We’ve talked a lot lately about the importance of using new technologies to grow your small business. Hopefully, by now, you’ve taken some of our suggestions and implemented some new solutions. In a recent post we talked about reviewing your process map to see how those changes may have impacted other areas of your business. Another important task is to test your new technology and make sure that it is easy for your employees and customers to use. This may not be as easy as it sounds. Even though our inventory management system is super easy to use sometimes testing all the different ways it can be used becomes difficult. So we understand!
Of course, you researched solutions and chose the one that you thought would be the most user friendly but not everyone’s comfort level with technology is the same. That’s why it’s important to enlist some help when testing your solutions. Call on family members and friends of different ages to do your trial run. If your solutions are mobile compatible you’ll need to test them across different platforms as well. You may be surprised at the results.
If your new solutions are confusing or difficult to use, employees will take shortcuts or try to avoid using the system and your customers may abandon your business in favor of one that has an easier process. Clearly, these outcomes aren’t desirable. Everyone wants the same thing, solutions that make life easier. The important thing is to ensure that you are delivering that.
Set clear expectations with your testers. For employees, give them a specific set of questions to answer after they complete the test. This will allow you to be sure that they did in fact complete the entire process and to gather valuable information about any areas of concern. On the consumer side, it’s not enough to just direct users to your site and then ask them whether or not the process was confusing. Often people are embarrassed to admit that they ran into trouble, particularly your less tech savvy users. Suggesting some areas that may be difficult puts people at ease and encourages them to share constructive feedback. Explain to testers how critical it is for you to identify and address potential problem areas.We try doing this with every bug reported from users of our inventory management system.
As you gather data, remember not to be discouraged. Just because issues crop up it doesn’t mean that you chose a bad solution. It’s better to identify problems now, before they cost you customers or decrease your efficiency. Knowing the areas that trip users up will allow you to come up with workarounds to make things easier for everyone.
Do you have testing feedback for our inventory management solution?
If you’ve started using Stockpile for your inventory management needs, we’d love to hear the results of your tests. We are always working to improve our inventory management solution and to make it as user friendly as possible. Not using Stockpile yet? It’s time to get started. Stockpile is easy to use and it’s powerful enough to handle all your inventory management issues. Don’t take our word for it. Try Stockpile today and see for yourself.
