Choosing the Correct Dialer for Your Business

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Yukti Verma

Author

Contact Center

September 13, 2021

8 mins read eye

Table of content

Organisations worldwide are looking for ways to improve the efficiency and experience of their contact centers. As per industry research, it takes at least 18 dials to connect with a prospective buyer over the phone. With a conversion rate that low, and non-connect calls, which either end up in voicemail, or are not even picked up, imagine the total number of calls needed to register a successful day.

It is no surprise then that contact centers have become a crucial cog in the machinery for organisations that wish to offer reliable customer communications.

Established as a centralised point of contact, support centers employ agents to get in touch with clientele, address grievances and queries, understand their preferences and demands, and identify and eliminate pain points. Undoubtedly, support centers help businesses gather valuable customer insights.

Thus, it only makes sense for businesses to pay more attention to their contact centers.

Contact center diallers

The primary role of the contact center agents is to engage hesitant buyers and convert them into potential customers either through issue resolution or sales pitches.

However, the process forces agents to spend a major portion of their time dialling contacts manually, hoping to connect with potential leads. This severely impacts contact center efficiency, and, as a result, impairs the whole lead generation operation.

This is where automatic diallers come into the picture.

Contact center diallers are applications that automate the process of outbound calling. These systems dial contact numbers and only connect agents if these calls are answered. Thus, they are able to make intelligent decisions by detecting and avoiding unanswered calls.

Overall, these diallers positively impact agent productivity by ensuring minimum wait time and maximum connection rates.

Businesses can choose from various types of diallers. Numerous customisation options and configurations allow managers to choose a version that aptly fulfils their requirements.

Let us discuss some of the most popular types of diallers available.

Types of contact center diallers

At the first level, there are two broad classifications of contact center diallers:

Manual diallers

These are one of the most common and simple forms of contact center diallers. These require agents to pick up telephone headsets, look up the details of the customers on their list, dial numbers manually and then wait until calls are answered before delivering the sales pitch.

Auto-diallers

Auto-diallers are advanced solutions capable of expediting outbound call campaigns by automatically dialling the next contact in the list. They greatly reduce the dial-to-connect time.
Auto-diallers can be configured to detect answering machines or voicemails and transfer a live customer to an idle agent, effectively utilising the available workforce in a dynamic manner.

There are further divisions in the category of auto-diallers which are based on varying configurations:

Preview diallers

As the name suggests, these diallers offer agents a preview of potential leads before dialling them. The agent is able to look at all the available contact information stored in the database and can then select contacts that need to be contacted. These diallers are particularly useful for sensitive calls such as collections, insurances, etc.

Power diallers

These diallers are designed to automatically dial all the contacts from a defined list. If the call is answered, they connect the recipient with an available agent instantly. The dialler also displays the status of the customer connections such as busy, voicemail, out of reach, and so forth.

Predictive diallers

More intelligent than other forms, predictive diallers track agent behaviour to determine when their current call would be completed and initiate the next call accordingly. This eliminates idle time between calls and agents remain productive for longer.

Progressive diallers

Progressive diallers run through the list of contacts on the auto-dialler and assign a connected call to the available agent, before filtering out calls that are either busy, out of reach or unreachable. These diallers are active as long as agents are available for support conversations.

How to choose the correct dialler for your business

The variety of auto-diallers available in the market is a direct result of the burgeoning technology behind these applications. However, while it presents us with a plethora of choices, it also becomes important to identify the type of dialler best suited to your operational setup. Each business has unique constraints and needs. Thus, it is important that you closely evaluate your requirements.

We discuss some of these crucial factors that should be considered while choosing a dialler:

Purpose of the calls

There can be multiple purposes for an outbound call campaign—randomised sales calls, upcoming deals, or offering customised deals. Diallers can be configured to suit the goals of the operation, maximise productivity, and gain results at the lowest cost. Further, functional synergies also enhance the execution of a particular campaign.

Preview diallers would be most suited to scenarios wherein calls are context-driven, i.e., conversations depend upon the customer’s previous interactions with the brand. These would include calls made to send insurance reminders or debt collection messages.

Size of the team

Another factor to be considered is the size of the workforce available for the operation. For large volume outbound calling operations, predictive or progressive diallers would be the most effective. They ensure no agent has to wait to connect with a potential lead.

On the other hand, low volume operations would require maximum output from a smaller team. For such instances, a preview dialler would be extremely helpful in preparing the agents to hit the ground running.

Target audience group

The success of any outbound campaign is measured by quantifiable metrics such as connections made, conversations recorded or successful conversions. The only way to augment these numbers is to understand the consumer and strategise your approach accordingly. Hence, the type of dialler would vary as per the target audience group.

For example, if you wish to target high profile individuals for a campaign, incorporating a preview dialler would be ideal so that the agent has access to context and interaction history.

Additional features

A major criterion while choosing an auto-dialler is to analyse business requirements. Managers can then substitute existing frameworks to introduce a cost-efficient dialler. Organisations with in-built CRM software can look towards integrating their diallers with their database to link contacts with the customer details.

Final thoughts

Diallers have risen in importance and utility for contact center set-ups across the world. These technologically advanced tools are capable of significantly enhancing the productivity and efficiency of the contact center agents. However, that is contingent on the fact that the current dialler has been implemented successfully in the existing setup.

All in all, introducing the right dialler has the potential to greatly improve the functioning of your contact centers. These tips will guide you as you make your way through the extensive maze of auto-diallers.

To know more about this, get on-call with our cloud experts at 1888-859-0450 or drop an email at [email protected]!

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

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Yukti Verma

Author

Yukti is a content marketing enthusiast with a soft spot for Saas. She loves weaving complicated concepts into simple stories. When not at work, she is found reading books or watching movies.

Voice Broadcasting can Help the UK Government Connect Better with People

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Yukti Verma

Author

Contact Center

September 10, 2021

8 mins read eye

Table of content

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that communication is key. And no communication is more important than the information that the UK government sends out to its people, especially during times as uncertain as the Covid-19 era.

However, ensuring consistent communication with such a large audience at once can be a daunting task—not to forget, heavy on the pockets.

This is where voice broadcasting comes into play. This cloud-powered tool comes with a hosted phone system and ensures vital information reaches residents in a timely and coherent manner.

And given that everyone nowadays has a smart device and receives messages in a number of ways, voice broadcasting becomes even more of a boon. Simple voice calls cut through the clutter of the many marketing messages and emails people receive. And critical details get shared in real-time.

Not just that, the tool can be used in a number of ways to serve various purposes. This article will help you better understand the solution and highlight some of the ways the government can use it to better connect with the people of the United Kingdom.

What is voice broadcasting?

Voice broadcasting is a tool used to disseminate information en masse at once. Several organisations add the solution to their communication suite to augment their lead generation efforts.

