How to increase user adoption in my organisation?
If you’ve invested in video conferencing then you’ve seen the potential. Whether that be; reducing costs, improving the work/life balance of your employees, saving time, building stronger teams, reducing your environmental impact….
But it’s only potential. That is until people start using video conferences as genuine alternatives to some in –person meetings.
By helping other members of staff to realize the business, operational, and financial benefits of video communication you can start really benefiting.
We have drawn up a list of great tips for really increasing awareness and speeding up adoption in your organisation:
- For each location nominate a “champion” Someone internally in the office who can be the go-to for all things video conferencing. They don’t have to be a technical expert but someone who can promote usage, shout about video and in terms of support just know the right people to liaise with
- Ensure that whenever video conferencing is established that expectations are met. So for example; practice calls, room booking procedures, in-room documentation, support contact lists, and a company directory that is ready and easy for anyone to access means that users will have confidence in video conferencing and aren’t let in a room with a screen and a remote.
- Really launch the fact that you have video conferencing in your office and let people know which other offices have it as well. Just letting people know that it is available and that it is something which the company is encouraging makes a big difference. So launch it all, maybe with a party, getting other users to speak, introducing clients that you know are video enabled and setting –up usage incentives will encourage people to try video at least once – and because “Seeing is Believing” a trial call is almost guaranteed to lead to a culture of video.
- Promote your video conferencing systems. So people know why they should be using video. And promotion should be a) benefits to the company and b) benefits to the user. So that’s reducing travel expenses and wasted time, cutting down on frustrating trips as well as promoting the fact that less travelling to meetings means more employees will be home on time by 17:30, there is more flexibility, and great environmental benefits. Most importantly praise usage. Highlight how… many hours/,much money/much CO2 has been saved at regular intervals so the benefits are proved to users every few months or introduce an incentives scheme for those regular users who are improving team work, improving relationships or have reduced their travel the most extensively.
Offering examples and case studies is a great way to get imagination flowing – video works for all teams and the more usage there is across the whole company the more benefits there are for everyone. - Train Users. Making sure that users are comfortable using video conferencing means that they will want to. If the technology looks too confusing or goes wrong the first time it is used then all the benefits aren’t being realised. Training sessions, in room documentation or simple “how-to” posters can give users that extra sense of confidence.
Training programs like SimplicityTraining and immediate Helpdesk support with SimplicityHelpdesk have made our customers the industry leaders in usage figures. (Something we like to shout about for them!)And the other aspect to training includes not just the technical “which button to press” stuff but setting up the room, establishing video etiquette, a set of rules in your organisation that means video meetings run much more smoothly and effectively. - Track usage and get as much opinion as possible. Sometimes you’ve forgotten something in your promotion- gaining feedback can help you notice common complaints (Problem: There is too much glare on the screen, Solution: shut the blinds and turn the artificial room lights on)
Some of the most common queries can be answered with very little difficulty:
- The room is always booked so maybe it’s time to expand.
- Maybe some members of staff want to use it on the road – can it be rolled out onto mobile devices?
- Maybe IT departments aren’t quick enough at responding.
- Maybe someone keeps switching the system off or playing with wires…
All these problems mean that video meetings don’t start on time, aren’t high quality and lose their impact and are all very simple to resolve… So don’t let complaints fester and lead to motorways full of employees. Interacting with users (and non-users) should give a great indication of where/how to increase adoption.