No matter what business you are in, issues are sure to arise at some point; there’s no getting around the inevitable. No one who is working hard on behalf of their clients and customers sets out to do them harm or cheat them out of time or money; but the fact is that miscommunications can happen and if they are not handled immediately they can easily take on a life of their own. It benefits all companies - in all industries - to take a proactive approach to managing customer issues; but in this day and age that can be easier said than done when you are dealing with people who are physically far away. Teleconferencing services - such as audio conferencing, web conference, and video conference can help.
Through web conferencing and other teleconferencing services companies can easily bridge the difference between themselves and their clients - no matter how far apart they are. Consider how such services can be used on a daily basis:
Daily audio conferencing to get project participants quickly on the same page and updated on any events that may have occurred throughout the day.
Web conference to share documents on which the team is working so that those involved can make comments and potential changes in real time. One of the more frustrating things about working with people far away is that you can’t physically sit down with them to look at something; web conferencing can remedy that and potentially save problems down the road.
When a meeting has to happen but the participants are on different coasts - or in different countries - video conference can save the day, allowing those involved to see as well as hear each other. Consider the problems that such a service can avoid if you are able to immediately get on a video conference with clients and resolve issues within minutes.
Popularity: 13% [?]
Striking a deal is tough work whether you’re in front of your sales prospect or not; but trying to negotiate a deal over the phone presents its own set of challenges. There is the challenge to present information without the benefit of your audience seeing your face - without the props that are often used in traditional presentations. There’s much that goes into such an event and the salesperson on the other end of the phone had better be on their game and ready to do their product or service justice. Professional audio conferencing can help.
Audio conferencing is a part of teleconferencing services - high-end technology that allows us to communicate most effectively. Audio conferencing joins the ranks of web conference and video conference; all methods by which we are able to “meet” with parties who do not have to be in the same physical location.
Through professionally run audio conferencing services you can:
Reach out to a prospective audience in another part of the country. Just because you’re not down the street from each other doesn’t mean you can’t do business.
Demonstrate your technological prowess. The fact of the matter is that if you want to do business with someone who is far away you’re going to have show them that you can handle the work and the distance. What better way to demonstrate that point than by showcasing that ability during an initial or subsequent sales call?
Communicate more efficiently than through email. There’s no denying that the ability to email each other is enormously convenient and can be effective; but it’s not right for every situation. When it comes to a prospective client/vendor relationship, those with whom you work want to know that they can speak to you and have their questions answered; audio conferencing can do that.
Popularity: 23% [?]
In the last post I talked about my struggle to bring the partners in my company up to speed technology wise. We had been slow in this regard for far too long and I had been fighting the battle to have us step up to the plate. We are, after all, an old-school company that opened sixty years ago with very simple goals and a dedication to serve our customers well. This was the only thing on which my partners were focused - along with making sure that employees were happy and cared for - and that’s not a bad thing; but we were missing out on a technological age that could help us to continually grow our business. I had gotten a website established much to everyone’s chagrin but eventually they came to realize how much good it did us as a business and they even learned to love it at it some point. Same thing happened with web conferencing which I pushed from the beginning as a way to communicate with salespeople who were traveling. Now I was focused on video conference - something that I knew would take us one step further and help us to really grow.
Through video conference we could reach out to new business prospects around the world without having to make a trip or get on the phone. Video conference would allow us to get in front of our audience no matter where they are and pitch our products and services just as if we are in the same room with them. This would be a huge thing for our sales team who could cut down on travel and really be in a variety of places at the same time.
Eventually - like with the website - my way of thinking won out and I was able to convince our team to move forward with video conference; something that I am sure they will not regret.
Popularity: 20% [?]
Moving slowly and surely onto the next level of technology is something that my company has seemed to be doing for some time. We are absolutely old school in every sense of the word - having been in operation for sixty-years; and there a lot of good things about that. We care about our customers, we give them personal service, and our employees are like family. There are wonderful things about having old school values in business and it has gotten us recognized amidst our competition. There are, however, also drawbacks to having an old school mentality specifically when it comes to technology. I am only one owner of this company and the other two are significantly older and more set in their ways. Specifically they are very headstrong about technology and how it can “ruin” a company but I have been fighting the good battle about this for quite some time. I have known for awhile that we were going to live and die by our decision to embrace technology at least in some form and I started with convincing them to launch a website. This was a hard battle to fight but in the end I won and it has been a huge boost to our business. Following that I was even able to convince my partners that web conferencing could work really well for us. We had salespeople who were out on the road with their laptops and we would be able to “meet” on a weekly basis and get on the same page as a company. This could be a huge deal for us.
They finally did agree and web conferencing has since become a big part of our business operations. Next I moved on to video conference and setting the stage for taking us one step further in technology. More to come…
Popularity: 18% [?]
