role, the more we might ignore the basics of our own physical health.

The ABS recently reported that up to 2015, a staggering 63.4% of Australian adults were overweight or obese, well over half of our nation’s population. That’s almost two in three adults. Look after your fitness and make a focus on good health as part of your daily regime. This not only promotes physical health, but mental wellbeing as well.

A recent study by Harvard looked at circadian rhythms in the workplace. Often, or natural life’s rhythms are ‘out of sync’ with our working lives, adding to stress and bad habits at work, that can translate to other areas of our lives and affecting our general fitness. The study concluded that, “Managers who want to maximise their employees’ performance should consider this circadian rhythm when setting assignments, deadlines, and expectations,” according to Harvard Business Review.

“This requires taking a realistic view of human energy regulation, and appreciating the fact that the same employee will be more effective at some times of the day than others.”

Take your lunchbreaks and don’t eat at your desk. Plan to leave ‘on time’ most nights of the week and avoid unnecessary overtime. Take holidays and spend intervals in nature. Make exercise part of your life and follow the national guidelines on consumption of fruits and vegetables. Concentrating on your all-round health will make you a better, more efficient business worker in the long run.

#3: Enjoy the flexibility of continual learning

The business landscape in Australia has never been more fast-paced. Continuous improvement is now part of most business courses as goalposts and KPIs become more fluid. Aiming to constantly improve your skillsets will future-proof your career, whether you run your own business, or work in someone else’s.

A benefit of the digital age, now there are so many avenues available to continue your learning while on-the-go. Many online courses can be studied from anywhere you have an internet connection, and flexible start dates and work-at-your-own-pace formats are now increasingly common and accessible.

Online providers such as Upskilled offer dozens of courses in key areas such as business, information technology, accounting and finance, human resources and project management. Many of these courses can be completed at your own pace, so you can take them as slowly or as quickly as you have time for, structuring your learning around your other commitments. Check out Upskilled’s range of nearly 100 courses in areas as diverse as technology sustainability; leadership and management; and social media marketing.

Progress and protect your future

By employing the three strategies above, people working in business can make the most of the time they have to think about their futures in the industry. Look after your mental health, keep a focus on your fitness and aim to learn new skills via flexible learning.

Success is never guaranteed in all ventures but personal success can take on many forms. There is a quote that says, ‘Success is where preparation and opportunity meet’. Learn to put yourself and your needs at the top of your to-do list and gain the satisfaction of a job well done, whatever type of business you work in. Start today and future proof your career by focusing on both your goals and growth.