Top 4 Call Monitoring Features That Will Give You Deep Insights

Acefone Editor

Author

Contact Center

July 8, 2020

5 mins read eye

Table of content

For business owners, it is not enough to simply monitor the number of calls coming into your business.

The number of calls is only one part of what your hosted phone system can tell you – it can also tell you much more about how your customers interact with your business.

As a business owner, you can use these unique insights to find out exactly how your customers operate and how they interact with your business, to use for marketing purposes and to improve your customer experience even further.

What is more, these insights are easily accessible via Acefone’s simple to use online portal.

So, we’ve put together our top call monitoring features on our hosted phone systems and how you can use the insights to benefit your business.

Call Recording

Call recordings are one of the best ways to see exactly how customers interact with your business, by hearing it first hand!

Call recordings also let you see how your staff are dealing with customers and is a useful tool for giving them constructive feedback on how to improve their service and give customers a better experience.

All call recordings are securely stored within your online portal, so you can get insights into how customers are interacting with your business in just a few clicks.

You could access recordings from different times of day to see how different shifts of staff are working, and whether your service is consistent whenever a customer calls.

You could also check whether weekend staff are providing the same great service as weekday staff or vice versa. The opportunities for gaining insightful information to help grow your business are unlimited with a hosted phone system.

Call recordings can also help you spot new business opportunities. If you are reviewing call recordings and find multiple customers asking for a service you do not currently provide, then you could use this information to provide what customers are asking for.

This can help ensure you remain competitive and can potentially point out any gaps in the market which your business could fill – helping you become more profitable as a result and showing that you care deeply about customer feedback.

Call Waiting/Handling Times

If customers are kept waiting for long periods of time, then eventually they will get tired of waiting and may move to a competitor who can be reached much more effectively.

A few long periods of waiting time is understandable but when it begins to be a pattern then this may be a problem for your customers and therefore your business.

If you did not monitor this metric, you might not be able to pinpoint where things are going wrong – but with a hosted phone system you have this insight at your fingertips.

Keeping an eye on call waiting times can ensure that if there is a problem, you can step in and provide a solution.

If you look at your call waiting times on your online portal and see a pattern, for example waiting times jump at 5 pm on a weekday, you can make allowances for this by changing staff shift patterns or hiring extra staff to cover busy periods.

Rather than using guesswork, you can make business-savvy decisions that will both increase your customer experience and help keep customers loyal to your company.

Having these insights on hand is the key to ensuring that you can react quickly and save any potentially detrimental patterns from occurring.

Also, you can drill this down to staff member’s individual call waiting times, so if there are a few particular members of staff with long call times, then you can give them some extra training to ensure that they can effectively handle queries and that they understand all of your processes.

You can even use call recordings to see exactly how they need to improve.

Individual Agent Performance

Acefone’s online portal will also give you access to individual agent’s performances. These insights into their performance will allow you to create bespoke training plans for your agents, helping you to get the best from them and helping them give their best to your customers.

You can draw on the above two features, call recordings and call handling times, to address certain areas in which they might need improvement and then can back this up with data.

The data will give the agent a base to start improving from, then with their training, they can work on their performance and compare their figures once some time has passed.

Getting deep insights into agent performance will allow you to run the best possible contact center and give the best possible service to your customers at all times.

No matter where your agents are based in the world, you can monitor their performance and help them grow and develop as customer service professionals.

By investing your time into your team, you can create a world-class customer service team who’s experience and knowledge can be passed on to your customers in the form of exemplary customer service.

CRM Integrations

Our hosted phone systems integrate seamlessly with many CRM systems. This means that you can track customers right through from initial contact to sales and aftercare – which gives you great insights into the customer journey as a whole.

With your phone system integrating with your CRM, you do not need to do repetitive data entry and your staff can focus on delivering the best possible service without worrying about inputting data numerous times.

When a customer calls this can automatically update on your CRM system, and staff can save detailed notes on what the customer called about and whether it needs any follow up.

With your hosted phone system and CRM system sharing data in this way, you can gain some fantastic insights which you might not have experienced before.

With data on previous purchases, customer contact preferences, and more, you can create highly targeted marketing campaigns to suit specific customer types – and can learn a lot more about your customer’s behaviour.

All with the minimum of effort to you or your staff.

All of these features can be accessed remotely, so wherever you are you can connect to your online portal and get valuable insights into how your communications are working.

These insights can open up new opportunities to advertise and to increase customer experience, so what are you waiting for?

If you’d like to find out more about call monitoring features and gaining brand new insights into your customer base, then call us on 1888-859-0450 for more information.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

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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.

3 Common Risks Of On-Premise Telephony And How VoIP Overcomes Them

Acefone Editor

Author

Voice - VoIP

July 2, 2020

6 mins read eye

Table of content

On-premise telephony has been around for years and is common in many businesses. With this type of phone system, there are risks if something were to go wrong.

On premise phone system are vulnerable to break downs and unfortunately are costly to fix should something happen to them – so, keeping this phone system may cost your business more in the long run.

Is it time to invest in a new, VoIP system? We have set out 3 common risks of traditional, on-premise systems so you can compare this to a VoIP system and see how VoIP can keep you protected from these risks.

A Traditional Phone System Could Break Down Without Maintenance

On-premise telephony comes with high costs attached to keeping it running. Your on-premise telephony will need maintenance regularly, which always comes at a price.

Installing your telephone system in the first place is very complicated and often comes with very high costs.

As on-premise telephony is often so complicated and comes with a range of hardware, wiring, and infrastructure, it is more expensive to run and keep running.

If one piece of equipment fails, then you will need to pay out for replacement parts which may not be as readily available as they once were, meaning long waits and more expensive to rectify a simple fix.

On-premise telephony also requires long commitments to maintenance packages, meaning there is very little flexibility if you wanted to change something within your phone system.

As maintenance contracts are so long, of course, they will cut into your business’ profits and you may not be getting the best service from your restrictive phone system.

Additionally, on-premise telephony requires an on-site IT team to make changes to it and work cannot be done remotely.

