Your customers, no matter what industry, will all be juggling similar challenges. There’s the need to update legacy infrastructure and adopt new technologies in line with their digital transformation goals, to become more productive and more efficient, and of course to make cost-savings where possible. At the same time, they’re striving to deliver a great customer experience (CX), as well as ensuring staff are kept happy, engaged and motivated by a positive employee experience (EX).
An integrated communications strategy is one solution that can help your customers meet all of these demands. Implementing a Unified Communications (UC) platform, for example, could benefit your customers in a myriad of ways. The challenge you face as a channel partner is in educating them about what those benefits are – particularly as many businesses might not be fully clued up on what UC is, what implementing it entails, or why they should be doing it in the first place. Some may even be daunted by the prospect.
We’ve summarised the key benefits in the rest of this blog, though as ever, the trick for channel partners is to thoroughly assess your customers’ telecoms needs before building the case for UC. For some businesses, flexibility might be the key selling point. For others, it could be cost savings, pure and simple.
The cost savings (and opportunities) of convergence
One of the main benefits of UC for your customers is likely to be the fact that streamlining the communications infrastructure and tools they use can lead to significant cost savings. This is because a converged offering groups everything – voice, data, mobile and more – into one package from a single provider. Making it a much more reliable, efficient and cost-effective option.
Another cost saving perk of removing complexity is that it could lead to a reduced need for travel, and perhaps even real estate. This is also great from an environmental credentials point of view, which is increasingly a consideration for today’s businesses. What’s more, streamlined IT and communications allow a business to react more quickly and be more agile, creating the ideal foundations to realise significant business growth.
From employee engagement to customer satisfaction
Another huge benefit of UC, and one that your customers may not fully appreciate the extent of, is the positive impact it can have on employee engagement and customer satisfaction.
First up, it makes life easier for staff because it means they can seamlessly communicate with each other, as well as with their own customers and prospects, no matter what device they’re on or where they are. It supports all kinds of communication, too – whether it’s phone, email or video. Putting businesses in a much stronger position to create a productive flexible working culture and to access and attract talent from a wider pool.
But that’s just the employee side of things. The good news is that UC has a hugely positive impact on the kind of CX your customers’ businesses can deliver, too. It supports more seamless, joined-up, multi-channel communications, any time of day or day of the week, resulting in an improved experience for customers. And of course, this improvement does wonders for business by boosting customer acquisition and retention.
Flexible enough for the future
As a channel partner, providing your customers with a UC solution means equipping them to upscale or downscale quickly and simply, in line with business strategies or results. Cost savings, business growth, happy staff, loyal customers – these are all laudable outcomes of UC investment. But it’s the flexibility it brings that will truly make your customers ready for the future.
