Despite the shift in the communication methods across the globe, voice communication still remains one of the most trusted and safe means of conveying information. And specifically for small businesses, a robust voice communication can prove to be a critical element for success. Modern phone systems for small businesses are secure, convenient and come witha ton of features that can give your business a range of competitive advantages. However, there are certain features that you have to look out for before installing a business phone system.
Here are the 9 must-have features of a phone system for small businesses.
- Auto-Attendant/Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
Small businesses often do not have a huge workforce that may include professionals for almost every small manual task. Here, the technology comes to the rescue as modern business phone systems have auto-attendant feature that allows them to greet incoming callers and divert them to the right department. As the name suggests, IVR gives an elaborate response to the callers by asking them what they exactly need help with and telling them what keys they need to press on their phoneto get the desired response.Auto-attendants have proven to be quite useful and these have become an integral component of the modern phone systems. - Call Parking
This is a number-based virtual parking bay that professionals can access to continue the call. This is similar to holding the call but with improved accessibility. The system allows you to park incoming or outgoing calls and direct them to a different attendant or expert. In addition, for a workplace where thousands of calls are answered every day, it is not possible for everyone to remember extensions of each desk and here, call parking becomes a life-saver asattendees from respective departments can themselves pick calls from the parking bay. - Unified Communication Support/Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS)
This is ideal for the workplaces where unified communication systems that include voice systems, conference calls, emails, fax, SMS, voicemail, etc. are in place. Phone systems often facilitate and integrate to these systems which creates a highly interconnected and automated work environment for maximum efficiency. However, unified communication support may cost slightly higher than traditional systems, but its perks are unmatched. - Direct Inward Dialling (DID)
This is quite similar to virtual dialling as the company will only have to buy a handful of phone lines and they can allot much more virtual phone numbers to each professional that can be integrated to the same phone lines. Executives can simultaneously divert and attend calls and handle customers more than their existing capacity. When put in a real-life situation, incoming calls get seamlessly diverted through professionals and callers virtually don’t have to wait. - IP Private Branch Exchange (PBX)
IP PBX is another call diverting system that increases efficiency on VOIP phone systems that are connected to phone lines. The device connected to IP PBX can transfer a customer’s call to almost anyone connected to the VOIP system in the office. For instance, when a customer calls, and the system says “you’re being connected right now”, it is likely that it is IP PBX in process. - Multi-Device Support
Mobile phones, desktops/laptops, VOIP desk phone and VOIP-enabled wireless headsets;these are the standard components of a multi-device network and when connected to a phone systems, it creates an environment where remote access becomes seamless. For instance, if you have a softphone that uses a VOIP app, you can use it to call on any of the aforementioned devices. - Group Announcements
The phone systems can also be used for alerting the entire organisations as VOIP-enabled office phone systems also come with paging and/or group announcement features that allow designated individuals such as managers and CEOs to speak to all their employees at once through their desk phones. And in a situation where direct communication isn’t possible, they can also make one-way announcements for specific departments and individuals. - Real-Time Analytics
This is another important feature that allow managers to view or review call data in real-time. As calls go through the system, they start appearing on the list. Analytics allows professionals to check and find out the usual length of the call, the executive who is answering maximum calls, and frequent leads. The data can help find out highly relevant information such as call flow, executives’ productivity and of course, hot leads that require special attention. - Virtual Office Phone
Therequirement for this feature is not limited to small businesses only as it can be of use to both small and large organisations. There are situations when a team is distributed over a geographical area and there is no one to answer the phone in office. Here, virtual phone (integrated to phone systems) can be quite handy as virtual numbers allow team members to access calls and attend to their customers.
Why GenesysTel
GenesysTel is one of the top corporate telecommunication services companies in Australia that uses state-of the-art equipment and technology for delivering tailor-made telecom solutions. Our smart telecom services are designed and developed to cater to both small and large organisations and our reputation in the industry precedes us.
Conclusion
The modern office space has evolved with the influx of new technology. Remote calling, call diverting/forwarding and call announcements have become a standard as there is wide range of service providers present in the market. However, their presence doesn’t mean all of them are worth giving a shot. Only a few of them offer services that can seamlessly integrate and enhance business operations of a small company. Therefore, one has to be quite careful and understand every aspect before opting for such services.