Unifying your communications infrastructure
Everybody has had to leave a voicemail for someone at some point. In business it’s a necessary evil and quite a frustration, but it can be worse than that. If someone calls your organisation and can’t get hold of the person they wanted to speak to, or if they’re looking to recruit a new supplier and can’t get hold of the boss, they’re likely to trickle down the list of candidates and move on to someone else.
So we can assume this isn’t something you want to do. There are ways of protecting yourself against it.
Why is this important?
Lost business is lost business. Take this scenario: you’re driving somewhere and someone calls you at your office. They get your voicemail message, they can’t get hold of the right person, things don’t get done. And yet you’re sitting down driving, there’s no reason you shouldn’t take a quick call.
Research from accounting giant Sage says 22% of missed deadlines in business are down to the right person not being available. Meanwhile manufacturer Cisco says 60% of businesses will have adopted flexible working by the end of this year.
This will increase the “right person not there” syndrome.
How do I get involved?
The answer is called Unified Communications by the technology industry, which is an umbrella term for bringing all of your communications to the one handset. When someone calls you, your land line, mobile and soft phone (like Skype) all ring at the same time so no matter where you are you can pick up the call.
Equally, it extends to your laptop and smartphone. So if someone wants to use Internet Chat to communicate with you, as long as your phone, laptop or desktop are accessible you’re available – the message will come up regardless of where you are.
There are other advantages as well. Costs tend to plummet because it’s all done over the Internet, so international call costs go away. Mostly, though, the benefits are in productivity and the art of not losing that call.
Who’s done it?
Moo Cards is a producer of business cards that uses Skype extensively. It works first as a virtual post-it note – if someone is not at their desk by phone then an instant message, using the same system, will get them. Using a 3G dongle and a laptop they have the same connection as if they were in the office.
This is important because with Skype as their primary form of contact, the staff appear to be functioning and taking calls as if they were at their desk – this is transparent to their customers who have just dialled the one number, or colleagues who’ve just hit their name on the Skype opening screen.
This is a 25-person business, not a massive concern. Another small company doing well out of this sort of communication is ItalyAbroad, whose mobile phone supplier is Orange. The company spends a lot of its time sourcing foodstuffs and other items from Italy but needs to be available to customers whenever they call. Using the Blackberry handsets as their main numbers the directors are always contactable but equally importantly the same devices carry a high speed Internet connection, emails, texting and instant messaging.
Benefits
The advantages are twofold. First, an Internet-based phone line will cost less than a hard-wired analogue calling system. Ongoing costs are less and you can take the Internet line with you as long as you have access to a connection.
Also there are productivity points. Unified messaging often includes video calling so you start to eliminate some face to face meetings. This means international flights can be cut back, internal travel from site to site can be reduced. The carbon arguments are compelling enough but that aside the elimination of so much travelling time makes people more productive.
And of course there are those opportunities which are no longer missed because if you’re on a train with the laptop in front of you, you’re still at your desk to your colleagues and customers.
Action points
- Talk to your mobile provider about your precise situation.
- Look at the amount of travelling you do and try to evaluate how much business you typically lose through people not being available.
- Consider buying three-way headsets from people like Jabra and Plantronics. These are headsets, usually working through Bluetooth, which will link to a landline phone, a mobile phone and a soft phone on a computer like Skype - so you don’t have to fiddle with which phone’s ringing at any one time.
