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TCI Host Cloud Voice Connects Your Mobile Workers and Makes Managing Technology Easier

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In today’s remote working world, it is essential for your team to be connected seamlessly no matter what device they are using. If you are exploring ways to improve how your team communicates, TCI’s Host provides a locally supported, customized service with all-in-one collaboration and mobility tools, so your business won’t miss a beat.

Here are all the ways TCI Host helps you keep your employees connected – wherever they are – and how it makes your job easier…

1. Never Lose Your Place with One Stop for Communication.

How much time do you waste by losing the thread of a conversation? TCI Host makes all your communications available from a single hub on your desktop. It’s always there but never in the way. Keep an eye on every call and message and never lose sight of important details.

2. Work from Anywhere, Together.

Gone are the days when teams worked in close proximity and shared a simple project document. In paper, no less. Nowadays, though, team members can be anywhere – at home, on the road, in another country. To stay connected, multi-party videoconferencing, desktop sharing and audio conferencing are key. Everyone on the team can collaborate in real-time.

3. Take the Conversation Smoothly from Text to Voice with Ad-Hoc Meetings.

Big deal on the table? Need fast thinking and even faster decision making? TCI Host helps you connect with the one person who has the information you need to close the deal – at the precise moment you need their help. With one click, start a meeting and keep the conversation going.

4. Respond to Important Messages Faster with Visual Voicemail.

Nothing ushers in a greater sense of urgency – and stress – than checking your voicemail after a long morning of meetings. With our Outlook voicemail integration, messages are sent to email so you can scan and prioritize who to call back first.

5. Get to The Right Person at the Right Time.

The flexibility to work anywhere is a benefit – except when an answer is needed fast. With presence, employees make their whereabouts known to everyone in the organization. So, when a customer calls asking a question only a subject matter expert can answer, everyone knows where and how to reach them.

6. Be as Productive on the Road as in the Office.

Working outside the office is often frustrating because employees don’t have access to the tools they have in the office. But TCI Host transforms this experience. With its mobile app, employees take the office everywhere and get the same experience on the road as they do at their desks. Whether in the office or on the road, they can join a meeting with a single click, without the need to enter those cumbersome participant codes. It’s that easy.

7. Live in Your CRM…

Which does your sales team love more? Their phone or their CRM? Please, don’t make them choose! When you integrate your phones with your CRM application, salespeople never have to switch between the two. They stay in the CRM to make and receive phone calls. Plus, it saves them from the dreaded task of data entry. Just by answering their phone, items are automatically added to their to-do lists.

8. …Or in Outlook or G Suite.

Sales teams shouldn’t be the only ones who have all the fun. TCI Host also integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook and G Suite, easing the adoption of your new phone system throughout your business.

9. Do More, Spend Less.

Here’s one last thing you might not know, and it may be the best part… You can have a seamless and reliable communications and collaboration tool without breaking the bank. TCI Host offers everything as an affordable monthly subscription.

Our project team handles all the transition details to get it all going for you! Contact TCI today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.

 

Unparalleled Choice & Flexibility… How TCI Connects You to a World of Seamless Communications

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With TCI’s next-gen UC solutions, you can enable new ways of working, supporting your employees to call, chat, and video securely — also stay connected regardless of whether they sit next to each other in the office, or remotely at home.

Applications

TCI brings it all together. Improve your communications experience with apps, ranging from office tools, analytics, workforce management, and campaign management to enhancing organization and site connectivity – and more.

With access to these tools, your team can tackle their work on more devices from any location:

  • Integration with business applications from tech leaders like Microsoft and Google
  • Presence Tools
  • Softphone App on Mobile Devices
  • Unified Messaging
  • Remote control of desktops
  • Outlook client plug-in
  • Microsoft Teams integration
  • Message retrieval from one synchronized message store

Collaboration

Bring teams together with messaging, conferencing, screen sharing, file sharing, and more. Users can stay connected while on the go with our web, mobile, and desktop applications.

  • Virtual workspaces for team meetings, conversations, content review, and project management
  • Team Video conferencing and recording
  • Participant management
  • Desktop application sharing
  • Team and private chat
  • Web-based file sharing

Contact Center

Impress customers with all-in-one interaction management platforms that transform outdated voice-only call centers into omnichannel customer experience centers.

