Being holistic is something that might just feel like yet another business term – something that’s thrown around with increasingly little weight or meaning attached to it. There’s a danger with terms like that, of alienating audiences and lacking clarity in your communications – potentially damaging your relationship with customers, employees, and peers alike.

When it comes to taking a holistic approach, however, there is genuinely a lot of utility and value to be had here. If you can take the proper steps to understand what it requires, then you can begin to make your business more efficient and robust than it’s ever been before.

Security

When it comes to business security, you want to ensure that you’re not leaving any vulnerabilities. The first thing that you have to do is consider all of your needs. If you’re an entirely digital business, that means that you likely only have to consider digital forms of security – yet this is something that can be varied in and of itself. For example, you might train your staff to better spot scams and suspicious links within communications like emails, but you also want a comprehensive firewall that’s based on the best modern knowledge – meaning that you might work with other businesses and industries to develop an AI-led approach through SOC services. If there is a physical component to your brand, you also need to think of how you’re going to keep your premises secure through smart CCTV and other means.

Online Presence

Being holistic when it comes to your marketing means having an online presence that feels comprehensive. The message that you want to send to your audiences is that you’re well-versed in digital tools, and that you’re available wherever they might want to get in touch. So, to achieve this, you might have a robust marketing presence across multiple social media platforms – with SEO content dispersed across blogs that can inform them of your existence to begin with. All roads should lead back to your website (which also contains links to your social media pages), along with the possibility of an app if you feel as though it would enhance your services. Leaving a gap here might mean that you neglect a certain audience, as different social media platforms come with their own demographics.

Customer Service

The importance of customer service is something that’s reinforced again and again in business. This can even get to the point where you take it for granted – perhaps you feel as though paying enough attention to customer service is all you need, but not every customer is going to respond to the same kinds of service. For example, while everyone might appreciate a helpful and understanding tone throughout a general interaction, the way that people might prefer to leave a complaint or query might vary. Some might prefer to phone in and be direct, while others could be more comfortable with a web chat – being variable in your options can help to support each kind of customer. 

Feedback from All Sources

You want your business to be constantly improving. If you find yourself in a comfortable position where it feels like everything is going well, it can be easy to become complacent or stagnant – but the winds will change eventually, and you don’t want to find yourself falling behind when they do. In order to get ahead, consider the numerous ways in which you can get feedback. This is something that you can ask your customers (and employees) for directly, which helps to foster an atmosphere of trust and understanding, but it might also be that there’s a lot to learn by looking at the business data received from marketing interactions and purchases.