We’ve arrived at the final installment of the Future-Proofing Your Business series. Stay with us one last time to learn tips on how you can ensure your online business’s longevity. With more than 3,000 onboarded merchants and a team of business-focused professionals, rest assured that ChatGenie will be giving you sound advice to elevate your online business.

Today’s article highlights tips on increasing your productivity, some of which were shared by ChatGenie team members who, as business owners themselves, know a thing or two about getting things done in an orderly fashion.

Let’s get right to it!

Create a Routine

Having an established way of doing things helps business owners stay organized and focused on accomplishing tasks one at a time.

For this reason, it’s a must to maintain regular business hours. It’s up to you to decide what hours of the day you want to be operational but what’s important is that your schedule meets both your needs and those of your clients.

During your operational hours, it’s advisable that you follow a schedule and finish tasks in a routinary manner. You may want to check your email and Viber group chats first before making sales calls. When you’re just about ready to call it a day, take a moment to find out what you have lined up for the next work day so you won’t be taken by surprise by upcoming activities.

Our Community Manager, Khaye Hojas recommends using Google Calendar to plot activities and see what you have coming up. Google Calendar sends a reminder about upcoming activities so users won’t have to worry about neglected tasks. You’ll be prompted to get them done and tick items off your to-do list.

Plan Ahead of Time

Part of sticking to a schedule is planning what needs to be done. It’s important to note, however, that planning isn’t just about addressing the whats, but also the whens, hows, and whys. It’s about mapping out your tasks and figuring out the best timeframe and corresponding course of action.

For maximum productivity, you may want to create a business plan. You could also define your short- and long-term goals. A solid plan coupled with a realistic schedule makes your business goals seem more achievable as you can see what baby steps need to be taken towards accomplishing your goals. Having the foresight to plan ahead of time also allows you to predict future problems and craft contingencies for them. In addition, a carefully crafted plan puts every member of the team on the same page, erasing confusion surrounding things such as target dates of completion and responsibilities.

Here’s a tip from Lerizze Dizon, our Senior Business Development Manager: Set an agenda for the day and take it one step at a time. She suggests ranking tasks by priority to avoid that overwhelming feeling of being swamped by tasks.

Embrace Automation

As a software-as-a-service company, automation is our bread and butter. Automating manual procedures is something that our team of experts, led by software developers, can help you out with.

By adopting our multi-channel commerce platform, you can say goodbye to common admin tasks like taking orders, managing inventory, collecting payments, booking deliveries, processing refunds and keeping track of sales. All these are automated within ChatGenie!

You no longer have to track orders across different sheets and update your customer one by one about their order status as the order tracker feature in our all-in-one Dashboard is designed to help merchants manage incoming and outgoing orders. The integration of credible payment options allows for flexible payment while the addition of shipping partners ensures a smoother delivery process.

Sales are also easily trackable with ChatGenie. The ChatGenie dashboard shows how much sales you were able to generate at the end of the day. Sales from last week, the past month, and even as far back as three to six months ago can be traced with ChatGenie, giving merchants a holistic view of their performance.

You’re also notified of low inventory products so you know which items you need to stock up on.

What a lifesaver, right? ChatGenie takes the hard work out of running a business so merchants like you no longer have to worry about handling repetitive tasks. This frees up your schedule to take on more important tasks like closing deals or following up on leads.

To quote Lerizze:

Don't sweat the small stuff! The goal is to keep improving the customer experience and increase loyalty. Automation is vital to make things seamless for both you and your customers, she said.

‍

Increase your productivity now! Sign up for a FREE ChatGenie subscription to start selling inside Facebook Messenger. More perks await when you upgrade to either a STARTER or PREMIUM plan!

If you have any concerns, don’t hesitate to send us a message via Submit a request – ChatGenie.

‍