How Can VoIP Help?

With VoIP telephony, very little maintenance is needed and installation is simple. VoIP is simply “Plugin and Play” meaning installation costs are low and very uncomplicated.

You can have complete control of your phone system using an easy to use online portal and can make changes as you wish without having to pay astronomical fees.

An IT team is not needed on-site, as the phone system is so simple to use anyone can add and remove lines, add features, and manage staff from the online portal.

As VoIP works over your internet connection, it does not need a lot of hardware to work correctly. It simply needs a compatible phone, laptop, tablet, or mobile, and staff are connected!

As your VoIP phone system is hosted elsewhere too, you can simply connect your devices and get to work immediately without any need to spend your hard-earned profits on installation and maintenance.

Traditional Phone Systems Are Difficult To Fix

As on-premise telephone systems are complicated and have hardware on-site, if something goes wrong you will need to call someone out from your telephone company to fix it.

Often just the call outs are expensive before they have even seen the issue.

Fixes to traditional phone systems are not easy as there are so many complicated parts to it, so you could experience a high amount of downtime when customers cannot get in touch with your business while it is being repaired.

Meaning, you could lose business while the engineer is working on your phone system.

If you have a small IT team, as your phone system grows it may become unmanageable for them and so they will not be able to fix something should it go wrong.

As they will need to work with the engineer to figure out what has gone wrong, you will be paying for their time as well as the engineer and so costs can add up when something goes wrong with a traditional phone system and there is no way around it but to spend money to solve the issue so you can resume business.

Finally, if something goes wrong with your traditional phone system there is a risk of valuable data being lost and unable to be recovered.

This loss could also cost your business as customer records could be gone and therefore you will have to spend time rebuilding your database instead of finding new customers.

Why Is VoIP Different?

VoIP is different, as not only does it come with 99.95% uptime, it is robust enough to handle a high volume of calls with no issue.

Should something happen though, as your phone system is hosted in the cloud, it is easy to restore it with a few clicks.

If your phones do not work for whatever reason, staff can simply switch seamlessly to another device – even mid-call!

Whatever issue arises, maintenance costs are lower with a VoIP system due to its less complicated nature, so you will be able to get back to business immediately using your internet connection while your problem is rectified with your provider.

Your data is also hosted in multiple locations so if something happens to your phone system you can be sure that your data is safe and protected and can easily be backed up and restored so you will not lose anything important if something goes wrong.

Disasters Destroying Hardware And Infrastructure

Should disaster strike your physical premises, your on-premise phone system could be completely destroyed and there will be no way of saving it.

If it is damaged beyond repair, you could end up needing to pay again to get a whole new system fitted and if your whole office is destroyed then your business will grind to a halt as you will not be able to contact customers.

Even if your phone system is not completely destroyed, you could be landed with a high repair bill should anything happen to your telephone system or your office premises.

How Can VoIP Help

If disaster does strike your physical premises, you can continue business as usual as staff can work remotely with no issues.

Your phone system is hosted remotely in the cloud so we can simply restore your phone system and you and your staff can connect from another compatible device.

This means that you can focus on getting your office premises repaired while staff can work from home, or anywhere else they have an internet connection.

Customers will be unaffected, and you can continue delivering excellent customer service even through a disaster. Staff are able to access all the information and data they need about your customers as everything is securely stored in the online portal – so all is not lost, even if your physical premises is not usable.

So, if you’d like to find out more about how VoIP can help you avoid the risks of on-premise cloud telephony solutions, call our expert team for advice on 1888-859-0450.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

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Empower Your Lead Generation Strategy with Missed Call Solution

Acefone Editor

Author

Contact Center

July 1, 2020

6 mins read eye

Table of content

Getting leads is the only way to make your business survive and thrive in the competitive landscape. But it can be a huge struggle, considering that there can be a large number of rivals offering similar products or services at comparable prices.

With ample choices, customers have the power to switch between sellers. 61% of marketers report that generating traffic and leads is the top challenge they face.

While businesses and marketers may rely on the conventional forms of advertising to boost their lead counts, it always makes sense to look for a solution that is economical yet result-oriented. Fortunately, missed call number has emerged as a true winner in this context.

While it has a massive potential for lead generation, you can rest assured that it will not elevate your marketing costs. Let us explain what missed call solutions are and how they can step up your lead generation initiative without spending a fortune.

Understanding Missed Call Solution Better

“Every day we’re saying, ‘How can we keep the customer happy? How can we get ahead in innovation by doing this?’… because if we don’t, somebody else will.” – Bill Gates, Microsoft

Enough cannot be said about the value of making your customer happy but this quote covers the crux. If your customers are not satisfied with the experience you deliver, they will definitely buy from someone who offers a better one.

When it comes to experience, it is far more than offering them a differentiated product. It is all about going above and beyond with your services, being available all the time and going the extra mile to make them feel important. And this is exactly what missed call number helps you achieve.

Essentially, a missed call number is a phone number where your customers would just give you a missed call and your agents will call them back. Since the caller does not have to pay for the call, they would end up saving their money and still be connected with your business for seeking support or answers to their query.

Although the solution sounds simple, there is much more to it when you scratch the surface. In fact, it has huge potential when it comes to capturing qualified leads for your business, even while being a cost-effective approach. So, it definitely is one of the smartest investments that you can make.

Missed Call Solution: Cost-Effective & Customer-Friendly

Before trying to see the service from the lead generation perspective, you need to understand how it actually works. To start with, you will have to avail a dedicated phone number from a missed call service provider and share this number amongst the potential customers.

There can be specific numbers for specific campaigns, along with the information to the customers that they can leave a call on the given number if they have a genuine interest in the said campaign.

Once they call on the number, it will be disconnected automatically, and the caller gets a confirmation message that your agent would call them back.

At the same time, the caller’s number goes into the company’s database and your representative can call back later. So, you end up building a lead database while the customers can get in touch for free. As simple as that!

Considering how missed call numbers work, it would be easy to comprehend how they can empower your lead generation initiatives. Here are the reasons why your business and customers would love them alike.