  • Integrate with your CRM, like Salesforce, Microsoft, and others
  • Offer Live Agents, Web Chat, Email, Text Messaging / SMS
  • Monitor and respond to Social Media feeds (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)
  • Automate and access Full Reporting on Your Customer Interactions
  • Improve Customer Experience
  • Become more efficient

Voice

Rich PBX and phone system features, advanced call controls and softphone, mobile and IP desk phone options so you can talk and meet from anywhere – effortlessly.

Supercharge your organization’s growth with unparalleled flexibility.

We can design the right mix of UC solutions for your needs today and your goals for tomorrow. Deploy on-premises, via private cloud, public cloud, or a hybrid. Pay upfront or monthly. Use existing devices or the latest models.

It’s Unified Communications, your way. Get started today: Contact us today: (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.
 

Team Collaboration – 10 Benefits of Virtual Meetings Over In-Person Meetings

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With the majority of workers now back in their offices or working a hybrid schedule, conventional wisdom says there is nothing better for team collaboration than a face-to-face setting. There are lingering concerns regarding remote work like social isolation, lack of engagement, and challenges with direct supervision.

If you already work on a globally distributed team, you likely find virtual meetings using collaboration tools the norm. Even working locally, with the on-demand gig economy, many professionals find themselves on teams with people they have never met. But still, it works—often very well.

With today’s cloud-based tools, you can easily create a rich team communication experience via high-definition video, audio conferencing, content sharing, and web collaboration—virtually anywhere, on any network or device.

So, here are 10 ways virtual meetings may produce better experiences and results than conventional in-person meetings.

1. More Focus on Business Content

In a virtual setting, the focus is on the business content at hand—what is being discussed and shown—not on the physical presence, appearance, and distracting behaviors of those sitting around us or the environment surrounding or passing by the meeting room.

2. Higher Participation Rates

Your results may vary, but some team members may feel more apt to contribute to the virtual conversation (via voice, text, or content sharing) than a physical meeting. This helps mitigate the focus of ‘all eyes,’ which can be intimidating and yield silence among those less than extroverted.

3. Fewer Logistical Challenges

Virtual meetings require less planning for location and travel logistics, can be set up more quickly, and can take place anywhere without travel costs (not to mention being a greener option).

4. Less Disruption

People can be added and dropped as needed quickly; participants can arrive late or leave early with minimal, if any, disruption to the group. In contrast, it is relatively complex (if not impossible) to physically bring in ad-hoc participants on the fly.

5. Increased Diversity of Ideas

With modern collaboration tools, you have more ready access to collective knowledge, specialized skills, and creativity regardless of where your people are located—even if they are mobile or traveling. Meanwhile, co-located team members may have a more common experience, culture, knowledge, or background, which may seriously limit the diversity of input.

6. Reduced Stress

When your team members don’t have to endure daily commuting to and from the office, their moods may be lighter, and stress levels may be lower. This may lead to happier people coming together to accomplish common goals rather than thinking about traffic jams and crowded transit systems.

7. Dynamic Content Sharing

Traditionally, face-to-face meetings are often limited to predefined content immediately at hand, whereas in a virtual setting, anyone can instantly share relevant content. Dynamically sharing digital content is hard to replicate in a face-to-face team setting.

8. Minimal Side Conversations

The inevitable virtual side conversations via the text chat backchannel are far less disruptive than the physical passing of notes or distracting whispered conversations in a meeting room. How often in face-to-face meetings have we heard someone call out, “People, let’s have one meeting in the room, please!”. With virtual meetings, that problem is largely alleviated.

9. Fewer Germs

Given the cold and flu season, no one has ever caught a bug from attending a virtual meeting. Your workforce may remain healthier and more productive with fewer sick days.

10. No Fighting over Conference Rooms

And… being virtual means you don’t have to find and book that scarce meeting room and ensure enough chairs!

Embracing Virtual Collaboration for Improved Team Performance

For those who have used them, today’s collaboration tools can re-create a face-to-face scenario’s richness, immediacy, and immersive nature—and potentially deliver a lot more on other less apparent dimensions but still have a real impact.

