Unified communications: Greater satisfaction thanks to your communications

Once mostly deployed in medium and large businesses for their efficiency, unified communications solutions are becoming a key tool for smaller businesses as well. Happy employees and better service for customers: what more can you ask for? You don’t need to have hundreds of lines to manage in order to enjoy the positive effects of unified communications. Here are five reasons to adopt this technology, which groups your communications together and allows your employees to be easily reachable wherever they work.

Contact your employees anywhere, with just one number

A customer is trying to contact one of your sales reps at the office. No such luck, however; they’re on the road. The message left on their voicemail may go unheard for hours, if not until the next day if the employee in question chooses to finish their day at home and does not typically listen to their messages remotely. Oftentimes, that’s all it takes to miss out on a good opportunity.

This is the type of problem that a unified communications solution (or cloud communications, as it is known at Videotron Business) could have prevented, as this technology makes it possible to contact your employees at a single number, regardless of where they are that day.

The missed call would have automatically been transferred to the salesperson's cellphone if they weren’t at the office, and the message would have been accessible on all of their devices, including their Mac or Windows computer.

Enjoy a virtual receptionist

One of the benefits of unified communications is the possibility of implementing an automated receptionist to manage incoming calls. This type of system lightens up the call management load, as most calls could be transferred without any need for human intervention.

More than just an automated message, the virtual receptionist helps direct customers to the right place and makes it easier to reach employees wherever they are.

Just like an employee would, the virtual receptionist can redirect calls to a given department, where someone could take the call. Managers, for their part, have access to a ton of information, such as wait times and call durations, via a web platform.

The platform also allows you to easily adapt your response based on the day or season, for example. In 2022, customers are used to this concept, which also gives an air of professionalism to smaller businesses.

Bring together all your means of communication

Unified communications offer more than one way to manage telephone calls. It is also possible to chat, make calls, VOIP calls on a Wi-Fi network, and audio and video conferences, share your screen with others, and even receive faxes on the Videotron Business platform, based on each user’s plan.

According to a study on the impacts of unified communications by consulting firm Eastern Management Group, businesses that adopt such solutions reportedly see a 52% increase in productivity, given that less time is wasted trying to reach an employee with key information. And the benefits don’t end there. According to a study by technological solutions company Ultimate Software, 92% of employees consider that having access to technologies that improve their productivity would ultimately increase their level of satisfaction at work.

Unified communications offer more than one way to manage telephone calls.

Don’t worry about maintenance and updates

The deployment of a cloud communications solution requires a certain integration period—typically four weeks, including time for the migration and for getting familiar with the system internally. This is an important phase during which Videotron Business is there to guide and train staff.

Once installed, the technology requires no maintenance or expertise from the business, and updates are done automatically. This means easier maintenance in the long term, and it costs less than past generations of equivalent internal solutions.

Take advantage of advanced features

The unified communications solution also comes with several other advanced features. These can be useful in a business context, and are not necessarily available in telephone tools typically accessible to small businesses.

For instance, call recordings allow you to save a copy of your calls, organize them, and easily track them via a web interface, regardless of the device used to make the call in question. This feature can be used in the event of a legal dispute (think “who said what”), for training purposes, or to ensure service quality.

There are other advanced features as well, including the possibility of having a queue for various departments. Should all employees in said department be busy, the call automatically goes on hold. Certain settings could be implemented in the event of a larger-than-usual call volume.

The goal here remains the same: to allow workers to be accessible anywhere, regardless of their work situation. After all, teleworking and hybrid working may give your employees new-found flexibility, but this should not be at the detriment of customers and colleagues.