Even though the messages are pre-recorded, the recipients can still interact with them via keypad or voice inputs. This gives them the option to highlight their preferences and communicate their thoughts with businesses and even governments.

While some people may find voice broadcasting messages irritating, the technology can be used in ways that are less intrusive and more informative.

Voice broadcasting for surveys

The best way to know what people want and how they’re feeling is to ask them. By using voice broadcasting to run surveys, businesses or government agencies can get the views of a large group on many different subjects.

The administration can thus use voice broadcasting to find out citizens’ views on topics such as taxes and transport. By actively gathering information from the public, officials can better understand the needs and wants of common people. This will facilitate better strategies and improved execution.

A hosted phone system makes this entire process very simple. It offers an easy-to-use portal that officials can set up and distribute surveys with to different groups of people. They can start and run multiple campaigns with just a few clicks and even access deep data insights for all these campaigns via the portal. These responses can also be saved securely in your hosted phone system for future reference and can be acted upon later.

By sending surveys to a large number of different people at once, you are much more likely to get more responses to a survey than if you were to call and speak to each customer for feedback manually. You’re also able to eliminate redundant manual processes with the help of automation.

SMS blasting

Particularly during the pandemic, SMS blasting was used to deliver important information to the residents. When the lockdown started, the UK government sent out a mass message to inform people and ensure that they were aware of all the rules and regulations.

Text broadcasts are a great way to communicate vital information to a populace. Consider this, even those who don’t have network reception or have run out of battery will receive the message once they get reception or charge their phones.

These messages also reach people who aren’t on social media and miss out on local trends and news. Thus, text messages are a more inclusive way of communicating and authorities will be able to reach all demographics.

From a budget perspective too, text broadcasts do well—they are a cost-effective option. Officials can schedule messages right from their hosted phone system and use their databases to create targeted texts as well, such as reaching out to people living in a certain area or working in a particular field.

Keep messaging consistent with voice broadcasting

A big factor in the connection between the public and the government is trust. The public wants to receive consistent messaging from the authorities so they can make decisions for themselves or their businesses with clarity.

By using a hosted phone system to broadcast information, the government is able to keep track of all the messages that have been sent out and update them at any given point in time with ease. This ensures that people always get the right information. Moreover, by sending the same information out at scale, authorities are able to ensure that there’s no room for confusion or misunderstandings.

Another benefit of voice broadcasting is that there is no interference between the recording of the message and its distribution. This is an issue that one may encounter while sending text messages or social media updates, where there is a character limit. And, to get all the right information in, one may have to omit or edit a few words.

But with voice broadcasting, the message can be as long or as short as the authorities want it to be without worrying about having to change it or tweak it.

Make the most of messages with personalisation

Since there’s no limit to the number of broadcast messages one can send, authorities can record different messages suitable for different groups of people.

One message could be aimed at people living in Scotland, one for Wales, one for England, and so forth. During the pandemic, each area had different restrictions in place and these restrictions were lifted after varying time durations, so having one overarching message would not have been appropriate.

By recording different messages and distributing them on the basis of different criteria (such as age, location, occupation, language), the government can provide highly relevant information to individuals across the UK.

When any business gives out relevant information which is highly targeted to one person or a group of people, customer satisfaction shoots up. The same happens with the government of any nation.

Manage campaigns and access analytics

Most importantly for the government, hosted phone systems give officials easy access to detailed analytics. These analytics can be used to show return on investment and inform any follow up campaigns.

Within the hosted phone system users can see exactly who has received the messages and interacted with them, and also all the survey responses. These analytics can help them make better business decisions, and they can also pinpoint what demographics their campaign appeals to more.

By communicating to the public in the way they most prefer, the Government is sure to build a better connection with the people of the UK and will be able to reach them more effectively when they need to.

Build connections with voice broadcasting

Voice broadcasting works just as well for governments as it does businesses of various sizes when it comes to building strong connections with people.

It gives people the tools they need to be able to find out what people want, and also to communicate important information quickly and easily. Thus, governments are able to establish crystal-clear connections and keep the populace satisfied and informed.

To find out more about voice broadcasting or hosted phone systems, you can get in touch with an expert from Acefone at 1888-859-0450 or drop us an email at [email protected]

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

Write an email to

[email protected]

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Yukti Verma

Author

Yukti is a content marketing enthusiast with a soft spot for Saas. She loves weaving complicated concepts into simple stories. When not at work, she is found reading books or watching movies.

Top 9 CRM Software You Can Integrate With Acefone

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Ratnam Sinha

Author

Operations

September 8, 2021

8 mins read eye

Table of content

Integrations seem to be the new buzzword in the business world. Everywhere you turn, there’s someone talking about third-party apps and CRM (customer relationship management) systems that you can use with your cloud telephony solution to take your processes and workflows a notch higher.

While a telephony solution provider like Acefone will allow you to connect with leads and customers, a CRM system will help you build long-lasting relationships with them. What’s even better is that you can do all this without burning a hole in your pocket.

But with so many fish in the sea, how do you decide which one is the one for your business?

Let’s first take a brief look at what a CRM system is.

A CRM or customer relationship management software helps you nurture relationships. It records business-client interactions; allows agents to keep track of follow-up actions and note preferences and dislikes; and provides actionable data for performance improvement. And all of this is possible not just for existing customers but for leads too.

Now that you know why CRM systems are fast gaining popularity, here are nine CRM integrations (in no particular order) you can get with your Acefone solution.

1. Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM is one name that you will often hear when you start looking at CRM solutions for your company. It lets you convert more leads, engage with customers better, and grow your revenue multifold.

Along with the basic features and the capability to use it on multiple devices, Zoho CRM comes with its own AI assistant, Zia which helps you identify and resolve issues proactively. This way, you’re able to mitigate minor concerns before they snowball into serious problems.

Zia also helps you identify potential conversions, updates you with smart alerts and reminders, and provides suggestions that improve agent-customer conversations.

2. Salesforce

Salesforce CRM

Salesforce is arguably the most popular CRM provider out there in the market. It offers you a wide range of CRM categories and systems to choose from. Whether you’re looking for an integration for your sales department, marketing team, or any other vertical, Salesforce has you covered.

Its CRM systems offer deep data insights and smart automation that augment a business’ customer retention. They also automate email reports, predict conversions, and anticipate customer interactions, thus, empowering your agents with all the information they can get.

You can constantly keep track of your business on any device of your preference.

3. Hubspot CRM

Hubspot CRM

Hubspot is another popular name when it comes to business solutions providers.

Hubspot CRM is one of the few free solutions that provide your business with all the essential tools needed for superlative customer service. You can also opt for paid versions dedicated to your marketing, sales, operations, and customer support teams to enhance the experience even further.

When you integrate Hubspot CRM with Acefone, you will be able to place calls with just a single click on any device, improve your teams’ collaboration, and keep track of campaign and agent performance.

You will also get access to some of the best performing email templates, CTI pop-ups that display detailed customer information, reminders and follow-up notes during live calls, and much more.

