VoIP Features Your Growing Business Needs
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone systems are the communication systems of choice for many businesses. Thanks to VoIP’s scalability, portability, cost-efficiency, and an impressive array of features, businesses can communicate with ease and also compete, succeed and grow in their market. Growing businesses can gain a competitive edge thanks to the wide range of communication and collaboration features that are offered (and often included) by many VoIP phone solutions.
Here are only some of the most useful VoIP features businesses can tap to support their growth:
To boost operational efficiency:
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Auto attendant - Growing businesses may not have the resources to hire an employee whose role is to answer and manage phone calls. For this reason, using and customizing your phone system’s auto attendant can be incredibly useful. This feature allows businesses to create call pathways so callers can be routed to the appropriate department quickly. An auto attendant can also be set up to play custom messages during holidays, lunchtime, and after hours.
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Call continuity - One of the challenges of owning a VoIP phone system is that, when the power goes out, your service stops, too. Fortunately, there are some measures businesses can take to ensure that they stay connected. With the call continuity feature, your business doesn’t have to suffer during an outage or a disaster. Once the service detects that you have lost your VoIP connection, all your calls will be rerouted to a specified backup number. Thus, ensuring your business communications won’t be compromised. Another option is to also install a backup battery pack to keep your VoIP system up and running.
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Find Me/Follow Me - Growing businesses can’t afford to miss potential opportunities that may benefit the company and their bottom line. One way to ensure that these opportunities don't slip through the cracks is by activating Find Me/Follow Me. This feature lets you direct incoming calls to a list of numbers (or devices) that ring in sequence so that important calls are never missed.
To train staff and improve performance:
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Call recording - This is more than just a feature that helps you make a copy of a conversation. Call recording brings a range of benefits to companies. In particular, it lets you determine how your team is performing and how they deal with customers on the phone. It can also be useful for training or onboarding employees, too.
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Call monitoring - This feature lets you train and coach your employees during live calls. You can "Listen" to the conversation silently without interrupting the call, "Whisper" to your agent while remaining silent to the other party, and "Barge" to join the conversation between your agent and your customer.
To help employees achieve work-life balance:
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Video conferencing - Commuting long hours isn't only stressful, but studies show that it's also linked to poor health and lower overall satisfaction. With VoIP features such as video calling and conferencing, businesses can give their employees the opportunity to work from home (or anywhere!) and continue to communicate and collaborate with colleagues as if they were physically present in the same location.
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Mobile app - Many business VoIP solutions also offer a mobile app that lets users access their phone system from their mobile devices. This empowers employees to stay connected and reachable wherever they go.
To expand reach and awareness:
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Local number - Are you looking to develop business in a particular region or area but don’t have the resources to put up an office yet? A local virtual number is just what you need. With a local virtual number, you can establish yourself as a local business even if you’re physically located a thousand miles away. Customers with the same area code can call your number and will only be charged local call rates instead of long distance fees.
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Toll-free number - Setting up a toll-free number is a quick way to convey a professional business image for your company. With a toll-free number, you can encourage customers to get in touch with you to learn more about your product or service without incurring long distance charges. You can also use it to track call volume metrics for your marketing or advertising campaign.
Final Thoughts
VoIP phone solutions do more than just offer cheaper call rates to businesses. They also offer a selection of tools that help companies improve operations, train staff, and help create happy and productive employees, as well as assist businesses in expanding their reach. This makes VoIP a truly indispensable tool for businesses.