As video conferencing demand grows, being able to demonstrate the capabilities of solutions can be a challenge for partners. That’s why Yealink has launched its Customer Experience Centers, so partners can show rather than tell.
For the past few years churn has been a keyword to avoid for companies. As businesses become more switched on to the technology that is out there, opportunities become harder to come across and maintaining customer numbers becomes paramount.
As a result, extra effort is being put in to improve customer experience, an effort that, in the case of Yealink, is extending to inviting partners and customers to Canary Wharf in order to test out its comprehensive range of collaboration solutions.
Such demos are a staple for many of the vendors in the industry, however rather than show off one or two options, the Customer Experience Centers aims to give businesses the ability to use all the solutions Yealink has to offer.
I was lucky enough to be invited to a showcase at the flagship experience center, where Chris Godsalve, Yealink Country Manager for UK&I, told the partners present “we want this Customer Experience Center to be utilised. If [partners] have end users who are unsure and have the time to come in, if you want to run customer days, open days, we will kit this center out for you.
“The reality is we’re showcasing the best in class experience through our Microsoft Teams room ecosystem, whether that’s Microsoft Teams Rooms appliances, or looking at Android devices, we have a variety of options and peripherals and can elevate the experience for your end users.”
Working in Teams
As part of the day, Yealink invited Nicky Chapman, Microsoft’s DPSS and UK&I Teams Room Devices Lead, to talk about how Microsoft sees the collaboration market at the moment.
According to Chapman, offices are battling a “hybrid paradox” where workers advocate for flexible working but also value their time in the office.
“Looking at the hybrid paradox, 73% of employees want flexible work. They wanted to be able to take their kids to school, pick them up, and get on with work rather than sitting on a train or in the car. Equally, 67% of people wanted more in-person work and collaboration to come back into play post pandemic, and between these two equations we can understand why in nearly every meeting there is at least one team member joining virtually.
“As a result, employers are now looking at real estate and redesigning their meeting spaces. No longer do we have offices made up of rows and rows and rows of tables. Yet, at the moment, 43% of meeting attendees say they don’t feel included in a meeting, 93% of meeting rooms are equipped with minimal technology, and 63% of workers say they would use video conferencing if their huddle rooms were better equipped.
“Employers are now evaluating their office space and their meeting spaces and looking at ways to enhance the in-office experience to encourage the employees that it’s worth their time to return to the office.”
Yealink Growth
Since the Pandemic, Yealink have been on a mission to take advantage of the hybrid working setting.
Revenues have near enough doubled since 2019 to over $700 million in 2022, and the Chinese manufacturer boasts the ability to fit rooms from individual spaces, through meeting rooms, to conference spaces.
Godsalve was also keen to talk partners through the support they can receive from Yealink, adding: “we are Microsoft’s fastest growing partner OEM within that Microsoft Teams room space. Yealink can also help in delivering pre sales, post sales, and management of your devices once they’ve been deployed on the network.
“From a pre-sales perspective, if you talk to myself or any of the members of the sales engineering team, we can deliver consultancy, demo and proof of concept for you and your end users.
“When it comes to post sales, we can provide deployment training to improve user adoption as well as maintenance support. Partners and end users can also take advantage of management via our YMCS, cloud-based management platform.
“We offer this support once the products and solutions have been purchased to ensure that you and your end users get a great experience when utilising all of the Yealink for Microsoft Teams Room ecosystem and Teams Phone ecosystem.”
Thoughts from Yealink
“I know from my experience with VoIP phones, Yealink are good and they’ve been improving the quality of their products for the past six, seven years. Their management platform has also improved and that’s the reason I believe their products, conference solutions, and video solutions are good. “I’m very happy that we can bring our customers here. They will be able to see the products firsthand, we receive good support from Yealink itself and, because they are familiar with their own products, we have the best possible way of presenting Yealink products to our customers which is very helpful.”
Asen Dzhermanski, Technical Director at Gold Telecom
“Yealink have come a long way in the last few years and it’s interesting to see what the new equipment is, where the roadmap is going, what they’re planning to do in the future, and how to utilise all the advantages of Microsoft Teams. “There’s so many solutions out there, so being able to show customers how they will use the system, and give them a hands-on experience with almost no guidance gives them the ability to see how they’re going to use meeting rooms, rather than them having to look through an A4 spec sheet. “Customer Experience Centers like this make it easy to be able to walk into a room and use the technology. I think that’s key for us as we try to get people back into the office. We’ve got to entice employees and, until we make the office a nice place to go, it’s going to be a battle for us to get everyone to move away from the home office, and want to go back to the office to collaborate together.”
Liam Swan Smartcomm senior design and build Solution Architect
