Is This Thing On?
Posted on January 7, 2022 by Jenae Townsend
Business Phone Call Recording
We live in a work-from-home world where business phone call meetings are a given. And exciting opportunities have presented themselves in these virtual meetings, one of which is Call Recording —no more missing a vital moment or forgetting a crucial piece of information.
The ability to record a video or call session with coworkers or clients can be a helpful assist when it comes to improving training strategies, quality of service, or just when you need a refresher. It truly opens up a whole new world in communicating effectively with customers and teammates, providing accountability and transparency at the push of a button.
Can You Hear Me?
A telephone-recording service allows users to record, store, replay, and manage conversations with ease, thanks to the robust VirtualPBX interface. But how does it work?
Like all VirtualPBX’s technology, the call recording feature can be customized to your preferences. Any extension that you’ve permitted to access call records can playback, download, sort, or delete as much or as little of the record library as you see fit. You are the owner of this destiny and how you want it to work.
This includes giving each department its specific settings, too. For example, you could turn on all calls recorded for your customer service department but exclude ones for the accounting or sales teams.
We offer a step-by-step guide and video to help you through the process and recordings. But if there is one thing to take away, you have so many options at your disposal.
Should You Hear Me?
Depending on where your business has a residence, your answer to “Is it legal to record phone calls?” could be different than what you expect. And at VirtualPBX, there is no default legal disclaimer allowing viewers to know that they are being recorded, which could be an uh-oh if consent isn’t presented upfront.
This means it is up to you to complete your due diligence concerning capturing conversations legally, and your local legal counsel is the first place to look when considering recordings for your own business. Customers wishing to use this feature should update their system greetings or ringback audio to comply with their local and state regulations or laws.
If you aren’t sure about the type of consent you fall under, Digital Media Law Project offers a detailed look at what one-party consent and two-party consent laws mean.
Back to the Future
There is so much to Call Recording besides the above. There is no more confusion about agenda topics or “I don’t think I said that” conversations. It provides an accuracy like never before. Imagine forgetting about a particular service order, and you didn’t write it down. Don’t panic because you can push some buttons and Marty McFly that scenario with Call Recording.
Do Not Disturb: Holiday Edition
Posted on December 17, 2021 by Jenae Townsend
Staying put in the holiday break zone is sometimes easier said than done, switching modes from working at home or office to preparing for family arrivals and shopping excursions. Everyone needs the ability to unplug from work at a moment’s notice. But to do that successfully, you need to ensure all your communications and “away” messages are set for customers and teammates alike.
Do Not Disturb Please
Which leads us to a coveted feature to get familiar with, VirtualPBX’s Do Not Disturb. This bad boy offers the convenience of modern technology that can integrate with all your business devices. It is super simple to take a break with the ease of one-touch Do Not Disturb toggling right from your VoIP Phone or your VirtualPBX dashboard.
When DND pops on for an extension, all calls go right into that extension owner’s defaulted call flow or most commonly to the User’s voicemail. Luckily for you, we live in a time of excellent modern conveniences to help make it easier to press that big red pause button from anywhere in the world. Remember, with great power comes great responsibility.
But HOW does it work?
As we said, this setting is super easy to use and can be accessed in two distinct ways – with each one performing the same function of marking all phones associated with the user as currently unavailable.
When encountering a user set to Do Not Disturb, an inbound call will go to that user’s voicemail box.
1. Header Menu
Every VirtualPBX user’s dashboard now lists “DND” text as a clickable button. Users are set to active by default, and when clicking the button, they can mark themselves away.
The DND button will change in appearance from a black-colored switch (active) to a grayed-out switch (away).
2. User Menu
System administrators can also mark users to Do Not Disturb within the User menu of the Dashboard.
When clicking the User Features button on any user listed within the User menu, an expanded list of options will appear.
Be a Hard Case
So, what kind of hardware are you packing? Because the DND feature includes all of the best VoIP phones on the market (we tested them, we know).
Like the high-performance SIP cordless phone package, Yealink W60. The VirtualPBX system has the power and security to allow commands right from your handset. Unlike some other hosted telecom options that prevent the function of many on-phone commands.
By testing all the latest and greatest VoIP phones out there, we help turn your existing smartphone or computer into a full-featured VoIP device. Again, with great power comes, never mind you get it.
Snap to It
Switching to Do Not Disturb is as easy as a snap, and speaking of “snaps,” we have a sweet treat for your on-hold greetings. We made it easy to step up your holiday game this year because we teamed up to offer free on-hold greetings from Studio for Snap Recordings.
These are professional-quality customized messages for your phone system. It is more about that realistic human-sounding approach and not the robotic “we are here to see your leader” vibe.
Now go forth and enjoy your time. You deserve it.
Softphone Success for All Seasons
Posted on December 10, 2021 by Jenae Townsend
Best Free Softphone to Get You Through the Holidays
To start things off, what is a softphone? A softphone is a software-based equivalent to your business desk phone or personal smartphone, and it can send and receive calls on any hardware device running the software. Gone are the days where you had to be chained to your desk to manage your day-to-day.
And with all the available features that desktop and mobile softphone apps provide, it gives businesses more flexibility during the holidays that wouldn’t necessarily be available with just a hosted landline.
