Standard business VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) sales are increasing as business owners become more aware of the technology and how it has matured over the years. Business IP phones are no exception, and improved features are impacting business efficiency.
“Five or 10 years ago, early adopters were willing to accept poor quality to be on the cutting edge, but now, the quality has caught up with the demand,” says John Putnam, vice president of direct sales at PowerNet Global. “Today, you have low cost, good quality and a lot of features that people with older phone systems didn’t have and are now necessary in order to be competitive in the marketplace.”
Smart Business spoke with Putnam about how business IP phones can improve all areas of your operations, from customer service and communications to sales force activities.
What are some recent feature improvements with business IP phones?
Unified communications, a big buzzword within the industry, combine email, fax and voicemail into a centralized location. Within your email inbox, faxes are converted to emails through E-Fax, and with IP-based phone systems, voicemails are converted to a WAV file and emailed to you. Then, faxes and voicemails can be saved in the relevant customer file. By integrating the phone and computer technology, employees are able to retrieve information quicker.
Phones and computers can also be used more efficiently. A phone call brings up the caller ID and relevant contact information — if that person is in your contact management software — on your computer screen before you answer. You can also open your contact records, click a button and dial the phone. From a contact management standpoint, you now have a record of incoming and outgoing calls in your system, including missed calls that didn’t leave a voicemail.
The next big thing is cell phone integration, in which mobile employees can push a button on their phones or cell phones to forward calls from the office to their cell phones.
How can these advances help employers run their businesses more productively?
Businesses with sales organizations are routing calls to the company first and then bouncing them out to the sales force. As a result, the company directly owns that relationship, while calls still get out in an efficient manner. Then, if a salesperson leaves the organization, you can easily reroute those calls to his or her replacement or manager within, maintaining the client relationship.
Business IP phones give companies options in terms of employees who aren’t located in the office by routing calls to either an IP-based phone or a cell phone. This allows employees to telecommute, so you don’t have to have square footage to house them in your bricks-and-mortar location.
Some business owners have closed their office space entirely and have all employees working remotely. Customers never know they are calling into someone’s house through auto-attendance and IP-based phone systems, and employers aren’t paying rent or any of the other costs associated with having a bricks-and-mortar location.
Routing calls works well with a sales force but also for others such as lawyers who often travel between their offices and court. Travel time becomes more productive for those who have meetings outside the office. Not only can those employees receive calls, but it can be easier for them to retrieve voicemails. They see the caller ID, date, time and duration of voicemails on their cell phones, and then choose what to listen to based on priority, improving your company’s response time.
Additionally, the ability to easily transfer calls to a different location provides better disaster recovery options. For example, if there is a problem in the work space, such as a loss of power, you can take your VoIP handsets and relocate to a place where there is Internet connectivity and power to get the company back up and running as quickly as possible.
How else can business IP phone features improve customer service?
By having remote employees across the country, businesses can extend their hours. For example, an organization can take advantage of the fact that 5 p.m. on the West Coast is 8 p.m. on the East Coast, allowing office hours or support line hours to be extended without paying overtime.
Companies that have teams dedicated to specific clients can bounce calls between offices so that only someone who is on the team is dealing with that important client. This skill-based call routing is possible because there is flexibility not only within offices but also call routing between branch offices.
How do these phones make communication more efficient in an office?
With unified communications, you have a centralized location for voicemail, email and faxes so employees aren’t spending their time chasing down and sharing information. Communications are saved in a shared folder on your network and multiple people can retrieve them more quickly.
Digital recordings also can be used for training purposes, such as for customer service in terms of coaching — the customer was angry and here is how the account manager defused the situation and addressed the client’s needs. Your sales manager can refer back to recorded conversations, and say, ‘Here’s what you said in this situation. Maybe you could have tried this or addressed it differently. Next time, why don’t you try saying this?’ This allows salespeople to more easily take advantage of each others’ experiences.
In addition, recorded conversations can be used as a part of contract negotiations or for a dispute on the collections side. Recorded calls and digital voicemails also create an easily transferred reference if someone else is working that account because of turnover or employee absence.
Business IP phones create more flexibility and accountability, which, in turn, increases your company’s efficiency and productivity.
John Putnam is vice president of direct sales at PowerNet Global. Reach him at (866) 764-7329 or [email protected].
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