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VirtualPBX Discusses Its Visual Design Principles

Posted on September 14, 2020   by Casey Houser

At VirtualPBX, we do more than develop Business Phone Plans and sell VoIP phones. Our marketing team uses visual design principles to better connect with its audience.

Throughout our website, emails, and print marketing materials, we project a consistent and purposeful design that caters to our audience. Our VP of Design & Marketing, Rachel Anderson, leads the marketing team in its charge to establish a professional look and create materials that are easy for our readers to understand and boost our conversions, helping readers become customers that have a clear understanding of the service they’re buying.

We asked Anderson a few questions about the particulars of the visual design principles that guide her and the entire marketing team. Her insight here will give you a detailed picture of all the visual elements you see here and throughout our work.

Our Q&A With Rachel Anderson

1. How important is visual design in VirtualPBX’s website, email campaigns, and other marketing efforts you can custom design?

Supremely!

Design always serves a purpose and caters to a particular audience. In our case, we’re designing for busy professionals who, rightly so, are concerned about their business communications. We should never waste their time and we should always reaffirm that we are trustworthy, professional, and can handle any curve balls they throw at us (and then some).

If our website, emails, and all other materials don’t embody clarity, professionalism, and contemporary taste, can our audience really entrust us with everything that occurs over their phone system?

2. Using the VirtualPBX website as an example, what are the types of design elements you prefer to make an end result that is visually appealing, sells well, and provides visitors with enough information to make an informed choice?

We’ve been through countless iterations of our pricing tables and we always have at least a handful of visually distinct versions serving different purposes across our website. As a business, we really pride ourselves on transparency. The telecommunications industry has been notorious for hidden fees and surprises in the fine print. We don’t want to be that way.

That said, it can be a lot of information to share and we’re up against potential decision-making fatigue and flashy offers from competitors. Among the elements used to counter this in our current tables, we’ve employed hover animation to draw visual focus and encourage action and toggles to show/hide information by need. Of course, the table styling and chosen hierarchy of information presented also play big roles. These tables should always stand out as the most appealing thing on the page.

3. Do you consider text to be part of visual design? In what way?

If you can see it, it’s part of the visual design – nothing gets a “pass.”

I’d also add though, that it’s not just the color, size, font, or the treatment of the text, but word choice, tone, brevity, and the actual content of the text, too. Ideally, each individual part of visual design principles works together to reaffirm your intent.

4. How do you use VirtualPBX brand colors (blue, white, gray) to convey a mood to your audience? There’s a lot of variation in the light and dark shades used throughout the website, for example. How are those shades used?

This question flashes me back to six years ago when I joined the company as Lead Graphic Designer and my first task was to define VirtualPBX’s brand style guidelines.

Blue has been in our logo for years, but otherwise color choice in visual materials was never firmly stated, so I had some room to redefine our style. In the end, blue became our primary color. From a color theory perspective, blue is calming and best employed in circumstances where you’re trying to explain or teach something. This fit perfectly with our intent to clearly explain our plans and services to a busy audience who may not find the prospect of comparing phone service providers calming.

Color theory also works as a visual design principle to assert that analogous color pairings (monochromatic, or side-by-side pairs on the color wheel) are calming – advancing our goal further. We use shades and variations of our primary blue and secondary black to draw attention in particular to calls to action, buttons, and links on our site.

5. In what ways do you use GIFs and videos to your advantage?

Not only are we interested in being transparent with our plans and pricing, we’re eager to share the actual experience customers have with us to our prospects.

GIFs and videos are a great way to share our Dash Business Phone System interface. Most updates in our phone system are made with a few clicks, so why tell someone about those clicks when you can record a screen and show them? It lets them imagine themselves in the driver’s seat, and we hope, lets them come to the conclusion, “Oh, this is easy, I can do this.” Outside of promotional purposes, we also find that GIFs and videos reduce confusion for our customers and are more desirable vessels for getting help for many than, say, a text-only help guide.

6. How do you make calls to action stand out from other text and visual elements?

The most notable contrast on a page should be reserved for the call to action. Always.

