The coronavirus crisis is much bigger than anyone could have imagined a few months ago. Businesses have been disrupted and remote working has become the new norm for all. The sudden switch has put most of them out of their comfort zones, particularly the ones that never had remote collaboration and virtual communication tools in place. Things are equally tough for employees as well because they are struggling with their productivity levels and technical issues while working from home. Apart from team coordination and communication with clients is perhaps the biggest challenge for businesses amid lockdown. And if there is one technology that can effectively address all these challenges, it is cloud telephony. Though global businesses have been leveraging this technology for some time, it can be a novel concept for many. For this reason, it becomes important to understand what cloud telephony solutions are and how they can bring extensive benefits for your business right now and in the future as well. Let us discuss in detail how it serves as a perfect solution for businesses amid lockdown.
The pitfalls of the COVID 19- induced remote working
Even before trying to understand how a cloud telephony system can serve as the backbone of your business communications, it is vital to understand the challenges of the current situation. Obviously, the biggest one right now is the forced migration to the COVID-induced remote working model. Though this move is essential for survival, you cannot ignore the pitfalls that your team and clients have to experience in the wake of this transition. Basically, the drawbacks of the new working model include:
- Absence of proper communication within the teams and with the your clients and customers across different locations
- Challenges related to handling the business calls when the employees are not in office
- Hindrances in identifying the business leads, which makes it tough to scale in the current situation
- Accessibility issues that lead to bottlenecks in managing the teams remotely
Knowing your challenges is half the work done when it comes to getting your business back on its feet in such crisis situations. Fortunately, you even have a solution that you can depend on for resolving these challenges and streamlining communication for good. Essentially, cloud telephony services bring together a suite of solutions that has the potential for addressing each of the issues effectively. Let us explain how it can get your organization back on track during the COVID-19 era.
Cloud contact center solutions- Keep your communication up and running
When it comes to business continuity and communication-related concerns, cloud telephony technology has you fully covered. You can fully depend on a cloud-based contact center solution to establish an efficient communication network that connects remote workers, all without any infrastructural investment. This is a huge advantage right now when staying in touch with your clients and customers is more important than ever. Further, the system has an analytics dashboard in place to let you track, monitor and manage the performance of your team remotely. Better outbound and inbound communication empowers you to provide seamless services to your customers through the crisis, which can definitely take your reputation a notch higher.
IVR and virtual numbers- Manage every business call seamlessly
If your remote team is struggling to handle business calls, a cloud telephony solution with IVR and virtual numbers is just what they need right now. With an IVR in place, you can optimize campaigns apart from tracking customer calls in real time. You even get access to call recordings, which can be used to evaluate the quality of customer interactions and performance of team members as they communicate on a remote basis. Implementing virtual numbers lets you divert business calls to the personal numbers of the agent, so location no longer remains a barrier to connectivity. Virtual numbers enable the agents to be available to every single customer, regardless of when they call and where they call from. Additionally, you can enhance the customer experience by incorporating advanced features such as automated regional voice. These measures can go a long way in customer retention during such trying times.
Toll-free numbers- Be available for assistance
Apart from sales, businesses, NGOs and government organizations are going the extra mile to help customers and the general public. This is possible through relief efforts or by just creating awareness about social distancing and other effective measures to counter the disease. Toll free numbers are another element of cloud telephony solutions that are playing a key role in this context. The best thing about these numbers is that callers can connect without spending anything. Moreover, you can leverage them for public outreach, both for commercial and philanthropic initiatives. And you can use a number right now and discontinue it once the campaign is done with.
Missed call services-Be there for every single call and customer
When employees work from home, they may experience stress because of the sudden switch of the working model. There are times when they may drop calls due to stress or simple IT issues. Having a missed call solution in place can reduce the possibility of being unavailable to your customers at any point in time. The service lets you track and reconnect with the callers who are missed. Employees get notifications for missed calls in real-time so that there are no chances of lost leads. Apart from the current benefits they can be used to build a robust database that you can use later even after the pandemic is gone.
CRM Integration- Serve your customers better
While you need to stay connected with the customers right now, serving them better through the crisis can strengthen long-term relationships with them and build credibility for your brand. A cloud telephony solution can be integrated with your CRM system to help your agents serve the customers better. It lets you simplify the lead management process, which has a positive impact on the sales and productivity of the team as well. Right now, sales can help your business to survive and get through the situation without bearing massive losses. Moreover, you will be able to scale even in the current situation as the integrated system empowers you to identify and acquire quality leads even with a remotely operating team.
Takeaways
Now that you know the various ways in which cloud telephony technology can help your business during the COVID 19 crisis, you must not wait for getting a solution up and running. Whether you run a customer-facing business selling products or services, an educational institution or a healthcare organization, a holistic cloud solution can fetch immense benefits in the current scenario. It renders the flexibility that your business requires to embrace the work-from-home model seamlessly. At the same time, it also enables you to deliver top-notch services to the customers. The choice of the solution provider, however, can make all the difference to the benefits you can derive. So you should look for a reliable provider that covers you with holistic services along with high quality, uptime assurance and dependable support.