A missed call number is bound to attract more customers for your business than any other tactic for the very obvious reasons. The solution is customer-friendly and costs them practically nothing.
Since the customer calls you at the first instance, you can rest assured that they are genuinely interested in your business and offering. So, your sales team ends up focusing their efforts where they matter.
All the customer needs to do is to only give a missed call and the company’s representative will call them back. This saves their time, and they never need to wait or be on hold.
The number increases customer satisfaction as it shows your intention to go above and beyond with your services. The customers need not call the business again and again; rather the business will call them back.
A missed call service gives the customer an opportunity to talk at length with the agent and clear all their doubts and concerns as they need not worry about paying for the call.

More Than Just Lead Generation!!

Certainly, missed call number solutions go a long way in making your lead generation plan a success, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. This is one investment that goes much beyond getting you qualified leads and opportunities to convert them. Here are the additional benefits of missed call solutions you can expect by investing in this solution.

To start with, it can help your company in expanding the size of the customer base. You end up reaching out to more customers as compared to other solutions. Moreover, you have a sustainable lead database that you can leverage year after year, throughout the lifespan of your business.
It is far more economical as compared to other lead generation tools such as advertising and social media promotions. And it does not compromise in terms of quality of leads and efficacy of results.
With a missed call solution in place, your business is able to enhance its professional value and can even improve its reputation and brand image. Customers are more likely to remember and recall you via this number.
This number also helps you in maintaining records, no matter how large your database is. Whenever a missed call comes on the number provided, the entire data of the caller gets recorded automatically. You need not hire an employee and depend on him to maintain records consistently.
It cuts down the workload of your agents as they need not pursue the potential leads; rather they only have to reconnect with the ones already interested. So, half the work is already eliminated, and employees can focus only on delivering better caller experiences.
Moreover, your agents need not verify the leads as the solution drives customer verification initiatives as well. Since the caller would already be authenticated by the automated system, agents can save up on their time.
Missed call service can also be used for conducting quality surveys so that you can actually identify the flaws in your process and go the extra mile for addressing them and improving the quality of your services. Since the surveys can be done via an interactive interface, they are bound to get a better response from the customers.
Apart from quality surveys, missed call solutions can be leveraged for getting customer feedback as well. Any feedback is valuable for businesses as it gives them the opportunity to get better with their services and offerings.
With this solution in place, you are better connected with the customers, which is crucial for startups as well as established enterprises. Greater connectivity translates into customer loyalty. While you can expect them to be back for repeat purchases, they also bring more customers for your business through word-of-mouth recommendations.

Conclusion

Not enough can be said about the value that a missed call solution can serve to your business, particularly from the lead generation perspective. It is an innovative tool that can open up humongous opportunities for any company looking to retain its existing customer base and acquire new ones as well.

The best part is that it connects you with qualified leads, making it easier to separate wheat from chaff. Rather than wasting time on leads that wouldn’t come or convert, your team can concentrate all the efforts on the ones that have real potential. So, it surely makes sense to collaborate with a missed call service provider that offers quality solutions at best pricing.

Acefone is a leading name you can trust for empowering your lead generation initiative with a high-quality missed call solution. It brings value-adding services that prioritize top-notch customer service and assure 99% uptime for best results.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

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How Contact Centers Can Turn Customer Irritation Into Satisfaction

Acefone Editor

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Contact Center

5 mins read eye

Table of content

As much as you want to keep your customers happy at all times, sometimes things do go wrong.

It is how you handle when things go wrong that customers will remember, and this could make or break your relationship with that customer.

It is important to have processes in place which can help turn your customer irritation into satisfaction – and this article will help you see how contact centers can help you in a difficult situation with a customer.

Read on to see how contact centers can help turn customer irritation into satisfaction…

Contact Centers Keep Communication Open

Firstly, a cloud phone system keeps communications between you and your customers open and running freely.

Contact centers can be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and so customers are reassured that they can contact you at a time to suit them, rather than having to take time out of their busy schedules – causing further annoyance.

This immediately shows a customer that you are willing to invest in your customer service and work with them to solve their issue.

You can hire agents anywhere in the world, so language shouldn’t be a problem as the customer can connect to the most appropriate agent online no matter where that agent is based, as long as they have an internet connection.

With 99.95% uptime, communications are unlikely to fail so you can be confident that you will be able to deliver great customer service at the times advertised to your customers too, without any embarrassing cut-outs during calls.

Save Detailed Notes To Pass From Agent To Agent

Once a customer has contacted your contact center, Acefone’s online portal gives agents the chance to upload detailed notes on that customer’s records.

These notes can tell other agents exactly where any complaints are up to, without the customer having to repeat themselves every time they call.

Customers having to repeat themselves on each call may cause them even more annoyance, as they just want their problem resolved.

So, keeping detailed and accurate notes is important so any agent no matter what their knowledge of the customer can pick up where the last agent left off and continue delivering a great service.

The customer will be impressed that you have gone to the trouble of making a note of their situation and that you have gone out of your way to make their life that little bit easier.

Access Call Recordings Through The Online Portal

In the event of a dispute, you must have all of the information and evidence you need to protect your staff and business.

Call recordings are easily accessible from Acefone’s online portal and are a vital tool in getting to the bottom of a customer query.

You can simply listen back through customer calls to find out where something went wrong and can ascertain who may have been at fault and use this information to decide how to proceed with a solution.

Call recordings are a great way to ensure that your business is protected from any accusations, and can also be used to find out where communications broke down.

This can then be used to train staff further to ensure it does not happen again.

Once you have solved the customer’s issue, you can reassure them that the call will be used for training purposes to ensure that the same issue does not occur again, showing them you are truly sorry for their issues and are putting measures in place with your staff to prevent anything going wrong again.

Showing you care about customer experience in this way means customers are less likely to leave and will feel more confident in using your services again.

Use IVR To Help Customers Reach The Right Person

Keeping notes for other agents is great if the customer is unsure where they need to go to get their problem resolved, but another solution could be to employ an IVR system.

IVR (Interactive Voice Response) allows customers to choose a department from a range of options – all customised by you.