We can now break through the limitations of the conventional “walled” meeting room by seamlessly including those who are mobile, off-site, in other countries, or even on different continents—tapping the collective skills, diversity, expertise, and authority of the greater community.

Plus, teams thrive on relevant content and information that can be shared seamlessly in a virtual setting to enable easier information sharing, faster decision-making, and real-time content collaboration that is difficult to replicate in a traditional meeting room scenario.

TCI designs, deploys, and supports the communications and collaboration tools that will connect your remote, hybrid, and in-person teams. Contact us today: (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.
 

7 Ways TCI Host Cloud Voice Makes Your Life Easier

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In today’s remote working world, it is essential for your team to be connected seamlessly no matter what device they are using. If you are exploring ways to improve how your team communicates, TCI Host provides a locally supported, customized service with all-in-one collaboration and mobility tools, so your business won’t miss a beat.

Here are 7 ways TCI Host helps you keep your employees connected – wherever they are – and how it makes your job easier…

1. Never Lose Your Place with One Stop for Communication.

How much time do you waste by losing the thread of a conversation? TCI Host makes all your communications available from a single hub on your desktop. It’s always there but never in the way. Keep an eye on every call and message and never lose sight of important details.

2. Work from Anywhere, together.

Gone are the days when teams worked in close proximity and shared a simple project document. In paper, no less. Nowadays team members can be anywhere – at home, on the road, in another country. To stay connected, video meetings and desktop sharing are essential. Everyone on your team can collaborate in real-time.

3. Take the Conversation Smoothly from Text to Voice with Ad-Hoc Meetings.

Big deal on the table? Need fast thinking and even faster decision-making? TCI Host helps you connect with the one person who has the information you need to close the deal – at the precise moment you need their help. With one click, start a meeting and keep the conversation going.

4. Get to The Right Person at the Right Time.

The flexibility to work anywhere is a benefit – except when an answer is needed fast. With presence, employees make their whereabouts known to everyone in the organization. So, when a customer calls in asking a question only a subject matter expert can answer, everyone knows where and how to reach them.

5. Be as Productive on the Road as in the Office.

Working outside the office is often frustrating because employees don’t have access to the tools they have in the office. But TCI Host transforms this experience. With its mobile app, employees take the office everywhere and get the same experience on the road as they do at their desks. Whether in the office or on the road, they can join a meeting with a single click, without the need to enter those cumbersome participant codes. It’s that easy.

6. Live in Your CRM…

Which does your sales team love more? Their phone or their CRM? Please, don’t make them choose! When you integrate your phones with your CRM application, salespeople never have to switch between the two. They stay in the CRM to make and receive phone calls. Plus, it saves them from the dreaded task of data entry. Just by answering their phone, items are automatically added to their to-do lists.

7. …Or in Microsoft Outlook, Teams, or Google Workspace.

Sales teams shouldn’t be the only ones who have all the fun. TCI Host also integrates seamlessly with Microsoft and Google apps, easing the adoption of your new phone system throughout your business.

Our project team handles all the transition details to get it all going for you. Contact TCI today at (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.
 

Winning the Race – 3 Reasons You Can’t Let Your Communications System Fall Behind

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Like winning athletes, high-performance companies are always looking for new capabilities to help them beat the competition.

We’ve all watched high-performance athletes lose a race by mere fractions of a second. It’s heartbreaking because whatever the margin, it meant the difference between winning and losing.

The business world isn’t much different. Competition is extremely tight in almost every industry. It’s too easy to be left behind by competitors who are faster to market, work more efficiently, and do more to keep their customers happy.

Your business systems are crucial to increasing your competitive edge and winning the race, no matter what industries or markets you serve. Every system you rely on must reliably operate at peak performance levels — especially your business communications system.

You can’t afford to let your communications systems fall behind for many reasons, but here are three important ones.

1. Seamless Communications Accelerates Time to Market

It takes unconstrained teamwork across every area of your organization to get new offerings to market faster. Every member of every team needs the ability to quickly and easily connect, collaborate, and share information from anywhere, at any time.

If your communications system isn’t up-to-date, your teams can’t leverage the latest features and functions available in the web, mobile, and desktop applications they rely on to stay connected. Like high-performance athletes, your teams need every advantage they can get. No matter how seemingly small that advantage is, it makes a difference – especially if you multiply the effects across your organization.