The system also lets you sync all your customer interaction data on both platforms and stay updated with scheduled reports. This gives you complete visibility of your sales pipeline in real-time.

4. Pipedrive

Pipedrive CRM

Pipedrive is one of the most popular sales CRM software. It visualises your sales pipelines, organises your leads in a better fashion and eases agent workload by simplifying even the most complex of tasks.

By integrating Pipedrive and Acefone together, you get access to quick dialling, easy call handling, real time reports, and a visually streamlined workflow.

Automate your processes, such as tracking customer interactions or sending follow-up emails, with an AI-powered assistant while getting a bird’s eye view of every activity.

Work on any device any time with a robust, user-friendly interface that keeps you up to date.

5. Freshdesk

Freshdesk CRM

Freshdesk CRM can extend the capabilities of your support team in providing hassle-free customer service.

The CRM system automates all mundane and repetitive tasks and streamlines your workflow so you enjoy enhanced productivity.

Integrated with Acefone, the Freshdesk CRM offers a ticketing system that improves collaboration by letting your agents automatically tag, categorise, and assign tickets on any device of their preference. These tickets are not limited to just calls but can even be created for email interactions.

The integration provides regular data visualisations and scheduled email reports that let you optimise your processes. You can also deploy Freddy AI, which can deliver accurate answers for quick query resolutions. The AI assistant also gives your agents suggestions for better handling of customer queries and helps distribute workload evenly.

6. Zendesk

Zendesk CRM

The Zendesk CRM provides your customers with a self-help portal that lets them solve their own issues. Essentially, it enables quick query resolution while cutting down your agents’ workload.

The user-friendly CRM comes loaded with valuable features such as call records, intuitive and actionable insights, contact management, multi-device access, and automated calls among others. It also gives you suggestions to augment lead generation.

Not just that, you can send emails to your clients with customised templates and get notified each time they open that email.

With the integration, you’re truly able to track and manage all your interactions from end to end.

7. Microsoft Dynamics 365

Microsfot Dynamics 365

Another big name to join the list of integrations is Microsoft Dynamics 365 is innovatively designed to make sure your team delivers exceptional customer service every time. It combines a CRM and an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning).

An ERP is an application that receives data from separate departments of a business and simplifies work processes in real-time. It can track anything—cash, raw materials, orders, production capacity, and payroll. The combination helps businesses better manage customer databases, engagement, new leads, and customer query resolution.

With a unified portal that tracks all contact center operations on every device and AI-backed insights, you’re able to optimise all your resources and capitalise on each customer interaction. You also get access to custom templates that help you widen your social media reach and improve your email campaigns.

The integration’s intelligent technology will also keep you up-to-date with the latest trends and empower you to make better business decisions.

8. Bitrix24

Bitrix CRM

The Bitrix CRM solution is also one that’s meant to fit all budgets—you can get the free version or op for the paid plan, depending on the size of your team and business needs.

In addition to being a cloud-based CRM, Bitrix24 can also be self-hosted on your private server with an open-source code, giving you the power of customisation.

The Acefone-Bitrix24 CRM integration lets you automate tasks, run and track multiple campaigns, use your preferred device, get deep data insights, place calls with a single click and so much more. You’re also able to build customisable invoices not just once but as many times as you want to add that personalised touch.

Bitrix24 offers a user-friendly platform that you can use to add contacts or notes even during live calls, add follow-up activities, and generate leads.

Create your own web pages without any coding, connect with as many social media channels as you like, access popular form templates (or build your own)—do whatever it takes to kick up your customer service a notch higher.

9. Sugar CRM

Sugar CRM

SugarCRM automates all your marketing, sales, customer service teams’ tasks to help you get a better analysis of each customer interaction. Sugar’s AI analyses historical data to help your agents provide optimal customer experiences. The tool also helps you create a behaviour model for each client.

After integrating SugarCRM with Acefone, your teams can build seamless communication channels. When they get instant access to all customer data, they provide smooth customer service and boost productivity significantly.

Your agents will have access to complete interaction history, including the most recent ones, to be able to provide contextual solutions. They will also be able to access their portal from any device that they like. This will also help you gain better customer insights and build more robust strategies.

To sum up

For a business, connecting with customers and providing exceptional customer service is the only way to remain in the game. Acefone, with its cloud-powered features and integration capabilities, makes doing both easy.

All you have to do is assess your team’s needs and your budget, and then pick a CRM system that fits these bills. Let us know and we will be more than happy to integrate your Acefone telephony system with the CRM of your choice.

If you still haven’t picked out a cloud communication provider for your business, you can get in touch with one of our experts at 1888-859-0450 or just drop us an email at [email protected]. Our customisable plans will surely fulfil all your communication needs.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

Write an email to

[email protected]

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Ratnam Sinha

Author

Ratnam is an SEO enthusiast and content writer working as a Digital Marketer with Acefone. He is fond of traveling and new experiences. He is a huge Marvel fan and is always open to learning.

How Can a Digital Assistant Make Accountants’ Lives Easier?

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Yukti Verma

Author

Operations

September 6, 2021

8 mins read eye

Table of content

An accountant’s life is busy from dealing with clients’ finances to onboarding new clients. Accountants rarely have a quiet day, and then, particularly during key financial periods in the year, they might need some extra support.

Accountancy firms can always increase their spend on staffing and equipment. Alternatively, they could also invest in a hosted phone system and enjoy the benefits of hiring remote workers to support them through busy hours.

This is where a digital assistant comes into consideration. Digital assistants can work remotely from any location and connect to your phone system seamlessly. They can do anything an assistant, in person, can do but are much more cost-effective than hiring someone to work on-premise.

This article will explore how a digital assistant can make accountants’ lives easier and ensure that they have the support they need in busy times without the overheads.

What is a digital assistant?

A digital assistant is a professional assistant who works remotely. They will connect remotely to your phone system and access all the information like your in-house team, but they will do so from their own compatible device.

Digital assistants can take care of administrative tasks and update customer records right from their phone system. This data is linked to your CRM so all updates are made in real-time, and customer enquiries are logged safely on your online portal.

With access to this information from their own devices, there is no need to purchase new equipment for remote digital assistants; you can simply set them up on their own devices. If you’d like to give them equipment you can, but they would only need a mobile phone connected to the internet, and they are good to go!

Digital assistants can provide customer service too, answering and transferring calls to the correct department. They can give your accountants more time to focus on their roles by answering simple customer questions and delivering fantastic customer service from the moment customers call.

A digital assistant can do as much or as little as you need, you decide!

Digital assistants provide flexibility in your business

As an accountant, you might find that particular times of the year are busier than others—such as the end of the tax year. If this is the case, you might not need a digital assistant at all times of the year.

Cloud phone system give you the flexibility to add and remove phone lines when you need to, so you can hire as many digital assistants as you need to support your business at any point.

