Are your Business Strategies Designed to Grow your Business?
Communication is important for any industry. If you’re not communicating efficiently with your clients and employees, your mixed messages will undoubtedly stunt your business growth. With the right tools, tech, and know-how, you can improve your voice communications and set your business up for long-term success.
Choose a Unified System for Your Office
If your company is currently working with multiple providers for your office phone lines, Internet, and call center, you’re unintentionally sabotaging your productivity. Upgrading to a more expansive communications system as you grow will require negotiating new plans with multiple providers. Troubleshooting takes longer when you need to adjust to a collection of diverse systems as well. Choose just one business service provider and keep your office connected with a unified system.
When you’re getting all your communications services from one provider, you have only one help center to deal with if something goes wrong. Growth is easier as well because you can negotiate for a comprehensive package that will allow all aspects of your company to grow together, from your business Ethernet to your hosted call center. If you’re struggling with how to grow your small business with minimal growing pains, this is one of the best strategies you can use.
Supplement Your Calls with Content on the Cloud
Verbal communication is important, but it can leave some gaps in understanding when you’re working with remote employees or long-distance clients. Supplement your communications with cloud-hosted documents for presentations that are sure to hit the mark. Documents and presentations hosted on the cloud are instantly accessible to multiple parties at once. Shoot a quick email to team members with a meeting brief and everyone will be on the same page when you connect for your conference call.
You can also use cloud-hosted documents to offer visual support for a complex topic. Having trouble selling the client on your new widget? Point him toward a brochure that’s packed with informative imagery while you’re on the phone and he can see what you’re talking about as you explain it. Put a spreadsheet on the cloud and your team can collaborate in real time on a single document while you chat. Add this visual element to what you’re saying and your message will hit much harder.
Build a Flexible Call Center
Your call center is one of the most important points of vocal communication with your customers. Make sure you set this department up for success. Choose a hosted call center and you’ll find that you can upgrade easily as your business expands. A hosted call center, also referred to as a virtual call center, allows businesses to monitor and manage all calls from the cloud. There is no software to download, the agents log in via the web from anywhere in the world. This will ensure that you’re never suffering from services that are too small to support your call volume, and you don’t have to undergo a long period of adjustments to scale up.
One of the key benefits of Hosted call centers is the ability to customize. You can modify your automated call attendant, monitor calling reports, and route calls seamlessly to agents in various office and remote work locations. These simple management tools help you boost productivity so your business can grow even faster.
Mind Your Message
When you’re focused on how to make your business grow, it’s easy to place your emphasis on the how rather than the what in terms of communications. Once you’ve chosen smart systems that will facilitate effective communication with your clients and coworkers, you need to pull back and focus on what you’re using all that technology to say. The best systems are still ineffective if you don’t have a polished message.
Employ a powerful arsenal of effective communication strategies to make sure you’re sending a smart message.
- Be consistent – Don’t change your company’s tag line or major message too often. Consistency is the key to building brand recognition and customer loyalty.
- Pace your communications well – It’s tempting to race through your message, especially if you’re working in a call center and repeating the same introductions and explanations to each caller. Monitor your communications and make sure everyone is communicating at a reasonable and understandable pace.
- Maintain a courteous and friendly demeanor. You will inevitably come across customers who are upset, unpleasant, or downright accusatory. Whether you’re running a large call center or answering customer calls on your cell phone, you must stay polite and patient if you want to retain and grow your customer base.
Following these smart communication strategies will help you improve your company’s image, send the right message, and ultimately grow your business as satisfied customers begin spreading the word about their experience.
Solid voice communication systems and strategies will help you take your company from a tiny startup to a thriving business at the top of your industry. Keep one finger on the pulse of your company so you can upgrade communications technology when needed while keeping your overall approach consistent and welcoming.
