Video calls are becoming an increasingly regular part of daily life. We use it to call our grandma, friends, and maintain our long-distance relationships. Almost everyone has had at least one experience of an interview taking place over a video call. It’s a great way to connect people across distances and time zones while keeping the visual aspect of normal human conversation. Nowadays, businesses are making increasingly heavy use of video calls. They use it for their interview process, coordinating with remote employees, and facing clients in sales. While not for everyone, many businesses can benefit from having some form or another of video calling. Here’s why!
1. Improve the efficiency of your business
One of the first and most obvious improvements of video calling is the increased efficiency. When you’re traveling less from client to client, you’re saving yourself time, and as we all know, time equals money. This means you are able to fit a larger number of clients into one 24-hour day versus having to meet each and every one of them. Moreover, you unknowingly spent a lot of time on planning your forms of transport, understanding how to get there, and moving things around to make room for the meeting. It goes without saying that the money saved on train tickets, gas, or flights can quickly accumulate. While many business deals require a face-to-face meeting at some point, video calls are usually enough for the initial stages.
2. Make your business more location-independent
The modern economy is extremely global and spans across all time zones. This means that location is no longer the main player in a company’s success. While distance is often solved with flights, this is becoming less and less necessary. Companies and businesses are more open to conducting business online and through video calls. This also means that when a company relocates it doesn’t risk losing its existing clients. Your business can maintain its relationships with loyal clients while also finding new business in that same area.
A company, for example, that sits in Los Angeles but finds most of its business in New York has an almost equal footing as locally based companies. Moreover, regions of the world that were once considered too far for business, such as South East Asia and the Middle East are now equally viable options. If you don’t offer online video calls you are basically saying that you are stuck in the past and closed for business. Not a good look.
3. Improve the non-verbal side of your business
While the use of email has been around for a while, it’s only recently that video calling has become a regular part of business. Emails are a fantastic tool and revolutionized the way we communicate and do business internationally. What changed? Emails always had a clear downside that could only be overcome by actual face-to-face meetings – the human element. So much of our communication happens through our facial expressions and body language.
With emails this is completely lost, which can oftentimes lead to miscommunication and lost business. Video calls solve this problem by incorporating visual human conversation into the mix. Seeing someone in a video call results in better outcomes than emails and even regular phone calls. As a business owner, you’re able to better counterargue any criticism, answer questions more sharply, and better understand the needs of your clients. Additionally, video calling (versus emails) gives your business an actual face, makes it more personal, more relatable, and ultimately, more successful.
4. Make your business more Millennial-friendly
Millennials are the largest generation in the U.S. labor force. That means it’s important to consider their habits and business style. Millennials are extremely comfortable with technology and oftentimes prefer video calls over physical meetings. They find that it saves time, removes the need to commute long distances, and tends to keep the meetings more on point. Millennials are also a pretty fast-paced generation and are typically pretty good at identifying when something is a waste of time. That means video calls are not just a “nice to thing to have” but a necessity in order to remain competitive in an economy increasingly comprising of Millennials. A business without any video calling offering will find itself ultimately losing business. Time to get with the times!
5. Increase the flexibility of your business
People nowadays live very dynamic lifestyles, often moving around, traveling, and working multiple jobs. This means that people can no longer depend entirely on their location. Things such as working remotely, having a home office, or being on business travel all fit in nicely with video calls. Being away from the office no longer has the same meaning. With video calls, you can now be anywhere and talk with anyone – along with the human touch. This has a huge impact on how well we can run our business and how flexible we can be. A business isn’t limited to its physical location and can change its target region almost immediately. No need to start looking for office space and sign rental agreements!
