As the year closes, be honest, you’re considering a gym membership. It’s an annual tradition, right? Let’s pretend that in your community there are 2 fitness franchises, Gym A and Gym Y, and they are across the road from one another. Both are similar in price, size and quality and variety of equipment. The one difference is hours of operation available to its members. Gym Y has 5am to 9pm hours while Gym A across the street is open 24/7/365 to its members via an electric key fob. With everything else being equal, why wouldn’t you drive across the road and choose Gym A? Sure, you may never go between 9pm and 5am at night, but you CAN. What should you look at when making choices?
When small business owners with remote, hourly workers search for an online telephone timekeeping system they can find a plethora of options. Many have the same features at similar prices: telephone and app-based clock-in methods, GPS location reporting, scheduling, etc., so it’s important to dig to find the discriminating differences.
Let’s look deeper at 3 key factors to consider when choosing the right timekeeping system.
- How long has the company been in business? Choose a company with a long, proven track record. These companies have figured out how to be successful in a competitive market, which is indicative of the quality of the product and service. It’s also a sign that the company will be around to serve you as long as you need them. Chronotek started 20 years ago with a mission to change the lives of small business owners by offering a proven way to control labor costs and increase customer satisfaction. That is still our goal today and will be for years to come.
- How do you like the customer support? Most timekeeping companies will offer a free trial. Use this time to not only learn the system, but to also test the responsiveness and helpfulness of the support team. Keep in mind that you are forming a long-term relationship with a service provider that can be integral in saving your company thousands of dollars in payroll. Be certain that you have the ability to access the pleasant expertise you need from a team that is genuinely pulling for your success. We outline our customer support philosophy in our blog post, Not Your Vendor. You can also check out what a few of our customers have said about us.
- What does the company website look like? Does it appear that the company invests in keeping the site up to date and fresh? Or is it analogous to a 1980’s big hairdo and hasn’t seen an upgrade since the mullet? This could indicate that the company is struggling and can’t afford to make capital improvements to its online storefront, the face of the company to all prospective customers. Chances are that a company that can’t keep its front-end relevant may falter maintaining its backend, the part that is most important to customers who rely on the service and protection of its data. It’s not perfect, but we are proud of our site. It has changed a few times in 20 years.
We do hope that you join the gym as it’s a great idea, but to preserve the good health of your small business, we really encourage you to start off the year with a proven timekeeping solution. We would love to be that choice.