It’s the fourth week of 2022, and for Chrome, we’re off to a great start. Our teams are focused, engaged and ready to welcome new customers, products, and colleagues to our company. As we step closer to the 2025 ISDN Switch Off and introduce new products from our partners, we’ve been reflecting on 2021 and considering our industry predications for 2022.
In 2021 businesses continued to switch to business communication systems that can seamlessly operate remotely and from the office, supporting effective remote working. At Chrome, we introduced new products from our partners including the latest Ericsson-LG touchscreen handset, an Android-powered desk phone and tablet hybrid.
Here are our top five predictions for what we believe the UK telecoms industry will be focusing on in 2022:
1. Flexible working is here to stay
With many businesses having to operate remotely in 2020 and 2021, the benefits of a flexible approach to working have been clear to see. From a better work/life balance to introducing a more environmentally friendly lifestyle through less commuting, a lot of people saw the positives of remote working.
However, to experience these benefits, every business needed to adapt and overcome the challenges brought to us in 2020. To support effective remote working there have been many advancements in a variety of industries. As a result of these advancements, more and more companies are now offering remote and hybrid working, even without UK Covid restrictions.
At Chrome, we support remote working through our own company operations as well as the products that we offer. We predict that this will continue in 2022 and that many roles won’t be just office-based or remote, but a hybrid mix of the two.
Considering this prediction, we believe that many technology companies will be releasing more products with hybrid working in mind. 2021 welcomed some amazing new releases from our partners, such as Ericsson-LG, and we’re excited to see what 2022 brings for our industry.
2. A continued interest in webinars
Webinars have also become more popular over the past two years in response to the UK restrictions. Whilst they’re not a new concept, the ability to learn or develop a new skill over the internet has become much more popular over the past two years. This is down to not being able to attend work-related courses in person and having more free time to spend on personal development and subjects of personal interest.
Thanks to services like WebRTC, it’s become easier to share video conferences with a wider range of people. This means businesses can share content with audiences that they previously may not have been able to reach. By being able to reach a larger amount of people, more businesses and professional individuals will feel that their efforts in hosting a webinar will be worthwhile.
We predict that the industry will respond to the popularity of webinars with further software advancements to improve the user experience and the amount of people that can view a webinar at a time.
3. A greater acceptance of remote recruitment
When businesses across the world had to quickly adapt their operations to accommodate remote working, many companies begun to recruit remotely. This was arguably due to two factors; the first factor being that if they needed to fill a vacancy it had to be done remotely as onboarding was not possible from the office. The second factor is that after seeing that their current staff continued to work productively from home, companies became more willing to accept applicants who would be permanently based at home.
Instead of new employees needing to relocate to start their dream job, they were able to take the next step in their career from anywhere in the world. Advancements like this excite us, and we’re proud that the products sold within our industry contribute to making remote working easier to facilitate.
In 2022, we believe that remote recruitment will continue and that businesses will need to factor remote working into their recruitment strategies as it’s a preferred way of working for many. In fact, with the strong benefits of remote working, recruiters might even find that a perfect candidate demands remote or flexible working as part of their negotiations.
4. Better industry specific services
Whilst every business will benefit from a business communication system, different industries will require slightly different solutions based on the type of the interactions they have with customers. Recently, we’ve noticed that B2B communications providers are doing more to recognise the needs of specific industries.
An example of this is services like the Ericsson-LG GP Call Connect which integrates with major clinical systems, improving the efficiency of healthcare operations. We predict that there will be similar systems launched and new integrations with industry specific Customer Relationship Management systems (CRMs).
5. Increased reliance on analytics
Call analytics services will help to find problem areas and allow for better resource allocation. The data shared in analytics programmes, will give valuable insights that can help you to perfect your company operations.
This data will include details on when your lines are the busiest, and the number of calls that you’re missing throughout the day. With this information you can then review your current strategy, being clear on whether you need to make changes in your team rotas or hire more staff.
It will also give valuable information on whether you need to review your current phone system. If you have the sufficient staff to handle the amount of phone calls that you receive and can adjust your rota to ensure that they are available, you may need to add or adjust your current phone system to ensure that your team are well equipped.
We predict that in 2022, there will be an increased reliance on analytics as companies become more aware of the benefits of having this data, and more confident in applying it to their operations set up.
We hope that you’ve found our industry predictions for 2022 helpful and are prepared to take your business communications to the next level this year.
Business communication is not an area that should be overlooked in your business strategy and operations. To have a successful business in any industry you need to communicate with your customers and leads effectively. Communication is everything to your business, and at Chrome we wish to make it simpler so that you have more time to spend on running your company.
Our predictions for 2022 are all areas of business communication that we believe in, and we’re looking forward to seeing how the industry progresses this year.
If you’re interested in finding out more about Chrome and what we do, then get in touch with us today!
