Pest Management Professional, September 2012

marketing matters Maximize technology to grow your business T he advent and use of new Harvey F Goldglantz technology mobile technology in particular is having a significant impact on the way pest management professionals PMPs conduct business But many small to medium sized pest management companies wait too long to incorporate these advances into their business models How long did it take you to launch a professionally designed website How long until you accepted that an active Facebook page and Twitter account are integral business tools How much time elapsed before you started posting to your blog on a regular basis How long before you realized that outsourcing search engine optimization SEO could pay for itself many times over Have you finally integrated pay per click PPC ads into your overall Internet marketing program or are you still relying exclusively on SEO Have you converted to handhelds or are you tied to an antiquated paper system Are you using broadcast emails to alert your existing customers of add on services and new programs Are you staying in touch with customers via enewsletters Is your website designed to accept payments online These technological advances help businesses grow and profit Are you fully leveraging each of them Lets take a look at a few key ways technology can help grow your business and bottom line Mobile technology can improve the services you offer customers When meeting with clients you now can access your firms customer relationship management CRM system online This allows you to update account details while away from the traditional office Customers can pay for services or goods without having to write checks or swipe credit cards Powerful solutions can link directly to your office network allowing remote access to resources such as your database and accounting systems You can access your office wherever you are emails faxes files reports contacts and much more Theres no reason to tell customers you didnt receive their emails voicemails or faxes because you were out of the office Take your office with you by leveraging mobile technology Your CRM system can help increase sales to current customers and learn a great deal more about each of them based on each interaction they have with your organization When a customer buys from you chats with a sales rep or has a complaint relating to service a CRM system can help you capture store mine and better leverage this powerful information A Voice over Internet Protocol VoIP system is another way of making phone calls with the difference of making calls cheaper if not completely free Traditional phones arent always available because we now can communicate electronically VoIP replaces most phone hardware with a software running server VoIP software solutions provide many features and countless configurations unavailable with most standard phone systems There are many commercial grade VoIP software solutions available with costs ranging from free to thousands of dollars You can convert a small office to full VoIP by using an existing server and save hundreds of dollars each month QR Codes are two dimensional barcodes that can hold thousands of characters of information Their ease of use and ability to hold great quantities of information make them practical for small businesses When you scan or read a QR code with Continued on page 106 www mypmp net Pest Management Professional September 2012 105