Your network communications is an unruly little beast. If it’s left unattended, it could grind your business to a halt and play havoc with your communications channels. It’ll prevent your customers and staff from accessing your email, messaging, voice, file sharing, conferencing and other such services. As your traffic volumes increase and the required number of communications services grow, the operational challenges of keeping your business connected also escalate. And so do the opportunities for further network communications chaos.

Before you know it, you’re left in a digital black hole as your network communications beast willfully destroys your brand and business.

The implications of poor network communications are widespread and costly. SMEs lose an average of $420,000 (£330,000) per year due to poor inter-business communication.

It even adversely affects the perception of your business with your staff. UK companies that fail to communicate the corporate benefits on offer to their staff are reportedly losing a whopping £2.7bn a year.

When it comes to customer interactions, the scene is just as bleak for companies failing to communicate effectively. Poor customer service costs UK businesses £37bn every year. Further research reveals 13% of unsatisfied customers tell 15 or more people about a poor experience.

Two-thirds of customers also mention bad experiences as a reason for not using a company again. However, only 3% of dissatisfied customers make a complaint. What’s more, 89% of businesses expect to compete mainly on their customer experience in the coming year.

The right Unified Communications solution can resolve all these issues by bringing your disparate communication methods together into one system.

Such widespread streamlining provides your customers and workforce with access to a range of communication services across multiple devices and platforms.

For example, 3CX’s Unified Communications functionality gives you access to a range of communications services from a single user-facing platform. It provides a range of VoIP smartphone and softphone apps, giving users instant access to tools including instant messaging, web conferencing, email, voicemail and presence, to name a few.

As a result, Unified Communications tames your network communications beast and unleashes a wealth of benefits to your business. These include:

1. Better teamwork and collaboration

Unified Communications allows your organisation to collaborate how and when it needs to, including in real-time. And, by making it easier for employees to talk to one another, your business can boost its interdepartmental teamwork and collaboration.

When your departments and teams are all on the same page, the whole business wins. As a result, you can respond faster to competitive and environmental changes that affect your business. This enables key stakeholders to identify valuable opportunities, which may have previously gone unnoticed.

2. Time and cost savings

Research reveals employees waste more than one working hour per day communicating the same information to multiple colleagues. With a Unified Communications solution, your staff can send out vital information simultaneously and across multiple channels. This could save up to 75% of their time.

Unified Communications is also a one vendor solution. Instead of separate fees for multiple communication systems, you pay one regular bill and have the flexibility to scale your bandwidth.

As such, Unified Communications can provide your business with a healthy and ongoing return on investment. Further research reveals organisations that converge their voice and data access lines can save up to $1,200 (£900) per line each month.

3. Improved remote capability and reliability

A global economy demands 24/7 access and functionality across remote cross-country teams. Unified Communications allows remote teams to work seamlessly together, which reduces delays in your service.

You can also integrate more effective remote working strategies. For example, research reveals 22% of workers believe their commute allows them to fit more work into the day.  Some 29% said that access to technology is what helps them to work while they are in transit.

But employees need the right Unified Communications systems in place to make the most of their commute. A recent industry report found that “employees who believe their workplace effectively uses mobile tech are more creative, satisfied, and productive at work.”

Unified Communications protects against downtime as it offers various performance redundancies. So, if one tool goes down, another automatically kicks in.

In conclusion

There are plenty of reasons to implement a Unified Communications solution to your business from a customer and employee perspective.

Your staff will be more productive, happier and can collaborate more effectively. Your customers will be rewarded with a better experience. As a result, your brand perception will skyrocket and your network communications beast will be left in the dust.

If you’d like to find out more about how we use the 3CX Unified Communications solution, click here to talk to one of our team.