Unless you’re already operating a mega-corporation, chances are you’re working with limited resources. Especially in a time where profit margins seem thinner than ever, it’s important to bolster your workflow with smarter expenses. Take a step back and assess how your business capital would be best spent.

Do you need to invest in production services to create more creative rich media? Does your customer service department need additional tools? Or, if you’re in the hospitality business, do you have all the restaurant equipment you need to run smoothly? Here’s how to better utilize your capital.

Prioritize the customer experience.

Whether you’re running a virtual call center or you have a traditional contact center model, it’s important to put your clients and customers first. In a time where a call center solution is more important than ever, how do you expend money to give callers a better experience? Often, this starts with the right virtual call center platform or call center software. When you’re choosing a live call or chat platform, you need to keep your technicians in mind. It’s also ideal if you can find a virtual call center program that works across multiple communication channels, like social media.

If you want the biggest ROI, find a call center solution that can handle IVR, CRM integration, call recording, routing for outbound calls and inbound calls, and other advanced features. These can make workforce management that much simpler. Not only will it benefit those reaching out to your call center but it will benefit supervisors and your service team as well. With the right phone system, your call center agents are primed to offer high-quality service to every caller.

Video production is a worthy investment.

If you’ve ever tried to incorporate visual effects, color correction, or closed captions while working against tight deadlines, you know it can be troublesome. For some small businesses, video production isn’t an easily attainable reality. If you’re trying to develop rich video content, it’s good to find the right agent to handle your post production service.

This includes special effects, captions, and other additional features that can take your small business to the next level.

When you’re investing in video production services, it’s important to ask for additional information outside of what the sales team might tell you. For example, does the production company have their own production facility? What does the production process look like? How is quality control managed? While you may not be making feature films, the right tools can make an investment into video production a worthy expense.

Specialize your equipment.

Say, for instance, you’re a bakery, food truck, or restaurant owner. You have a vendor network, you’ve touched up customer interactions, and you think the premise of your eatery is primed for success. That’s when you realize that your current commercial kitchen setup isn’t primed for scalability. While you could simply go to the nearest restaurant supply store, it might not be the best option. For example, if you live in the city of Seattle, a Google search for “restaurant equipment Seattle” could help you find well-reviewed restaurant supply outlets that have high customer satisfaction.

Even if you’re not in the market for glassware, small wares, or a refrigerator, it’s important that your on-premise solutions and equipment are of higher quality. Investing more now could save you from money spent on technical support and maintenance later.

Between investing in a virtual call center solution for your support team and developing smarter methods for customer connectivity, it might seem like your resources are heavily allocated. However, with the right use of your business capital, you’ll find that it’s easier to generate a strong ROI. It’s worth it over time.

By Eddy Z

Eddy is the editorial columnist in Business Fundas, and oversees partner relationships. He posts articles of partners on various topics related to strategy, marketing, supply chain, technology management, social media, e-business, finance, economics and operations management. The articles posted are copyrighted under a Creative Commons unported license 4.0. To contact him, please direct your emails to [email protected].