With digital assistants working remotely, you are more likely to find suitable people for any temporary roles. You can hire from a talent pool potentially worldwide, with no geographical restrictions. There are always people looking for temporary roles worldwide, and you are sure to never be short of experienced applicants.

You can also increase your customer service hours to whatever you need and create a rota for digital assistants. This means that someone can be online at all times to make any enquiries and answer any queries. Without the need for extending your physical opening times, you can provide exemplary service without spending your profits to keep your office open.

Digital assistants are cost-effective

Digital assistants are a highly cost-effective solution to accountant’s problems. Suppose your employees are busy constantly answering emails and calls without getting time to deal with their day-to-day responsibilities. In that case, you could lose business from customers dissatisfied with your service.

Losing customers is, of course, costly to businesses and should be avoided wherever possible. But, you also need to think about your profitability and keeping your business’s cash flow running smoothly. A digital assistant can help with both of these issues.

Digital assistants are just paid for their time and don’t need any further investment or cause any further costs to your business. It’s free to add to your phone system, and you don’t need to account for any additional fees involved with giving them space in your office. This means that you can potentially onboard digital assistants for just the cost of their hourly rate.

As they are not generally salaried employees, you can be more selective about their working times. If you find you get many out-of-hours queries, for example, you can ensure they log on from 5 pm onwards to catch these enquiries, or early in the morning to see customers before work.

How you use digital assistants in your business is up to you, but you can be assured that your overheads will remain unaffected by their presence. They may even increase your profits with the support of your assistant!

Digital assistants can bring in warm leads to your business

Everyone needs support with their accounts, and with more people setting up their own companies, there are plenty of potential customers out there waiting to find the right accountant.

With the help of digital assistants, you can reach out to customers without taking valuable time away from your accountant’s daily tasks. By giving your digital assistants a list of potential customers to contact, they can make the initial calls for you and add updates on customers who’d like more information.

Having this information available to all your staff means sharing leads and following the progress from the first call to securing them as a client. With the time-consuming work taken care of by a professional digital assistant representing your business, your team can focus on converting these leads and getting more clients for the business.

Digital assistants can leave detailed notes in customer accounts so you know exactly what has been covered in each call. They can also follow up with emails for more details, all from their phone system. These notes mean that any accountant following up can see exactly what the customer is interested in and pick up where the digital assistant left off.

Digital assistants give your accountants more freedom

Due to the nature of the businesses, your accountants may need to leave the office to meet with customers. Particularly with smaller companies, leaving the office may mean missed calls and potentially missed customer conversions.

Leaving the office does not need to mean missed connections with customers with a digital assistant. Staff are free to go wherever they need to, safe in knowing that your digital assistant is there to take any messages, answer customer queries and more.

With the freedom to leave the office without a worry, accountants can potentially secure more clients and deliver a better, more personalised service to customers. This can only mean good things for your business, and of course, more satisfied customers!

Make accountants lives easier with a digital assistant

Overall, having a digital assistant working for your business is a fantastic way to make accountants’ lives easier. With a professional answering calls and queries on your behalf, you can ensure that customers get the information they need and that accountants can focus on their daily roles without distraction.

If you’d like to learn more about digital assistants for your accountancy business, call us today at 1888-859-0450 or email us at [email protected].

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

Write an email to

[email protected]

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Yukti Verma

Author

Yukti is a content marketing enthusiast with a soft spot for Saas. She loves weaving complicated concepts into simple stories. When not at work, she is found reading books or watching movies.

Keep the Conversation Going: How Improving Customer Response Time Can Win You Customers

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Yukti Verma

Author

Contact Center

August 31, 2021

8 mins read eye

Table of content

Modern customers expect quick responses from businesses. And these expectations have only risen with the proliferation of social media platforms. Studies have shown customers do not hesitate to switch brands when exposed to poor service.

One successful strategy to keep service levels high is by improving your customer response times. Doing so helps you resolve customer queries speedily and efficiently, effectively allowing you to win and retain more customers than your competitors.

This article will delve into how your business can use modern technologies, like hosted phone systems, to exceed customer service expectations and deliver results in a prompt manner.

Use free phone numbers to encourage inbound calls

Businesses must make themselves easily accessible. This can be achieved by establishing a contact center. Without this, your customers might have to resort to a whole range of independent communication methods to reach you—SMS, emails, calls and the likes.

A contact center combines these disparate mediums into a unified platform for easy access to information.

One way you can encourage inbound calls is by using toll free numbers. These numbers are free to call, giving customers an incentive to reach out to your business.

Having a free phone number attached to your hosted phone system makes your business appear more professional and service focused. However, the solution will only work well if you have the staff to deal with the volume of inbound calls your free phone number will bring in.

Transition to a hosted contact center

Hosted contact centers are a great way to ensure you offer optimum service to inbound callers. With minimal set-up costs, cloud contact centers enable your agents to connect with customers from anywhere in the world.

Hosting your contact center also lets you hire talent from across the globe. Since your operations are not limited to just one geographical location, it will help to have team members from different time zones and countries. Your contact center can then serve callers 24×7.

A hosted contact center facilitates quick support delivery, as callers can be transferred to the right agent without any delays or errors. This cuts out all the long email threads and enhances the client’s experience with your brand.

And the benefits don’t end there.

A sophisticated contact center software lends agents the ability to access interaction history and deal with concerns contextually. Thus, reps don’t have to repeatedly ask the same questions. They’re also able to update records as and when the interaction progresses so that the next agent is equally prepared to handle the matter.

Managers too are able to ensure top-notch performance with tools such as scheduled reports, and call monitoring, recording and whispering. And metrics such as average handling time, CSAT and first call resolution help improve the efficiency and productivity of the entire team. It’s not just calls that can be monitored in real-time, though—managers can also monitor social media and live chat feeds.

Incorporate chatbots and live chats

The benefits of live chats are two-fold—they improve your response time by giving customers quick responses and increase the time a customer spends on your website, giving them an opportunity to learn more about your offerings.

Live chats can be managed right within your hosted phone system, so your staff don’t need to switch between programmes and risk missing a message. Having everything in one place is not only convenient for them but also ensures clients receive consistent messaging across platforms.

Offering an additional medium for query resolution also helps you keep incoming call volumes at a manageable level and also enhances the customer experience. There is nothing worse for clients than waiting in a queue on the phone when they could have got an answer online.

Use hosted phone system features to improve customer response times

Hosted phone systems offer customers and agents a range of modern features that enable easy connections and speedy resolutions.

One such feature is the IVR (Interactive Voice Response). An IVR system allows businesses to record messages that help customers navigate through the different service offerings and choose the right department. Thus, businesses are able to enhance response times and first call resolution.

Hosted phone systems can integrate seamlessly with many CRM systems too. CRM and third-party integrations help agents record customer preferences and share them in real-time.

