Three ways to rapidly grow your start-up in Singapore

Success stories like mobile e-hailing service Easy Taxi provide inspiration to many in Singapore looking to build a successful, fast growth, global business. However, it appears the majority of start-ups are a long way from achieving this kind of rapid growth and global success. According to Bloomberg, 8 out of 10 businesses fail within the first 18 months.

Gartner shared that profitability arises when customers are better engaged, make better advocates of the brand, and possess more brand loyalty. This can only be made possible through aligning social, mobile, and traditional channels, while improving processes through the introduction of technology to encourage engagement, better support communities, and enhanced user experience.

While the Singapore start-up sector appears vibrant and successful, there is opportunity to turbo charge this growth through technology. Opting for the cloud, empowering staff with mobile devices, and a focus on customer service are three key elements that start-ups can now easily look to, in order to reach the heights of growth and profitability.

Growth with the cloud
Technology can be a significant cost for business. However, savvy fast growth businesses can now instantly reduce their capital expenditure on hardware and software. The ability to quickly scale a cost-efficient cloud service means businesses can respond to spikes in customer demand, while not overinvesting in technology.

Run your business from your phone
The potential of smartphones and tablets to drive growth is massive. Mobile devices provide the ability for staff to take advantage of 'micro moments' to respond to business needs and customer requests. There are smartphone apps available that can manage the core tasks of a business, while empowering staff to take advantage of spare time like waiting in line for a coffee or on the morning commute.

Connect with your customers 1:1
A strong link exists between customer service and revenue. However, in the digital world knowing your customer and providing outstanding customer service has proved difficult. According to a recent research study by Accenture, bad customer service potentially costed Singapore firms a whopping US$16 billion in revenue.

For example, a luxury accommodation rental provider found itself with its hands full managing email enquiries channelled through the web, and making sure each one was satisfactorily addressed in a reasonable span of time.

As with every growing business, there comes a point where the administration effort outweighs the core objective, which for the luxury accommodation rental provider was to deliver a timely response to customer enquiries.

In order to streamline customer service operations, the company looked to technology to centralise its customer interactions. Now, every enquiry generates a ticket, which travels seamlessly through workflow to resolution with no delays or risks of enquiries falling through the gaps.

Additionally, a real-time chat programme enables customer service agents to respond to questions and to share information in real time, resulting in a dramatic reduction in ticket response times.

By building the foundation of its business on the cloud paired with mobile technology, Singapore’s start-up and small business community can realise their dream of rapid, sustainable growth. With these empowering technologies, it won't be too long before the world is speaking about Singapore in the same breath as other innovative business hubs with the likes of the iconic Silicon Valley.