As the world is going through a pandemic, technology is proving to be essencial in keeping business active, allowing people to work remotely and procedures to be done digitally. Technology has always influenced the way companies do business, but COVID-19 is accelerating the process of organizations embracing tech to deal with their processes and value chains, as we all walk towards the creation of a “new normal”. Implementing tech solutions is no longer a matter of choice, it’s a matter of survival for businesses.

Must-have technology to keep up with today’s consumer
One of the best ways to improve workflow efficiency and help companies to better serve their clients is adopting technologies focused on customer service:

• Face-to-face video communication: eye contact is very powerful, it enables openness and improves relationships. So video communication tools, such as Loom and Zoom, are vital for businesses who want to stay ahead.
• Real-time messaging: Facebook Messenger, Slack, chat, on-site conversations are all communication tools that provide responsiveness and agility to customers. In order for these tools to bring results, conversations have to be real-time and authentic.
• Omni-channel service experience: there’s a variety of digital mediums customers expect to interact with businesses, such as e-commerce, review sites, social media. And it’s important to offer to clients an omni-channel service experience, which works through a central inbox, that receives all incoming inquires from customers, no matter from which digital media they come.
• Self-service: clients and users expect to have access to self-service tools to solve their problems quickly. In that category, we can point out chatbots, AI, FAQs, online discussion forums, virtual assistants.

How you can let data drive your conversations
All of these tools do more than deliver an excellent customer service, they gather priceless data, that can be used to keep improving companies’s relationships with their customers. Measuring the rate of success of each tech tool used within the business is the least companies should do. Analyzing data will allow businesses to identify customer needs that have been overlooked, as well as roadblocks. The entire organization can benefit from data analysis, because each department of a company can be improved based on information coming from customer interactions.

Best practices for maximizing virtual appointments
Choose the right platform. In order to choose the best videoconferencing tool for virtual appointments, it’s important to know the specific needs of each particular meeting. There’s no point in picking the most modern software, when half of the features won’t even be used and will likely overwhelm the participants.

Efficiency
When going into a virtual meeting, people expect it will take less time than meeting in person. The technology is here to speed up the process and not slow it down, that’s what companies should keep in mind to be efficient in every virtual appointment, may that meeting be with customers or employees.

Finalize with a conclusion
Part of what makes people feel that a virtual meeting has been productive is if everyone feels they are on the same page and understand what their role is moving forward. That’s why whoever is in charge of the virtual appointment should go over a quick overview of each one’s responsibilities, what has been accomplished so far and what are the future goals.