Features that make the best business phone system
Your phone system can make or break your business. In business, first impressions count, these impressions usually occur either over the phone or on your website. Important features for a business phone system include ease of use, scalability, reliability, and cost. A good phone system will bring major improvements to both customer service and internal team communication.
While many of us groan when the phone rings interrupting our workflow, imagine how bad it would be if the phone never rang.
Your phone should work for you and if managed properly can be a great asset and not just a tool for your business. It’s time to start managing your calls as opposed to them managing you.
Here’s a list of must have features for a kick-arse business phone system
Use conditional pre-recorded greetings
With the holiday season fast approaching, many of us are working through the list of preparations required to close the office. Have you considered your holiday message? What do you need to communicate with your customers? Can they leave a message and if so, how will you get their message?
A good phone system can preconfigure different pre-recorded voicemail greetings based on date and time. Allowing you to have alternative messages for business hours, after hours and for extended leave/public holidays. This makes it easy to stay organised and look (and sound) professional.
Direct lines to individual staff members or teams
Does your phone system allow you to publish phone numbers that direct calls to a specific user or team? This is a must have feature, which saves precious administration and reception time. It allows the caller to quickly get in contact with the person they need to speak to, without interrupting your reception team.
It’s important to make sure your direct line phone numbers are only published to the appropriate locations such as email signatures and business cards. We advise omitting these numbers from public locations such as your website to ensure unknown calls can be properly screened.
Create dynamic pathways for incoming phone calls
Concerned about professional staff members being constantly interrupted? An agile phone system allows you redirect calls to other people if it is unable to be answered by the original receiver. This ensures calls to your business don’t get lost or ignored.
An example for this may be the direct phone number to your finance team rings, but the entire team is busy processing the weekly payroll and is unable to answer the call. After 15 seconds, the call is automatically redirected to reception, where the call can be appropriately handled.
A good phone system should be able to create dynamic pathways that also forward to mobile phones in the event that someone is away from their desk phone.
Be easy check and process voicemails
No one wants to waste time going through their desk phone trying to listen and process voicemails. New cloud-based phone systems allow multiple actions once a voicemail is collected. This includes sending a copy of the voicemail via email to either individual or multiple recipients.
This feature allows users to listen to incoming voicemails on their mobile devices (if they have access to email). This saves valuable administration time and allows voicemails to be returned in a timely manner.
Don’t let those missed calls mean a loss of business. Improve your business workflow for voicemails now with a first-class business phone system!
Use a phone directory to easily identify important (or unknown) calls
Modern desk phones allow you to upload your client and supplier phone numbers by a CSV file. This is very useful for screening calls so you can ensure important calls aren’t missed. This also helps to ensure important numbers are readily available to dial out. This can bring great improvement to your business customer service levels.
Your phone directory should be centrally managed so that it’s easy to maintain and update. It’s a good idea to document the best process to follow when updating your phone directory, this saves time and minimises mistakes.
Core features that are must-haves
Most of these go without saying, but almost all phone systems should allow you to perform basic actions such as transfer, park or conference a call. If your existing system does not offer you the above features, or you’re not sure, we can help.
ShowellTech works with URL Networks, an Australian owned and operated telecommunications provider. With a variety of plans to suit your needs, talk to us about what would work best for your business.
Relax this holiday season knowing your phones are sorted and you won’t miss any business opportunities.
Call ShowellTech now and get the best phone system for your business.