New VirtualPBX Business Phone Plans
Posted on January 19, 2022 by Jenae Townsend
Out with the Old
We have switched things up in our quest to deliver innovative customer experiences consistently. Introducing the new VirtualPBX business phone plans, Flex and Pro. CEO and Chairman Paul Hammond explained what inspired this new direction to replace our current plans.
“We take great pride in our service and support for our customer’s trust. As a direct result, their needs and values have always been first and foremost our priority since we started over 20 years ago.
These past couple of years have provided an opportunity to deliver the right solutions that match the changing landscape of business communications today and tomorrow in a post-pandemic world. With these new business phone plans, we made a point to supply our customers with a more straightforward way of transitioning their business to the next level of success.”
The key here, to always listen to what the customer is looking for.
The Flex and Pro Breakdown
The entry-level Flex Plan is still the perfect product for hybrid workers or entrepreneurs. It now offers better-than-basic features, including SMS, Video, Ring Groups, and Call Recording with 250 GB of storage and more.
A step up from Flex is the Pro Plan, a perfect option for most businesses needing advanced department insights. Pro will include multiple Auto-Attendants, ACD Queues Pro, Microsoft Teams Integration, Advanced Call Reports, and the list goes on. As a bonus, Pro Plan now comes with 1TB of Call Recording storage – the most of any previous VirtualPBX plan.
Keeping it Custom
Enterprises looking for an upgrade from Pro will have VirtualPBX Custom and CRM Plans. But heads up, these plans will not include free trials or self-service sign-up. Instead, it will direct prospective customers to a dedicated Sales Team member for a more personal touch.
The Custom Plan includes advanced features like Dynamic Caller ID, DISA, SIP Trunks, Custom Call Flows, Auto-Route, Select Route, Auto Forward, 2,500 Toll-Free Minutes, on top of everything in the Pro package. CRM Plan consists of Salesforce CRM Integration and 5,000 Toll-Free Minutes, and both plans will include 2TB of Call Recording storage.
Additionally, our popular Call Recording feature will be a staple for all VirtualPBX 2022 plans.
Free Trials Are Back
Did we mention FREE trial offers are back? Start the celebrating now. This 14-day benefit will be available for customers who utilize the Flex and Pro Plan self-service sign-up. There are no restrictions on features or minutes during the trial period. After the trial period, customers can expect to be billed per the plan selected.
Getting Connected and Staying Connected
What sets VirtualPBX apart is the 24/7 support from our dedicated onboarding team. We mean it when we say we “ensure that multiple sites and potentially hundreds of user devices get configured from the first day of operation.” Our teams are genuinely committed to guiding users to a better tomorrow in communication. Your success is our success, so let’s get started.
Take A SIP & See
Posted on December 15, 2021 by Jenae Townsend
The Season of SIP Trunking
In the latest Transparency Market Research, global SIP trunking services market expects to grow at a 13% annual rate until 2030, reaching the US 35.5 billion market value by the same year. But how does this type of technology benefit you, the business owner superhero? Mainly, it gives you a global presence with a local reach. How so?
Dropping Knowledge
Let’s hit the brakes and drop some background for those new to the topic. SIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol, and SIP trunking (in a nutshell) replaces traditional telephone lines. Gone are the days when office phones had to have a professional tech team install PBX (Private Branch Exchange) on-site.
A SIP trunk connects your PBX to a service provider through the internet and enables users to make and receive phone calls to anyone in the world with a phone number. To sum up, it transitions your on-premise PBX system to the cloud, but it has so many other benefits to entice the masses. Got more questions? Totally understand. It is a lot of information. Check out some other nifty points that will help update your mainframe where it concerns SIP trunking.
Show Me The Money
Want to say goodbye to big bills? One of the most remarkable benefits of SIP trunking is that it offers a much lower overall cost per minute for voice traffic and can often allow companies to consolidate communications providers. Even better, you can scale up or down with ease when you see fit.
Gartner reports that upgrading to SIP Trunking from a legacy system can save as much as 50% in telephony costs. More money means more opportunities to buy something extra special for a loved one this holiday season. Or for yourself. Don’t worry. We won’t snitch on you for investing in a nice hardware piece for your remote work lifestyle.
Stay SIP reliable and have a disruption-free holiday every year.
Small Business Saturday 2021
Posted on November 18, 2021 by Jenae Townsend
Navigating the Small Business Saturday 2021 Shopper Experience
2020 was a challenging year on so many levels. Especially for local entrepreneurs and small business owners who faced many obstacles during the height of the pandemic. The good news? Positivity is on the horizon for those ready for Small Business Saturday 2021. Consumers feel more confident about this upcoming holiday shopping season. The National Retail Federation forecast that holiday sales during November and December expect to increase between 8.5 to 10.5 percent over 2020.
“Shop Small”
Those kinds of numbers during the busiest shopping time of the year are a welcoming sign, especially with Small Business Saturday on November 27. Created in 2010 by American Express, Small Business Saturday is the anthem for consumers to “Shop Small” between Black Friday and Cyber Monday by patronizing local brick-and-mortar stores. Last year, the U.S. Small Business Administration reported Americans spent nearly $20 billion on Small Business Saturday.