If a visitor notices anything on your page, it should be the thing that you want them to do. For us, this is usually a big blue button with text in all caps and some hover behavior.

Phone System Visual Design Principles

What Anderson has shared here applies, as we’ve established, with all our marketing materials. Importantly, it also extends into the design of our Unlimited Users Plans and Unlimited Minutes Plans, which we strive to make as visually distinct and accessible as everything else we present. Take a second today to schedule a Free Demo to see it in action.

TSELLC Case Study Features Our VirtualPBX 300 Plan

Posted on July 21, 2020   by Casey Houser

Since the launch of our Unlimited Users Plans in 2019, we’ve had a number of customers test the mettle of those 300-, 500-, and 1000-minute phone plans that were made for the needs of entrepreneurs, small businesses, and companies that don’t typically handle large call volumes.

One of those customers is TSELLC, which we have now featured in a case study that outlines the company’s journey from our legacy system to our new Unlimited Users Plans.

Each of those plans offers access to important business features like Call Forwarding and helps customers save money by allowing Unlimited Minutes Plans to focus on enterprise options like Call Reporting and ACD Queues.

TSELLC Uses VirtualPBX 300 to Its Advantage

Long-time customer TSELLC uses the VirtualPBX 300 plan to give itself a presence larger than its employee count may suggest.

At just five employees, including president and owner Art Wilkes, TSELLC has made a name for itself as a prominent software developer. It’s currently working on a line of coding wizards and an interface library, and completing all its work with a team that’s spread across the globe.

“We are an entirely virtual company,” Wilkes told VirtualPBX during its case study interview. He noted that his company uses its VirtualPBX Phone Plan as a supplement for its other electronic means of contact.

“Our customers mainly contact us through email and our website.” He was candid about the phone system’s position in the hierarchy of company contact. The phone plan plays a secondary role, but it does so with distinction by allowing TSELLC to have immediate use of an Automated Attendant and Voicemail for directing calls to the proper contacts at the company.

Adopting VirtualPBX, Upgrading to Dash

“We switched from another phone vendor when we moved to VirtualPBX,” Wilkes continued in his interview responses. VirtualPBX was able to provide TSELLC with a low cost and high quality of service in a plan that was developed back in 2015.

Since that time, VirtualPBX has grown in the number of core features it offers and the platform on which it runs its phone plans. All customers on the legacy system, vConsole, are now being upgraded to the new Dash platform.

TSELLC is one of those customers who recently made the upgrade. Wilkes’ costs for phone service in the past half decade have remained nearly the same, but there are dozens of features now available to all customers on any Dash plan they choose.

Dash is flexible in ways that the previous phone system wasn’t. It’s extensible and can easily offer customers upgrades to more powerful features, should they need them.

Read the TSELLC Case Study

For TSELLC, the status quo is working well. “We have done well with VirtualPBX, Wilkes remarked. And the members of the VirtualPBX team who have worked directly with TSELLC have described Wilkes and company as a pleasure to work with.

Writing the TSELLC case study has certainly moved smoothly. We’re excited to have the opportunity to work with companies that have a unique take on what phone system use can be. Wilkes and his compliment of remote employees show that even an introductory phone plan can be powerful enough to work on an international level. That’s the type of mettle we hope to always show.

These Companies Shared Working From Home Tips for Success

Posted on June 4, 2020   by Casey Houser

We’re now six months into the global spread of COVID-19. It has caused dramatic loss of life and an altering of the economy most people have never seen before.

In order to keep employees safe, many businesses have adjusted their work practices to include telecommuting. We put out a call to all interested businesses to share their working from home tips for success. Now, after sorting the overwhelming response we received, we’d like to share their experiences with you.

We hope you can find some wisdom here from the wide range of businesses we had the pleasure of getting to know.

Generalized Advice and Experiences

Several of our respondents talked about their company’s experiences and the manner in which they have used various online tools to go remote. Their shared stories highlight what a lot of us are seeing in our own workplace situations, and they mark the need for both cooperation and community in the workplace.

