Having proper communication at your business is key to your company’s success. From your sales team to your customer service representatives to your human resources department, if your employees can’t communicate well with each other and your customers, your business has a hard time succeeding. Upgrade your communication systems in these areas to give your company an edge over your competition.
United Communications as a Service
United Communications as a Service has become a buzzword for businesses recently, and with good reason. This service allows you to expand your phone service to one that’s based in the cloud and offers more benefits than the standard landline package. Common UCaaS features include the following:
- Integration into your apps
- Streamlined call answering options
- Call analysis
- Individual and group texting capabilities
- Videoconference software
- Voice over Internet protocol
These features vary from provider to provider, so make sure you’ve chosen a company that offers the benefits you want. Some also include older services such as faxes if you still use them.
It’s no longer enough to simply call your customers on the phone. The old system of transfers and holds is frustrating for you and your customers, and nothing makes potential clients more likely to hang up than delays and lack of information. Use UCaaS to access all your messaging tools and customer information at once.
Almost every business owner has an email address for contacting employees and vendors. However, if you don’t have company addresses for all your employees, it’s time for an upgrade. Customers become suspicious when they receive emails from private addresses that claim to be affiliated with your company, and they’re less likely to work with you. Most major providers have business plans available, including Google and Microsoft. As a bonus, these plans also frequently come with access to word processing and scheduling software, which further streamlines your communication services.
Once you have company email addresses for all your employees, you can interact with your customers like never before. Take advantage of your upgrade by delegating these tasks to your employees:
- Send out customer satisfaction surveys
- Produce weekly or monthly newsletters
- Follow up on customer service issues
Now you can focus on administrative concerns while your employees handle customer problems and questions.
Social Media
Most business owners don’t use social media carefully, especially if you’ve been around since before Facebook and Instagram were popular. These new tools are essential to your business’s communication strategy and can be incredibly profitable if you use them properly. First, make sure that you’re using the right platform; it doesn’t make any sense to have a Snapchat account if your target market is made up of senior citizens. Then, make your posts more interactive with these features:
- Question-and-answer sessions
- Livestreams
- Photo contests
- Requests for comments and tags
If you have room in your budget, hire a social media coordinator to handle these tasks.
By upgrading your company’s UCaaS, email, and social media offerings, you increase your communicative power and increase your accessibility to the digital world.
