In our attempt to make life as easy as possible, here are a few ideas to keep in mind next time you’re feeling the pressures of time getting to you.

1. Have clear objectives and support
It may sound obvious but making sure team members know exactly what their responsibilities are and what is expected from them is essential. This is something that can sometimes become lost as companies expand and change from a small hands-on start-up to a larger scale enterprise. Monitoring employee progress is therefore important to make sure that people stay on track, achieve what is needed and don’t repeat work. This is also a good way to identify early on any areas where a person may be struggling and look for ways to help before the situation gets out of hand.

2. Provide confidence through training
Although an employee may be hired for a particular skill set, it is unfair to expect them to improve without some form of training. Even if this is as simple as employees researching and presenting to their peers, an interest in personal career development will make people feel valued by the company. It will also give employees added confidence in day-to-day tasks, decision making and taking initiative. Funding courses is also likely to make employees feel indebted to the company and so more obliged to perform better.

3. Use technology to your advantage
Make life easier by using tools specifically designed to increase productivity. This could be in the form of implementing HR software to reduce time spent on recurring admin tasks; or by removing travel to meetings by using a conference call facility, such as Powwownow. Not only will tools such as these give staff more time in a working day, but removing dull and monotonous tasks will also help to improve moral.

4. Stay positive and motivated
There will always be elements of your job that you are less fond of. But keeping these elements to a minimum and recognising them for what they are will help to stay positive, motivated and on track for a productive day. From a managerial point of view, try to avoid micromanaging situations. Trusting in your team to think for themselves and deliver the work without constant monitoring from superiors will free up time for both you and them.

If there is a particular task that you are really dreading, give yourself an added motivator, even if it’s just in the form of a cup of tea or chocolate biscuit when it’s finished.

5. Plan your day – including breaks!
Keep on top of things by planning your day to avoid getting side-tracked. Give yourself targets for each day and break larger projects into smaller tasks to make them more achievable. Try scheduling these smaller tasks into 30 minute slots in your calendar. Obviously some items will take more or less time than this, but measuring this as you go along will help to check that you’re not spending too long on the smaller items.

Just as important as planning in work is to allow time for breaks and rewards. Although it may seem like you’re chained to your desk until a project is complete, taking a proper lunch break and stretching your legs will help you to relax and think more clearly about the issue at hand.

Is keeping your day productive something that you struggle with? Or do you have any tips on how to stay focused?

If you’re already a user of the Powwownow service, or if you’ve had chance to nosy around our site before, then you’ve probably seen us mention Branded Welcome Messages. This is a personalised message that is recorded to your requirements and assigned to a dedicated dial-in number. Consequently, whenever a conference is held using this number, call participants are greeted with this personalised message, rather than the standard generic introduction.

There’s no doubt that conference calling makes business sense, saving you both time and money. However, it is important that the personal contact lost by meeting on the phone rather than face-to-face, is provided in other ways. This needn’t be difficult. For example, using video conferencing instead of basic audio means that you are better able to read the body language and facial expressions of those you are talking with.

Adding a personal greeting to the conference call is another small detail that can make a big difference when it comes to being personable. It shows that you are interested in the smaller details. Greeting call participants as soon as they enter the conference, presents that extra feeling of being valued. You are also able to provide callers with any introductions or additional information prior to the call, ensuring that they are fully prepared.

Going to the added effort of providing detail such as a Branded Welcome Message can also portray an increased sense of size to a company – something that could be useful for smaller businesses when starting out.

So what are you waiting for? What better way to add that personal and professional shine to your conference calls?

The first 100 people to email: workwiseoffer@powwownow.com and enquire about Powwownow Engage during Work Wise Week (12^th – 18^th May 2013) will be given a free three month trial for their company*.

Successful individuals will be notified by 31^st May 2013 by Powwownow. 

Powwownow Engage

The Smarter Connection

With business leaders increasingly under pressure to be both more productive and more innovative – the ability to connect people together and getting them to work in a fast and flexible way is more valuable than ever.

In this paper, the Insight Team from Powwownow share their latest research into the importance of effective collaboration and team work, explore how our offices are changing shape – and show how small businesses and medium sized enterprises can benefit the most from the powerful new workplace communication tools now available.

Click below to view our whitepaper.

Whitepaper – The Smarter Connection November 2012

To achieve such a traffic rate in normal economic times would have been an achievement. To do so during today’s recession is something worth shouting about.