Other team members will be able to access this information and use it to better support customers in the future.

With such features available to help make customer communications quick and easy, it is no wonder that many businesses are turning to hosted phone systems.

Enhance customer response times and win more customers

The range of features available in a hosted contact center set-up greatly improves agent efficiency and business performance. By using your cloud phone system cleverly, you can enhance customer response times and deliver great customer service with every call. With everything they need at their fingertips, your team can work together from anywhere in the world and provide seamless customer experiences.

To ensure your business has all the tools it needs to slash response times and provide outstanding service, get in touch with our team today at 1888-859-0450 or email us at [email protected].

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

Write an email to

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Yukti Verma

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Yukti is a content marketing enthusiast with a soft spot for Saas. She loves weaving complicated concepts into simple stories. When not at work, she is found reading books or watching movies.

How does Missed Call Service Work?

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Acefone Editor

Author

Contact Center

August 26, 2021

8 mins read eye

Table of content

According to Wikipedia.org

A missed call is a telephone call that is deliberately terminated by the caller before being answered by its intended recipient, in order to communicate a pre-agreed message.

The rapid growth of smartphone penetration in India makes missed calls a powerful marketing tool. Many businesses these days leverage missed call services for a variety of purposes – enabling customers to request a callback, collect customer response and generate leads. Missed call solutions help businesses to carry out market research surveys, customer opinion polls, and customer-engagement campaigns without investing additional time and resources.

Unlike conventional survey data collection techniques and opinion poll methods, missed call marketing does not require customers to share a response, feedback or opinion by filling out lengthy information forms. Instead, through missed call, customers or leads can share information simply by giving a missed call on a specific telephone number.

Businesses can share their missed call number to customers through several channels – websites, mobile apps, display ads, and social networks. Providers also allow businesses to run multiple missed call marketing campaigns and receive a large number of missed calls simultaneously using an array of easy-to-use campaign management features.

Businesses can acknowledge every call with a pre-recorded voice message by integrating the missed call solution with an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. These facilities given by providers help businesses to plan, set up, and run missed call marketing campaigns in a short time span.

How to Set Up a Missed Call Marketing Campaign?

Managers can easily set up the campaign on the online portal provided by the missed call service provider using the following steps.

1. Select a Mobile Number

To get started, campaign managers first need to choose a mobile phone number for their campaign. They can do so by purchasing a mobile number from the service provider. Campaign managers can buy a pool of numbers from the provider where a different number is used for every campaign. Dedicated phone numbers for every campaign makes the campaign tracking process a lot easier. These mobile numbers are different from businesses’ customer service phone number.

2. Purchase the Service Plan

After selecting a business phone number, the next step is to choose a service plan for the campaign. Prices of the plans vary from provider to provider which is dependent on a series of factors such as the unit price of missed calls, campaign management features and other value-added services.

3. Configure the Campaign Setting

After purchasing the missed call service, the campaign manager is given a web portal to configure his campaign. In this portal, he/she can assign numbers to every campaign, set up an IVR, and create a campaign analysis report. It also provides the facility to activate real-time campaign notifications over email ID or phone number. For instance, every time a caller leaves a missed call, the system immediately sends text with the details of the received call.

How to Track and Measure a Missed Call Marketing Campaign?

Miss call services enable managers to run multiple campaigns at a time. Managers can further track and analyze campaign performance in two distinct ways – instant SMS notification and campaign analysis reports.

Instant notifications help businesses to respond to customers’ callback requests proactively. At the same time, it enables marketers to track campaign progress by fetching campaign analysis reports on a click. These options help businesses to monitor and evaluate the performance of missed call marketing campaigns without putting extra time and effort.

How do Businesses Use Missed Call Service?

Small and big organisations, both, these days use missed call service as a robust alternative to conventional opinion poll and survey data collection methods. The non-profit organizations leverage missed call services to create awareness about social issues, natural disasters, and epidemics. This service allows interested people to connect for a cause simply by giving missed calls to a particular number.

Missed call marketing tool helps to generate quality leads, conduct market research surveys, carry out opinion polls, run customer-engagement campaigns, deliver on-demand information, and boost app downloads. Hence, a business can run missed call marketing campaigns to accomplish a variety of goals. The providers help businesses to leverage missed call services for a variety of commercial purposes without incurring a huge cost.

Leading missed call service providers enable businesses to launch missed call marketing campaigns without investing extra time, effort and resources. In addition to allowing businesses to use their telephone numbers, they also provide options to choose from a set of telephone numbers. The missed call solutions further make it easier for businesses to track missed call campaigns by sending campaign analysis reports and instant SMS notifications.

Want missed call service for your business? Contact Acefone and start your free trial now.

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Acefone Editor

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Acefone provides a broad range of cloud communication services to businesses of all sizes, which includes Hosted Phone Systems, Free Phone Numbers, and Cloud Contact Center Solutions. Being the UK's leading provider of VoIP service provider, we always strive to provide excellent customer service and high-quality custom solutions to our customers.

Feedback is King: The Why and How of Customer and Employee Reviews

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Acefone Editor

Author

Expert Opinion

August 25, 2021

8 mins read eye

Table of content

There’s a saying that goes: you can’t clap with one hand.

A business doesn’t exist in silos. It involves people on either side of the graph—supply and demand, as it were. You cannot operate solely on numbers and business theories, with a one-track mind akin to a horse wearing blinkers.

What we’re getting at is the cycle of feedback. You can only ascertain how to modify and enhance your business strategies if you know what’s working and what’s not. And how do you do that?

You simply have to ask.

Make sure you collect customer reviews as well as employee feedback regularly for your different campaigns and processes. This can be done efficiently by adopting cloud-powered surveying tools. But we’ll get into that detail later.

Understanding feedback

Quite literally, we’re talking about a loop in a system where the output feeds back to the input. In the business sense of the word, recipients of the service help improve the work of the providers. So when a business listens to feedback it helps them make the product better.

Not only do you survey the clients and workers, but it’s also important to give performance reviews to your teams. Most commonly, you’d have heard of positive and negative feedback.

Clearly, these terms allude to the nature of the comments. Positive encouragement needs to be coupled with corrective feedback to create a healthy and well-functioning office. So while positive reviews reaffirm your high-performing practices, negative reviews can highlight problem areas that need to be worked on.

In fact, Harvard Business Review has found that though people might be hesitant to give negative feedback, they’d much rather receive these corrective comments to improve themselves further.

Every business, whether a small start-up or an established conglomerate, stands to benefit greatly from a proper feedback mechanism. Think of one of the biggest companies in the world—Google. Even a basic Google search comes with the feedback button, showing just how much the firm values it.

Let’s move on to the ‘why’

There is a certain appeal to comprehensive feedback. Why else is it so highly valued by companies of all sizes, sectors and locations?

