Music On Hold: All You Need To Know

Ratnam Sinha

Author

Contact Center

May 5, 2020

5 mins read eye

Table of content

Have you ever contacted a business and waited in the queue before being connected to an agent? It gets quite boring when you just sit there waiting, isn’t it?

But when there is some music, the hold doesn’t feel as much of a wait as it would be without one.

As we listen to that music, we relate it to something we have heard before, and that makes passing the time a bit easier.

This is the whole psychological concept behind the Music On Hold Feature! To engage the customers in something before they get connected to an agent.

How Does Music on Hold Work?

With a traditional phone system, providing music on hold to the customers was a tiring process.

The telephony system needed to be connected with a playback device, like a CD player, that played recorded music or message which needed to be activated manually when the customer was put on the queue.

But that is not the case today, and music on hold isn’t as rare either. With the introduction of Hosted PBX, it is very easy to provide music on hold by taking advantage of cloud technology.

You get this feature with most cloud-hosted phone systems today.
Let’s get into more detail why Music on Hold can be an essential feature for your business.

1. Customer Retention

The main reason why music on hold is implemented is to avoid losing a customer. Every call is valuable to an organisation, whether it’s a small business or a large enterprise, as every lead counts.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a new customer or an old one, if they feel that the agent is taking too long to answer, and are being careless about the people in the queue, they will probably switch to other service providers.

While with music on hold, a drastic increase in customer’s waiting time is observed.

There can even be a recorded message to relay information to the customer while they are waiting, to provide them with more value when the customer is being connected to an agent.

2. Different Message For Different Department

The customisation of music on hold feature doesn’t stop at just playing a snippet of particular music or message.

But in fact, you can select multiple music tracks or voice messages to be played for the waiting queue of different departments.

You can even customise the message or music for new and frequent customers, or for some VIP customers to make them feel special.

This provides your customers with greater satisfaction, enhancing their overall experience with your business.

3. Provide Valuable Information

With Music on hold, you can provide your customers with a lot of information saving both, the customer and your business time. And you can keep on changing messages as per your current situation without any hassle from your end.

You can provide basic information like the location or directions to your office, or answer some frequently asked questions about your business or product.

You can even endorse a new product while the customer is waiting to be connected to an agent, which might intrigue him to enquire about the new product or service, or even buy it.

4. Enhance Your Professional Image

Let’s be truthful here, whenever we hear a snippet of music or an informative message while waiting in the queue, we instantly associate it with a large organisation.

This is extremely useful for new businesses that are just starting out and building a name for their company. Even for larger organisations, it is essential to maintain its brand image for their customers.

This also helps in building a trust factor with the customers. customers tend to trust an established brand which has a name for itself in the market.

With music on hold implemented, you can easily enhance your brand image and build stronger bonds with your customers.

What You Should Know Before Implementing Music On Hold

The very first thing you should keep in mind while implementing music on hold feature for your business communication channel is not to use any copyrighted music.

Using music owned by any other company can cause serious trouble for your business.

It can not only cost you a huge amount of money, but might even take you to the legal processes, and that is not what any business owner would like.

Above all, it can shatter your business’ reputation completely and affect the reliability among your customers.

Thus, it is important to purchase a license of the music you are going for play to your customers.

Simply buying it on Amazon or iTunes won’t work either, as playing it as a hold music will be considered rebroadcasting, which is illegal. Purchase the music from the creators or the people who hold the license to that particular music.

You can even create your own music by hiring professional people online. Another way is to play royalty free music which is also available.

In A Nutshell

Music on Hold is an amazing feature for businesses to improve their interactions with customers. If used in the right, and legal manner, it brings a lot of benefits to the organisation.

For any business, retaining their customers is crucial, and with music on hold, they can significantly enhance their customer experience resulting in the customers staying connected for a longer duration of time.

Moreover, it also increases your reputation among your customers, and they are more likely to recommend you to others, giving your marketing strategy a free-of-cost boost.

Other than playing music on hold, you can record an informative voice message and play it so that the customers get to know about your business, from new services and products, to how to reach your office.

Acefone provides music on hold feature without any additional cost with a Hosted Phone System. You can connect to an expert today to get your business the boost it needs at 1888-859-0450.

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.

