In today’s blog I will be discussing the benefits of using Zoom for small business owners. I will be delving into how to maximise these benefits to suitably fit your business’ needs. When the start of the pandemic hit employees were made to stay-home and work, of course this had its ups and downs. Whether it be the terrible hit to business’ communication or the lack of understanding of how working from home could pan out, it was most indubitably contested with trials by fire.

Pioneering technology

Zoom Video Communications was started in 2011 in California and lit a beacon for companies to work from home efficiently. Zoom has been and still is a big part of the everyday work for companies’ who allow their employees to do their work from home. The application has a lot of benefits, it has helped streamline and shape how working from home can be and has helped education carry on throughout the pandemic with lessons and seminars happening over Zoom. I finished my third year of university over Zoom and I have to say, I was not disappointed, I found it effective and very useful.

Zoom is free to use to video call up to thirty minutes, there are also a number of plans you can purchase to use for your business, and their plans are affordable and easy to use. Furthermore, having the option of a seamless transition to video during calls has been a big culture change by allowing there to be more human interaction while working from home instead of conducting meetings through the old hum-drum worn out form of communication known as the landline, workers are now able to speak to each other face-to-face though the computer screen.

Simple yet effective

Connecting with co-workers using Zoom can take a mere few seconds and you don’t really need a dedicated IT support team to help with it. Also, Zoom is very intuitive to use with some workers figuring out how to experiment with certain features before even the boss does. Having the ability to share your screen and use remote control is a massive benefit too, especially when trying to explain something on the computer over video call. The ability to share screen too can help abundantly with troubleshooting IT issues that arise. I know what you’re thinking, “Won’t the call quality be bad? My internet isn’t the best, will I need better internet?” And the answer is no. The call quality is great and it is bandwidth-forgiving, the call quality of the voice is clear and forgiving too, the calls can even sound better than a regular phone call! The use of Zoom can help with weekly catch-ups too and scheduling them is very simple which is a bonus.

Greater control

This point is more technology driven and well, if a co-worker has very bad sound quality you can actually figure it out pretty easily using the powerful administrative dashboard, you can see everyone’s CPU (Central Processing Unit) usage and can find the weak points easier.

For example, a co-worker had bad sound quality during calls and asked if we could figure it out. I have this cool dashboard where I can see everyone’s CPU usage, if there’s any delay or jitter on audio or video. We found out there was no issue with her internet connection, but her tablet was the weak point. It was easy to find out with the tools that are built in. I can manage everything centrally and view everything that’s going on and have statistics that help me point to where the issue is.

The user management is ‘child’s play’ as well, so even the non-tech-savvy workers can get to grips with it! The use of Zoom for small business’ has been crucial during the pandemic and it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere soon. Incorporating Zoom to your everyday work-day can help, opportunities, maximising growth, and the overall streamlined-ness of your business.

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