Let’s look at it sectionally. Here’s why feedback is vital for all businesses:

#1 Customer feedback

a. Make better decisions

Managers and business owners often have to make crucial decisions for the betterment of the organisation. Armed with the right tools, you can efficiently collate customer feedback with performance metrics and other data. When you have all the relevant information in front of you, from quantitative analytics to qualitative comments, you can devise a superior action plan.

For example, if you’re holding a marketing campaign, you can couple the call answer rate, conversion rate and other such metrics with the survey answers you send out to the audience. So, if you find that the conversion rate is low for a certain campaign, you can pull up the feedback pertaining to that specific campaign, and figure out where the problem lies.

This enables you to make informed decisions and you can keep tweaking your strategies as the need arises.

b. Align supply and demand

Often, the only way to stand out in a saturated market is to provide clients with products that cater to their individual needs specifically. Feedback allows you to do just that. You can reallocate the funds for unpopular goods to produce those based on demand.

This ensures you don’t waste time, money and effort on low-return investments. Apart from the higher profits, you’re also left with a happier customer base whose needs are being met, while making them feel heard and valued.

c. Enhance customer experience

Needless to say, when you listen to customers, you can make sure they have consistently delightful experiences. After every call, you can leave a short survey or rating option that clients can use to assess their conversation. By considering these comments, your agents can deliver even better service.

Happy Customer

#2 Employee feedback

a. Address operational issues

The reason your business is underperforming might very well be an internal issue. In that case, customer feedback would only give you half the picture. To exactly identify the leak, you need to ask the people involved—your employees.

Your team works day-in and day-out with the product. Their feedback can open your eyes to issues regarding equipment, bottlenecks in processes, or even overarching managerial problems. Once you address these issues, you’ll notice a significant increase in productivity.

b. Healthier work environment

Holding in negative emotions and frustration leads to lowered mental health in the long run. Rather than pushing employees to the breaking point, providing an avenue to air out their troubles with the system can act as a healthy outlet.

Not only will they feel relieved by being able to talk about their difficulties, but also you can actively and swiftly make the required changes.

c. Better communication and collaboration

By encouraging communication between hierarchies in the business, you can smoothen the flow of processes. The employees can even collaborate better when there is an improved communication system in place.

So, you can make sure that two teams are working together effectively and that any disputes can be taken up in their regular feedback sessions to be worked out.

Tips for totally effective feedback

We’ve discussed why stakeholder reviews are important. So naturally, the next step is how to do it. There are some simple steps you can take to get the best results out of your feedback cycle. Here are a few of them:

Cloud-powered communication

Of course, the first and most important step in taking feedback is equipping yourself with the right tools. After all, you can’t go shopping without a wallet, can you?

Cloud offers the perfect solutions to hold large-scale feedback campaigns virtually. You can connect with a larger audience for a fraction of the cost, collect their responses accurately, and automatically store the information on a secure cloud server.

Here are some features you need to try out:

Outbound IVR: an automated outbound call or SMS equipped with a predefined IVR menu. You can get survey answers or ratings by assigning answers to different digits and recording keypad inputs. Through this option, you can reach out to a multitude of people with minimal effort.
Auto-notification SMS: It’s a good idea to send a follow-up SMS after your customer call ends. This SMS can ask for feedback regarding the conversation and their satisfaction level. At the same time, you can deliver any extra information and reiterate your contact details.
CRM integration: This tool expertly collates your collected feedback into your phone system. So all your call details, customer information, as well as their feedback, is present on one single portal for easy access and management.
In-chat polls for teams: For employee feedback, it might be convenient to send out polls and surveys on the instant messaging platform. You can send out the message to all your teams in a single or strategically separated chat room as well.

These are just a few options. Once you dive into the cloud communication platform, you’ll find many more ways to better collect, review and utilise data.

Be proactive and timely

You’ll only receive transparent reviews when people feel like their opinion matters. For this, you need to be proactive and show that you’re willing to take whatever steps are necessary to get the required feedback.

Send out surveys to your stakeholders, use follow-up calls and SMSes right as your conversation ends, and most importantly, be regular in your endeavours.

At the same time, you need to be timely in assessing the recorded responses and accordingly acting on them. The measures you take are the actual indicators of your commitment to the feedback process—and that’s how you build trust among everyone involved.

Stress on analysis and insights

The feedback collected needs to be properly collated and made sense of. The cloud offers real-time performance monitoring tools as well as regularly generated reports that compile the data.

These reports are personalised and you can make them as visual as you want for experts and laymen alike. Furthermore, schedule them to be emailed to your or your agents’ inbox automatically so you never miss out.

Creating the perfect survey

There’s no perfect mould for creating a successful survey. However, there are some general thumb rules that can help enhance it.

The first thing to keep in mind is to keep it succinct. Don’t assume that customers or employees have the time to read through long texts and do a thorough analysis every time they get contacted.

Sometimes you may require one-word answers, sometimes you need multiple options, while some other times a simple choice between two options is enough. For example, when you select ‘not interested’ on a YouTube video, you get a tiny survey asking why:

Tell us Why

However, to get more detailed information, you can send out comprehensive surveys on a less frequent basis. People will be more likely to take out their time to fill out these forms this way.

You can also mix and match the style of questions. So you could start off with open-ended ones and branch off to specific MCQs as people enter their inputs.

Keep monitoring the feedback campaigns

Of course, all these efforts are in vain if you lose out on using the acquired information in a timely manner.

On a cloud portal, you can access a real-time dashboard with live metrics as well as the option to receive exhaustive compiled reports. Do make sure that you keep tracking the incoming feedback—from all the sources.

And accordingly, keep making changes to business strategies. It’s best to act as swiftly as possible so that the stakeholders are encouraged to keep sending in their honest feedback.

Conclusion

As the world gets more deeply connected with technology, people are increasingly realising the importance of communication—especially in business. The feedback mechanism connects both ends of the relationship, fostering two-way growth.

It’s vital that businesses realise this for them to be able to make sound decisions and cater to what the public really wants and what the employees really need. Go ahead and try it out now!

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

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The Do’s and Don’ts of a Call Center

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Yukti Verma

Author

Contact Center

August 24, 2021

8 mins read eye

Table of content

The hallmarks of ‘good’ customer service are not limited to the binary question of whether the support agents solved a customer query or not.

“One-third of consumers say they would consider switching companies after just one instance of bad customer service”. Wonder why?

This holistic experience leaves a lasting impression on the customer, and as evident from multiple surveys, it influences their future buying habits and preferences as well.

Therefore, the entire process of taking calls in a call center is a precise art that requires immense practice before perfection.

While taking customer queries might sound like a cakewalk, it isn’t.

The urgency of the support required coupled with the need to ameliorate the consumer’s gnawing anxiety can make the best of agents extremely clammy and nervous.

However, it is crucial to be able to contain this anxiety and skillfully assist the customer.

