Business Hosted VoIP – Top Three Features

Hosted VoIP offers many new features for enterprises, tools that individual users won’t have much use for. Some of these new features enhance productivity or allow organizations to improve process efficiency. Others will let a business handle a large volume of calls or otherwise improve the communication system.

Some organizations will find some features meet their requirements better than others. A small business might be looking for specific tools that will help them compete with larger companies. A multinational corporation, on the other hand, may want features that will help them handle hundreds of calls per day in specific departments like customer support for billing.

However, there are some features that most businesses will appreciate regardless of their size or the industry they operate in. So, let’s take a look at some of the top features that most businesses should look for in a hosted VoIP service.

Customization – Hold Music, Greetings, Schedules

Hosted VoIP services offered a wide variety of customization options. This allows an organization to control exactly how the system works to better fit their requirements. The level of customization extends to small things – such as hold music and custom greetings – that appear insignificant but have a great impact on customer satisfaction.

Unlike larger organizations with sophisticated phone systems, smaller businesses have no choice but to let their phones ring during odd hours or when the office is closed. Hosted VoIP services offer support for custom schedules to handle such situations. This means that you can set up a schedule for when the phones should ring, when they callers should go to voicemail or when to play special messages for customers.

You can also combine this feature with several related options such as using custom hold music or playing specific greetings during office hours and so on. Imagine if someone is trying to contact your office after business hours. Instead of letting the phone ring or simply going to voicemail, you can set up a recording that informs them of your usual hours and alternative methods (website, email etc.) to contact the office.

Suppose your service department is overloaded with calls and you have to put customers on hold until an agent is free. Instead of just playing random music, you can use a custom recording to inform them about sales, deals, or any other information you would like them to have.

Never Miss a Call Again

Gone are the days when you had to go and sit at the same office desk every day. Nowadays, many employees have roles which require mobility. For instance, a sales agent may be traveling across the country to meet customers or an executive may have meetings in different countries. But at the same time, you don’t want to miss crucial business calls.

Hosted VoIP services offer a handful of features to make sure that no employee has to miss a call because they were not at their desk. One such feature is commonly called find me/follow me. This feature allows users to set up a list of numbers, devices or extensions to the same account. An employee can then specify whether they want the devices to ring all at once or one after the other until the call is answered. This feature is really helpful in today’s work environments where most people juggle multiple devices all the time.

Another feature that can help in this endeavor is sophisticated call routing rules. Voicemail is a great feature that most businesses rely on to get work done. With VoIP, users can configure their account so that voicemail messages are automatically transcribed to text and sent to their email inbox. A manager will be able to direct calls to a group voicemail inbox so that calls can be answered by whoever is available. Features like this can help you ensure that no customer call is unanswered or missed.

Streamline Internal Communications

In addition to communicating with external entities like customers, partners, suppliers etc. employees need to communicate with each other as well. Individual workers will want to talk with their colleagues, project teams may collaborate with others in different offices or departments and so on. In most office environments, this means that there are several different tools that individuals or departments for the same purpose.

With hosted VoIP, you can integrate all those channels within a single system. VoIP can handle audio calls, video conferencing, group calls, messaging, voicemail, and even faxing. This way, you don’t have to worry about compatibility or troubleshooting problems as they arise. You have a single source to contact if or when something goes wrong – your vendor. It also means that employees will find it easier to search across multiple communication channels to locate the person or data they’re looking for.

The above three features are by no means the only ones VoIP offers. But these are certainly the useful features a business should look for when signing up!