The future of business communication through technology tools

Technology has grown tremendously over recent years. With it come a lot of opportunities and challenges alike. Of great importance is the way it has revolutionised the ways businesses conduct businesses with each other. There are several online communication tools most of which are free. iTrust has observed a few of which are in great use in today’s business world. Top in the list is the use of email services to communicate. Several email service providers such as Microsoft, yahoo and Google offer free email services.

Skype is second. One is able to chat and video call others on Skype. With credit, one can call directly to other mobile service providers. Google has also developed great tools for communication. Services such as Google Talk are free and enable video call between individuals and businesses.

Social media sites, also called Web 2.0 are also great communication tools. These include, Facebook, Twitter, Netlog and Wassup among others. Their main advantage is that they enable the business to communicate instantly to masses.

There are other businesses to business communication tools that are not freely available on the internet. These include web video conferencing, Voice over IP (VOIP) and business class instant messaging. One has to install certain equipment and software to use such tools.

Below are included some advantages that come with the use of online communication tools for businesses.

Increased efficiency

An efficient business is the one that is able to respond to clients and other partners promptly. Business is about communication. Online communication tools enhance efficiency by, Instant feedback; less time is taken to respond to inquiries and complains.

Customers are able track orders especially where they are shipped in real time.

They are also able to get product information easily. Customer support; online communication tools enable firms to give 24 hour support to clients at very low costs. They are able to chat or video communicate with businesses agents in real time.

Lower business costs

Firms that embraced the use of online communication tools lowered the cost of doing business drastically. Take an example of a firm that has branches overseas and wants to have a meeting of all branch heads. Instead of each of them travelling to the headquarters, a video conference would be appropriate. This saves money in flight tickets and accommodation. Emails for instance, have eliminated the need for postage thus lowering costs.

Increased business

the ability to connect and communicate with partners fast has brought in more business. For example, the ability of an IT firm to offer remote support would attract potential clients even from far whose systems would need such support. Social media is known to bring in huge numbers of potential clients to the business. Clients can also give feedback on the services procured in confidence. Firms would use the information to improve their services.

Saving time

Online communication tools save business valuable time. For example, online support to a client with a minor issue is better than travelling to his or her premises to fix a problem that he or she would have fixed. Videoconferencing saves managers and sales executives’ time that would have been spent travelling.

Firms today may need to consider taking advantage of business communication tools in order to grow business with technology.