First it is important to note the key reasons why people choose to use conference calling: to save time and money. Simply put, conference calling cuts out the hassle and expense of travelling to meetings and using a video call even adds that personal touch.

Meeting Business Targets

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Motivations for using a conference call service covered; why choose Powwownow as the provider?

There is obviously a range of factors considered by businesses when making this choice but primarily this again comes down to time and money: Powwownow is simple and affordable to use. With a clear one step sign-up for making a conference call it is easy to use and also explain to other potential call participants. The affordability comes from customers only paying the cost of their own phone call, without any additional contracts or bills.

It becomes even more prevalent to save these resources during an economic downturn, such as now. Since 2008 when the recession first hit, many companies have had to introduce stringent cutbacks. Affordable tools and services that enable businesses to save money and potentially avoid unpleasant cutbacks have therefore become even more appealing.

Similarly, with many companies unwilling to offer the salary increases that would usually be expected, it has become increasingly popular to offer non-monetary incentives, such as remote working. This is made significantly more effective through the use of reliable and affordable conference calling, video and web calls.

Powwownow’s products have been able to help companies facilitate this increased demand for money-saving tools and effective remote working. The product range has also been expanded through the development of new collaboration tool, Powwownow Engage. This has a range of functionality such as screen sharing, instant messaging and HD video calling, which makes engaging, communicating and working together easy.

As a result of this increase in service demand, Powwownow has actually bucked the economic trend, growing in size from being only a handful of people in 2004 to having more than 60 members of staff in 2013. In 2012 alone the company saw 30% growth, with Powwownow achieving an impressive annual turnover of 10.2 million per annum.

When asked about how Powwownow has succeeded and grown as a small business through the recession, CEO Simon Curry commented: “The achievement of our first ‘million minute day’ at the end of 2012 was a massive milestone for us. Testament to all of the hard work and man hours that our team has put in to growing and developing the company, especially through these economically gloomy years, this really is something that we are hugely proud of. Never satisfied to sit back and take our industry leading position for granted, we are always striving to better ourselves and are now looking for the next challenge. We believe that conference calling shouldn’t be seen as an expensive luxury but as an essential, practical and reliable money-saving tool.”

Business Collaboration

It may be hard to remember a time before emails, but the development of this instant written communication tool was possibly the most important enterprise product ever invented for business. Not only allowing people to instantly send messages, for the first time it also allowed electronic documents to easily be worked on from multiple locations and by different users. For many people, this is still the default form of collaboration. However, this does not make it the most effective.

Using email to send different document versions back and forth can quickly get confusing. It is also the most common reason for email systems to become overloaded, as vast quantities of data is repeatedly saved to the system.

This is where using a unified collaboration tool such as Powwownow’s Engage, means that people are able to work together to edit and discuss documents from different locations at the same time. There is no need to save separate versions as people are able to see and work on the same one, whilst also discussing in real time via HD video calling what changes should be made.

Using the same system to screen share, work on documents, chat and exchange written messages means that it is easy to switch between these different methods of communication. For example, if it turns out that a quick question sent on IM actually requires a full conversation, using a unified collaboration tool makes that conversation only one click away. It is also possible to then easily include other call participants if needed – real time presence makes it easy to identify if they are available.

Having one combined tool also means that there are fewer systems to manage, keeping processes simple and costs down. This means increased productivity and efficiency, as people are able to easily communicate with whoever they like in the format that best suits the task at hand. This ease of sharing and inclusion often results in improved process integration and enhanced business continuity.

The additional benefit of this is that remote access working is more effective. This is both in terms of it being easier for the person working at home to be better connected, but also for them to be managed virtually and still receive the support required.

What are your experiences of using unified collaboration? Do you agree that this user friendly amalgamation of tools makes work processes easier? If so, this is surely where the future lies?

Advantages of Video Conferencing

Cost savings – money, time and space

The same as with traditional conference calling, video conferencing removes the cost and hassle of having to travel to meetings. Cutting company fuel bills and allowing increased productivity from the time saved, video conferencing gives a tangible return on investment. Participants can be based anywhere in the world and, time differences permitting, meetings can be arranged simply and easily at the drop of a hat, with no need for large meeting room facilities. The reduction in travel is also an environmental win.

Remote working

Video conferencing is a particular advantage for geographically diverse work teams. Impromptu meetings are able to be set up and held immediately, making it easy for people to come together to discuss ideas. Being able to take control of a shared screen, participants are able to work through documents together as if they were in the same room. This kind of collaboration ability enables remote working to become an effective and realistic option, with people that choose this work style no longer being put at a disadvantage. For a company, the ability to offer effective remote access working is a particularly important asset during the current economic climate, where companies may be less able to use monetary incentives to attract employees.

