Cloud communications are foundational to any modern business. They enable streamlined and integrated communication and collaboration and offer a host of benefits.. One that you probably haven’t considered is a competitive advantage. Let’s explore why this technology can give you an edge.
What Is Cloud Communications?
Before we jump into what is cloud communications? In this context, cloud communications represent a unified communications (UC) platform with enterprise-level functionality. It includes a VoIP (voice over IP) phone system, video conferencing, team chat, screen sharing, and file backup and storage.
With all these applications in one system in the cloud, you have a secure and comprehensive solution. It simplifies your tech stack and delivers scalability and flexibility. These benefits and more work together to produce a competitive advantage.
The How: What Gives You a Competitive Advantage?
No matter what industry you’re in, you likely face direct and indirect competition for your audience. To grow your market share, you need to retain current customers and attract new ones. The role of doing this is not on the shoulders of just your marketing, sales, and customer support teams. It’s the responsibility of your entire team, as everyone contributes in some way to a customer’s success and satisfaction. So how can cloud communications help?
Higher Productivity Equals Faster Responses and Happier Customers
By reducing the time it takes to respond to customer needs, resolve challenges, and any other customer-focused activity, all stakeholders must be as productive as possible. That’s hard to do if your communications systems are inefficient. Delays cause frustration and can cause you to miss important deadlines.
Conversely, cloud communications can stimulate productivity by removing barriers. Employees can reach out to others to get quick answers through chat features. Team members can also securely and easily share documents to complete contracts and other documents in a timely fashion, so customers aren’t waiting. These are just a few examples of how productivity can spike and lead to a better experience for your customers.
Scalability Is No Longer Cumbersome
With a UC platform, communication tools are available from wherever. If you’re still using legacy phones, they don’t work outside the office. Since the beginning of the pandemic, many companies have faced the need to digitize communication and move it to the cloud quickly. They were able to keep business moving and scale as necessary without challenges.
The ease in scaling helped boost these companies when they faced a number of unknowns, giving them a clear advantage over others in the industry.
The reality is that on-premises solutions aren’t scalable without capital investments and technicians arriving on-site. That slows down your momentum and your ability to address customer needs. Alternatively, with a cloud communications platform, adding new users is as easy as a few clicks.
Cloud Communications Allows You to Be Agile
Agile could easily be the word of the year for 2020. Agile organizations seamlessly moved operations remotely when COVID-19 forced them to do so. Those that didn’t have the same flexibility when it came to technology suffered and thus were automatically behind. Cloud communications is a critical aspect of agility. It enables your employees to access any file, take a call, send a chat, and more from wherever, across devices.
While there is light on the horizon regarding the pandemic, the need to work from wherever won’t be a fad. Remote work will be a pillar of any successful company in the 21st-century. Mobility and flexibility are attributes that cloud communications can support. In turn, by having these abilities, you’ll be able to delight customers instead of disappointing them.
Reduce Spend and Redistribute It to Enhance Customer Experiences
Finally, cloud communications will save you money. You have one bill from one provider at a stable cost. Your telecom bills may currently fluctuate from month to month. If you still have on-site servers, you’re also paying for their maintenance. Without these items on your budget, you’ll reap substantial savings.
These savings can then be reallocated to improve customer experiences, including on your website, app, or other touchpoints. These budget dollars can provide more value in this way instead of paying for old hardware or legacy systems.
Get an Edge with Cloud Communications
Cloud communications could be the most important investment you make in 2021. Empower your team to work smarter, so they can deliver the best service and support to customers. With a flexible platform that provides everything in one platform, the benefits are more than just internal; they can elevate your brand and give you an edge.
Check out Intermedia Unite—a cloud communications platform that has everything you need.
Kirsten Barta
Kirsten Barta is Sr Marketing Communications Manager at Intermedia
February 8, 2021
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