If customers can listen to the options and choose their preferred department this gives your contact center more of a chance to solve the problem on the first call, which saves agents passing the customer around and needing to make notes.

Solving customer queries on the first call are ideal for contact center managers, as this gives less time for something to go wrong or for the customer to go to a competitor.

Even when things go wrong, if a customer can have their problem solved quickly they will be completely satisfied and will continue doing business with you knowing you are on hand to solve their issues quickly and efficiently.

Allow Agents To Work Collaboratively

A contact center gives agents the unique opportunity to work collaboratively, even if they are based in different parts of the world.

They can conference call to share expertise, transfer calls when they need help, send messages through their phone systems, communicate through notes on Acefone’s online portal and much more.

If agents can work collaboratively, then any customer problems they come across can be solved together drawing on the expertise of each agent.

Although this will be behind the scenes, the customer will benefit from a speedy solution which could come from your agents working together and sharing vital information.

Fostering a collaborative atmosphere in the workplace can be challenging, particularly if staff are not physically present in the same place.

But done correctly this could elevate your customer service and ensure that any irritated customers benefit from your staff’s experience and get a speedy solution to any issues they present.

Overall, a contact center gives you plenty of opportunities to turn dissatisfied customers into loyal happy customers.

If staff in your contact center work together and ensure that they communicate openly with each other and with customers, it is simple to change customer irritation into satisfaction.

To find out more about hosted contact centers, call our expert team on 1888-859-0450 .

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

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How Cloud PBX Can Help HR & Recruitment Professionals

Acefone Editor

Author

Phone System

June 29, 2020

5 mins read eye

Table of content

Cloud PBX can help those in HR and recruitment in several ways, making their working lives easier and allowing them to go about their day to day business no matter what is going on in the world.

Cloud PBX allows your phone system to become completely portable, so your staff can work from wherever they need to and they can easily keep up with their messages while on the move.

HR professionals and anyone working in recruitment can use their PBX system to help make their working life easier, so we have put together some of the top ways your HR Team can benefit from a cloud phone system

Cloud PBX Moves With Your Staff

Recruiters and HR professionals often need to be out of the office, whether that is to meet potential new recruits or businesses who need their services.

When meeting businesses, this will often be at their premises, so it is important that HR staff are free to go wherever they are needed.

With cloud PBX, your staff can simply switch from their office phone to their mobile, laptop or tablet and can take their phone with them anywhere they might need to go.

This means that they can go out and represent your company without missing a call from a candidate!

Recruiting often is not a nine to five job, so a cloud PBX system gives staff the ability to work easily from home out of hours.

But they will still answer from a professional office number and enjoy crystal clear communications wherever they have an internet connection.

Due to the fantastic features of a cloud PBX system, even when they are in a meeting staff do not have to miss out on any potential leads from candidates or employers.

Hosted phone systems have voicemail to email built-in, so once the meeting is overall staff need to do is listen to voicemails that have been conveniently sending straight to their emails invoice files.

Everything your staff need for day to day operations can be included with a cloud PBX system, to help your recruitment business run more efficiently.

Call Clients And Candidates At A Low Cost

For any business person, the cost is a factor in any decision. So, you will be pleased to know that cloud PBX can save you money on calls.

As cloud PBX works over your internet connection, call costs are significantly lower – particularly when calling overseas.

Not only are call costs lower, but costs for the infrastructure of the phone system and maintenance are also significantly lower – so you can enjoy savings right away when you install a cloud PBX system.

Cloud PBX also gives you the ability to monitor your call costs and choose plans based on your usage. Using Acefone’s easy to use online portal, you can keep a close eye on your call costs in just a few clicks.

If you are making more calls than you expected, simply call our team and we will find you a more suitable call plan, so you do not need to worry about costly calls bringing down your profits.

Open Up Your Talent Pool To The World

There are talented professionals all over the world, but with a traditional phone system, you will not be able to hire them into your business as they are geographically too far away. With a cloud PBX system, distance is no issue.

As staff can use your phone system from anywhere in the world, you can hire the most talented people no matter where they are based. This also means that you can offer your HR and recruitment services globally.

If you find a company needing services in a different country, you can hire professionals in that area and connect them to your phone system with a few clicks on the online portal.

They can speak to your customers and colleagues as if they are in the office with you, and using conference calling they can become valuable members of your team.

You do not need to create a physical office for remote workers with cloud PBX (or any workers for that matter), they can connect from anywhere with an internet connection and so could work from home with ease.

Customise Your Phone Number

If you are thinking of hiring remote workers overseas, or are wanting to target new areas away from where your office is physically located, you can do so with cloud PBX.

You can customise your number so it suits your needs, with the option to have a free phone, local, or branded number.

A free phone number makes your business look bigger and like a national business.

So if you are looking to appear more established and break down any barriers between your business and your target customer, a free phone number is ideal.

A branded number helps with marketing and can be customised so that it is easier for customers to remember and it matches with your marketing collateral.

You can also track calls through this to see how your marketing campaigns are working.

A local number is ideal to create trust within a local area.

If you have hired a remote worker in a different country, having a local number in this area may encourage more customers to call you as they will see that you are established in the local area.

Additionally, if you’ve hired remote workers away from your locality you can choose how your outgoing calls will appear on your phone.

This is a great use for local numbers as candidates may be less likely to pick up a call if the incoming number is overseas or an area they do not recognise.

Use IVR To Get Customers To The Right Recruiters

If you are a larger recruitment business you might have many different departments for each area you recruit into.

Instead of fielding calls from candidates and passing them around until they find the right person, you can be professional from the start using an IVR.

IVR (Interactive Voice Response) allows customers to self select from a range of options so they can be put through to the right person based on their needs.

This means less staff time wasted trying to find the right place for this customer and a more professional first impression of your business to any customers calling you.

If you’d like to find out more about how cloud PBX can benefit your business, call us on 1888-859-0450 and talk to our expert team.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

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10 Must Have Tools for Small Businesses [Infographic]

Ratnam Sinha

Author

Infographics

5 mins read eye

Table of content

A new business is often loaded up with a lot of different tasks and in order to keep up with those tasks while also maintaining high efficiency in the business, it is crucial to implement helpful tools.

