Work for a company that doesn’t video conference? Here’s a way to save time and money….
Companies often fail to consider the potential applications of video conferencing aside from using it as a means of enabling multiple people from different regions to communicate with one another at the same time. There are actually new uses for the technology that have been developed which enables better service, internal IT assistance as well as new work-from-home opportunities for employees.
Use in Customer Support
Video has considerable potential in its use in customer support. CSRs (Customer Support Representatives) often encounter situations where they are having problems identifying an issue simply because the descriptions given by the client are very vague. To counteract such a situation, IT oriented companies such as Nvidia or AMD could utilize web chatting as a potential solution to the problem. All the enterprise would need to do is create an online support portal that enables consumers to contact a support representative. If the CSR is having issues with what the client is describing, a link can be sent that would create a video conference between the client and the CSR. This is possible so long as the client has a desktop, laptop or mobile phone that has a camera. This process could expedite a customer’s issues and lead to fewer instances where a client is dissatisfied with the customer service provided by a company.
Working From Home
Working from home is not a relatively new concept and has been around for quite some time. Its application though in mainstream corporate operations is somewhat doubtful. People work from home when they are sick or when the weather does not allow them to get out of their homes. Using it as an effective alternative to actually being in the premises of the company is at times not feasible since there are aspects to a job that require you to talk to one of your colleagues or bosses directly to get it done. This is one of the reasons why using visio conférence for IT companies through providers like Blue Jeans has become popular since it enables people to easily talk to their colleagues face-to-face while they work from home. While it is no replacement for actually being in the office, it does help in situations where a person is too sick to go to work or cannot reach the company due to snow, floods, or a wide assortment of weather conditions.
Use When Hiring New Personnel
Another potential way in which IT oriented organizations can use online discussions is for their various hiring practices. With IT departments often being located in different regions due to better tax deductions and hiring incentives, organizations often find themselves in a situation where the employees they want to hire are located in places where they do not have a recruitment center. One way of addressing this problem is to utilize web chats to have online interviews with their desired candidates. The advantage of this method is that this allows them reach talented individuals that they otherwise would not have been able to bring to the recruitment table. Not only that, it also allows HR departments to schedule interviews in such a way that it is convenient for all the parties involved.
Enabling Better Inter-Departmental Collaboration
The most obvious application of online discussions is helping companies develop better inter-departmental communication and collaborations. People like talking to one another face-to-face and this is an aspect that emails and phone calls cannot replace. We all like seeing reactions, facial expressions and the various subtleties of a person’s body language. It is what we have grown used to and expect when it comes to talking to other people. By using this technology, people become more at ease when it comes to talking to one another and this makes the process of communication and collaboration easier in the long run.
Increasing Responsiveness to Operational Issues within the Company
The last potential application of this technology is its use in improving an IT department’s response to software or hardware issues within the enterprise. Many businesses provide smartphones to their employees as both an incentive as well as a means of enabling the company to contact them through installed applications. One of the possible uses of these devices is to install an alert application that allows an employee to connect to someone within the IT department via a video call. Through this application, the employee in question can show the IT department what sort of issue they are having and get an immediate response regarding a potential solution that can be applied by the employee. This saves both parties a considerable amount of time and effort when it comes to resolving minor IT related concerns that can be fixed with a few instructions.
All in all, the use of video conferencing in IT-oriented companies holds a lot of promise given its versatility and potential applications.
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