Unified Communications Assisting Business During Emergencies and Disasters

8/21/2012- Votacall Hosted VoIP & Cloud Based UC Solutions- Boston, Massachusetts- Yesterday, my father's car broke down in the afternoon and he was afraid it could cost him customer service and even more important lose some contracts. He has several meetings set up for the afternoon to discuss a contract with a new local hotel. He was hoping this meeting would bring them closer on a contract that would hold a monetary value beneficial to both sides. In the other meeting, was an unhappy customer, my father was planning on getting the actual reason for them being unhappy. He was afraid all the things he was trying to accomplish that afternoon would not happen because his Audi was overheating in traffic. Stuck in the Audi dealership he had my step-mom bring him her iPad. My dad is old school and does not own one himself; I would not be surprised if he bought one for himself after yesterday. Once he had the iPad, my step mom set him up on skype and he was ready to take on his afternoon using Unified Communications...needless to say he was very nervous as he is not quite a tech savvy MVP.
Regardless, first meeting was started with negotiations going back and forth. My dad was able to convey to the customer the products/services that would be delivered on a daily basis. If this conversation was to happen on the phone, he doubted they would have been able to come to an agreement because the face-to-face part of negotiation is important. There was a competitor waiting in the wing, praying that my dad was not able to meet with the customer in the hope of stealing a client. If my father did not have Unified Communication support he would have lost this contract, further showing how companies need to have the latest up to date technology in order to stay ahead of the competition. With regards to the unhappy customer, my dad also used Skype and was able to figure out the problem and devise a plan to prevent it from continually happening. An unhappy customer does not want to speak on the phone because they want personal customer support, the owners voice is not enough, they want hands on service that guarantees their issues will be fixed. In addition to the face-to-face advantage of Video Conferencing, my dad was able to show the customers he was stranded at a car dealership. Simply by turning his iPad around the waiting room of the dealership, the customers could tell my dad was not blowing them off. If he was to contact them via phone, they would not have any confirmation that he just went home early or even went to a sporting event. This way they know he had an actual emergency but remained dedicated to resolve their issues before his, no matter what.

Technology and Cloud Communications have helped companies thrive due to the extremely useful services offered. Without certain features, such as video conferencing, corporations would fall behind competitors who had the latest and greatest technology. The Votacall Customer Experience keeps clients happy and delivers the best service available. This is critical because if a company offered poor customer service and was known for not taking care of their customers, they would lose business to other competitors who have good customer service ratings. In the Telecom world, there is a tremendous amount of technology, it seems to change every week. The Cloud offers services that help people stay on top of business, no matter their location. Utilizing Unified Communications can offer relief in emergencies or during disasters as it did for my dad above. Without these technologies business would be conducted in a completely different manner and would not be as simple. Therefore, businesses should adopt the Cloud and utilize Unified Communications because it makes their lives and jobs easier.