Chat Software in a Sea of Challenges

Robert Moses, founder of The Corporate Con/noisseur spelled out what it seems that a majority of businesses are facing. Moses said The Corporate Con/noisseur has offices in Atlanta, Raleigh, and New York city and that all employees in all offices transitioned to home work beginning in March.

“This shift was, initially, difficult on all of us and required both patience and understanding from the top down,” Moses said.

“Initially, before the pandemic, many of our internal communications occurred via face-to-face meetings between centralized teams,” Moses continued, noting that the Slack communications platform helped pull all the remote workers together so they could be productive. The company has used Slack extensively, and within its talks to “dramatically reduce meetings and the number of emails sent,” other project management software has been considered.

Moses called The Corporate Con/noisseur stronger and more resilient as a result of dealing with this restructuring of everyday work.

Repurposing Online Chat Software

Steve Johnson, a developer at Too Much Tina Marketing also noted that Slack has become an important tool in keeping the team connected. What’s unique here is that the chat service has been extended into a conduit for data archiving.

“Each of us have created a personalized Slack forwarding e-mail address and set it up as a new contact in our phones,” Johnson said. “This allows each of us to forward e-mails, texts, URLs, screen shots, and other pieces of content into Slack where it can be shared, discussed, tasked, and archived for future reference.”

Johnson also noted that the Too Much Tina Marketing team has invited clients to participate within Slack. Their clients have found it useful for communications about business matters. Moreover, Johnson said, the Too Much Tina employees have tried to make Slack a fun and inviting place, which has urged clients to try Slack that were initially hesitant to adopt another piece of software.

Relying on Voice and Video

In some cases, businesses have actually stepped away from text-based chat platforms in order to keep their operations running smoothly. The work from home tips for success from Dan Edmonson, founder and CEO of Dronegenuity, included call-outs for phone calls and video-based chat because, in Edmonson’s words, “allowed us to experience the benefits of in-person interaction.”

Edmonson noted that Dronegenuity had previous experience with remote work, so the transition to remote work for the entire staff wasn’t overwhelming. However, team members were accustomed to weekly meetings in a co-working center so everyone could stay on track. Because of this, Edmonson continued, “a remote working environment has required our team to focus on communication methods that closely resemble the feeling of in-person communication.”

Making Real Life Virtual

This type of experience that mimics in-person meetings also takes place for Leo Young, a realtor for Coldwell Banker who said that interactions with prospective homeowners have gone virtual.

“Where possible,” Young said, “we conduct business remotely, such as with virtual showings instead of in-person showings, virtual home inspections instead of in-person home inspections, and digital closings instead of in-person closings.”

Young commented that all the realtors in his area have been “very understanding to accommodate and reduce physical interaction.”

Prioritizing Company Culture

Sean Nguyen, a director at Internet Advisor, told VirtualPBX that a special video chat session was created to keep morale high among the changing work culture.

“I feel like it’s my job to ensure that I keep the team spirit alive,” Nguyen said, “so I’ve set up a daily ‘social’ video call, in addition to whatever ones we have for work purposes. It’s helped us tremendously. It’s a time that we set aside for us to just chat, see each other, catch up, talk about our families, etc.”

Nguyen noted that this daily video call has helped keep the company culture alive. It’s allowed the Internet Advisor team to stay connected in a way that’s not specifically tied to work tasks, hopefully “coming out the other side an even stronger team than we were before.”

Tips, Tricks, and Statistics

Other respondents were more forthcoming about their working from home tips for success and the statistics associated with their transition to remote work.

Maintaining Mental Health

Sunny Ashley, founder and CEO of Autoshopinvoice, spoke about the reality of maintaining a balanced life when working from home.

“Working from home blurs the line between your professional and personal life,” Ashley said. “It doesn’t allow your mind to have a clean break between working hours and after-work hours.”

To combat the blending of home and work, Ashley recommended creating a sustainable schedule and creating physical boundaries between those places. This can manifest in the creation of a schedule that works for you, including finding a “productivity sweet spot” when you know you’re best at tackling important tasks. Checking email, responding to messages, and other less cognition-intensive tasks can be saved for a time outside that zone.