Spot the difference

There will always be situations where a face-to-face meeting is required. However, in most cases, video conferencing is as good as the real thing. Being able to see the people you are talking with means that you are better able to read responses through body language. This makes debates easier and, coupled with the ability to share and review data together in real-time, increases productivity.

Common concerns

Perhaps due to the vast benefits that it can bring, a common misconception is that video conferencing technology must be expensive, complicated or unreliable. This is simply not the case anymore. This commonplace technology no longer requires additional training or the need to employ anyone to set it up. There is no need for expensive or specifically compatible equipment for call participants and the technology used is as now as reliable as a standard telephone call.

So really, the question should be, why wouldn’t you use video conferencing to make your life easier?

The rise of eCommerce solutions, the proliferation of useful advice online and the use of social media platforms are all examples of how consumer marketing experience is affecting the expectation of SME decision makers. The level and openness of information has changed. Dan Pink points out that in many cases, a well-connected savvy buyer, thorough the use of forums and social media sites can now have more product and review information than the salesman. This is something that has completely changed the traditional buyer-seller dynamic.

Targeted Engagement

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Research from Marketo suggests that up to 70% of the B2B buying process is now done online – before they speak to a prospective vendor. Therefore the ability to target and engage with prospects in the right way, in the right online environments is vital. In addition, by using and understanding customer data, marketers can gain smart insights that can shape communications and offers. For example, such targeting can now lead to varying copy and changing messages for different prospects and groups. The business needs of a hairdresser are likely to be very different from those of a car dealer – even if both may be prospects for your services.

It is important to remember that not every product brand is right for every SME and that not every SME may be right for you to serve. Segmentation and smart targeting of SME communities enables you to focus on the best prospects and maximise your chance of relationship success.

Examples:

Customer Relationship Management is a powerful tool to help businesses track overall customer data, behaviour and activities. The CRM process runs through four main phases; Segmentation and Selection, Attraction, Retention and Expansion.

Whilst traditional segmentation has often cut the customer database by industry type, purchasing behaviour, personal characteristics, geography and perhaps some psychographic variables, the more sophisticated CRM programmes can now go much, much deeper. They identify and sub-divide customer groups by: customer life cycle (how long have they been a customer?), satisfaction levels (from surveys), product usage, brand loyalty, price sensitivity or contact behaviour. With this kind of sophisticated understanding marketers are able to shape more targeted messaging and services and feed results back into their system.

Increasingly, there is also a narrowing of the divide between the nature of B2B and B2C communications. In an article in ‘The Financial Times’ in 2011, Alex Dayon, VP at Salesforce.com said that ‘The idea that B2B and B2C requirements differ is stuck in the ’90s. It is true that B2B and B2C are developing at a different pace. But there are different complexities to the relationships and differences in the number of people involved.’

Most importantly no matter how automated the systems, it is worth remembering that every B2B buying decision still requires a personal response to your messages and brand. Whilst B2B may appear like a purely rational decision focused on price the reality is that the decision is still heavily influenced by personal perception and satisfaction in the service received. The full cost is not just the ticket price of the item; it is the cost of the price plus reliability, lack of stress and service. And so much of this perception will extend from the power of individual relationships built by sales teams, call centre staff or delivery drivers. As the legendary marketer Mark McCormack said: ‘all things being equal – people will buy from people they like. All things not being equal, they will still buy from people they like.’

First, a quick recap over the top ten email basics – these should provide a strong foundation for any email that you send, whether it is a regular contact message or part of a larger mail out.

Email Etiquette – How to engage with your customers

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1. Be professional and understandable – politeness is a given but also make sure not to use unnecessary abbreviations.
2. Introduce yourself usefully – you wouldn’t talk to somebody new without first saying hi but bear in mind what is relevant to the topic at hand.
3. Use obvious subject headings to indicate content and purpose – for frequently used topics perhaps agree on abbreviation headings, such as ‘AR’ for “Action Required”.
4. Send on a need to know basis – use ‘cc’ and ‘bcc’ appropriately and don’t ‘reply all’ unless everyone really needs to know.
5. Emails aren’t private – refrain from discussing confidential or potentially embarrassing information: never put in an email something that you wouldn’t put on a postcard.
6. Use friendly formatting – don’t SHOUT or get too excited with exclamation marks! Always spellcheck and use a standard font face.
7. Don’t overdo emoticons – in fact there’s a good argument for avoiding them all together: if you feel the need to better express yourself, you probably need to take another look at your words.
8. Be contactable – have an up to date and useful signature.
9. Beware of sending large attachments – if this is absolutely necessary first check that the recipient has room in their inbox and also the best time of day to send it.
10. Don’t hide behind an email – remember, your tone can’t be heard in an email and likewise neither can theirs; try to keep phrasing neutral and give the benefit of the doubt.

