In the present day, employees are frequently switching roles between in-office, hybrid, and remote work settings. This dynamic requires them to maintain consistent connections with both colleagues and customers. 

Furthermore, customers exhibit diverse communication preferences when reaching out to businesses. Some favor conventional voice calls, while others opt for emails or live chats to make inquiries. Instead of juggling several venues of communication, businesses have now adopted the innovation of Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). The innovation offers a solution by amalgamating these diverse channels into a comprehensive, all-in-one communication system, fostering a smooth and uninterrupted experience. 

What is Unified Communications? 

UCaaS is a system that merges phone, video conferencing, chat, screen sharing, and file management into one unified cloud-based platform. This platform is overseen and maintained by a service provider. It offers a user-focused communication experience that connects in-office staff, remote workers, and customers through a single application. Unified Communications is transforming conventional business communication methods by fostering collaboration. 

Here are nine key advantages to consider when assessing whether your business could benefit from adopting a unified communications platform: 

1. Enabling Connectivity Anytime, Anywhere 

Ensuring continuous connectivity is essential in today’s business landscape. Therefore, it is crucial to equip your employees with the necessary tools to facilitate communication regardless of their location or the time of day. 

UCaaS offers a solution that integrates various communication channels into a single platform. This approach enables your workforce, including those working remotely, to effortlessly access your network. With a simple internet connection, employees can utilize all available features, contributing productively to your team’s efforts. 

2. Selecting Appropriate Communication Channels 

Currently, relying solely on traditional phone systems is inadequate for efficient operations. Modern expectations from both your employees and customers demand a variety of communication options. Unified communications providers address this need by integrating all your communication channels within a single cloud-based framework. This includes chat, text, instant messaging, phone, fax, email, video/audio conferencing, and call recording, all easily accessible. Embracing unified communications equips your workforce with the necessary resources to excel in their roles. 

3. Improved Culture, Collaboration, and Community 

To foster better communication and interaction, consider implementing specialized communication channels within your internal chat tools, such as the team chat feature in your unified communications platform. These channels can cater to work-related discussions or more casual topics. The main objective is to establish dedicated spaces where employees can engage, ask questions, share insights, and refer back to previous conversations on specific subjects. By utilizing internal communication tools, you can maintain a smooth information flow, mitigate issues like workflow disruptions, avoid missing out on important information, and facilitate more seamless collaboration. 

4. Efficient Customer Support Accessibility 

Enhancing customer service and improving their overall experience remain essential components for the sustained success of any organization. 

Unified communications enable employees to promptly attend to customer inquiries, regardless of their location. This capability allows them to promptly view incoming calls, chats, or emails across various devices. 

Moreover, unified communications can integrate with widely used Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software platforms. This integration ensures that whenever a customer reaches out to your company, the attending staff can access all pertinent notes and crucial details linked to that customer. This not only accelerates issue resolution but also demonstrates your commitment to understanding and addressing customer requirements. 

5. Customized Customer Experiences 

Customers typically seek convenience when seeking assistance or seeking solutions to their queries. While certain communication channels might suit a portion of your customer base, they might not be ideal for all. For instance, although digital channels like email and chat appeal to many customers, offering voice-based communication remains significant. 

Embracing a multi-channel support approach can significantly bolster customer satisfaction. The key lies in adopting a unified communications platform that consolidates voice, email, and chat interactions into a single queue. This process ensures that customers can engage through their preferred means, contributing to more personalized and satisfactory interactions. 

6. Enhanced Security for File Management and Communications 

Numerous businesses are adopting cloud-based file-sharing solutions due to their notable advantages. These include real-time backups, effortless teamwork, and consistent performance, even during business expansion. 

Additionally, your unified communications provider can aid in configuring software security and privacy settings to align with industry-specific compliance needs. For instance, healthcare organizations must adhere to HIPAA regulations as an illustrative example. 

7. Enhanced Productivity 

Whenever a worker needs to pause their ongoing tasks to search for information within an old email or locate a colleague’s contact details to seek clarification, their workflow is disrupted, necessitating a restart. A study conducted by the University of California revealed that, on average, it takes about 23 minutes for a worker to regain focus after such interruptions. However, when internal communications are optimal, employees spend less time grappling with information retrieval and operating without clarity. This reduction in friction leads to reduced frustration and heightened concentration. 

Every enterprise aspires to streamline processes and eliminate hindrances. Accomplishing these yields significant improvements in productivity and efficiency. UCaaS simplifies the tasks your employees undertake, resulting in time savings throughout their workday. These include: 

– Facilitating the receipt of calls from any location. 

– Enabling swift file sharing among team members for collaborative work, circumventing the need for lengthy email threads. 

– Directly receiving communications within your email platform, such as voicemails or faxes. 

– Initiating video meetings promptly with a single click, especially when urgent matters demand swift resolutions. 

– By providing your team with this technology, they can accomplish more within a day, mitigating some of the prevailing communication challenges. Enhanced collaboration through technology translates what previously required days of back-and-forth into more efficient resolutions. 

8. Enhanced Reporting and Analytics 

Detailed reports offer managers insights into agent performance and areas requiring improvement. For contact center managers, ensuring remote agents possess the necessary equipment, support, and skills to excel as customer service representatives is crucial. Particularly for hybrid or remote teams, having a modern reporting system becomes vital. This system provides real-time data and comprehensive analytics on customer experiences, enabling swift adjustments and immediate support to tackle emerging issues and enhance agent workflows. 

For contact center management, it’s recommended to seek a reporting system featuring: 

– Clear visibility into key metrics (e.g., first response time, average hold time, average speed of answer, average abandon rate, first call resolution, etc.) 

– Real-time dashboards 

– Customizable report creation 

– Pre-designed reports for essential insights 

– Easily accessible interaction analytics 

9. Cloud Reliability with 99.999% Uptime 

When evaluating cloud providers, prioritizing a high uptime guarantee is essential. A greater number of “nines” in the service level agreement translates to improved uptime reliability and reduced concerns about performance issues or business downtime. 

Many cloud providers offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee, equivalent to nearly 8.76 hours of anticipated downtime annually or around 10 minutes each week. Opting for five nines, a 99.999% uptime guarantee, ensures less than 26 seconds of monthly downtime and no more than 5.26 minutes of downtime per year. 

UCaaS, offered by Arrant Services, presents a unified communications platform designed for forward-thinking businesses seeking a competitive advantage in their respective markets. 

To gain deeper insights into UCaaS and its potential to enhance employee productivity, security, and efficiency from any location, access the downloadable infographic. Alternatively, contact Arrant Services to arrange a free, no-obligation needs assessment.