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It may be the Year of the Rooster on the Chinese zodiac, but in business trends a more fitting name might be the Year of the Customer. In several ways, small, mid-sized, and enterprise-level businesses are turning to their clients for guidance.

Seeking out customer preferences helps companies hone their product offerings and marketing approaches. Jeffrey Hayzlett has gathered insight about 5 major trends you can use to make sure your company is aligning closer with the most important people in your industry: your customers.

Trend 1: Elevated customer engagement - Sales is being transformed by a stronger focus on relationships. Rather than a mere transaction, customers are starting to expect companies to provide personalized services. What are recommendations you can offer? What extra insight can you give for someone interested in your products?

Trend 2: Customer data collection - How do you know what to recommend to your customers? From the data you're gathering. (You are gathering data, right?) A quality CRM package is vital here. After you have the needed information, make it a priority to leverage that data into programs and features that take your customer engagement even farther.

Trend 3: Automation - You might not have the resources or clientele to make artificial intelligence and holographic computing a profitable investment, but you can still leverage your tools. That CRM package you invest in should have options for automatically notifying the right person when things need attention. Likewise, your inventory software should recognize low levels and initiate orders to resupply, so when a customer contacts you, the product is on hand.

Trend 4: Crowdfunding - This trend takes customer engagement into the future. It's asking clients just how interested they are in new product lines and services. Then they answer with their wallet. It may take some innovation on your part, but the insight you get into customer preferences can be priceless. Similar appeals directly to the customer include surveys and even informal face-to-face conversations with your shoppers.

Trend 5: Specialization - As soon as you can, start focusing your attention on the niche customers that are most interested in your products and services. The Internet casts a wide net, so as soon as you establish your website and e-commerce pages, you are reaching broadly, in fact globally. But you need to concentrate on understanding what kinds of people see themselves as the best match for your company. Learn from them and cater to them in order to find more customers like them.

Of course you won't be able to fully implement all these options simultaneously. As an entrepreneur, you've got look at your business model and make the decisions that work right for your growing company. But these recommendations can give you inspiration for what angle you need to make 2017 the year of your success.

Any small business can jump on the ecommerce bandwagon. There are abundant tools and services that make it easy to get started. However, just having a storefront online doesn't mean people will line up to give you money. Customers know there are other sellers they can find — any disruption to their purchasing mindset can shut down the sales process.

From Business.com, Kristen Gramigna explains 5 tips to make sure your ecommerce site entices customer engagement throughout the buying process:

1. Transparency - Nobody likes hidden fees. And nothing is more jarring to an online consumer than coming to the final screen and discovering that their purchase is going to cost more than they first thought — or rather, more than you first told them. It might seem that minimizing the initial price will make people more interested, and that's not wrong. But if you aren't up-front about all the costs involved with the transaction, it can make people suspicious or resentful instead. To get the best of both worlds, seek out ecommerce tools that will let you display the basic price, but also inform shoppers quickly about any additional charges.

2. Optimization - Nobody likes to sit around waiting, and that's especially true online. This poses a dilemma: Consumers want to see pictures of what they're buying, preferably in HD, from multiple angles, with close-ups; however, they don't want to cool their heels while those images display. Some research says you have a 2-second window before your potential customer decides that it's not worth the wait and they go somewhere else. It may take some ingenuity, but make sure that something starts showing up on your pages before one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi. For example, an ultra-light version of a product picture could display first, then be covered by a higher definition graphic. And if you're serious about the ecommerce thing, make sure that your online store responds well for mobile users too. More and more shoppers will be checking you out on their phone or tablet.

3. Hospitality - Everybody likes to be a respected guest. Shopping online, it turns out, is no exception. While it would be great to get contact information from every shopper, a significant number of people might not feel that your product is worth giving you money AND giving you their personal information. This is another judgment call of course. For a business that focuses on light manufacturing or other B2B sales, the contact info might be essential. But where it's possible, make sure the people visiting your site know that you respect their privacy so much that you won't ask them for info that isn't necessary. For details on the value of guest services, Gramigna draws on the exceptional research and advice of the Nielsen Norman Group.

4. Security - Everybody likes reassurance about security. You know about the encryption, certification, and expertise that makes your site secure, both for financial info and personally identifiable info. Take the extra step to ensure your customers know about it too. The news media have made us all very aware that hackers and viruses and scammers prowl the Web. A little logo from your security provider can go a long way to making people feel more comfortable about typing in their credit card number.

5. Background - Everybody likes a good origin story. Overall, these efforts to enhance your ecommerce site boil down to establishing trust, and it's much easier to trust someone when you know something about them. Contact information, of course, is important. It shows buyers that you're willing to be accountable if there are problems, to be responsive if there are questions. But even more, you can start to build a relationship with your customers by sharing your goals and values. And this feel-good isn't merely a feel-good; once again the Nielsen Norman Group provides research data to explain value-additive About Us pages.

If you're saying to yourself, "This could take some work," you're right. Going beyond the minimum ecommerce site requires more than the minimal effort. But it's a way to distinguish your small company from others. It's an investment in your growth.

To assist in this effort, aACE has built connections to major ecommerce services, including WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento, and Amazon. With our integrations, online transactions can funnel almost immediately to warehouse, then send an update as quickly as the order is fulfilled. Contact us today to learn more.

The correct answer from your employees should be, "We are."

This answer is the one recommended by Guy Nirpaz, author of Farm Don't Hunt: The Definitive Guide to Customer Success. In his book and on his blog, Guy elaborates on the vital shift from "customer management" to "customer success."

