It’s no secret that, for people to work together effectively, they need to be able to communicate with each other. While this is a skill all on its own, it doesn’t hurt to give people the proper tools to help them do so, even when they’re working far from each other.
Here are a few ways you can help bring your team closer together no matter where they are.
Extension-based dialing
While it’s quite easy to lean over to the person next to you and ask a quick question, it’s not so easy to do so when the person you need information from is in another state. The solution? An expandable SIP phone system with extension-based dialing. This a cost-effective way of enhancing communication between staff and is much faster than dialing a full number to ask a quick question. Just punch in the person’s extension and away you go. Certain SIP solutions even allow for the phone to be picked up and plugged into any internet connection and work as if it had never been moved.
Chat programs
Sure, calling a staff member is easy for the caller, but what if the person being contacted does not want to be disturbed at that very moment? For example, Barry is speaking to a client and is about to close a deal but John needs to ask him a quick question. For such an instance, consider implementing a chat program for your staff to quickly ask and respond to each others questions unobtrusively. Chat programs present their own problems, but none are anything a quick implementation of hard-coded rules can’t fix. Most enterprise-level chat programs allow admins to limit what is available to users so you don’t end up having a chat party at work.
Shared calendar
Sometimes it’s much quicker to look than to ask. Say, for example, John from service delivery needs to find out if a technician is available. Rather than asking the tech department for availability, he can just look at the tech’s schedule himself and plan his delivery accordingly. This is where a shared calendar comes in handy. Shared calendars allow other people in the team to access your calendar and plan their work in time with yours. You can read up on how to get this done by clicking this link.
Video conferencing
Holding meetings is a great way to catch up on everyone’s progress and accomplishments. These days, meetings can be handled a few different ways. Due to the availability of faster internet connections, video conferencing has started to grow in popularity. While the drawback is that no one in the team can doze off during a boring presentation without being noticed, the perk is that you can now do more elaborate presentations to prevent said dozing off! You can even try something like augmented reality to really step it up a notch.
Bringing it all together
As you probably would have guessed, everything I have mentioned above requires one crucial thing: a reliable internet connection. This is where Arrow Voice & Data comes in. We provide effective phone solutions and internet connections to suit all types of businesses. Not sure of something? Sound too fancy or too good to be true? Just call and ask us about it!
