Every so often we’re reminded how important business optics truly are. You would think that every business in the world has a knack for keeping up to date with the best in practice regarding their own industry.

Yet many small businesses innovate only in certain ways. To research, fund and create the best products and services they can is at the top of the list. But when it comes to other areas, they’re either lackluster or simply ignored because they’re no foreseeable benefit to improving and update that part.

Pretty soon this virus of inaction and mediocre response to niggling problems makes you look like the old geezer. To the world of consumers from different backgrounds and tastes, you’re the business that’s sat in the corner talking about how it was back in your day.

So here’s how not to look old and drained as a budding enterprise.

Cybersecurity

Imagine if you were a customer who had been asked to dispense their personal information to the company they are a big fan of. You’re willing to do this because you enjoy what they offer so you hand over your contact details, name and answer a few questions about preferences.

One day you cannot log into your account with the company, and you’re worried your personal information might have been stolen and or sold off. Do you really think you’ll recover from the bad taste this leaves in your mouth?

Chances are very slim of that happening. So as a business, do not ever skimp on a tried and test cybersecurity service and or software. Always keep your security up to date with the latest patches to keep one step ahead of hackers and malicious software.

The black hole

In terms of the percentage, the amount of customers that will ever contact your business is quite small. Many people just can’t be bothered to chase up a problem and will choose to wait around and let you deal with it.

Other times, they’ll happily send you an angry email and or text message. There’s the crux of the matter though; many businesses cannot receive text messages. They still live in the world of emails and phone calls.

Nothing wrong with that as expanding the list of options but they shouldn’t be primary methods anymore. They send consumers off into the black hole of miscommunication. Their time is wasted for the most part as they’re stuck in queues listening to some awful generic jazz music.

Instead, you can make your landline accept business texting. This means that customers can send texts to the landline and these messages will go straight to your email. You’ll have full control over this as you can store them all in an archive, respond to them in real time, take on more inquiries at any given time.

The ‘back in my day’ approach won’t cut the mustard. You can innovate in the most important areas such as research and development, but you can’t expect customers to just buy your products and then shut up. Give them security and a quick and easy way to ask you questions and vent if they need to.