If you’re anticipating an upgrade to your communications technology or if you’re a new business just starting out, you should be considering unified communications. It’s a cloud-based communications solution that requires little initial investment and can be scaled up or down according to your needs. While affordability and scalability are key advantages of unified communications, there are two key areas that make it an important investment for your enterprise.
Customer convenience: One of the core principles behind unified communications is its ability to streamline and automate processes, creating a more convenient connection point with customers. Your customers communicate with your company in the format they prefer.
A customer calling in to your organization may want to complete a routine task, such as pay an invoice or notify you of a change in their personal information. With unified communications, the customer can be assisted by an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system that can facilitate their request. By contrast, if the customer had been assisted by an agent, there would have been a series of questions and clarifications, whereas the IVR has all the information at the ready and can shorten the amount of time the customer spends on the phone.
Mobility support also makes it easier for your employees to get back to customers, no matter where they are. As long as they have a connected mobile device, they can access their contact information and every feature offered through the unified communications solution to assist the customer.
When assisting a customer, employees are able to see the entire history of communications with the customer, including other formats. Whether the customer contacted the company via email, chat or voice, the employee is able to access that record and see it all in the same application.
Collaboration: In an era when business conversations and teams interact across the globe, organizations need technology to span the distance. Companies need more than what phone calls and messaging can support.
Through unified communications, enterprises are gaining the tools that make geography all but irrelevant. Shared workspaces, video conferencing and real-time collaboration make it easy for teams to work together from various locations. From saving travel costs to being able to recruit the best talent, regardless of location, unified communications is allowing companies to approach business decisions from a different angle.
Unified communications also offers other conveniences, such as conference scheduling, being able to see when another employee is available for a voice call or online chat, and file sharing that captures real-time changes.
Improving the customer experience and streamlining business processes are two key areas where you can invest in unified communications to outpace your competitors. To learn more about how to use unified communications for your business objectives, contact us at eXemplify.