How can you help small teams with better communications services?
Small companies have many of the same communications challenges as their bigger peers – but fewer options are available to help solve them. But, with the right approach, MNOs and service providers can quickly and easily help them collaborate more effectively and enhance communication with customers – how can you deliver?
Small businesses need help to manage their communications
It’s a fact that many companies have fewer than 10 people – but that doesn’t mean they don’t need to handle their communications as efficiently as larger organisations. Like everyone else, people in smaller companies need to be able to handle inbound and outbound calls, transfer them to colleagues, consult with their fellows and much more.
The problem is that most companies of such size are largely treated as a collection of consumers (a topic which we’ve addressed before, so we won’t dwell on it here). So, what often happens is that mobile operators may well provide all of the subscriptions to such a business, but they are essentially separated, so there’s no relationship between them.
All companies naturally form teams and groups
But there are relationships inside the company. Humans naturally organise themselves into groups and teams of collaborators. As we all know, regardless of size, companies typically share some basic organisational principles – people have different roles and share responsibilities. A firm of builders may have someone managing accounts, someone handling customer enquiries, as well as the people on the site. An architecture practice will likely have people whose roles complement the architects and who keep the business going.
Online enquiries and order processing are great – but not every business wants or needs them; it’s even not suitable for many, as they may be selling more complex propositions (a quote for redeveloping a bathroom isn’t the same as selling branded tea towels or outdoor goods). People need to talk with potential and existing customers, among themselves and to share tasks and activities.
Help small businesses organises communications channels – hunting, twinning, absence management and more
So, it’s not hard to see that enabling associations to be created between different mobile subscriptions makes a lot of sense. And, that’s easy to do. For example, you can give the company a virtual number (fixed or mobile) on which all calls to the company can be received.
That building company may display multiple numbers on the side of its van – typically mobile numbers today. How can anyone jot these down? Help them by giving them a single number, which can be routed to different people in the team.
You can also enable your business customers to form teams – three people in this one, four in another, and three unattached. A simple IVR menu allows callers to choose which team they want, distributing the call more effectively to the right person.
You can provide hunting in the team, so that if one member of that group is busy, the call is routed to another who is available. You can allow people to withdraw from the team, by taking lunch, or attending a meeting, and you can get these groups to overflow into another, so that calls are never lost.
You can also enable twinning, so people can use multiple devices and control public and private identities - choosing when calls from the public identity are routed to the twinned numbers, using the available settings (presence, absence, etc), or to divert this number to another number – to a colleague, or queue (if queues are available), a hunt group, or to voicemail.
Why aren’t you helping your small business customers more? It drives revenue and build relevance
The real issue is not what can you offer small business users, it’s really – why aren’t you helping companies in this segment? With Gintel, that’s easy – and it’s also a simple way to drive engagement, build loyalty and establish relevance.
We can help you deliver services that make a difference. They enhance efficiency for your customers and provide revenue opportunities for you – so, why not get in touch and find out how Gintel’s Cloud PBX can help you focus on a segment that really matters?
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