How to work better, smarter, and faster in order to increase productivity and increase revenue? This question has as many answers as there are many aspects to consider, and it depends on the business. But one aspect all companies dealing with costumers have in common is the communication factor. Indeed, whether it is by phone, mail, or fax, communication is vital when interacting with prospects or clients.
That’s where a business phone system in the cloud can help. With many features on offer and attractive prices, a VoIP phone system is proving to be the right tool to increase efficiency, customer satisfaction, and consequently revenue.
Cost efficiency
For those who are still reluctant to make the switch to VoIP, maybe the following numbers will help. According to a Gartner press release, 60% of businesses will have switched to VoIP by 2022. Also, companies using VoIP admitted to experiencing up to 50% savings on their phone bills.
With such savings, it is understandable that companies would turn to business phone systems in the cloud.
The low cost is essentially due to:
- No cable maintenance charges as calls are made via the Internet.
- The minimal infrastructure needed for the system to operate.
- Calls no longer being charged per minute.
Simplified Infrastructure
To have your company set up with standard lines is not only pricey, but also time consuming and requires much planning. You have to take your business development into consideration before implementing your cabling infrastructure. If your business sees sudden growths, will your system be able to support it? How can you anticipate such growth?
Indeed, it is difficult to accurately predict how your business is going to grow. However, scaling your business has never been simpler with VOIP. When new lines are needed to accommodate new employees, all you have to do is contact your VoIP provider and add new users to your system.
Therefore, a business phone system in the cloud provides a more efficient solution to scale your business.
Better rapport
Two things are important to have in mind here: a) communication is key to building rapport, and b) a business is as strong as its staff.
The good news is that a business phone system in the cloud allows you to take care of both.
First, calls between employees within a company are free, resulting in better rapports between employees. Members of staff working remotely from home, in the office or in a branch in a different location, will not hesitate to call colleagues for clarifications or information knowing it will have no impact on the final bill. Thus, helping employees’ interaction and rapport.
Secondly, the video-conference tool, available to VoIP phone systems users, also contributes greatly to the building of good employees’ rapport. When we know that facial expression and body language count for 55% of a person’s communication, we understand that this tool helps improve rapport between colleagues as it allows them to receive the part of the message that words cannot carry.
This open communication facilitates harmonious and friendly relationships, boosting employee morale, which in turn affects:
- When people know one another well, they are much more likely to work well together and be willing to collaborate for the betterment of the company.
- Employee retention rate. When employees feel connected to a company and feel as though their fellow co-workers have become like family, they will be much less likely to want to seek employment somewhere else. Which will save the company the hassle of hiring and training someone else.
All of these elements add up to one result: a happy and well-adjusted workforce who is naturally more productive. By feeling more connected to their place of employment, workers generally want to try harder to help keep the company going and to help it grow.
Integration with enterprise systems
Because a VoIP phone system operates on Internet Protocol, it can integrate with your company’s CRM system. This is an efficiency dream for any customer centric company. Indeed, CRM systems are used by sales agents, marketers, managers and many other departments in order to manage customer relationships.
Without VoIP, when a phone operator agent/representative needs to call a customer to discuss details regarding their contract, they have to look up the information in the CRM software, make notes and call from the office phone line. Once the conversation is finished, the agent must then manually enter every detail of the exchange in the CRM software. Since this is a completely manual process, it is quite possible that certain calls or important information will get lost or forgotten.
For businesses that switched to a phone system in the cloud the same process is a lot simpler. Because of VoIP integration, the agent does not have to leave the CRM software to make the call. Click to call functionality allows them to contact the customer instantly. When the call is complete, the details are automatically noted within the CRM software such as date and timestamp, duration of the call etc.
Dealing with leads effectively
According to a Forbes article, ” Why companies waste 71% of internet leads”, a study conducted over ten thousand companies shows that it takes 2 days on average for a representative to respond to a lead, and that same representative only makes 1.3 call attempts before giving up and moving on. The best way to avoid this loss is to implement a VoIP system and use the call routing feature that will direct the call to the specific employee required to complete the task. If this employee is unavailable, the call hunting feature will automatically direct the customer to the next qualified person.
All in all, whether you want to boost morale within the workforce or insure leads are not neglected, switching to VoIP could be the step that leads to new levels of success for your business.
Alice Johnson
