Each of us spends more time online interacting with people on a variety of platforms – social networking, webinars, virtual conferencing — about numerous topics of interest. We respond in real time and expect the same from others. In the work place, employees have come to expect the same experiences in their work environments and the tools that facilitate how they do their jobs.
The ways in which we utilize digital social and community platforms has removed the necessity for us to be face-to-face with someone for conversations. We’re becoming adept at texting. We’ve all come to rely on email and document attachments. This said, there are some times when the nuances of language and the body language in response to conversations is the key to getting the outcomes that pull a project back on track or cement a relationship with a customer into place.
To keep working at the pace our businesses require, we need the instant gratification of advanced communication technology to help us out.
From being able to find the people we need to interact with—along with the best way to contact them in real time—to the ability to escalate the method of communication to get clarity without losing the thread, a technology assist can become a productivity boost.
Imagine this scenario:
- You need answers to questions a customer in Atlanta raised about project execution in their proposal.
- You locate the expert you need in Dallas and see they’re available by Instant Message.
- After a brief exchange, you need to discuss the rewording of a clause in the proposal.
- With one click you escalate the Instant Message session to a web conference.
- You can now see each other on video as well as see the document in the web browser and work together to edit it in real time.
- As you hang up, you save the updated proposal and call your customer. You pop into a web conference and walk her through the updated change, getting her agreement to move forward.
If you tried to accomplish this through standard methods—like sending email or chasing people via voicemail—how much longer would it take to get the same outcome?
How much more value do you think your customers will assign to your efforts given the personalization and speed of your responsiveness via collaborative technology?
Can you share instances where you've used collaborative technology to advance a project or close a deal?