Call center agents form the first line of communication with the customers—to troubleshoot crises or guide confused customers. Not only this, but they also form the first line of defence against unhappy customers and help them solve their issues

While there is no blueprint for becoming a successful BPO agent, here are some skills that your agents can strive to emulate for excellent customer service.

But before we dive deep into the skills, let us divide each customer call into the following three zones and discuss each zone sequentially along with the corresponding best practices:

1. Pre-call time is the time taken to assign an agent to resolve the query of a caller. It is essentially the wait time for the customer to be allotted to an available agent.

Some companies introduce a voice assistant or a dial-pad-assisted voice chat during the pre-call time to guide the customer with general FAQs or gauge the urgency of the situation.

2. Call time refers to the average time of the conversation between a caller and an agent. It generally consists of issues raised by the customer and resolutions given by the agent.

It is a crucial phase as the customer tends to get irate, and therefore, the agent needs to engage the customer peacefully. The calmer the agent, the more successful the call will be.

3. Post-call time refers to any activity that happens post the customer support call. Some calls are often left with open action points, and therefore, it is essential to close them and revert to the corresponding customer as soon as possible.

Companies can also use this segment to conduct general feedback surveys with customers to determine the quality of the support services provided.

Without further ado, let’s dig deep into the do’s and don’ts for call center agents during each of these phases and learn more about them.

Best in class practices: Call center operations

Good customer service results in happier customers, which effectively means better sales and more retention.

The power of ‘word-of-mouth’ is quite underrated, and so is the effectiveness of good customer service for a company’s success. While a robust system such as a PBX legacy control or cloud solutions is vital for streamlined customer service, the softer aspects of the conversation should also be looked after.

Here are some tips that you must follow to ensure a holistically successful and good customer experience.

#1 Pre-call

Reduce the customer waiting time as much as possible

Customers hate waiting—especially when they are in the middle of time-intensive purchases or critical situations. The more you make them stay, the worse their experience gets.

They complain about feelings of frustration and anxiety due to long waiting times. Therefore, you must look into possible solutions that can cut down these long queues.

One such solution is callback solutions (or virtual queuing)! You can simply use it to manage large volumes of incoming calls by providing callback tickets to all the waiting customers.

In this way, customers can utilise their ‘waiting time’ in more productive activities and wait for the agents to call them back as per their sequence index, also assuaging their wait anxiety in the process.

#2 Call time

Sound polite and professional while maintaining a friendly approach

It can be unnerving if the customer is greeted by a machine or a cold agent when looking for genuine help. A friendly touch can soothe the customer’s nerves and make the whole process much easier.

Ask your agent to sound enthusiastic whilst maintaining professionalism. Being enthusiastic while solving customer queries is generally perceived positively by the customer, ultimately leading to more comfort. The agent can also discuss the issues and solutions at hand with more confidence closing the deal amicably.

Listen closely to your customer and do not interrupt

Customers feel at ease if they believe their problems will be solved by the agent they are talking to. Therefore, it is crucial to understand and employ the art of listening without interrupting your customer. Hearing out the customer properly also ensures the complete exchange of information that would be required to solve the problem completely.

In case things get intense, the agent must deal with the situation calmly instead of counter-retaliating back to the customer in kind. Put simply, the agents’ patience and courtesy are what differentiates a good customer experience from the bad.

Possess in-depth knowledge of the company, its products, and services

They say a good call center agent is the one who knows everything about the company and its operations.

However, no agent can have the answer to all customer queries. Tackling them with confidence and grace is what makes your agent an excellent customer service rep.

Give your agent a thorough understanding of your company. They must know how to use the company’s calling system to manage calls, transfer or put them on hold while dealing with multiple stakeholders simultaneously.

A little tutorial to your agents can result in them working exceptionally well with customers and other employees. Customers will also be imbued with a sense of security if the agent handling them radiates the same through his workflow.

#3 Post-call

Honour your commitments and value customer feedback

Sometimes, the resolution to customer queries requires more than a simple phone call to the concerned department. It might require multiple follow-ups with different people.

Therefore, it is essential to keep the customer in the loop. Keep them updated on the progress of their query.

It only takes a tweet or a social media post for the customer to narrate their inadequate experience with the world.

Ask your customers about the feedback of your services to keep them coming back. It makes them feel valued. Use suggestions and recommendations to deliver a worthwhile experience for your audience. Engage in conversations and know about their experience post the call.

To sum up

Call center agents can either make or break long-lasting customer relationships and, thus, directly influence the success of your operation.

Therefore, it is essential to continually work on the softer aspects of conversational commerce and engage customers in a call center. Following the mentioned tips could be a healthy starting point for you to improve the performance of your call center workforce.

To learn more, get on-call with our cloud experts at 1888-859-0450 or drop an email at [email protected]!

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

Write an email to

[email protected]

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Yukti Verma

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Yukti is a content marketing enthusiast with a soft spot for Saas. She loves weaving complicated concepts into simple stories. When not at work, she is found reading books or watching movies.

Acefone + Pipedrive Integration: What it Brings to the Table

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Ratnam Sinha

Author

Contact Center

August 23, 2021

8 mins read eye

Table of content

Laser-focused. The kind of approach that customer interactions require in a highly competitive landscape.

Today, every organisation ensures a sophisticated experience for all its customers. They also find new ways to streamline their work processes for the same. Thus, every now and then you’ll hear about new tools and technologies being introduced in the market to polish customer service and experience.

In this race to succeed, businesses not only need to provide their customers with an excellent experience every time but also have to equip agents with all the necessary tools.

This is where integrations, like the Acefone and Pipedrive one, comes into play. But before we talk about its combined power, let’s see what both of them offer individually.

Acefone

Acefone, a leading cloud communication provider, delivers consistent, uninterrupted and seamless communication with customers. Its cloud phone system comes loaded with essential features like IVR, analytical reports, multiple call routing strategies, multi-device access, data security, 99.99% uptime, and more to elevate your business communications.

With its budget-friendly plans, Acefone caters to every business—regardless of their industry or size—that requires solutions like hosted phone systems, toll free numbers, or contact centre solutions.

Pipedrive

Pipedrive is one of the few customer relationship management or CRM software designed for the growth of salespeople along with the organisation. With its intuitive and intelligent portal, it automatically tracks and organises calls and emails, and even syncs them with your calendar across multiple devices.

It is a great tool to visualise your entire sales process, analyse each customer interaction, and get a lot more done with your sales team. It not only makes sales more efficient for the agents but also provides deep data insights to measure your company’s performance against set goals.

So, what happens when you bring these two giants together? You get an integration like never before!

You will be able to harness the power of the cloud in each of your sales interactions. You wouldn’t only be making better business decisions but will elevate your productivity to new heights.

Let’s take a closer look at the benefits that this integration will bring you.

1. Just one click to call your customers

Click-to-call, as it is commonly referred to, is a convenient feature that you can provide your sales team with. While you look at the customer’s details on your Pipedrive CRM, you don’t have to pick the phone and dial the number manually. Instead, just press the click-to-call button and connect to them with the reliability of Acefone’s communication.

