According to Ovum's research, "90 percent of organizations are at risk of becoming irrelevant to their customers unless they can learn to adapt much faster and in ways that customers value." As I've stated before, Unified Communications & Collaboration (UC&C) offers great potential to open up communications--so long as management removes the obstacles in front of employees and between them and management.
This is where UC butts heads with management. Management doesn't want to lose any control. The classic example is "telecommuting"--I can't say that I am a fan of any company completely prohibiting telecommuting within their organization; I think it's short sighted.
But failure to communicate is an old problem that still exists today. So what exactly are the barriers? The food chain of an organization is where most blockages occur. Can a customer with a suggestion talk to the design engineer? (I purposely left out product managers because some of you guys are gatekeepers and you irritate people.)
Do something constructive besides jockey a desk, office or cubicle. Engage and talk with your customers. Novel idea: answer the phone! Someone asked me not long ago, "So you answer your own phone?" Listen, answering the phone equates to opportunity: good, bad or indifferent, you take it all.
My next point is, this is where "enterprise class" falls on its face. Stop hiding and get out and do something with your customers and if you won't engage them, they will engage with someone who cares.
We're facing a golden opportunity to engage, communicate and collaborate. Recently, I read where the word "collaboration" still carries the connotation of evil spies dating back to WWII, and people are still stigmatized by the word. A few days ago, a building superintendent showed me the contract of a company; within that contract was terminology reading: "Contractor will work cooperatively with all other trades" and the contractor wasn't living up to this. Put yourselves on a construction site where there's no collaboration and you have chaos.
Earlier in the day I ventured out to a hardware store and three employees were standing around laughing and talking about non-work items and as I patiently waited, finally one of them asked what I needed. It's simply an old rule in sales that when someone walks into the red zone (a selling area), do not ignore them. This wasn't just any hardware store but a chain. There is seemingly still resistance or lack of desire to engage customers whether they are under the noses of employees or on the phone. My point here is, no matter what technology we deploy and implement, companies must cover the basics that technology just can't fix.
Jeremy Cox, principal analyst at Ovum, stated, "It is time that investors examine the capabilities of firms to truly engage and build trust with their customers; then perhaps we'd see more evidence of leaders orchestrating and enabling rather than commanding and controlling and chasing short-term results.''
A few days ago an accountant for one of our campus sites asked me, "How can we get a direct number for day care?" Easy, we pay a buck a month for a DID from your SIP provider. She said, "That's what we want, so parents don't have to wait and listen to the automated attendant when they want to inquire about their child." This is where lip service turns into customer service, because the accountant understands what customers want--because she engages them and listens to their needs and doesn't just take their tuition.
In his book about Panasonic, Francis McInerney wrote: "What are the fastest ways to move information within a company and between a company and its suppliers?" Adding customers and employees to that thought, I believe the answer for those that do remove the barriers to communicate and collaborate is that greater rewards do await you. While information is important, getting close to customers will pay off, and you stay relevant when you know what they want.
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