How To Manage Your Rising Startup Through Increasing Demand

The leadership involved in every startup has high aspirations — and high expectations to get there — but many are unprepared for what it takes to attain business success. And when your startup gets off the ground running, you’ll definitely need a clearly defined blueprint to define the roles and responsibilities involved with talent acquisition and retention, as well as customer engagement and automation. So how can you scale your new, fledgling enterprise as demand increases? Here’s a look at how your startup can grow along with its customer base.

Talent

At the end of the day, a business is only as good as the people who run it. While you are the visionary, those on the front line who operate the day-to-day functions ultimately dictate the small triumphs that propel the company forward. Talent is attracted to a clear mission and vision. With that in mind, share your long-term vision with potential employees and remind them regularly that the company is part of a new and exciting landscape. Another important aspect of talent retention is branding.

Many people are initially attracted to and work for companies in which they believe and trust. And because your brand is an image, so you need to build a company with a great mission and vision that excites both employees and customers alike. Hone your brand from Day 1, and don’t be afraid to hire those who were your original customers and fans.

Engage

As the head of a startup, one of the biggest hurdles you’ll initially need to overcome is converting sales. But how does your new, wet-behind-the-ears business convert potential customers into loyal patrons? First, identify your target customer base. Unless your business fills a universal need, you’ll need to narrow down your audience/customer base using segmentation analysis.

Once you have identified this cohort, find and target them by any means necessary. Many consumers who are looking for a particular product or service to solve their needs tend to frequent Facebook and Twitter as well as online meet-up groups to crowdsource what it is they’re trying to find out. To that end, you may want to hire business- and tech-savvy employees who can do some digging on a regular basis for your company in order to identify customers and prospects who could benefit from your line of products and/or services. But don’t simply just promote your business.

Instead, engage with consumers on a sincere level, and educate them about how your business can help meet their needs. While educational and how-to articles about your product or service can be beneficial, video content is often a more direct and engaging educational resource. Indeed, prospects are more likely to watch an educational video than read an article.

Automation

Of course, beyond identifying your potential customer base, your startup will also need to put steps in place to hit sales and operational goals on a consistent basis. Bottom line: Automation is essential in terms of scalability, and implementing a call center can and should offer much more than just traditional phone support.

Many cloud contact centers provide comprehensive workflow management solutions that track and monitor employees’ projects and progress. Through interactive voice response, customers are funneled to representatives best suited to answer the customer’s question.

Furthermore, all tickets are shared across the cloud contact center platform, so if a customer calls more than once and is funneled to a different representative, they don’t need to start the whole process over again.

Scale Physically

In today’s digital age, it’s not difficult to scale digitally in accordance with various business needs. However, physical office space may be needed. Scalable office space is less about the location and more about flexible seating.

For instance, you may want to consider outfitting your commercial office space with couches, armchairs, desks and office corners that can be moved and replaced rather easily with something new every so often. This sense of change will ultimately create freshness in your workplace.