{"id":3553,"date":"2020-12-10T07:36:32","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T07:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acefone.com\/blog\/?p=3553"},"modified":"2025-12-02T07:49:47","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T07:49:47","slug":"holiday-cheer-with-cloud-connections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.acefone.com\/blog\/holiday-cheer-with-cloud-connections\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Let The Grinch Steal Christmas: Take Your Business To The Cloud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well, folks, it\u2019s that time of the year again. Raise your hand if you get cosy and start bingeing Christmas movies as soon as December begins (or even earlier, I won\u2019t judge). I plead guilty as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We can finally bring out the mistletoe, candy canes and ugly sweaters, and jam to carols. After all, just because the pandemic has thrown a damper on 2020 doesn\u2019t mean it can steal our holiday spirit\u2014even the Grinch\u2019s heart grew thrice its size on Christmas!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Navigating this season in a <a class=\"acefone_web_click\" href=\"https:\/\/www.acefone.com\/\">remote set-up<\/a> could seem daunting and time-consuming. But fret not, even though you are physically apart, you can still stay virtually connected with the latest cloud technologies.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What\u2019s cloud communication, you ask?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s what the world runs on in this day and age. As beings with noses stuck inside smartphone screens, we primarily communicate over the Internet. Calls, texts, videos\u2014all through the cloud.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is also the technology that helps businesses thrive in high seasons. And you can use the solution too, to help your business through the festive rush. Not just to stay connected with customers, but also to keep employees engaged and aligned with your goals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So let\u2019s get into it. Here\u2019s how you, as a company, can use cloud communications to prepare for Christmas.\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\u2018Tis the season to be charitable<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Christmas is a festival that celebrates the sentiments of giving and sharing\u2014not just for loved ones, but to everyone in the world. It\u2019s the perfect time to extend support to causes you believe in and inspire people to join your mission of helping the less fortunate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This brings a sense of community that better connects your business with customers, while also showcasing your core values and place in the society. You\u2019re essentially able to curate a positive brand image and reputation. Additionally, you attract people that are passionate about the same causes as you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The cloud helps you spread your message across better and gives people easy pathways to join you. Simply send a broadcast of your support to different charities and allow people to respond or contribute. These broadcasts are cost-effective and can be sent to your customers, and also to a wider audience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Other cloud-based solutions, like <a class=\"acefone_web_click\" href=\"https:\/\/www.acefone.com\/solutions\/cloud-phone-system\/\">hosted phone systems<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.acefone.com\/solutions\/toll-free-number\/\">toll free number<\/a>, make it possible for you and your customers to connect with each other more efficiently at affordable rates.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This way, you\u2019re interacting with way more people and are likely to attract like-minded clients to build a lasting partnership.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Holiday routing with no blockages<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Energies are high in the holiday season. With Christmas preparations and gifting in full gear, businesses tend to gain a lot of traction. On the other hand, you also need to be mindful of the burden on your employees and their personal commitments.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So what do you do?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To quote the American entrepreneur Jessica Jackley, \u201cDeciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In other words: delegate. Use the latest automation features that cloud solutions offer to manage your workflow like a pro. Leverage Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS) to manage all your communication tools and bring them on a single platform.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"acefone_web_click\" href=\"https:\/\/www.acefone.com\/blog\/ivr-can-make-or-break-brand-image\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An intelligent multi-level IVR<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> can be used to determine the level of the query. So, while simpler issues can be resolved by self-service, only the high priority tasks will involve live agents.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These calls will be routed accurately and swiftly to the appropriate extension. This will free up your agents to focus only on the complex queries, instead of getting bogged down by mundane issues.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An auto-attendant can also make sure that no caller goes unaccounted for, even if the office is low on staff. People can leave voicemails which will be sent to the agents\u2019 inboxes with transcripts. They can quickly review the problem and get back to the client in a jiffy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The calls can also be routed using the holiday routing strategy. This involves redirecting calls to alternate phone lines available especially for the holiday season or plays a special voicemail for the occasion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Similarly, all missed calls will be recorded in your call logs along with the necessary client information and tags. No call needs to go unanswered, even in high traffic situations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Season\u2019s greetings, new and improved<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Out of sight, out of mind is just a school of thought\u2014but why test the theory? Maintaining communication with customers is always important, but even more so during the holidays.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Spread the holiday cheer around by sending season\u2019s greetings to your loyal clientele. A simple message, full of positivity and support, can truly light up someone\u2019s day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use automated calls and bulk <a class=\"acefone_web_click\" href=\"https:\/\/www.acefone.com\/blog\/sms-api-enhance-customer-experience\/\">SMS features<\/a> to send wishes to your large target base simultaneously. Make sure you\u2019re a part of their cheer and in a positive light.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But why stop there? You can also send voice broadcasts regarding Christmas offers, campaigns, and gifts, especially to express gratitude to long-time and VIP customers. Even small gestures such as these go a long way in etching your brand into people\u2019s hearts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With dirt-cheap cloud solutions, you need not worry about phone bills for such promotions and can focus your budgets on the offer itself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What\u2019s Christmas without carols?