5 Benefits of Unified Communications Solutions

In today’s business world, staying connected is key. With so many business communications options available, it can be tough to know which option is the best for your needs. That’s where unified communications (UC) systems come in.

UC systems provide a way for businesses to connect and collaborate combining a wide variety of communications tools, all from one central location or interface.

Let’s explore the five benefits of using a UC platform in your business.

Table of Contents

1. What is a unified communication solution?
2. 5 Benefits of unified communication solutions
3. Final thoughts on unified communication solutions for virtual offices

What is a unified communication solution?

Unified communication solutions help businesses to streamline their communication channels and improve customer service. A unified communications platform consolidates various communication tools, such as email, instant messaging, VoIP, and video conferencing, into a single interface. This makes it easy for employees to connect with each other and with customers to manage various tasks.

In addition, unified communications platforms often integrate with customer relationship management (CRM) software. This allows businesses to keep track of customer interactions, perform important tasks, convert customers and resolve issues more quickly.

As an example, Yeastar PBX phone systems, when paired with Linkus UC, allow businesses to utilise a single platform to manage all of their communication needs (voice, instant messaging, video conferencing and more). By consolidating different communication channels into one platform, unified communications platforms can help businesses better meet the needs of their staff and customers.

5 Benefits of unified communications solutions for businesses

Unified communication solutions are growing in popularity for businesses of all sizes, especially during and post the COVID-19 pandemic. Statista reports that the global unified communications and collaboration market grew by 29% in 2020 reflecting the growing need for this incredible technology.

Here are 5 of the most compelling reasons to consider unified communications for your company.

1. Improve collaboration & business communication efficiency

Unified communication solutions group many modern communication technologies into a one platform to provide many benefits for improving business efficiency and workflow. These communication technologies include versatile call management features, video conferencing, instant messaging and more. Let’s take a closer look at how these features can help you manage your communications across your company.

Call management features for efficient internal & customer communications

A good UC system will come with intuitive call management features that will help you improve efficiency, and provide support for agents/consultants.

Here’s a quick overview of some of the most popular call management features and how they benefit your business.

Automatic call distribution: This feature allows you to distribute incoming calls evenly among a group of agents, allowing you to reduce wait times and proactively manage incoming calls. This is ideal for businesses that receive a high volume of calls.

Call routing: Ensure every caller gets the best possible service with call routing. Call routing allows you to route calls to the right agent based on criteria such as location, skillset or availability.

Transferring calls: The ability to transfer calls is essential for handling customer inquiries efficiently. It’s also a great way to manage after-hours calls.

Call monitoring: This feature provides businesses with the ability to monitor employee to customer interactions and improve customer service or uncover other valuable insights that may benefit their communication strategy.

IVR: Interactive voice response allows businesses to provide callers with information via a voice response system and prerecorded messages that help customers find the right department or specialist.

Reporting: The ability to report on who called your organisation or who from your organisation called a customer is critical, Unified Communications systems can do so much more however. Detailed reports from Unified Communications systems can tell you how long calls are taking to be answered, are calls or messages are being missed and so much more.

HD Video conferencing & screen sharing

Video conferencing is a feature that is becoming increasingly popular in the world of business uniting people and businesses irrespective of geographical location. A unified platform allows businesses to conduct video conference calls with clients and remote employees.

UC solutions facilitate video calls with crisp picture quality, making it easier to conduct meetings and presentations without the frustration of poor quality. In addition, screen-sharing can be used for collaborating on tasks, training, development and other purposes.

Instant messaging

Timely communication is essential for business success. Yeastar reports that 50% of businesses save up to 20 minutes per employee every day by making use of more efficient message management (for example, instant messaging rather than e-mail). That’s why more and more companies are turning to unified communications platforms that offer instant messaging capabilities. Instant messaging allows team members to quickly exchange ideas and information, without the need for lengthy/time-consuming email threads or video calls.

What’s more, instant messaging can be easily integrated with other business and project management applications, making it an indispensable part of any modern workplace. If you’re looking for a way to improve team messaging and collaboration, a unified communications platform with instant messaging may be the one-stop perfect solution. Most modern UC platforms can integrate with Website Chat Apps, WhatsApp, SMS and more to offer a seamless customer-facing experience

2. Streamline workflow processes & improve productivity

A unified communication platform is a powerful tool for streamlining workflows and increasing employee productivity. By integrating multiple communication channels into a single platform, businesses can eliminate the need for employees to juggle multiple applications and devices.

This not only saves time but also reduces the chances of important messages and files getting lost in the shuffle. With everything in one place, team members can more easily stay up-to-date on project progress and share files and information. The bottom line is that unified communication platforms can help businesses run more smoothly and efficiently.

Unified communications systems often come with a variety of extra productivity-enhancing features such as task management and calendar integration. In fact, UC systems can integrate with a range of operating systems, audio devices, applications and CRM systems.

