Here are the top three answers from last month’s, Around the Table Question: “How can your company become more high-tech while remaining high touch?” 

One:

“We pride ourselves on the use of technology. We use Salesforce as our CRM. We’ve integrated it with Constant Contact are planning to integrate it with our phones in the near future.

We count how many times we touch our customers: newsletters, phone calls, event invitations and attending events.

We’re in the process of updating our logo and redoing our website. There are many new ways we can and should utilize our website, for example we’re thinking of installing a personalized dashboard to show customers the progress on their projects.

Personally, we are extremely hands-on with our customers. We know if you aren’t, you’ll lose them. Then it’s just a sale, not a relationship.

We use hand-written thank you notes. It’s Girl Scout cookie season. So we bought a bunch of boxes and passed them out to our customers with thank you notes.”

Two:

“We’re looking at investing in capital equipment now. People think that when we invest in automated equipment, we will reduce people. In reality, it’s not that way. What it does is change the type of person we hire. We need a different kind of employee, one who can use technology. It’s hard to find people who have the soft skills that also fill the technology bill.

In terms of high touch, the technology we use actually improves the connection with customers. We can respond instantly, no more waiting on snail mail.

We have several buildings within our company complex; we used to have to trot across the plant to see what was happening in the different buildings. Now we text and can get answers immediately.”

Three:

“Some of our technology is archaic and will not be supported soon. That leads to needing new wireless requirements and building infrastructure.

We’re always looking for ways to be more high touch. In spite of the new website and point of sale, we can now check golfers in on the first tee using a tablet. Unbelievable! They don’t even have to come in the clubhouse anymore. They love it.

As owners we focus on high touch. We’re both on-site during the season interacting with customers. We know them personally and enjoy engaging with them. We thank them often for their business. As much as we do though, there’s always room for improvement.”