A virtual phone system is necessary for any business nowadays, and the demand for their implementation and purchase has skyrocketed in the past 10 years. Because of the high demand increase, many companies have fallen in line to cash in. Often, this means that subpar products can be released which do not provide some of the functionality that others may and may not be worth the money.
If you are looking to upgrade your business communication and implement a virtual phone system, then you will need to wade through a sea of products. It can become complex when looking for which one to choose, as a virtual phone system needs to fit perfectly into your environment and situation to receive the most benefits possible.
There are certain characteristics to look out for when looking for a professional virtual phone system, as these will determine whether the product is professional and worth paying for. A virtual phone number can provide a huge number of benefits which make them essential for a business operation, and these benefits come from the functionality, convenience and accessibility that come with the product. However, you will only be able to reap these benefits if you choose the right product.
Here are 3 characteristics of a professional virtual phone system:
After hours greeting and call transfer
A virtual phone system is able to provide customers with after hours greetings and call transfer options. You may have experienced these before, as they work to keep the customer engaged and connected even after work hours. If a customer calls after work hours, the virtual phone system will be able to tell them that the business is currently closed and when it will reopen. This is effective, as often customers can become frustrated when a call will not go through and they are unaware that the business is closed. Having the greeting will inform them and ensure they do not waste their time. Moreover, a virtual phone system is able to provide the customer with options to direct their call to the correct person. Doing so means that the customer will be able to engage and connect with an employee who can help them with their enquiry, rather than wasting time finding out who is best for them. It also expresses an image of professionalism and can help to increase productivity amongst the employees. Customer image of the brand is also important and having call transfer options conveys the professionalism of your business through the use of a virtual phone system.
Call recording
Call recording is another characteristic of a virtual phone system. Call recording is an important feature to utilize, as it allows you to use the recordings for training purposes or to analyse for later use. With traditional systems, it can be difficult to record calls and often requires external hardware in order to do so, which can increase costs unnecessarily. With a virtual phone system, call recording is an in built feature which should be utilized for just about any call. Call recordings can act as data which can be analysed so that customer behaviour can be tracked, and strategic decisions made based on this data. This is especially helpful for businesses within certain sectors such as finance, as well as for businesses which want to implement voice recognition for their customers and products. You may have encountered these types of calls, where you can use a spoken phrase to access an account. Call recording is required for this to work, and therefore a virtual phone system is necessary for this level of sophistication.
Conference calling
Conference calling is a necessity within the business world nowadays. More often than not, you will need to have conference calls with multiple customers and/or other businesses. Using traditional hardware can make this difficult, and the process can be complex to link multiple callers into one call. With a virtual phone system, the ability to group multiple callers into one call is simple and is a built in feature of any virtual phone system.
In summary, a virtual phone system will have many characteristics that you should look out for before purchasing. The aforementioned characteristics are the basics that you should look out for in a virtual phone system to ensure that it is worth paying for.