OS and Audio device compatibility

Unified communications platforms offer key business benefits such as their ability to integrate with operating systems like MS Windows and MAC OS as well as various audio devices like headsets. This allows users to take advantage of the full range of features and functionality offered by the platform, while still using the devices they are familiar with.

In addition, this type of integration makes it easy to add new users to the system and ensures that everyone has access to the same information and tools. Accessibility makes unified communications invaluable.

CRM integrations

CRM systems are essential for businesses of all sizes. They help companies keep track of their customers, sales, and other important data. However, CRM systems can be complex and difficult to use. The UVC Softphone Extension is a unified platform that helps to make CRM system use easier. It integrates with Salesforce and Zendesk, two of the most popular CRM systems.

This allows businesses to unify multiple channels. Plus, the platform is scalable and can be customized to fit the needs of any business. As a result, the UVC Softphone Extension is a great tool for businesses that want to improve their productivity and streamline their workflow.

We’ve seen how unified communications can improve your workflow processes now let’s explore how they can reduce your costs.

3. Reduce costs associated with multiple apps & tools

When you have all of your communication needs in one place, you don’t need to waste money on multiple apps or services that provide individual, limited features.

A unified communication platform reduces the number of apps your team needs to use for communication and results in significant cost and time savings for your business. This consolidation of technology also improves your team’s project management workflow ultimately helping them deliver on their tasks and meet their objectives at a lower business cost.

Completely cloud-hosted PBX systems pair unified communication solutions can help improve their workflow while reducing costs associated with their telecommunications.

Increase savings with cloud-based PBX systems

In the past, businesses would have to invest in multiple standalone systems, such as separate phone systems, email servers, and connectivity hardware.

A business phone system can be cloud-based, which helps businesses realize even more cost savings in terms of installation and maintenance of hardware, data storage and equipment. As a result, they have become increasingly popular with small and medium-sized businesses as a powerful and cost-effective phone system solution.

Cloud-based PBX systems also offer scalability and flexibility, so businesses can easily add or remove users as needed.

Unified communication platforms integrate with cloud-hosted PBX including hardware and peripherials that a business may have already invested in and help a business manage its communications.

Next, we’ll cover how UC solutions improve customer relationship management and reduce costs associated with managing information and providing customer service by integrating with CRM software.

4. Excellent customer service & satisfaction

A business’s customer relationship management (CRM) software is a vital tool for managing customer data and interactions. A unified communications platform that integrates with CRM software can help a business improve its customer service and reduce related costs by consolidating customer information and improving communication between customer service representatives and customers.

By integrating a unified communications platform with CRM software, businesses can give their service representatives access to customer information in real time, enabling them to provide better, more efficient service with fewer repetitive questions.

Additionally, businesses can use the integration to route customer calls to the most appropriate representative based on the customer’s needs, ensuring that each call is handled by the person best equipped to resolve the issue.

If you’d like to take a closer look at a possible solution for your business take a look at the UVC Softphone Extension we discovered earlier. It’s a UC platform that integrates with some popular CRMs like Zoho and Microsoft Dynamics.

5. Gain valuable insights with advanced analytics and reporting

One of the key benefits of unified communications platforms is that they offer helpful call analytics. This can include call reporting data on call durations, call monitoring, and other key metrics.

Simplified QA and reporting

Call analytics will help your team measure and control quality assurance, and improve your support and sales strategy They can also help businesses identify patterns and trends in customer behaviour.

QA analysts can identify problems with the product or service being offered, as well as assess the quality of customer service. In addition, call monitoring can help to identify training needs for employees. By regularly reviewing recordings of customer interactions, businesses can ensure that their employees are providing quality service and meeting customer expectations.

Full control of cost management

For any business, cost management is a vital part of day-to-day operations. Unified communication platforms give businesses a centralized way to track and manage their spending. This can be especially helpful when it comes to telecommunications costs, which can quickly add up. By tracking calls, text messages, and data usage, businesses can get a better sense of where their money is going and make adjustments accordingly.

In addition, unified communication platforms often come with features that allow businesses to automate their cost management processes. For example, they may allow businesses to set up alerts when certain spending thresholds are reached.

As a result, a unified communications platform can be a valuable tool for managing operations and monitoring costs.

Final thoughts on the benefits of unified communication solutions

We’ve explored a few of the many benefits that businesses can experience by implementing unified communications solutions, such as increased collaboration and efficiency, cost savings, better customer service, and advanced analytics. Large enterprises already make extensive use of UC solutions however small and medium-sized businesses are a rapidly growing market for this technology and often don’t realise how much they too can benefit.

Choosing the right UC platform is important for your business. Make sure you use a platform with the right combination of features and tools to reduce your business communications costs and improve efficiency. Leverage apps that are easy to integrate with and make sure your system is flexible enough to scale and change with your business.

At United Telecoms we can help you identify a UC solution that is perfect for your business and integrates with your on-premise or cloud-based VoIP phone system. Contact us for friendly, expert advice from our team.

You can also explore our UVC Softphone Extension to learn more about our UC platform, or read guide to VoIP phone systems to learn more about VoIP.