Keeping your communications system up to date means your teams always have the most recent voice, messaging, video conferencing, screen sharing, and file sharing capabilities at their fingertips.

2. Lost Productivity is More Costly than You Think

A Grammarly Business survey of over 1,600 business leaders and knowledge workers found that 72% of the workweek is spent on communication and collaboration. When you add up the lost time, those inefficiencies cost more than $1.2 trillion, or $12,000 per employee annually.

But productivity losses aren’t only measured in dollars. Almost half of the survey respondents also said that inefficient communication and collaboration had created friction with co-workers and other departments. While those losses are more challenging to quantify, no business can afford them.

Communication technologies and systems that provide more features and functionality are crucial to making communications and collaboration more efficient. The capabilities that were cutting-edge just a short while ago are no longer at the forefront of what’s available.

3. A Great Customer Experience Depends on Great Communications

Customers’ communications with your organization are central to their experience, increasing revenue. The key is to ensure your customers have a great experience at every touchpoint across your organization. To do this, you need to look beyond your contact center technology and the service your contact center agents provide and take a holistic approach to the customer journey.

Every single person in a company plays a direct or indirect role in determining whether it provides consistently good or consistently bad human or digital interactions. Your business communications system plays a significant role in those human and digital interactions.

When evaluating the current state of your current communications system, think about how customers interact with your sales team and employees located at remote sites. Also consider how your internal teams connect and collaborate to deliver on customer requirements, especially when customized solutions are required, delivery dates change or supply chain issues slow down processes.

If your communications system doesn’t provide the capabilities needed to ensure customers have the best possible experience, they can become disillusioned. Worse, they may stop calling.

To maintain your edge to beat the competition, schedule your Business Communications planning session today. Contact TCI at (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.
 

Mitel Delivers New Tools for Users of Microsoft Teams

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One of the most startling statistics to emerge from the pandemic had nothing to do with communicable illnesses but rather with communications between businesses.

In 2020, from March to June, the use of Microsoft Teams grew by 894%. And, between 2021 and 2022, the number of Teams users rose from 145 million to 270 million. Microsoft Teams has become the de facto communications platform for over one million organizations in just a few years.

This is, of course, good news for Microsoft. And it’s also good news for businesses already paying for Microsoft Office who essentially got a business-class collaboration platform for free, at least initially. But for companies who continued to rely on traditional telephony and vertical industries where video collaboration wasn’t the norm, Teams had some feeling left out.

Fast forward to today, and these customers face the prospect of evaluating Teams phones, taking on E3-E5 licensing and SIP-trunking costs, and they are finding that Microsoft Teams is not free anymore.

It’s a significant incremental uplift in expense for existing capability. Simply put, there isn’t an excellent way to tie legacy voice systems and Teams together without spending more money on additional phone licenses or introducing extra layers of complexity. Until now…

Mitel Delivers New Tools for Teams

For clients who have previously decided to adopt Microsoft Teams, Mitel recently announced a series of tools and applications that seamlessly integrate Mitel’s enterprise-class telephony features with the MS Teams platform for a single, robust communications and collaboration solution.

For example, suppose Teams users choose to activate the phone licenses available on Teams. In that case, they can now enjoy direct routing that connects with Mitel endpoints through certified session border controllers (SBCs), providing a unified telephony framework (albeit with fewer features) that can be controlled from the Teams environment.

What if Teams users don’t want to purchase Microsoft phone licenses? In that case, they can still integrate their telephony system with Teams through Mitel’s Telephony-only client available in MiCollab and enjoy all the robust telephony features that Mitel offers.

This is part of Mitel’s MiCollab offering and can be turned on with a simple toggle switch. In addition, Mitel Assistant is available for free on the Microsoft app store and delivers Mitel softphone capabilities to Teams users’ desktops as a floating app. Mitel Assistant allows you to make and transfer calls, search directories, set speed dials, import contacts, activate three-way conferencing, and more – all from your Teams screen.

Mitel also offers presence integration between Teams and Mitel telephony users, allowing Teams users to see whether a colleague is on a PBX-based phone call – even if that colleague doesn’t have a Teams client. A user’s phone status is visible from their Outlook emails and can help determine direct routing of calls to the next available user.