With so many applications available to you currently, it can be hard for any business owner to select the best for their business requirement.

We understand how much time consuming it can be to pick the right tools to work with. After all, you have to be precise with what your team can best work with.

To save you from such a hectic task and make you work smarter instead of harder, we have shortlisted 10 of the must-have tools that your small business can implement to improve productivity.

10 Must Have Tools For Small Businesses [Infographic]

1. Slack

Slack is an instant messaging app that creates a room for the entire company or specific teams.

Slacks provide a conversation platform so that instead of exchanging several emails you can simply chat with each other.

You can organise your company communication by creating several personal and private groups based on teams, departments, projects, or any other business requirement.

Slack also enables file-sharing, phone calls, and other features to improve employee interactions

2. G Suite

G Suite is a business suite of cloud computing services, productivity tools, collaboration tools software and products developed by Google cloud.

G Suite comprises of Gmail, Hangout, Google Drive for storage, Docs, Sheet, Slides, Keeps, etc. It also offers an admin panel to manage users and services for your business.

You can also get your domain and set-up custom emails for your organisation.

3. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a statistics tool for your business website.

You can track all the activity on your website like where do most of your users come from, what pages they visit, how much time they spend on each page, the demographics of your target audience, etc.

It displays data in a user-friendly manner which charts and graphs which make it very interactive.

4. Square

Square offers many payment services for business, out of which the most popular is the portable card reader that attaches to your mobile phone or iPad to make and receive payments.

Your business doesn’t have to miss out on any sale if the customer does not carry cash, with Square, you can carry your credit card machine with you at all times anywhere.

5. Acefone

Acefone provides cloud-based VoIP services for your business such as Hosted Phone System, Free Phone Number, and Contact Center Solutions that provide you with uninterrupted communication.

Because of the need for no physical hardware, it is cheaper than the traditional phone system. Acefone provides a variety of features like IVR, Music on Hold, Call conferencing, etc. to simplify your communication with employees as well as customers.

With Acefone’s hosted solutions, you can still have excellent customer interactions even while working from home as they offer remote access to their portal, making sure you get Seamless Communication, Always.

6. Evernote

Evernote is an information organisation tool that offers 3 basic features – capture, find and access. Evernote is uniquely designed to help you manage your tasks.

It also enables you to save relevant information as notes from the internet. The notes can be saved as texts, images, or any kind of web content that you like. It is available on all the platforms and even offers a free version.

7. Toggl

Toggl is a web-based application used for tracking time and reporting. It allows you to track your time across different platforms and gives you detailed insights on how you spent your valuable time.

With an in-depth analysis of your time, you can easily improve your workflow and manage your time better.

It can also keep track of all your customers and agents and can be synced with different projects and management applications.

8. Paypal

Paypal is a widely known application for online money transfers. Paypal enables international money transfer and connects directly to your bank account.

It is a very secure and reliable application for money transfer. It accepts all credits to minimise payment hassles. It even connects to your online store and handles processing, security and mobile compatibility.

It can also generate invoices for your business and is capable of converting payment in any currency to the currency that you prefer.

9. MailChimp

MailChimp is one of the most popular email marketing platforms out there and is widely used by businesses of all scale. It offers an all-in-one platform for marketing to businesses that help in managing customers.

MailChimp provides you with attractive email templates that are easy to use and modify and also helps in improving conversions.

You can use MailChimp even if you have no tech or designing knowledge and still ensure a lot of traffic to your website or even creative pleasing forms that your customers could interact with. It offers free and paid plans depending on your business needs.

10. Buffer

Buffer is a software application which is designed to manage social media accounts by allowing you to schedule posts for Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram and Pinterest.

It also enables you to track the performance and analyse the results of each post and also engage with the community. Buffer is available for both web and mobile devices.

Conclusion

Only you know what is best for your team and business. Small business owners are always looking for ways to be more successful and stay ahead of their competitors.

These tools will help you connect with your customers better and make your business processes easy.

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Ratnam Sinha

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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.

Call Recording Solution for Catering Quality CX and Agent Assessment

Acefone Editor

Author

Operations

June 26, 2020

6 mins read eye

Table of content

When a consumer connects to your organisation, their first point of contact is your customer service representatives. Your agents play an important role in the development and maintenance of customer loyalty. Needless to say, this calls for constant agent assessment and training to ensure that your clients experience the very best. Consistent improvement in your customer service will not only set you apart from your competitors but also beneficial to your rapport with your consumers.

So, how can one accomplish agent assessment effectively and efficiently? The answer is calling recordings. Call recording refers to recording inbound and outbound calls to an organisation to be used for documentation and later analysis. Analysis of call records can provide a company with valuable data and eventually enhance customer experience (CX) and brand quality.

First, let’s delve into the two basic features and advantages of opting for call recording solutions:

1. Easy installation: As businesses increasingly adopt cloud solutions, many features that can be obtained from cloud telephony service providers are often bundled to be used cohesively. A call recording feature can be enabled while utilising IVR. IVR or Interactive Voice Response allows your organisation to reroute incoming calls to preferred agents, while call recording maintains documentation of the communication.

2. Documentation: Call recording software ensures that your company has complete documentation of the customer service department. This data can be used in several ways—legal backup, appraisals, strategizing and planning for the future.

How to use the call recording feature to better agent performance?

Your customer service representatives, as mentioned earlier, provide the first impression of how your company communicates with its clients. Call recording solutions become an essential feature to advance agent interaction and appease consumers. There are many ways to utilise this feature to your advantage:

Quality training

They say one must learn from history not to repeat the same mistakes. The call recording feature allows you to do just that. Using records or transcripts of previous interactions between your agent and client, you can pinpoint exactly what has worked and what has failed. These can be used as case studies to further train the agents to adapt successful tactics and dispose of failed methods of communication.