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whether you\u2019re a fan of classic carols like <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Silent Night<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Deck the Halls<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, or go gaga over Mariah Carey\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All I Want for Christmas<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, there\u2019s no denying the cosy sentiments these songs evoke in us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Needless to say, if people call you and are put on hold, you need to ensure they have a pleasant time even while waiting. So bring out the tunes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Customised music-on-hold is a super attractive feature of cloud phone systems. Instead of making callers suffer through mind-numbing beeps, just play some festive music. You\u2019re much more likely to have successful conversations when the customers are happier from the get-go.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And the best part is, there\u2019s a variety of songs to pick from and you can even upload your own music. Just keep rotating them\u2014and clients can have a totally new experience when they call again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bring out some friendly competition with fun contests<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All work and no play\u2026 well, you know the rest. A relationship between a business and a customer needn\u2019t be purely transactional.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The holiday season is the best time to get people on board for engaging contests. You can offer prizes and giveaways to further encourage participation. Send out personalised e-invites to people for special competitions and broadcast large-scale contests.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, you may give prizes for the most aesthetic Christmas trees. Or have a big award for the customer who uses your product or service most creatively.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In fact, why not take this up a notch? Hold a virtual awards ceremony (if the Emmys can do it, so can you). With high definition cloud connectivity, you can hold an online event, and even record it so that you can share it later! Utilising the video conferencing solution, you can keep your event exclusive to your loyal customers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People can share their acceptance speeches virtually and send congratulatory wishes over chat simultaneously.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As we\u2019ve discussed, there are so many ways to establish a Christmas connection with clients. But that\u2019s not enough. You also need to look at the happiness of the employees and do your bit to share some joy with them.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And that&#8217;s not difficult at all. Get your staff involved with activities like:<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Virtual Christmas party<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What better way to share the festive joy than face-to-face? With the cloud\u2019s large-scale video conferencing capabilities, you can hold virtual parties with ease. Get some drinks, play jolly music and host fun games like Mad Libs, Charades or Pictionary. It\u2019s a great idea to have a Christmas-themed online scavenger hunt as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Secret Santa<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Everyone loves getting gifts. But add in the secrecy twist, and you\u2019ve got yourself a really fun event. Secret Santa basically involves the random assignment of giftees and gifters, and you don\u2019t know who\u2019s going to get something for you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fun is in determining your colleague\u2019s taste well, and then actually guessing who gave you the gift. You can simply place an order online (with secure cloud transactions) and have it delivered to your assigned colleague\u2019s address. Then you can host a video call where people will open their gifts together and guess who their Santa was!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Holiday movie night<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Watching movies with someone is a different experience than doing it alone. Considering we have no shortage of festive movies, you can host a viewing party where people can watch a film together (or marathon a series of cringeworthy holiday movies). With food, entertainment and funny commentary, it\u2019s the perfect recipe for an engaging and bonding experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Flexible work hours for festive teams<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Christmas is all about family. Maintaining that work-life balance is really important, and cloud offers you just the right amount of flexibility to pull it off. Allow people to join the office network right from home, be a part of meetings, share critical files, track team progress, and much more.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a class=\"acefone_web_click\" href=\"https:\/\/www.acefone.com\/blog\/voip-services-empower-team-performance\/\">VoIP makes remote working easy<\/a>. You can make high-quality calls even on low bandwidth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And while your employees are connected from their home network, you can rest assured about your data security. Cloud technology comes with end-to-end encryption and multiple layers of security.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They can have more time with their loved ones and work flexibility around the holiday responsibilities. Automation further helps reduce the workload on agents and smooth out the processes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Conclusion<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019re a resilient bunch of people. Christmas is here, and it\u2019s all about joy, caring, colours, and a lot of festivities. Businesses and customers alike feel this rush\u2014so a remote set-up need not become an obstacle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keep customers and employees connected, engaged, and in the right spirit with the help of a variety of cloud communication tools. The rest will work itself out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, folks, it\u2019s that time of the year again. Raise your hand if you get cosy and start bingeing Christmas movies as soon as December begins (or even earlier, I won\u2019t judge). I plead guilty as well.\u00a0 We can finally bring out the mistletoe, candy canes and ugly sweaters, and jam to carols. After all, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":19677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[185,114,133],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-contact-center","8":"category-business-communications","9":"category-remote-working"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acefone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acefone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acefone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acefone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acefone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3553"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.acefone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25239,"href":"https:\/\/www.acefone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3553\/revisions\/25239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acefone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acefone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acefone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acefone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}