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Hosted PBX, Is It Right For You?
By Brandi Cummings
"Order Now!" "Your Business Will Fail If You Don't
Have This New Technology!" "Your Competition Has
This Tool, Why Don't You?" Does any of this sound
familiar? Does it make you cringe? It seems to be
impossible to keep up with all the new trends in
business today. It's hard to know which trends are just
flash in the pan gimmicks and which are valuable tools
that your business can actually benefit from. It's
important to do your research. Find out what these
tools can do for you and make sure it is right for your
business. One of these recent trends is the hosted
PBX service. These "virtual" phone systems can
automatically answer, screen and route all incoming
calls to your office, home and/or cell phone. Although
they have been on the market for some time now,
hosted PBXs have recently been getting the attention
of more and more small and medium sized
businesses. Is this technology right for your business?
What Can It Do For Me?
First you have to ask yourself, "How will my business
benefit from a hosted PBX?" A hosted PBX service
has many different aspects that a business owner can
take advantage of. A good service will have numerous
different features and packages that can help your
business project a more professional image and boost
productivity. Here are 4 basic features of most hosted
PBX services. See if they can benefit your business.
1 - 800 - Toll Free Number
90% of Americans report using a toll free number and
studies show that using a toll free number in your
advertising can increase your response by 30%. So
the first advantage to your business using an "800"
number with your hosted PBX is that consumers will
call you before they call the company with a local
number. If your company only does business in your
direct local market, and you want to keep it that way,
then you may still benefit from a toll free number.
People generally see a company with a toll free number
as a larger and more established business. Simply by
having a toll free number, you boost your professional
image and instill confidence in your callers.
You Got Them To Call, Now Answer The Phone!
"Follow Me" call forwarding is the backbone of a hosted
PBX service. If you have a toll free number you're
inviting people to call you. With follow me call
forwarding, you can route calls that come into your
hosted PBX to any local phone number or numbers you
wish. You can have calls transferred to your office
phone, home phone, cell phone or any combination of
these numbers until the service finds you. You can
even program a hosted PBX to call different phone
numbers at different times of the day, or even days of
the week. The system will announce itself to you so that
you know it is a call coming from your toll free number.
Most importantly you can be available to your callers
wherever you go. You don't have to worry about
missing a call from Mr. Next Big Client while you are
out to lunch. Or better yet, you don't have to miss your
lunch because you are waiting for Mrs. Big Client to
return your call.
Connecting You and Your Team
Multiple voicemail boxes can play an important part in
how your hosted PBX directs callers. If you have
multiple employees, you can assign each one their own
mailbox. Each mailbox acts as its own voice mail
system. It comes with its own extension, outgoing
voicemail message, call forwarding settings, and
delivery of messages. The hosted PBX service
automatically answers all incoming calls and directs the
caller to press the extension of the person they would
like to speak to or give them the option of listening to a
list of extensions. It doesn't matter if all your employees
work in the same office or in different offices in different
locations. They can even work out of their own homes
and the caller will never know they are being transferred
anywhere outside of the office. If you are a one man
band, but you want to project the image of a small
orchestra, this can be achieved using your multiple
voicemail extensions. For example you can create a
mailbox for a Sales department, Technical Support
department and Billing department. A hosted PBX
system will automatically answer all your incoming calls
and route callers to the appropriate department.
Unbeknownst to the caller, all three extensions are
transferred to you at your local number. With multiple
mailboxes you can create an image of a single office
as well as further project that professional image that
you started by having a toll free number.
Your Voice System At Your Fingertips
One of the advantages of having a hosted PBX is
having your entire voice system at your fingertips. Web
based access provides a window to your system giving
you real time control of your communications. Features
will vary depending on the company, but most web
based applications allow you to control each mailbox
on your system, view caller id captures, change system
and mailbox settings such as call forwarding numbers
and times as well as running reports to view call usage
and trends. Another advantage of web based access
is the ability to check voice and fax messages online or
have them sent to any email address you wish. Of
course, you can still check your messages by phone as
well. Web based access isn't just a convenient and
time saving tool, it is also a very productive one. For
example you could run a report to see if the call volume
increased after a specific ad campaign was released
or see which day of the week is the busiest for
customer service. The applications are endless.
When trying to decide if the latest tools are right for
your business, make sure to ask the important
questions. How will it benefit me and my business?
Will it boost my productivity? Will it increase my
professional image and boost customer confidence?
Will it help me to be more successful? If the answer is
"yes" to any of these questions then it is definitely a tool
that you need to look into integrating into your business. About the Author
Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/8625.html
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