As anyone in business will tell you, closing that big deal is something that we all strive to do. We want the big fish - the one that no one else can get; the one that will make us a star in the office and may even further our career. This was how I felt about one prospective client in particular; this was the company over which all in our industry fought. We all wanted this account but we had never been able to win it - we were always close but never prevailed. This time I had gone after a meeting on my own and I was in a strong position as far as I was concerned. I had met with them several times and they had seemed adequately impressed up until now. We had entered the next phase, however, where I was called upon to meet with senior officials of the company. The problem was, however, that these senior officials were in another country and could not be met with in person. I was to meet with them via video conference.
Video conference was something that I had used previously and successfully. I was nervous about using it in this capacity, however. This was a big deal and a lot was riding on my ability to effectively deliver a pitch a world away from my audience. As it turned out video conference was a great way to go about doing this. Logistically it was out of the question for us to meet in person; video conference offered a functional, professional alternative to a traditional meeting - giving everyone involved the opportunity to “meet” me face to face and to ask me questions which I could answer on the spot. Video conference worked out well for me ultimately and allowed me to really shine.
Popularity: 21% [?]
In the last post I had talked about my decision to open another branch of my company - something that was a result of our success and about which I was enormously excited. I would not be able to do it, however, without the best team behind me; employees that had seen me through the opening of my business and would now see me through the opening of an important satellite office. There were logistical challenges, of course, as we worked to set up this space far from home. We needed to be able to conduct business as usual and communicate with the home office effectively; web conferencing would ultimately be the reason that this could work.
We had always used web conference - along with other teleconferencing services - as a part of running a successful company. We couldn’t be everywhere at once; web conferencing gave us the ability to respond to issues or communicate most effectively with clients and vendors. It was the best way that we had found - far more effective than phone calls and email - to really stay engaged in what was happening with our clients on a day to day basis without actually having to physically visit them.
Web conferencing would continue to be instrumental in our success going forward. Through web conference I could manage projects at the home office seamlessly, employees could share documents with me that needed to be reviewed, and vendors could communicate with me regardless of where I was. Most importantly I could check in with my clients every day the same as I had always done through web conferencing. I could be anywhere and still be effective at my job and this was most important to me above all else. With web conferencing and teleconferencing services by my side I was poised to go to the next level of success.
Popularity: 19% [?]
Opening my business was one of the highlights of my life; a topsy-turvy, exciting time that was filled with many challenges. I was happy to face each and every one of them and happier still that my dream became reality. My business became successful; so successful in fact that I’m currently opening an office in another state. The way in which we serve customers - and the demographic of those customers - made a satellite office almost inevitable and certainly something that would help us to further expand our business. I was on the road and I had a strong team and web conference with me as I worked to establish this new branch and solidify roots in another state.
Web conferencing is something that is very important in our business. Not only does it allow us to conveniently reach out and communicate with clients and even prospective clients and vendors, it allowed us to effectively do our jobs no matter where in the world we were at the moment - and with a national and hopefully one day, global, customer base, this was incredibly important.
We have always used some form or another of teleconferencing services over the years. Audio conferencing was something with which we were most comfortable but over time we expanded into web conference and video conference which were a revelation in our business. We have used video conference several times to pitch new business accounts across the country and web conferencing is something that we use on almost a daily basis to communicate with our clients on ongoing projects.
Now web conferencing was going to take on an even greater role in our company as we used it to not only stay in touch with current clients while were on the road, but to stay in touch with our home office to make sure things were running smoothly there as well. More in the next post.
Popularity: 21% [?]
In the last post I talked about my first introduction to video conference and how it came during my first week of work in a new job. I had come to this new, large corporation from a much small company in a very small town. I had made the big move to the city because I knew that I had achieved everything that I could where I was and if I wanted to really realize my potential I had to take a leap of faith.
This new job posed many challenges for me. I was trying to get used to a new way of life in a new city and I had hit the ground running in a position in which I had much to learn. The first thing I had to learn was how this new company went about meeting with clients, vendors and even new prospects. They were large enough that they were conducting business on a global scale - with companies all over the world. It was not efficient to travel to all of these physical locations so they used a variety of teleconferencing services including web conference, audio conference and video conference.
Video conference would be the first technology that I would I have to learn right off the bat. I was going to be meeting with a new client - new to the company and clearly new to me. I had everything prepared for the meeting; it would be my debut on a number of levels. I had assumed that the client would be coming to us because they were across the country and no travel arrangements had been made for me. Instead I learned that video conference would be our mode of meeting and I made my debut in an online meeting space. This was a great way to get accustomed to the new way of doing things and begin to make my mark in this new and exciting world.
Popularity: 17% [?]
