Top 5 Pieces Of Software That Will Really Improve Your Business

There’s an overwhelming amount of choice when it comes to business software - you can automate everything from your invoices to your emails. Choosing the right software is essential to increasing your productivity and optimising your business operations, but which ones are really going to make a difference?

Find out below the 5 most important pieces of software that will really improve your business:

HR software
Improving employee satisfaction is key to improving your business. Your employees are one of the most important parts of your business - if they’re happy then they’re going to do the best job possible.

You also need to be hiring the right staff and keeping them as your business grows. By improving staff retention you’ll have well-trained, experienced employees that can do a great job, and you’ll spend less time and money on recruitment.

Using HR software will allow you to streamline your recruitment process, manage your employees better and easily implement an employee retention plan. Bamboo HR is one of the most popular choices for HR software - it allows you to manage employee performance, time tracking, and payroll.

Helpdesk software
Almost all businesses are going to have to deal with customer questions and enquiries at some point. And it’s important to have a good system in place to help you deal with them efficiently. Helpdesk software will give you an overview of all your customer interactions, and provide the structure you need to offer better customer service without it taking up too much time.

One of the best choices for helpdesk software is Zendesk Support; it works on a ticket-based system, which allows you to track, prioritize and respond to customer messages. Importantly, you can also integrate surveys for customer satisfaction ratings, and review analytics to track your customer service performance.

Simply responding to customer messages isn’t enough to improve your business. You need to be keeping an eye on feedback and complaints, to monitor how your business is doing and how you can improve.

Accounting software
Managing finances is often a source of stress in a business. You need to keep a record of all your transactions, outgoings and bills, which can require a lot of paperwork and hours spent tracking down invoices.

However, a lot of the accounting process can actually be automated or simplified by using reliable accounting software. It will save you a lot of time, and ensure that no bills get overlooked.

There’s a lot of choice when it comes to accounting software, but one of the best options is Xero, which makes it easier to produce invoices, record bills, reconcile bank transactions and track expenses.

Social media management
Social media is a key marketing channel for businesses, but the key to successful social media marketing is consistency, which can take up a lot of time. Whether you’re using it to increase brand awareness, promote your products and services, or for customer support you need to stay on top of all your social media accounts, post regularly, and respond quickly.

There’s several different social media management apps, but look for one that will provide a dashboard where you can plan out and schedule your content, track mentions and responses, and monitor how your social media channels are doing.

To see real improvements from your marketing efforts, make sure you’re also keeping up to date with the latest marketing trends and strategies. Start reading blogs and listening to marketing podcasts from marketing experts, which cover industry insights and news. 

Project management software
If you’re trying to monitor your projects manually it’s easy to drop the ball - things get missed off or overlooked. Effective project management ensures that you can get work done within budget and on time, without wasting resources.

As a business grows it’s important that you have the proper structure and procedures in place to manage both internal and external projects. The best project management software will help coordinate projects, breaking them down into manageable tasks and assigning them to different people so that you’re always working efficiently.

While there’s a lot of other software and tools out there designed to optimise and streamline your work processes, these are the five most essential pieces of software you should be using to improve your business.