Today, voice and video communications have become the basis of business communication. With people forced to work from home all around the world, communicating through video conferencing apps has become the status quo. That has led to a huge surge in demand for video and voice communications apps around the world.

However, voice and video communication solutions aren’t just an alternative. They hold real value when it comes to increasing productivity and improving efficiency.

Surge in Demand for Voice and Video Communications for Small Businesses

As outlined above, COVID-19 has forced people to work from home in the vast majority of countries around the world. This has led to a huge surge in businesses adopting Skype, WeChat Work, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Slack, etc.

In January of 2020, these apps attracted 1.4 million downloads from both the Play Store and App Store. However, in March 2020, they attracted nearly 6.7 million downloads in the first week. The winner of the app lottery was definitely Zoom, the daily active users of which grew by 67% since early January. 

Even greater growth was reported by the mobile market data aggregator App Annie. Apparently in March, enterprise focused mobile app downloads reached 62 million.

COVID-19 Has Changed the Standards of Business Communication

 While you may think that his is simply a detour during the pandemic, don’t be so sure. It’s been nearly a year since the global pandemic began and business is proceeding as usual. Even for cities where the pandemic has been brought under control, people are preferring to work from home. Hence, video and voice communication apps are here to stay.

With several companies announcing that they will allow employees to keep working from home, this is more than likely. However, is it in the best interests of the businesses using these apps? Let’s find out.

Benefits of Voice and Video Communications for Small Businesses

While voice and video communications help connect people in faraway places, that’s not the only purpose they serve. In essence, they can get a lot more done in record time and without spending too much money. Hence, they’re not just a great technological decision, but a great economical decision for any company.

Here are just some of the benefits of video communications for small businesses.

Cost Effective and Efficient

The most obvious benefit of communication apps for enterprises is the money and time they save. Commuting time is reduced and meetings with vendors, suppliers, and clients can be held at any time. There’s very little setup required after the initial processing is completed, hence formalities are reduced.

More people can attend conference meetings with video calling software like this. Unlike before when people were caught in traffic and were ill and couldn’t make it, video conferencing eliminates that risk. Also, with the facility of screen sharing in apps like Zoom, it’s possible to share important information with everyone. 

The money that is usually spent on travel and arranging the tech needed to have a meeting can be saved. Finally, the time saved on not having to set up conference rooms over and over again is invaluable.

Since people are calling from different locations, starting and ending times are often decided beforehand. People are bound to stick to those deadlines since they want to make the most of that interaction. This in turn ensures that meetings are more structured and more productive. 

Seamless Integration Between Teams

Research has shown that visual information is absorbed by humans at a much quicker rate than text and audio. Hence, if you have a meeting through video conferencing, your attendees can retain more information. This is great for collaboration between different teams. For example, if one department has to have a meeting with another, they can do so over video conferencing.

Instead of having to book a room and set a date, the meeting can be executed without too much hassle. Also, the teams can collaborate much more freely when they’re in possession of their computers and can screen share. In a conference room, everything would have to be shared on the projector which would take time setting up. 

Also, teams in different countries who are forced to stay can be connected through conferencing apps. While some are on the road for a business conference, others may be stuck inside their home town.

Better Productivity

Due to better communications, participants are more in sync. Decisions can be made much faster and productivity increases. In a 2013 survey, it was found that 94% of video conferencing software users thought efficiency and productivity increased. 

Problems can be resolved much faster for clients and solutions can be developed more quickly due to video conferencing. Before this became the norm, it was important to meet in person to discuss something. Now that video conferencing is the norm, people feel more obligated to treat these meetings as legitimate and not cold calls.

Greater Competitive Advantage

The mobility that is offered by a cloud based video conferencing application can contribute to employee retention. Even if the employee can’t make it to the country where the company is, they can still contribute. In any other scenario, they would’ve been forced to quit. In the future, as jobs become more global, this is going to be a necessity. Less travel requirements will allow for new employees to have a better work life balance as well. Remote employees can have better relationships with their families and their team members as well.

Video also allows for face to face interactions to become more common. This will allow people to get acquainted without the need for meeting in person.

Due to this advantage, video conferencing can provide a great competitive edge to your company. With high employee retention rates, productivity and efficiency, there’s nothing else stopping you from being number 1. 

Voice and video communications software is very important to any modern business today. So get your communications software package at PhoneOne.