Call records provide more realistic data as compared to any other hypothetical scenario. Your agents will readily be able to relate to the content that provides an accurate representation of their typical calls. The data allows you to study not only the agent’s responses but also the consumer’s behaviour.

Individual growth

Every agent is unique in their strengths and weaknesses. Studying records will empower you to understand the particulars of the same. You can analyse the details of the call recording and individually help your representatives improve upon lacking skills. This also holds accountability as physical proof. Once you review the records with your employee, they can be accurately trained for their next assignment.

Accountability and monitoring

Cloud telephony solution allows you to monitor your employees in real-time. However, how do you manage to supervise every single call when you have numerous employees? If you wish to reexamine the work of your agents to create a complete picture of their daily work, you will have to depend on call recording solutions. Call recordings will provide you with statistics of every ongoing call—duration of the call, location of the caller, frequency of communication, details of the conversation, and call history of individual agents—that can be reviewed endlessly in the future. This allows you to hold your slacking agents responsible for their actions and award the better-performing ones.

Material for further reference

Some conversations may even call for notes to be taken due to details of requests or queries. Agents dealing with high-priority clients or complex queries may need to review said data again to appropriately carry out further actions. However, many external factors can affect the quality of a call between the agent and the customer—bad network, unclear communication on the consumer’s side, interruptions and ambient sounds.

In these situations, the call recording feature allows your agents to go through the footage after the call, pausing and playing as per their convenience.

Legal evidence

Legal threats can be seriously damaging to a brand image. Additionally, cases taken to court can be extended for years and years before any judgement. Hence, it is vital to have core evidence of any communication with a consumer. The call recording feature enables you to store documents of all interactions.

Call recordings have been admissible in court as evidence (not to be confused with call tapping). In case you find yourself in a legal battle with a client, you can use these documents to support your defense or claim (in case you wish to take a matter to court). This is an important backup to have, especially considering the money and time that is spent on these matters.

On a much smaller scale, you can use data from call recording solutions as proof if a customer claims something unfair from you.

How to use call recording solutions to improve customer satisfaction?

As the world moves away from a product-focused market and prioritises service, it is paramount that your business provides the highest quality customer service. You can use call recording solutions to accomplish the same:

Improve products

Your company might receive hundreds of calls per day. If you look at these calls simultaneously, you will be able to thread out a pattern in consumer behaviour. You will be able to narrow down the favourable and unfavourable products. Using the call recording feature, you can study all the calls you receive and understand the feedback of your consumers as a whole.

This information is essential as it gives you the particulars of what your consumers like and dislike. Using this data, you can work on your products and strategise a sales plan to push profitable products and pull back and improve the least preferred ones.

Improve interaction

Yes, the first impression is a marker of what will be your consumer’s initial thoughts about the organisation. However, it is the consistency, or rather improvement, in customer service that they will notice the most. Using the data collected by the call recording, you can emphasise on what the consumer seeks.

You can categorise whether your customer is satisfied or not, and further study the information to understand what could be done to improve this experience. Call recording solutions give you regular information on the communications and you can use the same to mark the improvement or decrement in consumer satisfaction. Once you begin working on what the consumers want, your customer experience will rise equally. High customer satisfaction leads to impenetrable loyalty.

Note: While call recording features do provide a gamut of benefits for any organisation, it is necessary to follow certain ethical and legal restrictions posed by the country. It is good practice to inform your customers that the call is being recorded. You must have heard this statement before—” Your call will be recorded for quality and training purposes”. There are laws surrounding data storage and pausing live conversation that must be followed while using a call recording software.

Conclusion

Call recording solutions are an integral and undeniably beneficial feature of any organisation investing in cloud solutions. The advantages are visible in internal functions as well as external performance. The call recording feature allows your company to maintain high-quality agent work operations by using the data to train, monitor and support your employees. Customer experience is also improved by understanding and improving according to the consumer’s needs. Call recording solutions may be a simple concept, but as they say, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

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Why Should You Choose Voice Broadcasting Solution for Customer Surveys

Acefone Editor

Author

Voice Broadcasting

June 19, 2020

6 mins read eye

Table of content

Cold calls have been a popular method of targeting customers for many years. They are direct, personal and can generate sales leads. However, there are certain inherent problems in the system. One, cold calls require a lot of time and effort on the agent’s part. Two, several agents are required to connect to thousands of potential customers. Three, customers may not appreciate the direct nature of the call and in turn, be put off by your brand. So, what is a better way to connect with your clients at a low cost?

The solution is voice broadcasting services. Voice broadcasting refers to the system of sending a pre-recorded call to thousands of your customers and enabling them to provide feedback through numeric inputs using IVR. The message can reach your customer base instantly and requires no additional management.

Let’s understand the most important application of voice broadcasting solution among the following:

Applications of Voice Broadcasting Solution

The most important use case of voice broadcasting solution is conducting surveys for your business. Business surveys are an integral catalyst for the growth of an organization. To deliver the best service to your customers, you need to understand what they like and dislike about your business. Surveys allow you to question your consumers’ preferences and allow them to inject their suggestions. These suggestions can ultimately be used to modify your products or services. You can also analyze the data and target strong sales leads.

Now, the question arises, why should you use voice broadcasting for consumer surveys? Here’s why:

Simplification

What does your representative go through while trying to individually connect to a consumer? First, they initiate the call and wait for a response, then they introduce themselves and attempt to provide information while dodging the customers’ resistance if any. The entire process is very complicated due to two-way communication. It is also rather time-consuming.

Voice broadcasting, however, has simplified the entire process. Record and send. There is no need to tend to the personal inputs of the consumers. It gets the job done without the unnecessary back and forth.

Minimal setup

If you attempt to connect customers on a one-on-one basis with your agents, the process may go on for a ridiculous amount of time. Additionally, it would cost you a significant chunk to hire several recruits. However, voice broadcasting solutions keep it simple. Simply log into your web platform, upload your recorded message, select your format and other preferable settings, and send. No unnecessary hardware is involved in the procedure.

Wider reach

Surveys are often sent to people through emails. But what about those who do not have access to the internet, or cannot read, or are visually impaired? An email loses the opportunity of connecting to these demographics.

