You've probably heard of digital transformation. It’s touched every part of the business world, turning some industries on their heads! And for the most part, these changes are highly beneficial and have made a huge impact on the future of work. But in some ways digital transformation has made running your business more difficult. For instance, let’s think about how communication has changed for businesses — both internally and externally.
Before smart phones and even the internet, communicating with your customers may not have been easier, but it was much simpler — especially as people could only call you or show up at your door after looking through a catalog or finding you in the Yellow Pages. Today, however, communication channels have multiplied drastically. Customers can chat, text, email, call, message via a blog, video conference, and so much more.
In fact, 85 percent of employees use more than one device to communicate at work. And it’s the same for business owners. With so many channels through which we can communicate, it’s become much harder to keep track of all the communications coming into a business. This means that entrepreneurs and business owners have to work at light speed to efficiently meet all of their customers’ demands while making sure to acquire new customers.
After all, we live in a world of instant gratification, and to keep your customers happy, you need to meet their communication expectations by monitoring all of these channels simultaneously and not letting anything slip through the cracks.
Communication Preferences Within a Single Conversation
Not only have there been more channels introduced over time, but people are beginning to interchange which channels they use in a conversation. A text is used for a quick reminder, an email for more detail, and a phone call for urgent messages.
Keeping track of which customers reach out through which communication channels isn’t an easy game to play — especially when multiple channels come into play. How many times have you had a customer leave you a voicemail asking you to text or email them back? Or do customers occasionally respond to you through a different outlet than you initially communicated with entirely? We all have preferred methods of communication — sometimes varying daily. As a small business owner, it's up to you to keep up with your customers, their stories and their needs, regardless of whether they called, left a voicemail, emailed or texted. And it’s not always easy to find the time for that.
The very last thing you should be worrying about is keeping track of incoming inquiries from customers across various communication channels.
So how do you make sure nothing slips through the cracks on all channels? The answer isn’t hours of practice or training or adopting twelve new apps. In fact, here at Grasshopper, we believe less is more. Which is why we recently announced Grasshopper Connect!
One Place for All of Your Customer Communications
With Grasshopper Connect, you now have a single place for business contacts, calls, voicemails, texts and emails without the distractions of personal communications. And you can reply in the channels your customers prefer, all from one easy-to-use inbox. Nothing gets lost and you will never miss a conversation, keeping you feeling more prepared, responsive and organized. With Grasshopper Connect you can stop searching for business communications and start confidently communicating. And trust us, your customers will thank you for it.