Physical zoning can be created by setting aside a space for your work – no matter how simple.

“Dedicate one chair, table, or room in your house purely for working,” Ashley said. “Your mind will begin to build a habit of associating the furniture or space with work. When you get up to do something else, it’ll be easier to adjust back into home life.”

Tyler Brooks of JAM Paper & Envelope recommended bringing the traditional workplace into the home office by way of familiarity.

“Put on some music or a podcast, whatever you normally listen to while at work at the office,” Brooks added. “This is also a really great method of getting into the head space to complete your daily work tasks as normal.”

Productivity Tracking

For some businesses, it’s important to keep a close eye on the tasks at hand. Tom De Spiegelaere, founder of Tom Spicky says use of Time Doctor software helps track employee productivity.

“Through the software,” Spiegelaere reported, “I’m able to know a few things – how much time an employee spends on each task, whether an employee is visiting any unproductive sites like social media, and whether the employee is really working at the time.”

Importantly, a heavy dose of disclose comes along with this activity tracking.

“I tell my employees that we’re using the software to monitor their productivity,” Spiegelaere concluded. “I believe it’s important to be explicit in the matter.”

Jane Flanagan, the lead project engineer at Tacuna Systems, also advocated for the use of Time Doctor, noting that login and logout times can be recorded and that time stamps can be associated with specific tasks.

More than that, Tacuna employees are expected to meet short-term goals throughout their work weeks.

“Working from home should not mean ‘anything goes,’ so we set up rules and guidelines concerning time, work hours, work to be done, communication, conduct, and others,” Flanagan said about Tacuna’s structure.

A More Hands-Off Approach

Although strict time tracking might work well in some offices, it isn’t the path forward for every company. Michael Lowe, Car Passionate said his employees are allowed to adjust their schedules to fit their own preferences. There’s only one overarching goal: work must be completed on time.

“All staff have the ability to work when they want as long as the work gets done,” Lowe said. “Easy. Right?”

Lowe noted that work-life balance has always been a high priority for Car Passionate. The company’s switch to remote work has brought in new ways to keep the balance intact, such as virtual meetings through Zoom, quiz nights, and online game competitions.

At Car Passionate, video chat helps the team stay connected. Email, Lowe pointed out, is the company’s primary method of communicating about projects and workloads.

Take Advantage of the Small Things

One of the working from home tips for success from SEO manager Jen Penaluna is to find simple ways to access important information. At Bigfoot Digital, Penaluna called out trust and transparency is key elements to a successful remote work atmosphere.

Bigfoot Digital uses the team collaboration platform Team Huddle, and Penaluna noted a specific feature of that software that helps identify the mood of any associate.

“The added bonus of using Team Huddle for team management,” Penaluna said, “is that each team member can add an emoji to their check in, so I know who’s happy or who’s stressed and can help out accordingly.”

Emojis can range from the serious to the silly. Their inclusion in a remote work atmosphere, however, may see their power of emotion identification come into play in a productive way.

Less Can Be More

Don’t be afraid to communicate less if it suits your business. Several companies listed here have shared their desire for increased communication through a number of audiovisual platforms, but that type of path isn’t always a great fit.

“Though most experts say you should communicate more, I say to use caution,” said Tim Reitsma, the co-founder of People Managing People.

Reitsma, who has more than 10 years business consulting experience, reported that his employees have found a lot of creativity in the content they have created from home – possibly as a result from the company’s limited connection requirements.

“Employees can quickly get disengaged if their Slack messages are blowing up with irrelevant messages all day long,” Reitsma said. “We only send Slack messages and have Zoom video calls when it’s absolutely necessary.”

Challenge Your Operations Model

Tiffany Bradshaw, a wine educator and executive director for Boisset Wine Collection, had to change the fundamental manner in which their business was conducted.

“I am a wine educator who does wine tastings through Airbnb experiences,” Bradshaw said. This would include samples of wine for participants who, because they will be trying multiple types of wine in a sitting, won’t need a full bottle for any one type.