Everyone now has a mobile device and voice broadcasting can reach all these people in an instant. Thousands of calls will immediately connect to your consumers who most likely will respond to verbal communication over a written message.

Live analysis

The most crucial part of a survey or feedback system is the analysis. Voice broadcasting systems will provide you with real-time statistics of the call. You can monitor when the call was made, when a consumer answers, how long the call lasted, and of course, how they responded to the message. Using this data, you can build your consumer analysis and rework your business goals and products.

If you notice an interested customer, you can immediately get your agent to follow up on the lead. The chances of success while approaching a keen customer are higher than randomly cold calling people.

Lack of human error

At the end of the day, when your representatives have gone through call after calling for hours, it is understandable that their enthusiasm might deplete. Additionally, if there is incompetence involved, there could be miscommunication or confusion on their part. With voice broadcasting solution, however, there is no possible scenario of error in communication. Since the message is recorded beforehand, you can ensure that the tone and semantics of the information are accurate and preferable. You can recruit a voice actor for high-quality results.

Each consumer will receive a consistent and approved greeting with no chance of any blunders.

Personalization and amendments

Surely, there is diversity in any company’s consumer base. In India, especially, consumers may be hailing from different regions and speak distinct languages. Voice broadcasting service allows you to appease the multitude of people. You can record your message in any language and even use different languages to target particular customers. That extra personal touch will be the mark of distinction for your organization.

In case you wish to change any of the subject matter in your recorded message, amending it is a rather easy task too. You can record a new message instead or make slight changes to it if required. Overall, convenience is the essence of the system.

Employee productivity

Your consumer service agents are limited to your budget. Essentially, they must work efficiently to produce favourable results. Unfortunately, the same is not possible if they are stuck for hours trying to chase down fluky leads.

When you broadcast a message, there is rapid communication with thousands of customers. While this plays out, your employees can focus on targeting hot leads that you can pinpoint based on the statistics provided. It saves them time and effort and also motivates them to focus on prioritized activities.

Easy for consumers

It has been established that voice broadcasting solution is a simple tool for a businessperson. However, it must also be acknowledged that it is the ideal communication technology for your consumers. When interrupted with a call, they may not be willing to talk to anybody. And in this scenario, they don’t need to. If they wish to provide feedback or answer questions on a survey, all they have to do is press a certain number. Their numeric input will then be registered on your system.

All the instructions must be included in the message. There is no need for them to understand any of the mechanics of voice broadcasting service. They might even be delighted to provide you with information in exchange for better service in the future.

Better communication

Several methods can be used for the purpose of conducting surveys. Companies use emails or SMS or website pages. However, there are certain benefits of verbal communication over the written word. You can create a more informal atmosphere with the tone and words of the recorded message. You can also elaborate on details without boring the customer who would have to read a long paragraph in other situations.

Moreover, the same can be used to reinforce your brand image in your consumers’ minds. When they hear your brand’s name on a phone call, it might register easier than having read it. Voice broadcasting solution, thus, allows you to cater to your clients better and build a stronger bond between company and customer.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that voice broadcasting service is a far superior method of conducting business surveys as compared to its alternatives. It is uncomplicated to set up and use. You can record whatever is the ‘perfect’ message for your customers as per your preference. This message will reach thousands of people instantly and allow a wide consumer base to communicate with your business conveniently. Ultimately, the analysis of this data will guide you to potentially successful sales leads, and also give you feedback on your businesses’ products and services. There is much that can be accomplished with this rather simple system of communication and the time to exploit the opportunity is now.

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How A VoIP Phone System Helps Real Estate Businesses

Acefone Editor

Author

Voice - VoIP

June 17, 2020

5 mins read eye

Table of content

For those in the real estate business, you know that it is important to be able to multitask and be flexible.

Your priorities will change by the hour and being tied to a desk phone is not ideal for this industry, where you need to be out with clients and customers, showing them houses or selling your services.

This is where a VoIP system comes in to help give your staff the freedom they need to excel in their jobs, while still allowing you to capture leads and keep business running as usual.

In this article, we will run through some of the ways that a VoIP phone can help your real estate business flourish.

Freedom For Your Real Estate Agents

A VoIP phone system allows your staff to work from anywhere in the world.

They can access their phone easily on any compatible device; such as a laptop, tablet, or mobile phone – and can make and receive calls as if they are sat in the office.

This frees staff up to go wherever they are needed, without them worrying about missing an important call.

They can show houses, meet clients, speak to landlords and property developers and give them great service while their phone system continues to work seamlessly.

A real estate agent should be out in the field and needs to be knowledgeable about your properties to sell them effectively.

So they should be visiting and checking everything is OK in the property to prepare for viewings, something which is not an issue when they can take their phone line with them wherever they go.

If there is ever an emergency in a rented property that you manage, your agents can go out to solve this problem without leaving their phones unattended.

The nature of real estate means that it is unpredictable and priorities can change at any moment, but with a VoIP phone system you are prepared for anything.

Use IVR To Help Customers Reach The Right Person

IVR, or Interactive Voice Response, is a fantastic business tool that can be added to your phone system.

IVR adds options to your phone system (for example, press 1 to reach house sales), so customers calling you can self select and reach the right person quickly.

IVR helps save your business time when answering calls and improves customer satisfaction as customers spend less time on the phone trying to get through to the correct person.

The IVR system can be personalized to match your branding and can be used to put out messages en masse to customers when they call you – particularly useful if your business is closed for any reason, you can give customers an emergency out of hours number or communicate when you are open again.

Many real estate companies will have multiple departments, such as lettings, sales, maintenance and more – so this is a useful tool to help direct customers to the right department on their first call.

Store Data Securely In Acefone’s Online Portal

Your customer’s data can be securely stored in our online portal.

This portal gives you access to everything you need to know about how your phone system is operating; including call times, call costs, and recordings of all calls so you can easily access anything you need.

Everything is stored safely and securely in the cloud, so if anything happened to your office premises, you can pick up right where you left off as the data is hosted off-site and you will not lose any of your precious data.

