We’re all feeling the inflation pinch—although, if we’re being honest, sometimes there’s more inflation pressure than just a pinch. In a lot of ways, inflation is toughest on small businesses who are just coming out of the pandemic. On the one hand it’s getting more and more expensive to run a small business, while on the other hand customers are more reluctant to spend. Fortunately, cloud-based solutions can solve both these issues. Customer habits have changed. Inflation has driven customers to be more cost conscious than ever, and shopping online is a smart and easy way to compare costs. More and more customers want to shop and communicate digitally and to feel secure doing so. Here are some cloud-based solutions that can save you money.
Cloud Adoption
Customers want to do everything digitally. Whether it’s shopping from their phone, communicating via chat, staying in touch with a newsletter, or even attending appointments remotely, there’s never been a greater demand on the part of customers who want their interactions to be primarily digital. Customers are doing everything else digitally too, including price comparing, budgeting, and banking. Digital tools are helping customers deal with inflation, so it makes sense for businesses to adopt cloud-based tools too. Any app you can think of can be run more easily on the cloud instead of locally, so it’s time to migrate to the cloud.
Cloud-First Strategy
Your small business probably needs a phone system, email system, website, messaging app, software to monitor all your digital stuff, devices to make the whole thing run smoothly, and maybe more. Well, nearly all that stuff can live entirely on the cloud or work with cloud-based technology. There’s no reason for your business not to be cloud-first. When you’re cloud-first, scaling is easy, adding or taking away digital products or services is easy, and bundling services to save money is easy.
Partner With a Good Service Provider
Some service providers offer a set package of services—and that’s it. Alternatively, good service providers will work with you to build your own solution. A hosted private branch exchange (HPBX) can offer you all kinds of different tools depending on what you need for your business. For some businesses, “Find Me”, “Follow Me” is an essential feature, as it lets callers reach someone who may be away from their desk. For others, it’s a feature that goes unused. A good provider will tailor their services to your needs.
Flexible Payment Terms
Here’s the thing about tailoring services: you can save money along the way. Be sure to look for a provider who offers flexible payment terms based on what you actually use. Another advantage of a good provider is that your tailored cloud solution will undoubtedly be cheaper than an off-the-shelf solution, which mixes tools you need every day with tools you will likely never use.
Collaborative Solutions
Your business is growing. Your remote workers need support. That means you need a partner who offers collaborative solutions that will help you scale your business while saving you money along the way. Your capital expenditure doesn’t have to be huge just because the cost of business has gone up. Instead, get an inexpensive cloud-based solution full of tools you actually use, from a partner willing to work with you for your best business results.