What about the shipping delays or “out of stock” scenarios popping up in the news? Even with the resources provided by AMEX and support from larger corporations, small businesses still have to face the possibility of not having enough inventory or staff to support the needs of their customers. Here are some tips to help prepare:
Tell the Truth
The keyword here is transparency. Holiday shopping is stressful. Hiring more staff to handle questions and utilizing messaging in marketing strategies or creating a loyalty waitlist may not be enough if a popular product is out. Let them know an estimated time it may be back in, or get an email to offer reasonable free shipping or discount when it arrives. That will not only help build your customer base but show the customer that you are willing to go the extra mile for a meaningful exchange.
Online Prep
Studies show that prospective customers visit a website before visiting a store, so prepare your site to offer live inventory updates and handle online customer inquiries. Creating a specialized toll-free phone number to direct specific inventory requests to trained staff members could gain valuable downtime and let customers know that their needs are essential. Here we discuss the benefits of expanding your phone system for the holiday.
Howdy Partner
Don’t do this alone. Partnering with other small businesses for Small Business Saturday is for the greater good. By tying in another business product with yours, you create an even more memorable experience, as well as help out your community. That’s right, for every dollar spent at a small business, around 67 cents stays in the local community.” That deserves a hashtag. #Awesome
Make it Personal
Find ways to personalize. This is an excellent opportunity to stand out and showcase other products in stock, which leads us to this question. Why did the consumers choose your store over similar businesses? Depending on what you’re selling, use that as an advantage. Maybe it is your reputation for stellar customer service or the personal touch of making your product packaging eco-friendly. From writing a handwritten thank-you note to adding customization to gifts, lean into what makes a visit to your store special.
Small business isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s for the brave, the patient and the persistent. It’s for the overcomer. – Unknown
Announcing the NEW VirtualPBX VoIP Reseller Program
Posted on November 16, 2021 by Jenae Townsend
We have taken it to the next level in the evolution of the VirtualPBX Business Phone System.
The NEW VirtualPBX Reseller VoIP Program is coming and will allow our partners access to the exciting benefits of our award-winning VoIP phone service.
As a telecommunications company with remote and hybrid employees, we have spent over 20+ years creating a productive and streamlined workplace. This program joins our existing partner offerings, including Affiliate Program for website owners, a Referral Partner Program that allows partners to pass leads onto our sales team, and a Customer Referral Program. While each program extends our innovative core features, integrations, and add-ons, the Reseller Program takes things to the next level.
New VirtualPBX VoIP Reseller Program: What Makes this Program Different?
Our existing programs give affiliates, customers, and resellers an easy way to refer business to VirtualPBX and be rewarded for doing so. However, the New Reseller Program gives much more power to partners to build their business selling and provide full service to their customers with the support and technology of VirtualPBX operating behind the scenes.
- Silver program for resellers who do not require white labeling
- Gold program for those who need white labeling
- Platinum program that will include white labeling AND support services
The Reseller Program does more than grant your customers a sophisticated phone system. It provides a fully brandable experience with custom white labeling options. We support you so you can support your customers. And with add-ons like Softphone, SMS, and advanced reporting, both you and your customers get the VoIP service you’ve been waiting on.
“Our new Reseller Program is a fantastic business opportunity, providing so much more value to our partners and allowing them to collaborate with a VoIP provider whose primary focus is on the customer journey.” ~Paul Hammond, CEO
It is time to take your company communications up a notch, and who better than VirtualPBX, a trusted name in VoIP. Apply to the VirtualPBX Reseller Program Today.
The Value of Communication in Business
Posted on November 10, 2021 by Megan Reninger
The last 18 months have reminded us of the true value of communication in business and connecting with people.
Our team’s communication skills and tools have grown in planned and unplanned ways throughout this period, as has how we communicate with our customers.
Having delivered a “Virtual” phone platform for tens of thousands of businesses, we sometimes took how we used our own product for granted.
Our team embraced video conferencing and SMS and integrating tools like Slack and MS Teams into our work lives. Yet, the most impactful feature we experienced was the use of presence status displayed in the VirtualPBX softphone and programmed into Desk phones.
Team Member Presence and Communication in Business: Are You Available?
Presence is a long-standing feature of most PBXs and is fully supported on the VirtualPBX platform. This feature displays the current status of a user in real-time to other users.
The ability of our team to signal availability and for the platform to automatically indicate when team members are on a call helped our team operate more efficiently than ever It’s welcoming, almost beckoning for interaction– “do you need anything? I am currently available. Go ahead and call me.”
Additionally, the VirtualPBX desktop and mobile phones all share the presence data and include a way to quickly call, message, or collaborate regardless of the platform or location.
With a team spread across the United States and in multiple countries, presence represented the heartbeat of our operations every day. You find yourself looking to see if so and so is online, or one a call. This cut down on the frequent “are you free?” chat messages, emails, and voicemail messages left every day. After all, if you were in an office together, you wouldn’t send a message asking your desk-mate if you could ask them a question.
Cutting down interruptions and communicating transparently through the platform improved productivity and helped our team stay focused.