So we’ve covered the basic standards required for everyday emails. But what if you’ve got a larger email campaign? There has to be more than this required to really grab a customer’s attention?

1.       Make it to the inbox – don’t be labelled as spam

An obvious statement but without this your email is pointless; therefore make sure you adhere to the 2003 CAN-SPAM act. In short, this means that you must make sure your email is accurate and honest, has a text version available, includes a postal address and contains a way to unsubscribe, which is implemented within ten days. It is also a good idea to setup a Sender Policy Framework (SPF) in order to verify the sending server.

However, even after making sure that all of this is in place do make sure that you perform testing as a final check!

2.       Establish the goal and set a call to action

The same as any business action, know why you are sending the email and what you hope to gain from it. Likewise, make sure that this is obvious to the reader. This means ensuring that all of the necessary information is there and that messaging is clear. Make sure key facts are highlighted but not overwhelming for the reader and that the call to action (for example, acknowledging receipt, providing information or clicking on a link) is obvious.

3.       Make a good first impression and don’t rely on images

When sending emails that require HTML elements, remember that many readers will have images switched off by default. Therefore don’t solely rely on text within an image to make your point. Make sure that the image alt attribute can be read and that it displays an accurate description of the image it represents.

With a wide variety of email clients in common use, make sure that there is a prominent link to view a web based version of the email. Similarly, provide a text version of the email, not only to help get past spam filters, but also to aid viewing on mobile devices.

4.       Be personal and personable

Make the reader feel special and not simply part of a long mailing list – personalising an email is a great way to create a connection. Likewise, adding pleasantries such as “Have a lovely weekend!” makes the reader feel like they have been contacted by a human, rather than a marketing machine. However, make sure to tread a careful line and not to be over familiar. Too much assumed friendliness can be a turnoff and an email cluttered with marketing jargon, however well intended, is unlikely to be well received.

Remember that personalisation goes further than simply adding the recipient’s name. For example, you could suggest products that the reader may be interested in based on their previous buying habits, similar to how Amazon does. Or you could send different emails to people who frequently or rarely open your emails to either reward or incentivise.

5.       Analyse your emails

After going to the effort of sending an email, you want to make sure that it has had the desired effect. Was it opened? Were any links clicked? Was it marked as junk? Analysing the response to your emails will go a long way to improving the success of future mail outs, as well as the integrity of your mailing list.

A good way to test changes to your emails is to perform a split test, where you send a different version to two different groups of recipients.

Are there any other top tips that you recommend for captivating your customers through the power of email?

It is therefore a shame that the cost of saving time and money by using a conference call facility should be that the effective use of a presentation is lost. Although supporting documents can be circulated ahead of a call, there is no way to guarantee that everyone will be looking at the same part, or that relevant facts will be highlighted appropriately.

Using a web conferencing facility overcomes this problem. By using this to integrate screen sharing into a conference call, whatever the host displays on their own screen is also viewable by call participants. This could be anything from a presentation document to a website, a spread sheet to an annotated article.

Web Conferencing

The advantages of using integrated screen sharing rather than having a basic meeting or call can be seen in both client and colleague relationships.

For a client, being guided through a presentation is a more relaxed experience than having to take lots of notes. Similarly, providing a document that is directly relevant to the call’s agenda and that has been explained during it, gives a professional finish.

For colleague relationships, being able to view a document together makes collaborating far simpler. It is often easier to understand a person’s thought process if there is a visual guide, rather than having to follow verbally. Also, by actually seeing what the problem is rather than solely relying on a description gives confidence to making a decision. This allows for increased responsiveness and faster decision making.

Web conferencing effectively syncs the cost saving perks of a conference call, with the professionalism and ease of presentation provided by screen sharing. Why spend more on traveling to meetings, or compromise on making yourself understood when web conferencing successfully integrates the benefits of both.

Have you thought about integrating web conferencing into your calls?