Pop Quiz II: What's the difference?

While customer management today typically hinges on CRM tools, the customer success paradigm focuses on attitudes of the people in your company. It's true that a high-quality CRM package can present customer data to everyone on your team. But if each team member isn't invested in a customer success mindset, data won't help much.

Another distinction of this new paradigm is the primary concern with what happens after the purchase. Are customers able to use what they bought? Are they getting a good ROI on their investment? These are the kinds of questions a customer success team attends to.

Pop Quiz III: Who needs a customer success team?

Yep--another trick question. The answer: you already have one. Each employee on your payroll will ideally recognize that they are part of the customer success team. They each have an important impact on customer experiences with your company. Guy Nirpaz points out that this attitude requires some adjustment from the default division-of-labor we usually rely on. Rather than a specialized team that is assigned all the customer support efforts, each group should contribute. It's still true that your people in the front office, in the warehouse, and on the plant floor all have unique talents and responsibilities. But if people assume customer success falls only to an official Customer Success Team, things aren't going to work as well.

Pop Quiz IV: Who's customer service are you competing with?

One implication of e-commerce on the World Wide Web is that users compare their experience with your company to every other online shopping experience they have. You might not be in direct competition with Amazon, Walmart, or Macy's, but these companies set a standard for customer experience. So when people do business with you, they're evaluating you based on expectations set by other companies. Your organization's customer success mindset is one way you can stand out from the crowd.

Leadership in your company needs to establish a culture that promotes a customer-centric organization. Having this as your mission, with clear values and accountabilities for this goal, is becoming essential in our digitalized economy.

To help you maximize the effectiveness of your customer success efforts, you also need a CRM solution that provides quote-to-cash visibility, plus automation tools to increase your business velocity: aACE 5.

On Feb. 23, Avalara is hosting a free webinar about sales tax on drop shipping regulations.

Drop shipping can be fantastic for your inventory and warehouse, but a headache for calculating sales taxes. To clarify the rules and regulations, Marilyn Wethekam, J.D., LL.M. will discuss the most common concerns. Ms. Wethekam's extensive experience and unique presentation can help you unravel the puzzle and avoid the headache.

Note: Attendance at the webinar is limited. Register today to be sure you don't miss out on this vital information.

From 2004 to today, there have been a number of dramatic data breaches, as shown in this interactive data visualization from InformationIsBeautiful.net. Organizations as varied as AOL.com and the 2016 Clinton presidential campaign have had records stolen.

In this climate, Avalara is working to ensure your records remain secure.

One of the upcoming Avalara security changes is to switch the trusted certificate chain from SHA-1 to SHA-256. These chains are used for encryption to protect your communications with Avalara services. The changes will be finished by May 18, 2017.

Avalara has organized this upgrade so most customers won't see any change in stability and access to their AvaTax system. However, the company is being proactive to reach out and work with customers, ensuring a smooth transition. They have set up test URLs where your IT team can verify they have made the needed changes, so service will continue without any turbulence.

Details for your IT team (including the new certificate chains and the test URLs) are available from the Avalara Help Center.

With new leaders coming to office in the U.S. and around the world, 2017 may be a year of sharp changes. Some of these new arrangements will certainly impact American small businesses.

But each small business owner must still plan for company growth. DirectCapital polled a number of these entrepreneurs, seeking to get a perspective on what SMBs have lined up for 2017. The results are freely available and they include some interesting patterns:

Overall, there is a strong optimism about the U.S. economy during the next four years. A clear majority of the respondents (82%) said they are looking forward to changes in the economy that will benefit small and mid-sized businesses. And when it came to expectations about their own company, even more people felt positive about the future. A strong 92% noted that they expected their company to grow during the year. This consensus seems to coincide with other analyses. Although each economic forecast differs in its predictions, there is a general sense that things will be improving for American businesses, especially for manufacturing companies.

The business owners surveyed shared some of their high-level plans for investments into their organizations. There is a fairly even division regarding the dollar amounts they plan on investing, with those funds ranging from under $25,000 to over $100,000. In contrast, there is a distinct interest in a few of the possible investment choices. A good 70% of the people who replied identified equipment upgrades as a priority for their funds this year. Following at almost 50%, marketing investments were the next most common. Spending on inventory, headcount, and remodeling are also in the works this year for a number of businesses. Even if these kinds of investments won't be in your company's immediate future, there are more ways you can direct your resources to maximize growth.

Following on from questions about marketing, the survey also asked about the social media efforts each company is using. Facebook was the clear favorite (60%), with LinkedIn at second place (35%), then Google+ (28%), Twitter (24%), and YouTube (16%). Today's business wisdom frequently notes the value of social media efforts. But as a savvy entrepreneur, you also want to know how much value you're getting back from those efforts. The gurus at Buffer have some detailed suggestions on how to measure your social media ROI. Even though digital outreach is important, be sure that it's not your only effort to connect with people. It's fine if you don't want to upgrade your marketing software because you can still invest time and energy in ways that can be just as valuable.

Of course, the specific decisions that will implement your plans should be grounded in good information and careful analysis. Small business owners said that they get information about their industry from four main sources: the Internet, trade publications, email newsletters, and associations. But the Internet is a pretty big place and the quality of content ranges from solid data to mere rumors. To help you get better input, SmallBusinessBonfire.com has listed some of the most reliable online sources.

At aACE Software, we'd be glad to help with more focused questions about business productivity software. If you have plans about ERP or CRM, accounting or inventory modules, give us a call.