How much is app switching costing your art business?
Toggling between apps seems fast, but studies show the transition costs your business money, and your team’s mental productivity is significantly reduced.
Toggling between apps seems fast, but studies show the transition costs your business money, and your team’s mental productivity is significantly reduced.
The Harvard Business Review has actually been able to quantify the cost to businesses that app switching causes. On average, each team member loses 9% of their annual working time. When you think about that much wasted time for your sales team, that is about five weeks out of the year, and the art world sales cycle is already greatly impacted by holidays and travel. This data, even on average, points to real consequences to your success. Read the full study here.
How does this apply to the art world and art businesses like galleries, advisories, and even artist studios?
Consider this example of a typical offer workflow. You make a PDF from inventory info in one system, you edit the PDF in Adobe, next you open your email app, then you attach the PDF and cut and paste and edit a message for each client… that’s potentially three to four apps used. Not to mention, when you open your email, you might get sidetracked by an incoming message instead of getting your sales offers out. Little “workarounds” and “making it work” operations all day long lead to high costs in time and money for your business.
How big is the impact?
Depending on how disconnected your systems are or how many different apps are employed for a workflow will determine the scope of time and money wasted. You can evaluate the scale of that cost with a quick operations check.
What’s the solution?
Connected systems and clear, streamlined workflows for your team. Less app switching can open up more time for building art collector relationships and understanding art buyer behaviors.
