Highlights:
How’s your communications tech stack holding up? Your communications tech stack can make or break your business, so it’s important to build one that both your employees and customers love.
To help you better assess your communications tech stack, we surveyed 3,000 people in small and mid-sized businesses to better understand how employees prefer to communicate and what they look for in a communications tool. Below, we reveal eight eye-opening communications stats from our recent survey and share tips on how to improve your communications tech stack.
👀 Want more eye-opening communications stats? Grab our 2022 state of human connections at work report to get an entire list.
1. Communications tools are a need, not a want
68% say they rely “much more” or “somewhat more” on business communications and collaboration tools since COVID.
Solution: Remember, not all communications tools are created equal. Keep an eye out for a communications platform that can grow with your business, not hinder it. If you have a phone system, find one that’s flexible enough to evolve with your business and lets you scale phone lines, users, and devices up or down in a matter of clicks.
2. Better communication starts with the right tools
51% say business communication and collaboration tools have “greatly improved” or “somewhat improved” communication.
Solution: Get an advanced communications tool that can improve the way your team communicates with one another and customers—the basics simply won’t cut it. What does an advanced communications tool look like? For starters, one with an open platform that can connect with all your favorite business apps, like Salesforce, Microsoft 365, and Google Cloud.
3. Voice communication works best for building connections
76% believe colleagues that use voice communication are more connected to each other.
Solution: Voice communication is here to stay. Whether your team is working remotely, in the office, or both, encourage them to use voice communication more—that means picking up the phone instead of sending another email.
4. Voice and video communication foster meaningful relationships
69% believe people that make phone or video calls have better personal relationships with coworkers.
Solution: Voice + video = a match made in heaven. Find a complete phone system (with global calling, SMS, fax, voicemail, and immersive video meetings) that’s accessible on a single app for mobile, desktop, and tablet.
5. Voice and video calls are more impactful than you think
68% say yes to “connecting online through voice or video calls are as good as in-person for work-related tasks.”
Solution: Keep remote employees connected and effortlessly productive by encouraging them to participate in more voice and video calls.
6. Team messaging builds strong communicators
58% believe colleagues that rely on team messaging are better communicators.
Solution: Team messaging isn’t just for sending plain words like “Thank you” and “How’s your day?” Take advantage of extra messaging capabilities, like sending a fun gif, creating a new note, or adding a file attachment alongside your message.
7. Workers want an all-in-one package for communication
83% agree having access to a messaging platform, voice calling, and video meetings all in one app is ideal.
Solution: Turn to one vendor for all your business communications needs. Simplify your communications into a single app that includes phone calls, video conferencing, fax, SMS, chat, and contact center. Bonus points if you can find a vendor that’s an industry leader.
8. Employees need freedom to work wherever they go
75% believe freedom to work from anywhere is the norm for all relevant industries.
Solution: Pick a communications tool that makes it easy for you and your team to work from anywhere. Remember to find one that works on any device so you can seamlessly switch between your phone, tablet, or laptop.
What’s next?
So what do all these stats mean? They mean it’s time to reevaluate your communications tech stack and upgrade to an award-winning unified communications platform, like RingCentral MVP™, that makes your small business look big.
RingCentral MVP is easy to use and powerful enough to grow with your business. Not only will you and your team be able to work from anywhere, but it can connect with your business apps and systems—tap into 250+ integrations in the RingCentral App Gallery and open APIs through the RingCentral developer portal to customize your workflows.
Learn how you can grow your business and feel confident in your communications tech stack with RingCentral MVP. There’s a reason why RingCentral is trusted by more than 350,000 small businesses—come join the family.
Originally published Feb 07, 2022, updated Jul 30, 2024