The online portal also gives you the ability to make detailed notes on customer’s accounts.

These notes can detail all communications with customers and give details on any outstanding tasks that your real estate agents need to look at.

Anyone who connects to your cloud phone system can see these notes, and so can be up to speed in seconds with that customer’s account – even if they have not been dealing with them previously.

This gives a much more professional impression to customers than staff scrambling to find information and repeating questions the customer has already gone through to catch themselves up.

Used to your advantage, these notes and detailed analytics can take your customer experience to the next level and can help you ensure that all of your real estate agents are working well for your customers.

You can also use call recordings to train new agents and give them real examples of customer interactions.

Use Your Number To Your Advantage

Real estate businesses may not just deal with properties in one area, so you can choose a number to suit you with a VoIP phone system.

You may want to increase local ties wherever you are selling homes, so you could set up local numbers for customers to call; these numbers will automatically direct to your phone system, without any interruption for the customer.

This gives you the chance to set up virtual offices in cities all over the world, and you can hire real estate agents to work in these cities if you wanted someone local to speak to customers – as hosted phone systems can support remote workers anywhere in the world with just an internet connection needed.

If you are looking for a more national image, a freephone number is perfect.

A toll free number will make your company appear larger, and will show customers that you have invested in your customer service and want to keep communications open.

A free phone number breaks down any barriers to a customer calling you and can give your sales team extra opportunities to speak to potential customers and sell your services.

Finally, a branded number can be added to your phone system to help boost your marketing campaigns.

A branded number could be something recognizable and can be worked into your marketing to help customers remember your number when they come to need your services.

Each type of phone number has a different use, but each directs straight to your agents so customers can enjoy crystal clear communications every time they call you.

If you would like to find out more about how a VoIP phone system can help your real estate business, call us today on 1888-859-0450 and discuss with our expert team.

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Top 10 Benefits of Using Cloud Telephony Solution in 2020 [Infographic]

Acefone Editor

Author

Infographics

June 16, 2020

4 mins read eye

Table of content

Nothing is more important than communication for businesses in today’s competitive landscape. In fact, it is more important for a client today than ever before to be able to communicate with their company of choice with ease. Therefore, it makes sense for you, as an organization, to go the extra mile with every communication channel, especially telephony systems. A switch from traditional on-premises telephony systems to cloud telephony solution is a smart business move. A cloud-based phone system offers numerous advantages for businesses, which is the reason why most of them are fast embracing cloud telephony solution. Let us list the top benefits of using it in 2020.

Benefits of Cloud Telephony

Benefit #1: Integrated Communications System in Place

A cloud telephony system empowers your organization with integrated communications that streamline the daily workflow. This service optimizes individual teams’ pipelines of work, while you can also achieve a smooth flow for the whole business. The cloud telephony solution helps outperform competitors and boosts productivity with seamless access to a range of CRM tools, instant messaging, email, voice, and video conferencing

Benefit #2: Extensive Mobility and Flexibility

With flexible work timings and policies becoming a norm, mobility and flexibility have become essential for organizations. The COVID 19 crisis, especially, has forced businesses to shift to a work-from-home model. Cloud telephony solution allows employees to make their work mobile. People can take calls and answer support queries even when they’re not present in the office. All they need is any smart device along with a stable Internet connection, and they are good to go.

Benefit #3: Better Control Over Communications

Traditional landline phones do not allow you to keep track of all business communication and conversations. With cloud telephony, you can leverage the call recording feature that lets you record every incoming and outgoing call. Obviously, the feature helps your team improve overall business communication. Moreover, the recorded calls may be used for training purposes and future reference for issue redressal.

Benefit #4: Scalability and Customizability

A volatile business landscape implies every organization must be willing and able to evolve with agility. What you really need is a solution that offers the benefits of scalability and customizability; as it turns out, cloud telephony solution covers you on both the fronts. These solutions let you add more users to communicate seamlessly with a larger customer base. And if you require a customized feature to enhance your CRM integration, you can leverage it as well.

Benefit #5: Cost Savings

A cloud telephony system also enables significant cost savings for your business. For instance, you end up eliminating the cost of infrastructure required for setting up and maintaining the traditional desk phone systems. These solutions do not clutter the office space either and serve as a rescue strategy when your employees have to make the switch to a remote working model.

Benefit #6: Resilience and Reliability

Natural disasters like cyclones, floods, and earthquakes can cause extensive damage to traditional telephony systems, but cloud systems are least affected. In fact, cloud storage keeps the information safe and makes it accessible from anywhere. No matter what happens, you can be assured about the continuity of your business.

Benefit #7: Access to Rich Business Features

A cloud telephony system is business-friendly and loaded with features. Apart from real-time analytics, the solution offers call schedulers, post-call surveys, IVR, missed call services, voicemail drops, bulk SMS automation, and more. These features empower your baseline automation that simplifies business by turning manual work into automated workflows.

Benefit #8: Efficiency in Sales and Support Processes

The auto dialer feature of cloud telephony solutions facilitates sales and support agents to make calls and send messages and voicemails automatically. With manual work reduced to the minimum, the efficiency and productivity of your employees increase in a substantial and, yet sustainable manner.

Benefit #9: Dependable Security

Cloud-based solutions are easy to upgrade. You can transition to the latest software seamlessly, which gives you the advantage of dependable security. There are constant checks against unusual activity. If anything suspicious takes place, the system will lock down automatically. The cloud provider addresses the issues on priority basis and gets your solution back to running securely.

Benefit #10: Minimal Carbon Footprint

New businesses are, more often than not, eco-conscious. Cloud telephony is a green technology because it is not dependent on energy-consuming infrastructure. If you want to make the world a clean and green place, don’t think twice before opting for the cloud.

Considering the benefits of cloud telephony solutions, it is an excellent idea for every business—regardless of size and scale—to switch from traditional telephony to the cloud. If you are looking to make the switch in 2020, go for a cloud telephony service provider that offers a complete package of features along with the assurance of reliability, quality, efficiency, and affordability.

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