It’s a sign of business success when a company expands to various departments or when they hire staff who work remotely. That growth brings new opportunities, but also communication problems that many organisations do not expect. When everyone is in the same office, it’s easy to communicate, but when staff are located in various places, it can become a problem.
We’ve witnessed companies lose customers during a call, lose response time, and lose teams to disconnection due to out-of-date communication tools. By investing in cloud-based business communications solutions, those gaps can be bridged, enabling employees to be connected without adding more complexity.
Small Communication Gaps Can Turn Into Bigger Business Problems
It’s really hard for communication problems to start with a single major failure. Rather, they develop as little disruptions that impact everyday business.
Imagine a customer calling your main office at the same time the account manager is working away from the office. The receptionist puts the call on hold, sends a message and the customer waits even longer. When the account manager calls back, the customer has already contacted a competitor.
Such scenarios occur more frequently than many businesses realize. Desk phones are used at one office, mobile phones at another, and another messaging app to stay connected. The flow of information is disrupted and customers end up with conflicting data, while the staff members waste precious time on paperwork and looking for information rather than addressing queries.
That’s where cloud-based business communications solutions can help to bring enterprise and customer communications together.
Multiple Tools Often Create More Confusion Than Convenience
Communication tools tend to grow along with the business, but not necessarily in an organized way.
While travelling, a sales representative can use a mobile phone. When it comes to customer service, it is done with desk phones. Managers use email to communicate with each other, and project teams use messaging apps. Employees are not making collaboration easier, but rather constantly switching back and forth between platforms to carry out simple tasks.
The outcome is a common scenario for many organisations:
- Customers have to provide the same information to several people.
- Call transfers are more delayed as nobody is free.
- Internal updates get scattered amongst emails, chat and voicemail.
- Support requests are delayed because information is spread across different systems.
Cloud-based business communications solutions bring voice, messaging, collaboration, and mobility into a single, connected environment, eliminating the need for employees to use multiple tools.
Remote Teams Shouldn’t Feel Disconnected From the Office
Having employees work from different locations certainly doesn’t have to make them harder to reach.
We have had clients who had employees missing critical client calls because calls were still ringing on their desks at the office. Others used their own mobile phones, which didn’t allow them to provide a professional customer service experience or stay on track with business conversations.
Cloud-based business communications solutions allow business users to answer business calls from virtually anywhere with approved devices and provide a seamless customer experience. Communication remains connected no matter where they are working, whether from headquarters, a branch office or a home office.
At Maryland Telephone, we don’t just suggest new technology. We spend time getting to know your team, assisting with the transition, implementing the system and ensuring your employees feel comfortable with the system on the first day. That practical approach has enabled businesses to enhance communication for over 50 years.
Better Communication Improves Everyday Operations
But as communication becomes easier, daily work flows tend to improve as well.
Instead of asking who’s available to answer a call, employees can easily contact the appropriate person. Communication challenges are reduced and managers spend less time on communication issues and more on their jobs.
We have observed businesses reduce delays with manual processes that used to slow down their teams. Employees get information quicker and can respond with greater confidence, instead of checking numerous voicemail boxes or forwarding through email.
Cloud-based business communications solutions also make it easier to maintain uniformity in standards of communication across multiple locations for organizations with multiple offices. The same processes are followed, the same service is provided to customers and the leadership has increased visibility into overall communication performance.
A Smooth Transition Matters Just as Much as the Technology
Having the appropriate communication platform is just one element. The success of implementation relies on employees’ adaptation to the new system.
One of the concerns businesses have is that switching communication systems will be disruptive or confusing to their employees. The reality is that the change is much more seamless, supported by experienced professionals who understand the challenges of operation.
We at Maryland Telephone concentrate on making implementation possible. We provide onboarding, training your staff, supporting them locally and there are real people to call when the questions arise. We don’t just want to drop in a system. We would like your staff to get comfortable with it every day while keeping your business running without unnecessary disruption.
That’s one reason many organizations opt for business communications solutions in the cloud as they evolve and change.
Conclusion
As teams become more distributed, the more easily they can fall behind in their communication, and the more difficult it will be to catch up. These are all factors that can have a cumulative impact on productivity, customer satisfaction and business growth over time.
Businesses can improve the interaction with employees and make it easier for customers to get to the right person the first time by implementing cloud-based business communications solutions. Using over 50 years of experience, hands-on implementation, and thoughtful planning, we help organizations make communication easier, so they can focus on working with customers and not technology.