Is Skype Missing Important Business Features?

by Swapnil S. Online Offers and Deals

Skype is a communication tool that facilitates its users to make free audio and voice calls while they are connected to the internet. This medium might work well for social and casual interactions but when the task is to facilitate business communications, it fails to make its mark. Business entrepreneurs are finding the features of Skype to be unimpressive to rely on, for their interactions with the investors as well as their communications with their employees and clients.

The following features of Skype are those that are inducing the entrepreneurs to find a Skype alternative to meet their business needs:

Audio and Video Quality

The foremost important factors that define the credibility of a communication medium are its audio quality and video clarity. As Skype works with the concept of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) it makes internet connectivity mandatory for its access. Therefore, the quality of the voice or the video call is only as good as the strength and quality of your internet connection. This leads to the frequent occurrences of call drops and frozen video calls.

When the customers face a call drop amidst a serious conversation or when a client witnesses a frozen video while negotiating on a huge transaction, they more often than not prefer not to call back to the organization to continue the discussion. This will induce them to think otherwise giving them space to look at the other options, they have with other organizations.

The absence of language translation features

When a business organization is looking to fetch new customers abroad and to provide services to its existing customer base, wide-spread across the globe, they cannot restrict their communication and interactions to a single global language.

While most of the internet aided communication mediums offer the facility of language translation to its users, Skype fails to get this feature rolled out. The prime the most benefit of communicating to the customers through the internet is that it eliminates the need to set up regional offices and hire employees at different locations. When the language translation feature is absent it fails to serve one of its basic purpose of facilitating communication accords borders and irrespective of barriers.

Multi-party video conference

It is certain that a business organization will look to have a high-level business conferences and discussions with its stakeholders, through their official communication medium. When it comes to the feature of multi-party video conferencing, Skype has left its users discontented by and large.

The usual webcam fails to capture a group of two or more people. It requires a special camera to be installed for this purpose which might not be a feasible option at all times. It also has issues with the audio in case of a multi-party conference. The audio of the speaker is diluted and received faintly amidst the applause he/she receives once they are done with the presentation. The business entrepreneurs find this feature of it disturbing

Insecure Communication and Data Protection Policy

When it is a matter of business communications, confidentiality is the key. Proven instances of data breach and cyber-theft through Skype, makes the entrepreneurs question the security and data protection policies it has in place.

With reliable communication channels that offer secured data transmission through end-to-end encryption of data available in large numbers, entrepreneurs would not risk communicating official messages or transferring confidential files and documents through Skype.

The mandate of a powered-on system

One of the major setbacks of Skype is that it mandates the computer to be turned on at all times. It allows its users to receive or make calls only when they have their system turned on. It only provides the facility of communication through voicemails when the user is not available online.

For a user to keep their system turned on throughout the day is not a practically possible task. While reaching out to customers, it will be unfair to expect them to stay online round the clock. When the customers are approaching the organization with a query, the customer support officials might not be available online to address their issue as well. This makes communication a tedious task, making it mandatory for both parties to stay online in order to communicate. This defines its very purpose of making communication effortless and efficient.

When there are a good number of other channels that provide the facility of communication, even when either of the users is not available online, Skype will not become a natural choice.

Complete breakdown

Skype has recorded an infamous breakdown of 48 hours in a stretch. The services were halted and the business users and customers had to find other mediums of communications in order to track their effective functioning and to get them grievances addressed respectively.

Such an incidental error might occur again in the future freezing all the business communications for almost two days in a row. This can cause adverse impacts on the business and will nail down the credibility of the organization amongst its customers and the business market.

This makes the business entrepreneurs reluctant to resort on Skype for their business communications. It is natural that they look out for other communication mediums that assure them of uninterrupted and high-quality services at a much reasonable cost.

Lack of Audio - Video synchronization

While communicating to the customers, business organizations are more likely to encounter chopped audio or a frozen video on Skype. It is embarrassing, right? Of course, it is and also it tarnishes the brand image of your organization before your potential customers/clients. At times there is a lack of synchronization with the audio and the video received by the users. They eventually realize that such instances are a common occurrence with this communication medium.

When customers face such disruptions in communication, they do not get a good picture regarding the organization and its capabilities. More often than not, when the customers are not provided with a reliable and well-functioning communication medium they switch over to other brands and organizations that offer them better services and hassle-free communication channels.

Skype offers special features at premium rates as well. Better video and audio quality along with the facility to make calls to other ordinary phones come along with this premium. Hence, the fact that Skype is free is without the inclusion of the quality aspects into it. In order to experience good video quality and communicate with better audio, a business organization must purchase its premium package, which is not required while communicating using other channels.

These features of the Skype technology are found to be entirely on a different page with the features expected by an organization to facilitate its business communication. This is forcing the entrepreneurs to make a move towards a Skype alternative that will be conducive for better communications with their customers and enhance the quality of their interactions with their investors and employees.

Technological advancements coupled with the efforts of high-end software developers have made available a good range of choices of internet-based communication mediums in recent times. When communication platforms that offer better quality at much lower cost or free of cost are available and are easily accessible, it is natural that the business organizations are moving away from Skype technology to better ones.