Starting your own business is adventurous as much as it is overwhelming. Entrepreneurs know that they’ll have to face countless struggles to get their newly-born business on its feet. But, as if it isn’t hard enough to create a solid business plan, find the needed funding, hire the right talent, and launch business operations, they all come face-to-face with another huge challenge: Telecommunications. After all, customers are the life support of any business, but providing the best customer experience is usually challenged by the hassle of telecommunications.
Here are some of the top challenges that entrepreneurs face with telecommunications:
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1. Extensive Costs
The first challenge they face is, of course, related to finances. It’s quite surprising for numerous entrepreneurs to realize that the cost of setting up a telecommunication system is much more expensive than they think. It’s never just about subscribing to a service provider; there are a lot of expenses that go into purchasing equipment and setting up an infrastructure. Depending on the channels of communication, you’ll also find that subscribing to different providers for various services can be financially draining.
2. Downtime
Even after going to extreme measures to set up landlines, internet access, and other forms of telecommunication, the chances of suddenly facing a coverage outage are very high. During these times, you’ll have to deal with lack of access to most of your services, and this includes crucial communication with your customers. Unless you have a solid back-up plan, your customers will lose all communication channels with you. In such situations, it would serve your business very well to divert your calls into another working line, and you can read the full article here to know how to divert your calls successfully. Whether you want to divert from a landline or a mobile device, you’ll be sure to find clear and full instructions on how to do so.
3. Choosing Suitable Providers
As choosing the kind of services you need isn’t hard enough, you’ll also have to do extensive market research to find the best providers. There are various aspects upon which you’ll compare service providers, starting with the quality of service they provide. You’ll need to check their area of coverage, the packages they offer, the customer service they provide, the ability to switch to other providers, and their different policies and regulations. You have to make sure there aren’t any issues you’ll face down the road after you’ve successfully subscribed to them.
4. Invoice and Billing Discrepancies
The sad truth is that you might not really discover whether or not a service provider is good until you’ve tried their service. Many providers promise supreme quality but real-life says otherwise. Many entrepreneurs find discrepancies in their invoices and billing after receiving the service, most of the time being in favour of the provider. They’d be charged with calls they didn’t make and services they didn’t use. Providers may also fail to provide the offers and credits they’ve promised their clients after a certain period.
5. Managing Telecom Inventory
You might think that you won’t have any inventory issues when it comes to telecommunications, but this is another area where you’ll be surprised. Even if you depend on one mobile device to provide customer service, any sudden or unexpected malfunction will put you out of the game. The more realistic scenario includes more telecommunication equipment that’s showcased in infrastructures, landline devices, wireless devices, software licenses, VoIP, and any other kind of hardware and software. Most of these equipment and services demand some level of IT expertise to install, maintain, and manage.
6. Keeping Up With Technology Trends
In the strongly intertwined worlds of technology and business, new trends keep emerging every day. Adopting the latest technologies is usually not an issue for large businesses, but it’s very challenging for small businesses, especially startups. Technologies like 5G, IoT, and AI are about to become the future of telecom, but will startups stand in this revolution?
7. Customer Service
What happens when you have unresolved telecommunication issues? What happens when you fail to adopt the latest technologies and solutions? It’s quite simple: your customer service becomes totally compromised. Your customers are put on longer holds, their demands fail to be met, and you lose your customers’ loyalty.
Telecommunication is just another issue that entrepreneurs face while trying to operate their businesses. In order to maintain the quality of their customer service, they have to endure high costs, come up with back-up plans, find the best provider, deal with billing discrepancies, manage their inventory, and even keep up with the technology trends. If they don’t have a solid plan, they’ll find their customer service greatly compromised.
