Unified Communications functions VoIP & SMS remain the Communication Champions! There’s a lot to like about the changing face of communications and the dexterity of Unified Communications. Above all, Unified Communications enables businesses to communicate in the most effective manner; using the most appropriate and integrated communication mediums ie; SMS, VoIP, email, instant messaging, web-chat; file & screen sharing; presence; audio, web & video conferencing.
Unified Communications promises to promote collaboration, productivity, quality customer service and reduce costs. As a bi-product however, Unified Communications can also improve an organisation’s reputation and brand through the efficient ‘business as usual’ management of micro and macro touch-points.
Unified Communications also enables businesses to deliver relevance to the different generations in a timely and accurate manner. For instance, whereas Millennials and Generations X & Y embrace instant messaging, web-chat and SMS, Baby Boomers are more likely to be receptive to SMS and phone calls.
Unquestionably, the nuances and personalised nature of phone conversations will continue to resonate with the Baby Boomers (the largest generational demographic); and therefore voice is expected to remain business-critical in the foreseeable future, in particular as business VoIP in Australia has added significant flexibility and scalability to voice, whereby businesses are able to run increasingly more efficient call centres.
Amongst the realm of possibilities that Unified Communications brings to the party, it is evident that SMS and phone calls remain the bread and butter of efficient business communications. In particular, the incredible versatility, and cost benefits of SMS can deliver extraordinary Customer Experience (CX) through business applications such as; Alerts, Reminders, Confirmations, Updates, Payments, Welcome messages etc. Likewise, from a consumer perspective, SMS provides the convenience of retrieving information with relevance at any time and is also well received across the generations.
Above all, with collaboration in abundance in a cloud-based Unified Communications environment, it is now a business imperative to harness its possibilities. To do this, it makes perfect sense to use Unified Communications as a means of developing open feedback loops that are inclusive of staff, customers and stakeholders alike.
That said, I consider there are two questions a business needs to ask itself – and in a perpetual manner to deliver continuous improvement 1. ‘’How do we deliver relevance in a timely and accurate manner across the spectrum?’’ and 2. Do we have the technology on hand, and the processes in place to execute strategies that make us very good at communicating throughout?”
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Glossary:
SMS: (Short Message Service) the most widely used type of text messaging of up to 160 characters to another device.
Unified Communications: (UC) describes the integration of communication services such as; SMS, VoIP, instant messaging (chat), presence, audio, web & video conferencing, fixed-mobile convergence (FMC), desktop sharing, data sharing, speech recognition, voicemail, e-mail, SMS and fax.
VoIP: (Voice over Internet Protocol) – phone calls made over an internet connection, as against traditional phone lines.
