VoIP – Modern Communication in a Modern World
The last decade has seen changes to the way we work that we have never bore witness to before. Advancements in the capabilities of technology – and in turn our reliance on it – are the main reasons for these changes, the way we work doesn’t just improve when we use technology correctly – it relies on it.
Technology has the power to revolutionise your organisation, the problem is that most aren’t using it its full potential or are using dated tools, it doesn’t matter how good the tech is if you don’t use it in the best way possible.
The modern workplace is more flexible than it ever has been before, but there will always be one element that must stay and always be achieved to the highest possible standard – communication. Communication is what keeps your business thriving, it is often overlooked as it is so automatic in our minds, but you must be able to contact other companies, clients, and most importantly, your team whenever you deem it necessary.
We all know that we need to adopt modern tools and go through a sort of digital transformation, but now the difficult bit begins – what is out there? What will solve the challenges that you are having regarding effective communicative channels?
Let’s not forget the tools and methods of communication that have allowed our businesses to get this far, unfortunately they don’t quite meet expectation anymore.
Communication – The Traditional Methods
Since the 70’s Email has been an integral part of practically every business in the world. Technology rarely survives long enough to become a staple of our lives, but in regard to Email its abilities were so revolutionary that is has cemented its spot as one the most revolutionary workplace tools ever released.
But, in the ‘instant’ world we live in now, is Email capable of delivering what our workplaces need?
The biggest problem – and one of the most frustrating elements of our workday – is Spam. They make up the vast majority of Email traffic businesses receive daily – this traffic offers no value to the business and sorting through them can be a monotonous and extremely time-consuming. The majority of businesses have assigned every minute of their workday to achieving some sort of value. Spam doesn’t feature in that plan.
In fact, it can be argued that Email itself is too time-consuming for the way we work today. Conveying messages and holding a conversation can take hours, for a busy a team, taking hours to have a conversation simply won’t suffice.
The Telephone
The telephone is – and I think it’s safe to say always will be – an integral part of business. There are many alternatives on the market today, but the phone offers a level of personability – and for the less technically familiar – familiarity that simply can’t be challenged. We don’t need to preach to you the importance of the tone of voice, language, and mannerisms we use when talking to clients and our team members alike, all are elements that can seriously affect the outcome of a conversation.
The phone allows you to ‘read’ the conversation, in an Email it is impossible to know how a person is feeling unless they tell you directly ‘no I am not happy with this’ or ‘yes that is great’, even then you don’t know if that is actually how they feel – the phone allows you to hear that mood and change your approach accordingly on the fly.
Of course, we aren’t saying to just scrap all of your traditional methods of communication, we are however, saying that updated versions of your existing methods of communication will revolutionise your business. An updated phone system that is capable of keeping you connected at all times is essential if you want to compete with others in your sector.
In unison with our forms of communication – clients are changing too, there is extraordinarily little loyalty anymore, gone are the days where you continued using an organisation through loyalty regardless of the little hiccups on the way. Now, clients are fickle, they are used to having instantaneous connectivity to one another via phone, Email, WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and a whole list of other applications and tools, this has led their expectations of businesses to change. Simply, if their demands aren’t met and they can’t get in contact with you they will simply take their business elsewhere.
The telephone is your main lifeline to the vital components of your business – you must always be reachable, clients don’t care your reasoning for being unavailable, the majority will take their business elsewhere in search of instant availability.
Meetings
The way we conduct meetings has changed too, there was nothing worse than being forced into the stuffiest room in the office on a hot sunny day, it was never productive really but there was no other choice. In fact, this is probably one of the main reasons that meetings haven’t – traditionally – happened as often as would be beneficial in most organisations. Finding a date and time that suits your whole team was an impossibility – especially for those slightly larger organisations – but, technology now has the answer, a solution that doesn’t involve everyone being crammed into a room and allows you to stop wasting your teams time.
In the next article we will explore modern communicative methods and see how these up-to-date solutions can revolutionise your workplace, if used correctly they will take you into the future with tech as the powerful addition to your team it should be.
Your Business IT Support Partner
We work closely with small, medium and enterprise level businesses – our core values remain strong; we will work smoothly and efficiently as a part of your team to deliver our high standards in cutting edge, creative communication solutions. Thanks to our years of experience, we understand the importance of staying ahead of the curve and pride ourselves on embracing the latest innovations to offer you complete peace of mind. Our team values that each business’ needs are unique, and we are therefore flexible and bespoke in our approach.
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