With these Mitel tools co-existing with Microsoft Teams, a uniquely elegant hybrid solution evolves, taking advantage of premises or private cloud solutions from Mitel’s MiCollab with a cloud-based collaboration solution in Microsoft Teams.

Making Teams More of a Team Player

Microsoft Teams is great for many things, from video meetings to sharing documents. But many businesses still need high-quality telephony applications to run their business.

Schools and universities, for example, rely on mass notification via mobile devices to notify students, staff, and parents of emergencies. Financial services companies must maintain inbound contact centers supporting call recording and other advanced telephony features. Retail businesses need to connect workers on the sales floor to customer service applications via telephone to help customers in real-time.

Let’s look at two more industries to see how Mitel plus Microsoft Teams can help businesses run better.

Healthcare – Consider a network of healthcare facilities. They use Teams for video collaboration between facilities, but what about emergencies where a doctor or nurse needs to respond when they’re not near a laptop? Telephony services can provide the critical link to life-saving answers in seconds. Or what about mobile service workers who are responsible for things like security and cleaning? Telephony apps keep them connected to colleagues with maximum efficiency.

Hospitality – Another sector that can benefit from a telephony-enhanced Teams environment is the hospitality industry. Hotels may use Teams for internal meetings or drive customer engagement, but telephones still play a critical role in their daily life. Guests rely on in-suite phone services to contact staff and receive messages. Cleaning staff can use those same phones to indicate when a room is clean and available for new guests. Combining those communications with Teams enables hotels to stay connected to colleagues and customers from one platform.

Phone calls, SMS notifications, and contact centers still play a vital role in many organizations, but most businesses don’t want to manage two separate communications and collaboration platforms.

With Mitel solutions, they don’t have to because the telephony functionality can be integrated with their overall communications experience, whether they’re collaborating in Teams and need to make a phone call from their laptop or desk phone or browsing the web and want the simplicity of click-to-dial automatically from any phone number.

Contact your local TCI experts to learn more about integrating your Mitel solutions with Teams: (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.
 

Connecting Healthcare Providers with HIPAA-Compliant and Cloud-Based Communications

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As a local technology leader, TCI is committed to delivering the best HIPAA-compliant healthcare communications tools for your facility.

The entire healthcare industry underwent a rapid digital transformation due to the pandemic and continues to evolve as the world changes.

Telehealth, remote treatments, and virtual patient services have grown in popularity, enabling patients to receive care outside the traditional clinical environment.

Healthcare providers are embracing the latest communications technology to keep up with their patients’ evolving digital-first expectations – and many are already taking advantage of the Cloud to achieve healthcare benefits.

The Key Benefits of Cloud-Based Healthcare Communications

  • Enhanced Data Security and Compliance – Hospitals and other providers are among the biggest targets of hackers and ransomware due to the sensitive data they must store and transmit. Patient information is more secure in the Cloud, protected by encryption and access controls. TCI offers Cloud-based UC solutions that are updated continuously to comply with the latest privacy and security standards, including HIPAA and GDPR.
  • Scalability and Flexibility – Healthcare systems with Cloud-based UC solutions can seamlessly transition to remote operations and manage increased volumes of patients during a pandemic or short-term crisis.
  • More Cost-Efficient, Effective Processes – Private and hybrid Cloud communications solutions reduce infrastructure and maintenance costs using digital rather than physical storage. Integration with medical apps streamlines complicated processes. Time-consuming administrative tasks can be automated for improved operational efficiency.
  • Advanced Analytics and Insights – Cloud-based UC solutions can use powerful predictive analytics tools for data-driven decision-making.

All aspects of your healthcare communications can be elevated to the Cloud, such as:

  • Contact Centers
  • Patient Portals
  • VoIP Phone Systems
  • Video Calling and Voice Messaging
  • Collaboration Software and Teamwork Solutions
  • Text Alerts and Reminders

Take Your Healthcare Communications to the Cloud with TCI & Mitel

TCI deploys HIPAA-compliant Mitel solutions that empower your clinical staff to spend less time on administrative tasks and more on critical care by supporting streamlined workflows, seamless file sharing, and API integration.