The need for isolation during coronavirus, however, made it so in-person wine tastings were out of the question. Bradshaw had to begin completing wine tastings virtually.

“It’s obviously much more difficult when people have to buy huge bottles of wine in advance as opposed to just having a 1 ounce pour of each wine,” Bradshaw said. The obstacle has not stopped the operation, though. Now Bradshaw is challenging the core nature of the wine tasting process, using video calls as the important link between business and customer.

Take Advantage of Market Needs

Big businesses aren’t the only ones that have a need to go remote. Freelancers have been affected just as much, either through working from home rather than a co-working space or by dealing with other companies that have begun remote work.

Freelance writer John Boitnott spoke about how his personal circumstances haven’t changed much in the past few months.

“I’m one of the fortunate ones, I think,” Boitnott said. “I’ve been working from home primarily since 2013 so not too much has changed for me.”

What has held his freelancing career stable in this time, and what has kept him connected to clients, is the common need for written content.

“Most companies recognize how vital content is to their business and want to keep their strategy in place. The truth is, content is so important in terms of search engine ranking and lead generation that very few can afford to limit it as a part of their ongoing strategies.”

See what you can rely on in your business’s market to help provide stability in your own work.

Consider Your Working From Home Tips for Success

What is it that helps your business succeed in this time of remote work?

If you’re finding success, that’s great. But if there’s still improvement to be made, we hope that the reflections offered by these business have given you some food for thought.

For further reading, check out our profile of two VirtualPBX staff members who share their working from home tips for success as mothers of young children.

VirtualPBX Work at Home Moms Offer Telecommuting Advice

Posted on April 2, 2020   by Casey Houser

Of all the situations the VirtualPBX remote team faces in managing its Business Phone System, being a work at home mom may be the most stressful. But after interviewing two of our staff members about how they handle that reality, we learned that their challenge may also be among the most rewarding.

We asked our Marketing team member Jennifer Merrigan (and mother of Jade, who is one-and-a-half) and Services team member Kathy Melendez (and mother of Apollo, who is three) to reflect on how they balance work and parenting.

Their answers provided much valuable insight about the nature of remote work and the mental fortitude necessary to stay as productive as they are.

What’s the most challenging aspect of being a work at home mom?

Jennifer: By far, the most challenging thing is that my child is completely dependent on me.

I have to get creative about where I work and, importantly, how I work. I try to get smaller tasks done when she’s awake and playing. And when she’s napping, I try to focus on more in-depth tasks.

Kat: The most challenging thing is to work around the baby needing their mother.

The child will always want their mother, whether they’re with a babysitter or at home, and of course them being at home makes it even more apparent. What I’ve always tried to do was take my child to daycare.

Part of the difficulty now, in dealing with COVID-19, is to manage at home without the break that daycare provides. It’s important to find a space where you can stay isolated, like a coworking space, but now that daycare is inaccessible and coworking spaces are closed, I have to find different ways of working from home with a little boy who wants to see me every five seconds.

How do you find time to work and be productive throughout the day?

Jennifer’s daughter, Jade

Jennifer: I use hyper-focused bursts of work and energy to accomplish my tasks. Often, I only have 10 or 20 minutes to finish something small, so within those spaces, I do everything I can to complete as much work in as short amount of time as possible.

This requires that I consciously divert attention to my work or my child, instantly, as necessary. It also depends on scheduling to a certain degree. I know when playtime or naptime will regularly happen, so I plan as much as possible.

Every day presents something new, so I need to have a flexible schedule and a flexible mindset to handle everything that comes my way. There’s a lot of preparation that comes into it.

Kat: Being a work at home mom can require you to lean on others for support.

I have two older kids and an oldest niece that sometimes help take care of Apollo. If they’re not around, I do my best to juggle my primary methods of customer contact at VirtualPBX: phone and online chat.

When it’s possible, I try to use the phone when I know I have space to myself. Then when I need to pay more attention to my child, I’ll take time in online chat.

How do you deal with stress?

Jennifer: I try to make time for myself.

