Better Team Collaboration with Virtual Phone System

How to improve team communication and collaboration with a Virtual Business Phone System.

Having efficient and effective employees does not guarantee the success of your business. Smooth communication and team collaboration are also essential to ensure that correct messages are spread out and executed to reach company goals.

How do you improve your team communication and collaboration? How do you make sure that everyone is working towards the success of the company? Today’s feature is Massage Envy, an American massage and skincare national franchisor headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. We will learn how the RingCentral app has been a game-changer for the company for efficient communication.

As Danielle Badger stated, having the RingCentral App makes sure nothing important slips through the cracks, and it even allows them to have some fun along the way. If you want the same for your business, read on!

A Corporate Overview: Skin Franchise, Massage Envy

Massage Envy was founded in 2002 and only ventured into franchising in 2003. Five years later, its franchisees collectively employed about 8,000 professionals in 420 independently owned locations in 36 U.S. states. They continue growing through the years that Forbes ranked the company number 20 on their top 20 Franchises for the Buck. It only required an initial investment of USD 455,505 but has made over a million dollars in annual sales when 2010 hit.

By 2016, it has more than 1,100 locations in 49 U.S. states. The company also expanded its skincare products and services, including Image Skincare, PCA Skin, and non-surgical procedures (e.g., chemical peels and microdermabrasion). A year later, it even grew to 1,189 franchises. With its annual growth, there is no doubt that the company still has a lot of growth potential in the years to come.

The company’s brand is built on the foundation of helping people to feel their best through therapeutic massage, stretch, and skincare services which they highlighted as not really luxuries but necessities to keep your body working, pure and simple. Its values revolve around positivity and empathy as the cornerstones for every guest who walks through their door.

What makes the company successful is how they do things a little differently:

• Customized Experience: Massage Envy personalizes each session with its services and products.
• Highly Trained Employees: To ensure that their employees meet the industry-leading standards, Massage Envy produces only highly trained employees.
• Curated Product Lines: These are provided to complement guests’ sessions and home care.

Another reason for its growth is the consistent and predictable recurring revenue with the membership model. In the previous years, people are also becoming more aware of the self-care movement, which creates a solid national member base.

The company also makes sure that strong support and structure are provided to its franchisees, with profit coaching and a robust reporting structure that focuses on unit-level economics.

How to Improve Your Team Communication and Collaboration

Increasing team collaboration can be difficult for organizations. We want them to get to know each other better and thrive together for success. With remote employees and offices, having a collaborative team environment can be a big challenge. Here are three easy ways on how to improve your team collaboration:

1.    Streamline the Process

One example is by encouraging the team to brainstorm together. You can ask them to come up with ideas and streamline how to implement them.

2.     Use a Team Collaboration Tool

Providing a collaboration portal that everyone will feel comfortable using is one of the best ways to improve team collaboration. Aside from the physical environment where people can talk face to face, there is also a need for a platform where they can share news, documents, sources, feedback – pretty much everything.

3.     Promote a community working environment

Your staff must feel a sense of community and an excellent way to let them feel that they ask them for their opinions. When they think and feel that their opinion matters, they feel like they matter as employees too.

Team Collaboration Challenges If You Have More Than a Hundred Employees

People are loyal to Massage Envy because it has always made them feel their best, and the nationwide wellness franchise has earned a reputation. There are over 1.5 million members in the United States who believe in their philosophy.

This demands the company to make sure that nothing is missed or it will affect the customer experience. One franchise located in Jacksonville, Florida, found it challenging to communicate and coordinate because of the busy employees using different communication tools. They also work in different locations. This results in staff feeling the stress and not being able to be efficient in communicating.

There was no centralized communicating app – there is a combination of emails, text messages, and phone call apps. It creates problems such as nobody knows if an employee had actually read or even received an important message.

Solution: RingCentral App Virtual Phone System –

Massage Envy decided to set up the RingCentral app. The goal was to create a unified online workspace for team messaging and collaboration. The result was impressive! The staff likes it because it can be accessed anywhere from their desk or on their phones.

The app created different RingCentral teams for specific employees, particular projects, or themes. Danielle Badger, the Sales Manager of Massage Envy, pointed out that the company spends time finding out all sorts of creative ways on how else to benefit from the RingCentral service. For example, they created teams meant for ‘Therapists,’ ‘Front Desk,’ ‘Management,’ and ‘All Employees’. These teams are so efficient because they are sharing information with the right audiences.

Whether it is important promotions, updates they need to know, and even company potlucks, employees of Massage Envy use the RingCentral App. They can also use it by asking colleagues for shift coverage or by messaging the management directly if they have questions. It was a great way to motivate employees, as well as share team successes.

A Unified Online Workspace, a Team Collaboration Tool

A cloud-based phone system enables employees to make and receive calls from anywhere. The RingCentral app, which is available in both Android and IOS, is free to use. Here, the staff can view, organize and share text messages, faxes, and voice messages. Meanwhile, the desktop app can be installed on your laptop, which can become a full-featured softphone. You don’t even need an actual telephone.

Benefits of a Virtual Phone System

Here are the best features of having a virtual business phone system for your company:

• It is run over the internet so, you don’t need to have any additional hardware.
• It is easy to implement and configure.
• There are always upgrades and updates, and they are rolled out for free.
• 24/7 customer support is available that you don’t need to hire extra staff for anything related to business phone system issues.
• You can manage your virtual business phone system directly from your smartphone.

The above are the benefits of having virtual phone systems compared to an on-premise phone system which requires expensive and bulky hardware. The installation is complicated and needs customers to commit long term, and if there are any service upgrades, additional fees are required. Sticking to the good old-fashioned phone will also require you to hire a specialist for maintenance.

The RingCentral app is specially made for business where features and functionalities are available to help your business. The mobile and flexible cloud-based system provides a reliable solution with caller ID, video conferencing, SMS, and faxing.

RingCentral also offers a secured and reliable cloud phone system that makes sure data travels through encrypted networks adding layers of authentication. Lastly, it is affordable. Starting at USD 19.99 per user per month, it offers excellent value with its all-inclusive fee, so you don’t have to worry about paying additional fees.

Results of Improved Team and Collaboration

When the company switched to the RingCentral app, they found that their teams between two locations could connect and even integrate more. Because they promote teamwork more, it boosted employee morale and positivity, which are keys to delivering outstanding customer services.

How did the staff make it more fun? Danielle Badger noticed how their staff are having lots of fun with the RingCentral app when they send funny and inspiring GIFs or these little animated images to each other. It is a great way to cheer fellow teammates and to keep their colleagues’ spirits high.

The company has a culturally diverse staff with all age ranges. When the 100+ employees use the app, they realized how effective it is for successful and efficient communication whatever employee levels they are.

Do you have over a hundred employees? Then you have surely experienced the difficulty of having them collaborate with each other.

Improve your collaboration tool with the RingCentral app. Still unsure and don’t know whether it is suitable for your company? Contact Call Flow Solutions and with our free 30-minute discovery call, let’s provide you with our unbiased recommendations on the best virtual business phone systems in the market.