More than ten years after overtaking landlines as businesses’ number one choice, VoIP solutions are widely recognized as a cheaper, more advanced option than traditional systems. And while VoIP’s cost-savings are a huge selling point, its time-saving properties are often overlooked.
Take advantage of these top time-saving VoIP features to get a leg-up on competition.
CRM Integration – VoIP solutions can integrate with a company’s existing CRM to get the two working in tandem. Employees can click to call customers directly from their computer and pull up relevant customer information as soon as a call comes in, helping eliminate repetitive questions. CRM-integration also eases the note-taking process for calls, cutting down aftercall time.
Voicemail Transcription & Notification – 20% of people never check their voicemail. For those employees who can’t seem to remember to check their messages (and the rest of us who just don’t like doing it), VoIP has email-based voicemail notifications and transcriptions.
Employees can receive emails notifying them of new voicemails and read the voice message contents right from their inbox. Merging voicemail with email – one of the most popular business communication tools – helps employees save time and keep track of business interactions.
Electronic Faxing – Businesses can cut down on time-consuming paper jams, busy signals and other common analog fax problems with VoIP faxing. With a cloud PBX system, employees save time by scanning and faxing documents through email without losing the security of traditional faxing.
Reporting Dashboard – Analog phone systems don’t lend themselves to in-depth reporting; pulling even basic reports requires provider help, which can delay results. Businesses that switch to VoIP can generate call analytics instantaneously.
What’s more, since VoIP is digital, it can track more information than landlines can, including call times by employee, call volume by time of day and even calls by advertisement methods (ask your VoIP provider about adding lines to track marketing efforts). Managers can then arrange their reporting dashboards to show them exactly what they need to see, speeding up the analytics process.
Also, in-depth reporting creates further opportunities for businesses to save time. For example, average call volumes by time of day can help managers optimize their staffing, and digitally tracking calls makes billing go much faster for law offices and other businesses that charge by phone time.
Support – Troubleshooting and repairing landlines can be a huge productivity killer – especially when compared with the quick fixes virtual PBXs require. When phone systems are internet-based, providers can plug into offices’ phone systems and often remotely diagnose and fix problems. Some providers even monitor client service to fix issues before clients get a chance to experience them.
Further, most hosted VoIP issues that arise are their responsibility to fix, and their extensive backup infrastructures prevent significant downtime on the user’s end.
Pro tip: Save even more productivity time with a provider that designs custom backup plans for clients – never experience time-sucking downtime!
IVR Menus – IVRs are a quick and efficient way to save time and streamline an office’s call flow. With VoIP, an auto-attendant automatically answers calls and uses the IVR menu to direct the call to the right place, saving offices time on fielding calls. Plus, managers can easily change IVR settings to reflect any changes in department or forwarding structure.
In addition, most VoIP solutions offer call group options that are much more customizable than the traditional multi-line phone systems small businesses often still use. VoIP ring patterns can include round robin, skip busy lines, least-recently called and other configurations that diversify calls and reduce the need for additional transfers. Leverage these for a phone system perfectly tailored to its office.
Easy Configuration – With landline phone systems, configuring anything from an automated greeting to a ring pattern requires a provider’s help – which can take days. Most landline users end up waiting a long time to see requested updates take effect or abandon them altogether, concluding they’re not worth the wait.
With VoIP, by contrast, users can set configurations themselves – and it’s no more difficult than changing the settings on a computer or smartphone. This way, employees can keep productivity high with settings that are consistently optimized to office and employee needs.
Texting – For quick questions and updates, VoIP enables employees to text customers instead of call. Not only does this help save employees talk time, but it also helps businesses appeal to a younger demographic. Many VoIP providers even offer multi-media messaging, enabling employees to send explanatory images, graphs, videos and other media for clearer communication.
Save Time with Quality VoIP Solutions
Modern VoIP systems are chock-full of advanced (yet user-friendly) capabilities that keep productivity high and operations streamlined. And time-saving isn’t the only reason to upgrade. Download our infographic on the top 10 benefits of 4Voice’s VoIP service to learn why other businesses have made the switch.
{{cta(‘714533ec-409e-4224-8612-76264cd4c7bd’)}}
