How Voice Communication Has Shown Its Staying Power

As many enterprises look to make improvements to their modern communications stacks, calling capabilities are top of mind. Voice calling and interactions powered by Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) have experienced an uptick in popularity with the significant shift of more employees working from home in 2020. These solutions make it easier for businesses to collaborate internally and externally regardless of their location.

Over the past year, telecom providers saw an increased use of and demand for the internet - which was not surprising given the increased use of streaming services. However, they did not expect an increased demand in voice calling services. From the beginning of the pandemic, AT&T experienced an unprecedented volumes of voice calls,in addition to the more anticipated services like texts and streaming. Currently, Verizon has been handling an average of 800 million wireless calls a dayduring the work week, which is double what it experienced last year. As a result of these trends, Microsoft and other leading technology companies are adding PBX calling to their enterprise collaboration solutions.

Despite newer communication mediums like video calling, quality voice calling remains a foundational element in modern enterprise communications. Specifically, high-quality voice solutions powered by reliable networks create a solid foundation for successful and streamlined business communications. Further, cloud-based voice capabilities support many key aspects of a business, including connection and collaboration, scalability, and employee productivity.

With a variety of modern telecom solutions and providers to choose from, businesses must prioritize those that deliver reliable voice communications above others. Outlined below are key benefits of cloud-based voice calling solutions.

1. Strengthen employee collaboration and productivity.Reliable cloud-powered audio and voice calling services are essential for employees to easily connect and collaborate with colleagues, partners and customers. It enables teams to make quick decisions and easily pivot on projects, even when parties are based out of disparate locations. Voice also adds a more personalized touch to collaboration and fosters a better team culture compared to other forms of communication like instant messaging or email. The familiarity of voice communications, paired with the ability to hear someone’s tone and reflections during decision-making, adds a refreshing human element to team collaboration.
2. Setup? No muss, no fuss.One of the biggest and most significant benefits of cloud-based voice communications, especially compared to other enterprise communication technologies, is its straightforward and uncomplicated setup. In contrast to traditional PBX systems that require a technician to set up onsite infrastructure, cloud-based voice solutions can easily and quickly be set up by internal teams with little downtime. With the support of a modern telecom provider, like Flowroute, businesses can then get their voice and calling needs in place faster without costly hardware investments. It’s a welcome contrast to the sometimes tedious and multi-phased process that legacy systems often require.
3. Gain inherent scalability.With cloud-based voice communications, a business can easily scale its communication services up or down to meet its specific needs. They can add or remove phone lines, port numbers, or adjust the features of its voice communications service from their laptop. As a result, companies can remain nimble in response to sudden changes.
   Voice communications can also enable reliable connectivity between various work settings and locations. For example, voice communications can be deployed across a global business that has multiple office branches around the world, or a smaller company that caters to a hybrid workforce. Cloud-based voice services are an efficient solution for any business that wants to manage their telecom resources and call records in the cloud.
4. Maintain internal and external business continuity.Maintaining continuity of services and communications with partners, customers and employees is important. In 2020, businesses shifted their operations, with many prioritizing communication investments to keep employees and customers connected. For example, many customers prefer interacting with a representative to answer their questions and help solve problems. They want the “human element” and understanding that comes with speaking to someone. Add to that, employees need voice services to work remotely and ensure that workflow remains uninterrupted. As a result, voice has proven to be a critical pillar in a company’s continuity plan.
   With cloud-based voice solutions, modern carriers can direct traffic to different networks when needed in times of emergency or outages. Calls can be quickly routed to operational networks to ensure there is little to no downtime, helping to reduce disruptions in workflow and communications - both internally and externally. This built-in reliability helps warrant long-term continuity for businesses.

Voice communications has shown to have staying power, even during challenging times. They are easily scalable to a business’ needs while offering continuity for operational consistency. The also keep the human connection present in employee collaboration and customer interactions resulting in increased employee productivity and improved customer satisfaction. Voice will remain not only in demand, but critical to business durability.