With the end of year quickly approaching, 2017 is knocking at your door. Before answering and diving into the new year, it’s a great time to reflect on business mistakes you may have made over the past twelve months. Upon reflection, you can turn 2016’s mistakes into 2017 growth opportunities.

Here are six business mistakes you (may have) made in 2016, and ways you can avoid them:

Not Setting Goals

Passion, fervor, and entrepreneurial spirit are only as strong as their counterpart – realism and strategy. Weak and aimless goals fail to identify challenges and obstacles, making strategy implementation difficult.

To set your business up for success create specific short and long term goals, addressing key areas of growth. Make goals measurable and attainable, so you can easily track progress and celebrate the successes.

Poor Customer Service

While you may think you’re offering great customer experience, a study by Echo Research paints a darker picture. Over 40 percent of US consumers believe that companies do not go the extra mile to support customer service. There is a high cost to this poor service including, tarnished brand identity, loss of customer retention, and increased sensitivity to price.

Misreading Your Customer

According to the Harvard Management Update, 80% of companies surveyed said that they offer superior customer service, but only 8% of their customers agreed with them. Where is the misunderstanding coming from? Businesses are making the mistake by assuming what a customer wants instead of listening and tracking behavior.

Understanding your customer effectively can be streamlined through Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and with Revel CRM you can keep track of detailed customer information and their preferences to better tailor your offering according to customer wants.

Lack Of Urgency

Too many companies and employees are plagued by complacency. This disengages employees and causes the business to lose out on opportunities and fall behind industry trends. To instill a sense of urgency, businesses can clarify consequences of inaction and act quickly on identifying challenges and making smart decisions.

Jack-Of-All-Trades Syndrome

While many think that being the jack-of-all-trades is the quickest way to reach the most customers, this approach can backfire and hurt your business. Stretching your resources and knowledge, without allowing for ample preparation, can cause you to drop the ball on high-priorities.

Focus on 2017’s greatest opportunities for growth and hire and outsource key roles that require a certain skill set. From there you can implement employee management tools, so you can effortlessly track labor and delegate rolls.

Behind The Tech Trends

The technology landscape is always shifting, making it easy to to fall behind. Operating with outdated technology can hurt your business and as customers are becoming increasingly tech savvy there is an expectation for a seamless experience.

Investing in the relevant technology and software will increase profit and productivity as well as better customer experience.