Another Day and Twice the Bang for the Buck

Every day brings about something new and something different. Yesterday was no different. On an average day I program several standard voicemail and find me/ follow me packages. However I programmed a Fax on Demand package yesterday.

Fax on Demand is great for any company who wants to immediately send a document to a caller. The customers who most frequently use the Fax on Demand feature are apartment complexes because the caller can immediately be sent the floor plans for the available units as well as a lease application. The beneficial aspect to the customer is the ease of sending a fax. There is no more was a five or a nine? Or what did the caller say he wanted? And best of all no more jamming on the fax machine while trying to send the fax. Our system takes all of those added frustrations out of the mix and allows the caller to follow through with the faxing process.

Every now and again we come across other customers who are interesting in utilizing our fax on demand feature. Yesterday's customer was one of the other, non apartment complex customers. Mark signed up for our Direct Receptionist program which includes up to five extensions. He decided to use two of the extensions as voicemail boxes and two of the extensions as Fax on Demand boxes which he is using as an additional form of marketing. Essentially he is getting twice the bang for his buck. He is paying for a phone system and getting a marketing bonus for free. Now that makes financial sense in these tough economic times.

Technorati Tags: virtual receptionist, virtual pbx, fax to email, voice mail

Sit. Stay. Rollover.

If you were a dog, the command "roll over" would be understood. Lay down, roll over, get a treat. This, however, is not the state in which we find ourselves and when instructed to put the features call forward, no answer and call forward, busy, no answer on a rollover group I can understand the confusion.

Also known as a hunt group, a rollover group consists of all your telephone lines. Its function is that if a line is busy it will automatically roll to the next line until it ends at the last line in the group. When a company wants the phone in their office to ring, giving them a chance to speak with a client live before going to the auto attendant, it is necessary to have specific features placed on this rollover group.

Essentially, the desire is for a caller to be routed to voicemail when a line goes unanswered. This feature is called call forward, no answer. This feature would be placed on all the lines in the hunt group. To avoid a busy signal, the feature call forward, busy, no answer would need to be placed on only the last line of the group. This feature is only placed on the last line since the rest of the lines are working as a rollover.

Although it cannot replace the talents of man's best friend, the rollover group combined with the features call forward, no answer and call forward, busy, no answer provide a treat in themselves; increased customer care and business productivity.

Technorati Tags: auto attendant, virtual receptionist, virtual pbx, voice mail, call forwarding

It's elementary, my dear Mason

Zack, one of our new customers, called me today. He has a single find-me voice mailbox and wanted to ensure that he was sounding as professional as he could with his system. In looking at his program, I noticed that his callers would ring directly through to his cell phone and only when his cell phone went unanswered or was busy would they then be given the company name and greeting.

Zack expressed the desire to have his company announced and his callers notified that their call was being transferred to the next available representative. I added the functionality to play a greeting before executing the find-me routine and on a no answer play a second greeting. To complete the professional sound, I recorded the greetings for him. Once the greetings were in place, I notified Zack that everything was up and running according to his request.

I received a call again from Zack after he had listened to the greetings, and it was exactly what he was looking for. However, he wanted to add just one more thing; music on hold. I sent him the different selections of music that we offer and instructed him to let me know which he preferred and I would upload it into his program. Again, Zack called and we discussed his options. After opting for the piano-guitar selection, he expressed his heartfelt thanks for my time and service stating I deserved a “gold star just like in elementary school”.

In elementary we’re taught the basics, the building blocks, for the rest of our school career. They become the foundation on which our entire learning is based. They are the relationship between the abcs and research papers, numbers and algebraic equations, questions and the scientific theory. Zack also reminded me that they also are the relationship between gold stars and satisfied customers.

Technorati Tags: virtual pbx, auto attendant, music on hold, voice mail, call forwarding

Auto Attendant - Call Transfer with Find-me/Follow-me

‘Find-me/follow-me’ is the standard call transferring system in an auto attendant phone system. Facilitating inter-office communications and customer care applications, auto attendants through hosted PBX system have become a perfect addition for all business firms.

To Get Connected to Multiple Departments

To make communication possible throughout all sections of a company, the providers give connections to all extension phone lines. One to four digit multiple extensions can be obtained for each individual extension. The incoming calls are linked to the appropriate personal extensions of the company through a hosted server.

Find-me/Follow me - An All-time Tracking Service

With this sophisticated system in the offices, the employees are never out of reach of the callers. The calls are attended by the auto attendant system, which welcomes the callers with a professional greeting installed in the system. Thereafter, following the directions the callers can reach the right employee. The incoming calls will be automatically rolled into the users’ extension phone lines.

A Perfect Option for People on the Move

While traveling or when not in a specific location, you will not be able to attend the incoming calls. With the aid of auto attendants, the messages will be recorded in the voicemail boxes. A message notification regarding the voice messages will be sent to the users’ cell phone numbers or other alternative numbers provided. The users can check it out later and listen to the voice messages through their personal computer speakers. This ensures you all-time accessibility to the incoming calls to your offices and you need not have fears about losing any important business deal.

Best Startup with the Right Providers

There are numerous providers offering hosted PBX systems featuring auto attendant services, these days. It is important to identify the right providers who can give you quality services. You can activate the auto attendant service in your workplace either through your existing phone number or by making use of a new number.