Over the past 18 months the world as we know it has changed. Across the globe Covid-19 has caused carnage and only recently have we seen signs of an essence of normality returning to our lives. Individuals from all walks of life have been affected, and no more so than business owners – running a business is always a challenge and often requires owners to think on their feet. This has been true for all throughout the pandemic, with most businesses choosing to go to a majority remote working team practically overnight just to stand a chance of surviving.
What many adopted as a temporary solution to a problem has become the new norm for many, but, as is with most things that are rushed, difficulties have arisen, and they need to be overcome if remote working is going to be a viable alternative to on-premise working.
Communication
Communication is the lynchpin of every successful business in the world, for without a good standard of communication your team doesn’t stand a chance of being productive and in turn successful. This can, however, be difficult when in a remote work setting.
Obviously, one of the key forms of communication is the telephone. Yes, there are alternatives, but business is still mainly done over the phone. The phone allows you to have ‘on the fly’ conversations as and when necessary. ‘Zoom’ and ‘Teams’ scheduled calling options are great when they have been organised beforehand but sometimes things need to be discussed and resolved immediately on a more personal basis than email or message.
With the adoption of remote working comes the death of face-to-face meetings, and in turn a dramatic reduction in productivity. This proves the point that, even in the heavily digitised world we live in, the phone is still a massive contributor to the levels of communication, collaboration, and in turn productivity, with suppliers and customers alike.
Problems of Telephony in the remote working world
There are many problems with Telephony in this situation and they have the power to cause real harm to both your business’ reputation and your operations as a whole.
With all the inbound business calls going to one single mobile it is inevitable that calls will be missed, and if the caller doesn’t take the opportunity to leave a voicemail, then that business will be lost. It is also very unprofessional for many reasons; calls may be answered in an unprofessional manner if on a personal device. This also works for outbound calls – it doesn’t look professional to be making important business calls from a number which is not recognised as being that of the company.
Another issue is the time wasted in answering calls, finding out the reason for the call and then connecting it to the desired recipient. The time all this takes can be astronomical, depending on the volume of calls you regularly receive in an average workday. As a short term solution, it is manageable, but it quite simply isn’t sustainable long term.
So, what is the solution if your business isn’t going to return to the office setting? The answer is to be more flexible going forward – this is achievable with the help of VoIP in Microsoft Teams.
VoIP in Teams
Many businesses across the globe already have a type of VoIP of one description or another. The connection of the two allows you to simplify your already complex working environment communications without adding further apps or tools. Teams makes this possible – with its platform already seamlessly offering great levels of communication, collaboration, and productivity, both internally and externally, you then simply layer your telephony on top of it.
In the next – and last – blog in the series we will explore the concept of VoIP, why you should use VoIP, why use VoIP in Teams, and how to set it up.
Ensuring remote working works for your organisation – P2 Technologies
At P2 Technologies, we’re helping professional service organisations just like yours to get ahead of their cyber concerns, meet compliance objectives and be one step ahead in this digital age. Concerns around communication, collaboration, and productivity are very common – especially when making the transition to a remote work setting. Contact our team today for a free, no obligation discovery call – during which we will learn about you and your business and allow us to discover and provide tailored advice on the best path forward for a secure and prosperous future for your organisation.