Less Desk, More Flex
Nowadays, it is a “virtual” world we live in – with more people working remotely or out in the field, which brings us to our topic at hand: Why your business needs the VirtualPBX Softphone App.
Softphones are ideal for places with multiple locations, those who telecommute, or those rockstar employees who are always on the go. The magic of the VirtualPBX Softphone is this, as long as you have a reliable data connection, there’s no place you can’t remain connected to your VirtualPBX Business Phone System.
That means you can make and receive calls from anywhere in the world from your phone, tablet, or computer. Easy peasy. And with our Flex Plan, you can conveniently download the VirtualPBX Softphone for free.
Keep Connected
A massive benefit of utilizing the softphone is it helps maintain employee presence to manage calls effectively. Keeping up with holiday hour changes and employee vacation time can be confusing. Still, the VirtualPBX Softphone App features help sidestep that confusion by allowing you to view the availability of business associates in their network and vice-versa.
Keeping track of employee communications is even more efficient because businesses can enjoy two of the most significant features using the Softphone App – Business SMS and Video Conferencing.
Speaking of Features
Besides SMS and Video Conferencing, here are some other neat benefits and add-ons from the VirtualPBX Softphone that can help boost and track holiday communication efficiencies and collaboration.
- HD Calling
- User Presence
- File Sharing
- Team Chat
- Video and Audio Conferencing
- Automatic Conference Summaries
- Automatic Conference Call Recording
Are You Ready?
A good thing about VirtualPBX Softphone is how easy it is to get set up and integrate with your existing hardware. And as an added gift, we have included professional and customized on-hold greetings for FREE with Studio by Snap Recordings. Gear up for this season and prepare for success and beyond by checking out how this best free softphone app can work for you.
The Holiday Balancing Act
Posted on December 7, 2021 by Lon Baker
Balancing the Biz
Balancing customer demands with employees’ needs can be challenging during the holiday season, and doing it right helps you separate your business from the competition. There are a few ways to go from a precarious tightrope journey to an easy cakewalk to amp up your communication techniques.
How You Doin’?
Managing customer communication often starts with ‘when’ and ‘how’ your employees receive calls. Using time of day routing and a platform that supports holiday scheduling allows calls to route efficiently. More importantly, it can deliver customer information that speeds up communication and improve overall satisfaction.
Making it Snappy
Once a customer calls your company, providing different greetings based on your IVR or Auto Attendant schedule allows you to present your business professionally and dramatically improve the interactions with your employees. It gives the company the ability to update greetings with audio files or text-to-speech. It allows businesses to inform customers of promotions, product information, or operational changes in their business.
We recommend using Studio by Snap Recordings because it humanizes and customizes the greetings. It also helps companies avoid the cringe effect with cliches like, “due to high call volume, your wait is…” or “our menu has recently changed.” Even better, this year, VirtualPBX teamed up with Snap to provide free on-hold holiday greetings for all our customers.
Zap that Holiday Cheer
To take it a step further, with advanced APIs, integrations through services like Zapier, or advanced functionality like our Pivot feature, businesses can elevate customer experience and business operations to deliver the best service possible. That gets a big yay from us.
To break it down, customers want concise and precise information, and their time is valuable and critical. So is the attention they are willing to give your business. From automating call routing, or IVRs, to capturing customer data and notifying employees of call volume, having a communications platform that can be extended and deeply integrated into your business can accelerate your growth through the holiday season.
Connection is Key
Posted on November 23, 2021 by Lon Baker
Holiday Communications Survival Mode
Small businesses must prepare for the increased volume the holidays bring by maximizing internal and external communication needs in today’s challenging business environment. From the website to phones to texting, connecting is even more essential than ever to succeed.
As a business owner, adapting and changing at a moment’s notice will be crucial, and pregaming how your customers will want to communicate with you (and they will) is time worth investing. Coordinating shipments from suppliers and deliveries to customers will require timely and consistent contact to ensure your business lives up to customer expectations and demands.
Keeping up with your holiday communication connections can mean leveraging voice, video, or texting day or night, from wherever your team is operating.
Use Your Voice
More Voice = Less Headaches. The first place to start will be the phones your team uses. Leveraging voice means every employee has a phone, hardware or software-based, that keeps them connected with the real-time status of everyone else on their team. Ensuring your entire team can leverage voice to stay in sync with the demands of your business will go a long way to keeping things running more smoothly.
You’re on Camera
The next step in this process is taking advantage of video collaboration and text messaging. Not only does this extend the ability for your team to collaborate on solving problems, but the functionality of video and text will improve processes and help staff perform at their best when it counts the most.
You would be surprised how something as simple as sending a text message when a critical notice tags a key team member can make or break a customer relationship. Having a handle on sharing last-minute updates with your team will minimize mistakes and stress.
Power Up
Finally, the communication platform that powers voice, video, and text communications for your business needs to have powerful functionality. Key features such as real-time presence, hot desking, advanced call center features, all of which can extend through automation platforms such as Zapier or a public API.
At VirtualPBX, we connect our team using the VirtualPBX Softphone to provide real-time presence, voice, and video collaboration, as well as text messaging. Additionally, we empower team members to leverage Zapier to automate and improve processes across our company.
In short, don’t let disruptions send your business spinning. Prepping in business should be a year-round habit your business embraces so that when things do happen, everyone knows their responsibilities.