Not too long ago, businesses had only one or two major communication channels for providing post-sale customer service and support. Complaints back then were all too common and plentiful: high call volumes choking up lines with insufficient capacity; long, frustrating waits on hold; inquiries sent via snail mail, taking forever to receive and process.
Those universal struggles could be summed up in one phrase: poor choice in customer access and communication. The communications technology just wasn’t there.
Fast forward to today—while numerous connectivity options help companies and customers connect in real time, similar access and communication challenges persist. Having too many communications platforms, options, and technologies can also lead to poor choice in customer access and communication, especially if the channel your company chooses doesn’t suit the service function it’s meant to address.
It gets even worse for organizations with lax business communication strategies, and who leave that choice of channel up to the customer to make—a preference that may also be ill-suited to the task.
And so, in the end, we face the same challenge today as we did before: poor choice in customer access and communication. Not for having too little communication options, but, ironically, for having too many—and applying the wrong ones.
Today, It’s About Choice AND Control
What’s the best combination of capabilities for addressing today’s fast-food, drive-through-window, answer-me-right-now customer McNeeds? Choice AND control. Both. Not just having more access and communication options available—like business-grade Dedicated Internet Access (DIA), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) or a full Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) solution, plus omnichannel integration across platforms, including video and mobile devices, cloud migration, and more.
It’s also about leveraging SD-WAN control tools to better manage throughput peaks and valleys for optimizing network availability and performance.
In short, it’s about empowering your customers with ALL the right communications access and control channels and strategies at any given moment to enhance any service experience. And the closer to the EDGE of the network that these communications tools can be deployed, as physically close to the teams in the organization who use them most, the more flexible, fast, and efficient they work.
Bottom line: If these communications tools and strategies aren’t in your current toolkit, you’re likely not providing optimal service experiences today—and your customers know it.
So, What’s In Your Toolkit?
Not sure your business is sufficiently tooled up for the service tasks it faces? Here’s your business communications checklist, helping you bring greater access AND control to your customer service experiences:
- Ensure consistently stable, high-speed connectivity with DIA— for high availability and reliability, with low latency and less interruption
- Leverage VoIP or full UCaaS for clear and efficient voice services— unify all the business communications tools you need in one seamless solution
- Implement SD-WAN to optimize network performance— assign a digital traffic cop to manage and automate network throughput
- Enable Seamless Omnichannel & Mobile Communications— ensure hitch-free continuity across Internet, voice, email, chat, video, mobile and more
- Consider full or partial cloud migration— share secure access to information and assets that can improve customer service
- Strengthen security against ever-evolving cyberthreats— protect privacy and data to preserve customer trust
Ready to sharpen your customer service EDGE?
If you’re looking for an ISP/Telecom partner who is ideally equipped to deliver greater choice, access, and control right to the network EDGE, talk to Skywire today to expand your options in reliable business communications. We’ll show you what we mean when we say—Connectivity to the EDGE. Your Way.™ — and how greater choice in broadband capability, complete with unprecedented access flexibility, makes us the preferred alternative for providing affordable, customizable, and truly diverse network EDGE connectivity.