Innovations like AI-enabled automation, self-service tools, and virtual assistants will increase patient engagement, trust, and satisfaction with their healthcare experience.

To future-proof your healthcare communications, look for the deployment model – private, hybrid, or public Cloud – that best fits your clinical needs, data security requirements, and budget.

Contact your local TCI experts to learn more about migrating your healthcare communications to the Cloud: (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.
 

TCI Host Service – Customized Contact Center, Team Collaboration & Business Communications

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Empower your people to serve your customers better

For a single, low monthly price, you can upgrade old phones to advanced mobile-enabled desktop phones and use Mitel’s award-winning capabilities to dramatically improve your Customer Experience.

Cloud communications isn’t an all-or-nothing endeavor

There are several deployment models to choose from depending on your business’s unique situation, and you can shift from one approach to another over time. Managing a multi-site business? TCI Host can bring your offices closer together.

In and Outbound Contact Center / Call Center

Whether you’re a small or big business, you can support omnichannel queues that let customers contact you the way they prefer. Track your customer contacts and get real-time metrics for informed decision-making and better team coaching.

  • Integrate with your CRM, like Salesforce, Microsoft, and others
  • Offer Live Agents, Web Chat, Email, Text Messaging / SMS
  • Monitor and respond to Social Media feeds (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)
  • Automate and access Full Reporting on Your Customer Interactions
  • Improve Customer Experience
  • Become more efficient

Powerful Collaboration Capabilities

Explore some of the Mitel-powered team-building and conferencing tools your users can tap into with their mobile or desktop phones…

  • Virtual workspaces for team meetings, conversations, content review, and project management
  • Team Video Conferencing and Recording
  • Participant management
  • Desktop application sharing
  • Team and private chat
  • Web-based file sharing
  • Document management

Unified Messaging and Integrated Apps

With access to these Mitel-powered tools, your team’s work can be tackled on more devices from any location:

  • Integration with business applications from tech leaders like Microsoft and Google
  • Presence Tools
  • Softphone App on Mobile Devices
  • Unified Messaging
  • Remote control of desktops
  • Outlook client plug-in
  • MS TEAMS integration (Mitel Assistant App)
  • Message retrieval from one synchronized message store

Our TCI Host Cloud Voice Service is all about flexibility

Add new cloud-based tools to your existing business phone system, and when you’re ready, migrate your entire platform to the cloud to reduce your overall telecom costs.

Schedule your TCI Host demo. Call us today at (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.
 

Prepare for Tomorrow… 5 Steps to Future-Proof Your Workforce

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What technology and skill sets can you invest in today that can help your employees successfully meet the challenges of the future? Follow these five steps to engage your employees and ensure your business is ready for whatever comes next.

1. Practice Curiosity

You and other decision-makers at your company have probably spent a lot of time asking yourselves big questions: How do we fulfill our mission statement? Who is our client base? Where are our growth opportunities? Much of the time these discussions occur behind closed doors, and while they’re important conversations to have, they’re not the only ones that should be happening.

Take time as you plan for 2024 to practice curiosity about your business on a granular level. Talk to your employees about their experiences and ask them for their thoughts. Often, those on the ground floor have the most interaction with your clients or know the smallest details that keep everything running. What works for them? What concerns do they have? What do they have to contribute and how can you facilitate that?

Begin these discussions with an open mind, asking new questions and understanding that you might not already know the answers. Explore avenues that might not be the most obvious. Try different ideas, and don’t be afraid to fail. Exercising genuine curiosity is an important leadership trait that takes practice but ultimately leads to exponential possibilities for growth.

2. Embrace Empathy

This second tip builds on the first. Curiosity is the start of connecting with your workforce, but empathy puts it into action. Meeting Management software leader Zipdo reports that leaders showing compassion for work environment issues and staff well-being was essential in increasing motivation in 96% of employees.

The pandemic made it clear that work styles vary and what works for one person may be completely unproductive for another. When you begin to ask questions, be prepared for a variety of answers and know they might all be correct on some level.