Every day before dinner, I unwind by doing a quick workout. This helps me stay fit, and it can help me mentally by releasing endorphins. It’s a nice change of pace from the scatter of the work day.

My husband, Jesse, will usually take Jade and give her a bath while I unwind. We can then put her to bed and take some time in the evening to really relax. I like to catch up on reading and watching shows online.

Kat: I like to take my child for walks. We’ll go around the block during my breaks at work.

Exercise after work is done can also help a lot. I also like to drink herbal teas; they help calm me down and release some of the stress.

What’s your best tip for mothers who are now working from home?

Kathy’s son, Apollo

Jennifer: My biggest tip for work at home moms is that you should have the mentality that you’re still going to the office to work.

Have a routine. Get dressed in what you would normally wear to the office. Go to your “office,” wherever that may be – a separate room, your kitchen, the living room.

My routine is to wake up at 6, get dressed for the day, have breakfast with Jade, and check my emails before starting today’s tasks.

Without my routine, I would procrastinate a lot. Your routine will depend on your job; try to work out something that fits your situation.

Kat: Be organized. Make sure you have a dedicated space for your gear. It’s not like the office where your computer and phone stay at your desk. Your home will get messy or disorganized. Try to prevent that as much as possible.

Also, take advantage of the time you have when you’re not working. Get enough sleep at night.

Any final takeaways for work at home moms?

Jennifer: Try to stay positive. Even in these tough times, I try to make the most of my situation.

We used to take Jade to a clubhouse where she could play, but it’s been closed, so we made our own little splash pad for her to play in.

I really appreciate that we can still have fun.

Kat: Enjoy your kids and everything they offer. In all the mess of coronavirus, the hectic nature of suddenly working from home, the huge changes in routine… it gets intense.

I try to be prepared to make work as easy as possible. And I look for the good moments with my kids both inside and outside of work hours.

VirtualPBX Proudly Meets Kari’s Law, E911 Standards

Posted on February 11, 2020   by Casey Houser

Today’s blog post was written by VirtualPBX COO Lon Baker, whose expertise with the VirtualPBX Phone System makes him an excellent pick for the discussion of Kari’s Law and its implementation.

In 2013, a tragedy took the life of Kari Hunt Dunn. Out of this tragedy arose Kari’s Law, which was passed in 2016 by the U.S. House of Representatives with a vote of 408-0 and followed with unanimous consent by the U.S. Senate.

Kari’s Law requires that all phone systems be able to recognize “911” to reach emergency services – without requiring the user to dial a prefix. VirtualPBX has always provided this capability for all its VoIP users across the U.S. and is proud to partner with Intrado to ensure customer safety and security through reliable and accurate E911 services.

No More “9” for Outside Line

Kari’s Law requires phone systems to be configured in a way that allows people to call 911 without dialing any additional number, code, prefix, or post-fix, regardless of location or device.

It has long been standard practice for private phone systems to require the dialing of an extra digit to reach an outside line. An internal call could be completed by dialing the extension “555”, for example

But to dial an external phone number that begins with those same digits — like 555-1234 — “9-555-1234” could need to be entered.

Dunn’s fate was tied to this phone system requirement when, in need of emergency services at a hotel in 2013, her young daughter was unable to complete a call to 911 for her. Kari’s Law removes the need for extra dialing when an emergency call must be placed.

What Businesses Must Know

VirtualPBX is continuously improving its E911 implementation to meet and exceed industry best practices and legal requirements. Our phone system is in full compliance with the fundamental requirements of Kari’s Law.

Other businesses that deploy multi-line telephone systems (MLTS) will want to be aware of the following dates:

• Existing businesses must comply with the requirements of Kari’s Law by February 16, 2020
• Enterprises with fixed MTLS phones are to comply with the new requirements by January 6, 2021
• Businesses with non-fixed MLTS devices on- and off-premises must comply no later than January 6, 2022

Kari’s Law and the Future

While Kari’s Law is just the latest of important E911 communications legislation to be passed, there will certainly be future protections laid out in law in the years to come.

VirtualPBX will remain dedicated to working with its partners to stay compliant with all communications standards as they arise.