As Providers of VoIP, we manage communications for many different styles of office set-up.
One of the most challenging set-ups to tackle and manage, is one for a larger company operating from many disparate locations.
There are a few challenges with such a set-up, including keeping everyone in the team connected, and ensuring calls coming in are handled correctly.
If we look at the situation without using a VoIP system, then we have a bunch of remote workers, working in different offices, answering their own phones. they will need to use their own home phone, or their own mobile. They will be displaying these numbers when calling customers. Customers will be calling them on their own numbers. And remember, all this is happening whilst these workers represent your company.
Now let’s look at the situation with a VoIP system.
In this scenario, we have an over-arching phone system, serving the needs of all the remote workers. Workers will receive calls to your official company number, and can call out displaying the same.
Workers can transfer calls between themselves and call each other internally. They can also see if colleagues are on a call or are currently available*.
Using a SureVoIP® Hosted VoIP service, a company can set up a phone service where their advertised numbers rings to any or all employees specified, no matter where they are working. Sally could be working from a satelite office in another city. Allan could be based on a remote island off the coast of Scotland, and Jim could be travelling to meet an important client, only able to use his smart phone to communicate. They will all be included in the company phone set up. They will all receive calls to the company number, and they can all transfer calls from one to the other. They can also call each other as an internal call, which provides another benefit – all calls between SureVoIP® users are free, so employees will save on their bills!
Employees can also call out and display the official company number, giving a far better impression than calling customers with their own mobile or home phone number showing. This presents a far better image, giving the customer a sense of dealing with a more cohesive organisation. It also acts as an aid to employee security (as it removes the possibility of revealing personal info to customers).
An additional advantage is how the incoming calls are handled. You can have all employee phones ring, or have them ring in sequence if some workers are prioritised. With our Fully Managed service, you can even have a virtual receptionist. Using this, you can then have calls routed to the most appropriate person. For instance, a customer calls in, and wishes to talk about a recent invoice. Your virtual receptionist (or IVR menu Auto-attendant, to give it its proper title) listed the option ‘Press 2 for invoicing queries’. When they press 2, the customer will be directed to Allan (the invoicing person), who is on his island off the Scottish coast.
Not only that, but if the customer wants to discuss a quote with Sally, the sales executive, then Allan simply transfers them through.
And if the customer wants to talk to Jim, then Sally just transfers him on. Not only does the call transfer seamlessly, but it will also reach Jim anywhere he has a 3 or 4G connection. A Soft phone app joined with a Hosted VoIP service means your office is in your pocket.
So, as you can see, an office of three people has been transferring, collaborating and taking part in the customer journey. And one was in a different office, in a different city. One was miles away on an island. And one person was using an app whilst travelling.
The list of available functions and features doesn’t end there. Our Fully Managed Hosted service gives conferencing, so you can set up calls with multiple people. It gives Time of day Routing, so you can divert all your calls at certain times to a specific destination (for instance an on-call engineer). It also gives call recording, so you can rest easy that you have the facts at hand should there ever be a dispute with a customer.
So not only a telecoms solution like a traditional office, but a lot more besides!
Get in touch to find out just what a Hosted VoIP service can do for you.
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* Requires BLF function on hardware