St. Louie's Blog

Despite plenty of advancements in technology, many workplaces are still limited to inadequate asynchronous communication channels. With the widespread adoption of smartphones and other smart devices, however, both consumers and employees now expect immediacy in terms of service and information exchange. Sticking to email, text messaging, voicemail and fax just won’t cut it anymore. 

Businesses need to integrate seamless, real-time business communication solutions. Here are a few useful tips to help you determine if your business stands to benefit from these tools.

Brainstorming and Team Collaboration

Good communication is essential to teamwork and collaboration of workers within your company. WIthout access to a real-time tool, it can be hard to provide feedback during time-sensitive discussions. Corporate message apps have been in existence for years now, and businesses can use them to great effect. The downside is that real time tools like these may not always come with a recording or saving feature, so information shared during the moment may not be available for recall later.

Interacting with Prospects and Clients

For members of your company that need to be in direct contact with prospects and clients, real time modes of communication are more ideal to use. People in sales, specifically, need to have computer telephony integration, access to product catalogs, customer relationship management software, and direct lines to colleagues or product experts at the very least. These make them more efficient in their roles. Meanwhile, the communication needs of those who work mainly with internal colleagues may not be real time.

Working at Home or Outside the Office

Home-based jobs have certainly become the norm in recent years. With millions of workers all over the world working in their homes at least half the time, telecommunication is more fundamental for companies. If some of your employees are required to work from home, or some other remote location or are simply on the move a lot, real-time business communication solutions are not only advantageous but crucial for operations. This way, people don’t have to be in the office at the same time to communicate with each other, and everyone stays productive.

Encouraging Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

Across many offices, the bring your own device (BYOD) trend is going mainstream, especially since it helps employees become more productive and satisfied in their work environment. If you are planning to adapt this policy in your own company, you should know that you may not always have control over what operating systems, types or brand of devices your employees will use. Fortunately, some real-time business communication solutions are also unified and can integrate easily with your workers’ preferred devices. Differences in platforms and applications no longer have to be a problem.

There is no one size fits all solution to all your company’s communication needs. Some tools that work well for one organization may not be the best fix for another. It would take careful consideration of your current structure, employees’ roles and collaboration requirements to know how you can improve communication within and outside the organization