Why COVID-19 has taught us that calling is more important than ever before

Why COVID-19 has taught us that calling is more important than ever before

I’ve worked in telecoms for over 20 years. I’ll never forget my first day at Tiger when I was shown an application that had taken over two years to develop.

I was tasked with the job of testing ‘fancy’ new graphical user interfaces. I laugh about this now as so much has changed since. After all, that was during a time of grey Windows and the very first ‘Start’ button!

On my desk, I remember there being a plain, plastic handset that I would come to learn was a critical part of every business. It impacted everything – from sales and support to finance and internal communication. The software I was using at the time was also able to capture all of the details during each call. Who would have thought it?

Fast forward to two decades later and even when many people thought the telephone would be killed off by email, SMS and instant messaging, it’s still going strong. Think about it, has this form of communication really been replaced?

March 2020 marked the beginning of lockdown and, in the UK alone, video calling was up by a massive 62% versus the previous quarter. Note that I used the word ‘calling’ too because the connection method may be different, but the purpose and outcome remains the same. It’s a fact that we will always continue to talk to each other – especially within the workplace because businesses leaders must know when things happen, as soon as possible.

We’ve seen a significant shift in traditional telephony. From a company perspective, our retail clients have had to shut their physical stores to customers but they’re still able to trade thanks to communicative tools. And although some don’t have a strong online presence, telephone calls to their stores – that are being manned by remote workers using unified comms capabilities while they’re at home – have increased by over 300%.

And the fact remains, if these calls happen to go unanswered, customers may perhaps go elsewhere – and more than likely a competitor will steal a march.

At Tiger, we continued to invest in our R&D because we know how vital it is for our service to be able to acquire information about collaboration activities – from multiple platforms including Microsoft, Cisco and Avaya. And, we are committed to adding further fresh connectors to emerging vendors, including Zoom.

There is a ‘new normal’ way of working for many organisations as they explore hybrid options where there’s a combination of office-based hours and operating from remote locations. So, it’s important that our technology plays to those ever-evolving needs. That’s why Tiger’s workplace analytics allows businesses to gain visibility of workplace activities so leaders can make better decisions which result in an enhanced customer and employee experience.