Driving business growth with digital communication solutions

Effective communication in small businesses is critical to success. It can lead to a more productive and vibrant workplace where staff can collaborate effectively. It also helps the company to learn from feedback and improve the customer experience. Read how you can drive business growth with digital communication solutions.

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Driving business growth with digital communication solutions

Business benefits-at-a-glance

  • Strong business communication channels improve product development, employee management and customer relations.
  • Solutions like Microsoft 365 and Singtel BizVoice boost efficiency by allowing employees to work remotely, access documents and stay contactable.
  • Reliable teleconferencing keeps small businesses in contact with important partners or vendors regardless of where they are based.
  • Project management tools help business owners make informed decisions about allocation of resources.
  • Customer engagement though social media or online surveys helps you improve products and services.

01 Jan 2019 | SMB, Internet, Software as a Service, Voice and Collaboration, SOHO, Digitalisation | 5-min read

Communication plays an important role in three vital aspects of an organisation — product development, employee management, and customer relations. 

It helps establish clear expectations and goals for employees while also allowing for their feedback. It helps build strong relationships with customers, and lets businesses learn more about their own products and services from customer experiences.

Enhancing product development

One of the indicators of success in a company is whether its employees can perform together as a team. This not only leads to a positive environment, but also a company that has an effective workflow. A positive workplace fosters creativity, which leads to innovation.

Software solutions like Microsoft 365 mean employees can log on wherever they are to collaborate and access their files. They have access to cloud versions of all Microsoft 365 applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and email from any device. It allows employees to work together in real-time on the same document and keep track of the changes made. 

What this means for small businesses is there is reduced downtime even when employees are out of the office. If there is a question about a report or if edits are required urgently, the person responsible can make the required changes in the document immediately.

Project management tools like Asana and Monday record the progress of multiple jobs, and adds a level of transparency to the responsibilities of the members involved.

Instead of relying on email threads to keep the team informed of deadlines and decisions, these platforms help members organise individual or team tasks. Team members can contribute comments, files and updates to keep everyone informed of roadblocks, or assign tasks to other members.

Business owners and project managers are able to use these tools to plan their workload over time and have a better idea of which projects to allocate resources to. They also give managers a quick view on the progress of each project. At a glance, they can see what is on track, what is falling behind, and make quick decisions to get the project running efficiently.

Simplifying employee management

For SMBs who operate beyond their local market, such as having support or account management staff working remotely, being contactable is a basic expectation. 

Singtel BizVoice is a cloud-based telephony service that provides digital communications capabilities to employees wherever they are. It offers crystal-clear voice quality on all devices, something not possible with traditional phone systems. Essentially, being able to cost effectively contact remote staff online as well as on the phone means staff can answer urgent queries almost immediately.

Many SMBs work with overseas vendors and partners. While often associated with bigger businesses, teleconferencing is an affordable option for small business. Solutions like Singtel BizConference can host large number of participants per call.

Participants do not need a landline or be at their desk; they can join in from an iOS or Android device. And just like face-to-face meetings, you can share documents and screens. This also makes it easier to hold training and initiation sessions for remote staff.

Improving customer relations

To improve upon your product or service, hearing from the customers is vital.

The easiest way to gather feedback is through social media – Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Customers often post about their experiences with businesses on their platform of choice. Look out for patterns: if there are regular complaints about delivery delays, it is an area for improvement. You can also find out more from customers by connecting with them directly, such as through Facebook Messenger, which is a great way to personalise these interactions.

You’d be surprised by the useful insights you can get from your customers. For example, with the receipts that customers receive after a successful transaction, you could also include a link to a survey for them to complete. This could just be a SurveyMonkey link with one to three questions. There can be a significant amount of feedback and information you can glean from this simple additional step. It's also a great way to reach customers who aren't on social media.

Most digitalisation tools offer trials, which means you can experiment with different services. Take your time and find the right combination of solution for your business.

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