Tip! With VoIP service you can have low cost 800 numbers. This way it will be free for people to call you and yet will not be too hard on your pockets.
It's no secret that Hosted PBX technology has a robust set of advanced features that literally makes a tradional PBX as obsolete as a rotary dial telephone. Putting these advanced features to work will streamline your business processes, increase customer satisfaction and increase your revenues. Just as importantly, these features can provide you with a major strategic advantage over your competition.
As an added bonus, activation and changes to these features can easily be administed by your employees by using an easy-to-use, intuitive web browser. With a traditional PBX, you would have to pay the provider or your own technician to perform these changes for you and probably have to wait several days for the changes to be completed.
Here are just a few of the features available, how you can use them, and why they are important to your business:
Tip! With VoIP service, you can activate every phone jack in the house. First, disconnect your house internal phone wiring from the regular telephone service at the phone box outside (most probably on your front wall).
Simultaneous Ringing - Simultaneous Ringing acts like a personal locator and makes it easy for people to find you. You can set up to 10 phone numbers to all ring at the same time when someone calls your main phone number. You can answer the call on any of the ringing phones. This makes contacting you easier than ever since callers only have to dial one number to reach you. Bottom line, there is less chance of missing important calls, and allows your inside and outside sales force to generate more revenue and more profit!
Remote Office - Through an easy-to-use Web-based portal, you can assign your office phone number to any phone in the world. So if you're traveling in London, you can set you hotel phone to ring when someone calls your office phone number. And making calls from your hotel phone will look to your callers like you're calling from your office. This feature can put your sales force, virtual office workers, and traveling executives within easy reach when a special call must be completed.
Auto Attendant - Present a more professional image to callers and reduce the need for a full-time receptionist with our Auto Attendant. Incoming calls to your main number are answered by our Auto Attendant, which is fully customizable according to your specifications. Dial by name directories and "0?-out to Operator options are standard. The Auto Attendant gives your company a professional, Big Business image.
Tip! With VoIP service in North America, ?local' is always inclusive of US, Canada, some countries in Western Europe, parts of Asia, and parts of Latin America. For countries which are not already included, there are international plans available which cost a lot less than that offered by the standard long distance services providers.
Online Call Manager - Using a web-based portal allows you to dial, manipulate, and transfer calls on your computer, as well as configure and change your personal call handling settings. This feature allows you to adjust to changing business needs on the fly without having to send in a service request and then wait days before the change is made. In today's business environment, worker and process flexibility enhances your compeitive edge.
Visual Voicemail - Listen, forward and archive your voicemails just like you handle email. In addition to receiving voicemails on your telephone, a copy of each voicemail message is forwarded to your Email inbox as an audio file. This feature allows you to visually scan your voicemail box for the most important message. With a traditional PBX you would have to call your voice mail and sequentially listen to the header of each and every message, a time-consuming process. With Hosted PBX voicemail, you can also forward messages people outside of your Hosted PBX system using email so that you can share valuable first hand information with your suppliers, affiliates, and other important business partners.
Tip! While conversing, you should never allow anyone to put you on silent hold, as the VoIP service may disconnect you when it doesn't hear anything. It assumes that you are no longer on the line, thus disconnecting you after a while.
Other Basic Features- Each user also has a set of basic features that need no explanation. These are: unlimited local calling, unique phone number (DID), Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, Do Not Disturb, Last Number Redial, and Caller ID.
Depending on your business, here are a few optional features you might want to also consider.
Soft Attendant Console - This optional computer application replaces the need for a bulky receptionist module. This optional feature provides the receptionist with a visual representation of every employee so they can see instantly who's on the phone and who's not. Transferring calls is easy - just click and drag.
Plus, since the application is accessed over the Internet, your receptionist can handle calls from any location . This not only gives you hiring flexibility, it also is a major advantage in the event a natural or man-made disaster occurs at your main business location and preserves the continuity of revenue-producing communications to and from your business.
Tip! The VoIP ?modem? (which is free) is delivered to you in only 5 to 10 days. Or you could buy it at your local store for same day service and get the VoIP provider to credit it against your bill.
Call Center - The optional Call Center application is a powerful, but inexpensive tool that allows businesses to tie together employees across multiple locations under one unified call center. Incoming calls are held in queue and routed to the next available agent - no matter where they are! Nightly reporting is available on both the agent and overall group level showing average hold time, average time spent per call, number of minutes an agent was check-in/ check-out, plus other critical management features.
Call center is a money-saving option that provides you with the flexibility to easily assemble a full-featured call center utilizing remotely deployed workers or office based workers, or a combination of the two. How would you like to have the option of using a virtual staff for all your call center needs or what about the need to bring in part-timers on the spur of the moment to handle promotional call volume spikes or for business continuity in the event of a disaster. A Hosted PBX can give you that flexibility.
If you are serious about taking employee productivity to the next level, then you should definitely consider the advanced feature sets offered in a VOIP Hosted PBX environment.