2. A schedule for your follow-ups

Most times, one call is not enough to satisfy your customer. A follow-up can ensure the best solution to their problems. While Pipedrive’s easy-to-use portal helps you to schedule a call based on your customers’ preference, Acefone’s intelligent solution will save all the details for the follow-up. Your agents will never miss out on any details, even if the follow-up is taken by someone else.

3. Lightning-fast setup

Setting up your phone system can be tiring. Installing the software and making sure everything is in sync is even more hectic. Well, fret no more. Acefone is completely cloud-based. This means that there is no need to set up any physical hardware at your premises, and you can use any device of your choice. To add to it, Pipedrive integration with Acefone also takes just a few simple clicks. You will be ready to serve your customers within minutes.

4. As smooth as butter

Gone are the days when managing your leads and contacts was a dedicated task. Your agents will thank you when they will be able to add or update contacts, switch screens and save follow-up details after every call with just a few simple clicks. Help them save time and improve your organisation’s productivity significantly.

5. Eagle’s eye on activities

Worried that you will not be able to keep track of everything when there is so much going on? Well, just don’t. With the Acefone + Pipedrive integration, both managers and agents can easily keep track of all call activities. You can even retrieve critical records from your detailed CRM call logs to evaluate campaigns and make better decisions.

6. Pop-up to success

To add a cherry on top, you also get CTI pop-ups with your Acefone and Pipedrive integration. So, if your agents are busy working and don’t hear the phone ringing, they will be notified on their screens as well. In addition, these little pop-ups will also provide your agent with all the information they need before picking up the call. This includes, but is not limited to, customer name and phone number, history of previous interactions, call notes if any, who attended the last call, etc

A powerful duo

Both Acefone and Pipedrive are excellent additions to your arsenal of business tools. So why settle for one when you can have both?

A cloud communication system and a CRM are both necessities of any business with the aim of providing unforgettable customer service. Your interactions need to stand out if you want to stay in the competition to be the best. To do that, you must ensure that your agents are equipped with the right tools.

Unlock the full potential of your sales team and provide your customers with an experience that they remember. This is the reason why the Acefone + Pipedrive integration exists. It is a deal that you should not miss out on.

We’ve already told you about the benefits of the Acefone and Pipedrive integration. Now you have to make a choice. Or someone else will.

To get in touch with Acefone’s experts, and find out the perfect cloud solution for your business, get in touch with us at 1888-859-0450 or just drop us an email at [email protected].

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

Write an email to

[email protected]

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Ratnam Sinha

Author

Ratnam is an SEO enthusiast and content writer working as a Digital Marketer with Acefone. He is fond of traveling and new experiences. He is a huge Marvel fan and is always open to learning.

Debunking Myths about Hybrid Cloud Communications

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Karan Beniwal

Author

Cloud Telephony

August 20, 2021

8 mins read eye

Table of content

The world is moving to the cloud. While experts expect the future of data storage and communications to be running solely via the Internet sooner than later, it is hard to track this transition.

Why? Many businesses end up taking a hybrid route to reach the cloud.

The popularity of cloud-based solutions is evident in the pandemic-fueled transition to work from home. As businesses moved to remote set-ups, organising a centralised on-premise server became increasingly complicated. To ease the process, companies began turning to different cloud features.

What is a hybrid cloud system?

As is with new technologies, many legacy businesses are wary of the practicality of cloud services. While some would argue over issues related to its security and management, the real concern stems from shifting the status quo. This has led to the birth of hybrid cloud systems.

A hybrid infrastructure comprises the best of both worlds—offering a blend of on-premise and cloud-based solutions. Businesses that hope to enjoy the benefits of a robust cloud network can shift a large portion of their operations to the cloud while retaining essential features on their on-premise systems.

Myths and rumours about hybrid cloud communications

Cloud services are a new concept and, thus, attract several misconceptions about their workings. Let us understand these concerns and debunk them.

Myth #1: Big businesses cannot sustain a hybrid model

Due to the expansive reach of big legacy companies, many shy away from making a complete move to the cloud. They believe that the transition will be too costly to justify the benefits.

However, when viewed in the long term, cloud infrastructure has proven to be much more cost-efficient to businesses worldwide.

This is thanks to the simplicity of cloud server management. Since cloud service providers set up their servers worldwide, businesses do not need to invest in costly data centres for storage and communications. Forgoing costs related to set-ups and maintenance, businesses can use these savings to power other operations within their company.

Myth #2: Businesses lose control over the cloud

Another big misconception when it comes to hybrid communication systems is that businesses fear losing control over their operations. Even after moving to a server set up by cloud providers, companies have complete control over the access and distribution of their data and features.

Businesses on the cloud can define role-based access to provide data only to those who need it via authorised devices. While some can choose to use only company offered devices, the most significant benefit of cloud services is that employees can access information on the go, using any device.

It is this mobility and flexibility that has helped cloud communications quickly saturate the business landscape in the remote working environment.

Myth #3: Hybrid cloud lacks strict security

In the era of data breaches and hacks, businesses have become highly conscious of their digital security. Handing over sensitive company data to third-party servers may be a point of contention for many companies. However, this should not be the case with cloud communications solutions.

Businesses that want additional security can work with a provider who hosts their data on private servers. This server allows enterprises to control and decide their own storage and communication requirements while delivering additional security.

Companies that deal with sensitive data can host this information on their on-premise systems. This way, they can reap the fantastic benefits of cloud communications while protecting their most sensitive data.

Thus, businesses opt for reputable cloud providers and enjoy brute security.

Myth #4: Start-ups must be entirely on the cloud

To move with the times, startups in the digital age want to be as tech-savvy as they can be. While no direct rule forces them to host their data and processes on the cloud, many view it as a financially sound option.

With the help of cloud communication solutions, startups can enjoy a variety of benefits while keeping a part of their operation on on-premise servers. So, their sensitive data can remain on their own servers, and everything else can be housed on a public cloud system.

Doing so keeps their CapEx and OpEx to a minimum while allowing them to retain complete control over their most protected data.

Conclusion

Managing hybrid systems is getting easier with modern tools. Service providers offer a smooth and user-friendly interface to manage all communications and data storage activities, with access from anywhere using any device.

Whether businesses are looking to move all of their data and processes on the cloud or only some of it; whether they’re looking to save costs or ensure the safety of sensitive information—there’s a hybrid cloud for all purposes.
If you are interested in cloud services for your business communications, you can reach out to us at 0800-084-3663 or write to us at [email protected].

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

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Karan Beniwal

Author

Karan is a communications graduate with a passion for film and writing and is on an indefinite journey to search for and capture stories from around the world. He is currently exploring the world of content marketing to bring to life the products and services we use every day. Connect with him on Linkedin