Why SMEs are Relying on Cloud Telephony Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic is far bigger than anyone could have imagined and it is going to stay longer than we expected. It seems like the world needs to prepare itself for the second wave that could be around the corner. The first wave itself brought disaster for businesses as they were suddenly pushed towards the new normal. Thankfully, things will not be as drastic in the future because organizations of all sizes and types are already comfortable with the concept of remote working.

When it comes to adapting your business for the new normal, cloud telephony has emerged as the key technology to give you the foundation needed for the transition. Essentially, cloud based solutions free up the business from the constraints of on-premises infrastructure and makes the employees capable of working from anywhere, which is the obvious need of the hour.

Cloud Telephony- The Ultimate Solution for all Challenges

“Every problem is a gift — without problems we would not grow.” – Anthony Robbins

That’s exactly the perspective which businesses need to take right now. The key to getting through the pandemic is embracing problems and leveraging solutions that resolve the situation and ultimately drive business growth in the long run. Cloud telephony is the technology that perfectly fits this quote by facilitating remote work for the sake of business continuity in the present and opening new growth opportunities for the future. While you can leverage cloud solutions to enable people to work from home, the initiative also shows your concern for their health and well being. Obviously, this is one smart investment for any business as it lets you maximize productivity and motivate your team as well. Chances are that you would have already embraced the solution by now, so it makes sense to assess the value it has been delivering to your business during the pandemic. And you can actually think of ways to get more value from it ahead, even as the situation gets better because work from home is likely to be around for a long time.

The Regular Benefits of Cloud Telephony

Cloud telephony is perhaps the most amazing communication technology that businesses have discovered during the last decade. Although the context gets more real than ever in the current COVID crisis situation, it makes sense to understand the general benefits of the technology. Here are some you may already be deriving if you had a cloud solution in place before the pandemic-induced switch:

• Quick set-up and zero installation charges to get the system up and running
• No infrastructure requirements that save major cost for start-ups and SMEs
• Easy to scale solution based on the needs of a growing business
• Pay-as-you-go model that saves cost and drives scalability
• More reliable in comparison to the traditional communication systems
• 24/7 accessibility from any location
• Secure platform that offers built-in disaster recovery
• Extensive flexibility with ease of integration with other CRMs
• Real-time data updates and detailed analytics
• Professional set up with IVR automation to boost the brand’s image

How Cloud Telephony Solutions serve as the Core of your Survival Strategy?

Now that you understand all about the generic benefits of cloud telephony, you would want to know more about the relevance of this technology in the COVID context. The truth is that it can be a life saver for any business that wants to get through the pandemic era unscathed in terms of its key processes, employee productivity and customer satisfaction. Here are some ways it can serve as the core of your survival strategy during the crisis.

Never miss on Customers’ Calls: The biggest challenge for companies as a part of the remote work shift is to be available to the customers. After all, your sales and customer support teams are no longer operating from the office, so being there for the callers seems to be tougher than usual. But cloud solutions have you covered because they facilitate easy routing of calls to the responsible agents, regardless of their location. What’s more, the previous configurations and features such as voice broadcast and IVR continue working as usual. So your agents can work as usual, even from their homes by simply accessing their accounts and handling business calls via their cellphones.

Deliver Top-notch Customer Service: By moving to a reliable, scalable and secure cloud communication service during the pandemic, you can continue delivering top-notch customer service even during the toughest of times. It lets your team leverage the virtual receptionist feature so that you can cut down the average hold time for the customers and provide them better experiences. Even if a live agent is not available to attend to the calls at a specific point in time, they can still be answered with a personalized greeting or a contextual message through IVR. 

Call Recordings: Another advantage of embracing cloud telephony is that it provides the option of recording inbound and outbound calls for the quality analysis purpose. You can also use these recordings for tracking the performance of the agents even while they are out of office, which can get difficult in the current scenario. While the recorded calls can be used for identifying the specific issues that your customers may be facing amid the crisis and finding feasible solutions to them, they can also serve the purpose of agent training for handling the callers and issues in a better way.

Instant Meetings: Without any doubt, customer satisfaction and retention are vital to businesses during the pandemic but you cannot overlook employee productivity and efficiency too. The switch is not easy for people who have suddenly been forced to work from home. Meetings are crucial at this stage to facilitate the free flow of information and ensure connectivity between teams even as they work remotely to maintain social distancing. A cloud communication solution enables you to set up instant meetings via both audio and video conferencing so that teams are never out of touch. 

Business Continuity: The COVID-19 situation has proved that disasters can strike any time and there is a need for organizations to have a business continuity plan in place. Cloud communication comes ahead as the foundation of the business continuity plans by keeping the telephony solutions up and running even during a disaster. With cloud solutions, it is possible to empower the team to work remotely and collaborate seamlessly without any disruptions. Obviously, this can make a difference between life and death for any business and save you from the struggle for survival even in the toughest situation. 

Reliable security: As your employees work from remote locations, security can be a big concern because you cannot trust people. They may lose data unintentionally or steal it with wrong intentions. However, a cloud-based telephony solution has you covered because it provides reliable control over security. Further, it enables you to meet the auditing and compliance requirements like mandatory call-logging if needed at any stage. A cloud telephony system comes with a feature that allows you to track agent activities and ensure that they are not compromising the call data or customer experiences.

Wrapping Up  

Keeping your small business up and running amid this COVID-19 situation is surely a huge challenge but the adoption of right technologies can help you do it successfully. Surely, cloud telephony is a technology that you cannot afford to miss out on.