Thirteen million of the latest iPhone model were sold within three days of its release. Meanwhile, we challenge anyone reading this to name just one voice over internet protocol (VoIP) provider for small- and medium-sized businesses. If you eventually remembered Skype for Business, you’ve just helped to further prove our point. Enterprise-level VoIP systems are the holy grail, cheaper than legacy systems and infinitely more functional -- and yet no one is live tweeting about them or camping out for their keynotes.
In fact, to reap the benefits of a modern VoIP system you don’t even need to purchase new phones. Most reputable providers have workarounds that allow you to keep your current ones if fancy new internet handsets are prohibitively expensive. However, you should have plenty of room in your budget considering that, on average, VoIP solutions cost half of what traditional telephony plans cost. We can throw budgetary statistics at you all day, but we believe what will really sell you on VoIP communication strategies are all of the fantastic features, a few of our favorites are listed below.
Automated call distribution (ACD)
A common theme amongst VoIP features is improving on functionalities that already exist within traditional telephony services, and ACD is an excellent example of that. In the past, any time you called a 1-800 number or any company with multiple operators standing by, you were automatically routed to a representative based on a ‘first come, first served’ ACD.
With VoIP systems, you can customize an ACD to route calls based on where the call originated from, whether or not there’s been previous contact with your business or the representative’s skills. ACD also allows for the inclusion of customizable phone menus that provide callers with the opportunity to categorize themselves with a few quick taps on their keypad. Like so many VoIP features, ACD has an enormous effect on how personal your phone strategy feels, and results in customers that are much more comfortable calling back in the future.
Data analytics
Although product, sales and budget data has been helping business owners steer sales strategies for decades, having proper analytics in a VoIP environment is like putting your call data under a microscope. Instead of waiting days or even weeks to hear back on how successful a call strategy was, you’ll be able to see live updates from your phones in one centralized dashboard. Furthermore, legacy phone systems were limited to analytics based on the factors your team agreed upon in advance, and were most likely tracked manually. With a VoIP system, your call variables are tracked automatically and are only limited to your imagination. Any quantifiable piece of data can be compiled, sorted and presented in no time.
Customer Relation Management (CRM) software integration
Better yet, don’t just relegate your call data to internal analytics, let it harmonize your customer relations experiences. By integrating with your CRM software, phone numbers aren’t just a series of digits, they’re the key to a file full of rich client history and research. Staff can answer phones from their desktop, and as soon as they do, the call is automatically added to the customer record and a window will appear displaying all of the previous contacts and sales notes relating to them.
Hold line customization
Who hasn’t been subjected to awful hold music while waiting for a representative at one point in their lifetime? Before VoIP, this feature was a bit too expensive for some SMBs, but that’s no longer the case. Now you can easily manage what your customers hear while they are on hold with the simple click of a button. Setup messages for weekly promotions, updates or just a simple personalized greeting; regardless, hold music doesn’t have to be unbearable for your customers.
Virtual extensions
A lot of people like to refer to this as ‘call forwarding’, but we call it ‘virtual extensions’. Often regarded as the flagship functionality of a VoIP system, this feature allows you to create an extension or phone number that can be answered from multiple devices. Working from home, the road or your desktop is easier than ever because modern VoIP services will actually detect which device is best to ring you on based on your activity.
If a customer calls you while you’re writing an email on your office desktop, the call will ring there; if you’re drafting a presentation on your laptop at home, it’ll ring there; if you decline or don’t answer the call it will go to your cloud voicemail that can be accessed from any of your linked devices.
Virtual queuing system
One of the newest and most exciting capabilities to come out of VoIP communications systems is virtual queuing. Callers who don’t feel like waiting on the line with a level of attentiveness that prohibits them from giving their full attention to anything else can opt to hang up and receive a call when they are next in line. This means they can go back to their movie, cooking or whatever they were doing without keeping one ear peeled for someone to pick up on the other end.
So what do you think? For the price of one iPhone you can implement all of these features and more at your small or medium-sized business across multiple lines and multiple devices. We wholeheartedly believe there’s no debate left to be had and VoIP systems have emerged as the definitive future of voice-based communications.
VoIP phones introduce cost savings and innovative new ways to interact with customers without any added burden to you. You might find it hard to believe but everything we’ve outlined here requires no more management or upkeep from you or your staff than your current legacy phone system, Onsite Computing will take care of all of it. Pick up your shiny new iPhone and give us a call today, you’ll never be tied to just one device ever again.