One key aspect to maintaining your workers’ well-being is to meet them where they are. The last few years have been a wide-scale experiment in new styles of work. According to the Harvard Business Review, many companies recognized that personalized, non-traditional schedules and workplaces lead to increased productivity and happiness, with 58% of organizations having invested in their employee experience.

Allowing flexible workdays, recognizing progress, encouraging mental health, and sometimes simply listening, not only makes you a better leader but keeps your employees feeling fulfilled, healthy, and engaged.

3. Foster Collaboration

Once you’ve worked to understand your employees’ needs, it’s time to come together and collaborate. It looks like non-traditional offices are here to stay, with a majority of people saying they want to work from home at least part of the time.

With blended workspaces blurring the line between in-person and remote, it’s essential to ensure everyone feels connected no matter where they are. Zippia found that “86% of employees in leadership positions blame lack of collaboration as the top reason for workplace failures” and that job satisfaction increased by 17% through collaboration.

Real-time communication is critical, whether you use chat, video conferences, phone calls, or email to keep up with projects. Using all-in-one tools and integrated collaboration software facilitates switching between modes of communication and promotes trust between colleagues, which encourages creativity, a sense of belonging, and that elusive authentic culture many employees value.

4. Adopt and Adapt Technology

When the COVID-19 lockdowns first took effect, companies were thrust into the digital-first world, ready or not. Almost 3 years later, even the most self-identified “technology laggards” have gotten on board, with many workplaces experiencing significant increases in operational efficiencies.

Taking advantage of technology is no longer optional for companies. Investing in cloud storage, unified communications systems, and employee training is critical for success. Adopting the right technology can make or break the productivity of your workforce.

5. Maintain Flexibility

The final way to future-proof your workforce is something we’ve all been practicing for a while now – maintaining flexibility in the face of whatever comes next. Though it may be challenging, continue to embrace change and allow your company to grow and adapt.

Listening to your employees and recognizing that each of them has unique needs will not only make you a better leader, but it will help guide your business through whatever lies ahead. Meeting workers where they are reminds them that you care and encourages satisfaction. After all, a happy employee is more productive and dedicated to their job.

Technology has helped with this transition already and integrating it into your workflow will keep your employees engaged and your company successful. Using new tools instead of trying to force old ones to work will keep you connected and on top of your game.

2023 was a year of technological evolution for many companies, and 2024 will be the year to reap the rewards of that evolution.

No matter your needs, TCI can help you prepare for tomorrow. Call us today at (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.
 


Managing Field Service Techs? Learn How TCI’s Collaboration Solutions & Tools Improve Field Operations

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With embedded communications technology, you can eliminate delays, manage operations more efficiently, and generate improved customer satisfaction and greater profitability for your business.

  • Have you looked at your field service applications lately?
  • Are your field techs getting tired of jumping back and forth between mobile apps, dialers, text windows, video players, and more to get their job done?

There’s a more efficient way to stay connected and run communications seamlessly with TCI’s Mitel-powered solutions.

Field service companies juggle a lot of moving parts – including scheduled and emergency customer calls, tracking technician status and availability, and being able to resolve a customer’s problem on the first visit.

When it comes to running a smooth and efficient field services operation, a unified communications solution with built-in collaboration tools is the only way to keep a mobile and disparate team connected, informed, and prepared.

Here’s how UC tools get the job done…

  • A mobile app for truck fleets with turn-by-turn directions keeps technicians connected, on schedule, and productive. It provides access to everything they need to complete a call without having to navigate between systems. Service calls are shorter, reducing the overall cost per call.
  • SMS notifications keep the customer up to date on the technician’s estimated arrival time, along with their name and job number.
  • CRM integration provides technicians with access to customer information, including the last service date, equipment on site, the current problem, and even possible solutions. A qualified technician arrives at the customer site with the right parts on the truck.
  • Video conferencing enables real-time communications between technicians and subject matter experts. Techs receive assistance in the field if questions arise about how to resolve a difficult issue.
  • Automatic rescheduling empowers customers and gives your service reps more time to spend on complicated issues.
  • All data for a service call is stored within the system, including video communications and the customer’s signature, so the job can be closed out at the time of service.

Field services companies that implement these collaboration tools not only see greater workflow efficiencies, they generate more revenue and improve their bottom lines.

Ready to transform your field services operation? TCI can help… Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.