Role Of Hosted Phone Systems In The Finance Industry

Acefone Editor

Author

Phone System

April 29, 2020

5 mins read eye

Table of content

In the Finance industry, it is important to remain connected and contactable at all times.

Clients need to be able to get in touch with you quickly and sometimes in an emergency, so a robust and reliable phone system is a must for any business in the financial industry.

Financial businesses are often dealing with highly sensitive data from customers, so to build this trust you must ensure that your phone system is as secure as possible and that attackers cannot reach your customer’s precious data.

We’ve outlined the role hosted phone systems play in the finance industry and how you can make your phone system work for you as a financial professional.

Always Be Available To Talk To Clients

The beauty of a hosted phone system is that your staff can work from anywhere in the world, and can connect remotely to your phone system using an internet connection and their compatible device.

They can access all your customer data and work seamlessly with your team to answer client queries.

We understand that financial businesses often have customers globally, so it is important that each of these customers can contact your business should they need any assistance.

A hosted phone system lets you hire remote workers anywhere in the world, so someone will always be available to take customer calls as they will be working in different time zones.

This is great for customers to get 24/7 service as finance is not a nine to five occupation and clients will often need you at all times of the day.

Hosted phone systems help to ensure customer needs are met and show clients that you are heavily invested in ensuring optimum customer satisfaction.

Never Miss A Lead

A hosted phone system has many features designed to ensure you never miss a lead.

Firstly, you can answer calls from any device, anywhere as long as it is connected to the internet meaning that even if you are travelling for business or working from home you will not miss a lead and can carry on with business as usual.

Hosted phone systems also give you the opportunity to add a virtual assistant to your phone system.

The virtual assistant can take messages from customers and forward voicemails straight to your email inbox, so you can pick up on any messages and follow up when you are free.

This is particularly useful when you are a sole trader and may not be able to answer calls at all times.

Clients will be impressed with the level of professionalism and the value you place on their messages; as they will be able to leave a message they are less likely to move on to a competitor as their message has been taken professionally by a virtual assistant.

So, you can go wherever your business needs you to without worrying about missing any calls or lucrative leads.

Secure And Compliant

A hosted phone system has multi-level security measures helping you ensure that incoming and outgoing calls are completely secure.

We know it is important for Financial businesses to adhere to compliance regulations and ensure that they are completely secure and compliant and so a hosted phone system lessens the burden of regulations and makes your phone system fully compliant.

Your business can store sensitive information with confidence as Acefone’s hosted phone systems store customer data in the cloud, fully adhering to PIC, FCC, GDPR and CPNI regulations.

Data is also stored and backed up in different geographical locations.

Adding an extra layer of protection for your business in the event of a crisis or should something happen to your business’ physical premises, we can get you set back up right away with the minimum of downtime.

Acefone also provides security from threats so your client data is safe from any attacks, increasing the level of trust between you and your clients.

We take care of any updates and ensure your phone system is safe and secure so you can focus on working with your clients.

Manage Your Teams Remotely

If you have teams based all over the world, you may think it would be difficult to keep track of their work.

With a hosted phone system, this is not a worry for managers as they can use an easy to use online portal to ensure that staff are productive and costs are within budget.

Contact center managers can see every call coming into your company and can also monitor staff productivity all through your hosted phone system.

With Acefone’s online portal, you can access all the analytics and information you need to ensure your team is working effectively and productively.

As a manager you can access any call recording you need in the event of a complaint or query and can use these secure call recordings to help train new recruits.

Analytics can be accessed in real-time, so you can log in at any time and see how your contact center is running and redeploy staff if you need to.

With all the information you need at your fingertips you can manage a hosted contact center with workers all over the world easily with a compatible device and an internet connection.

Keep Your Business Moving And Growing

With 99.9% uptime, a hosted phone system will allow you to keep your business running no matter what happens.

As your phone system works over an internet connection, we can have you back up and running in minutes from any compatible device so your staff can continue with business should anything happen.

As hosted phone systems are portable, your staff can keep moving wherever they need to go and are not restrained to their desks.

Hosted phone systems are fully scalable and will grow with your business, so you do not need to worry about extra costs should you need to hire more staff.

You can add lines with just a few clicks on the online portal and can add as many as you need to cope with demand on your business.

Hosted phone systems can play a vital role in the Finance industry and can help ease some of the worries which face Financial professionals in terms of security and compliance while freeing up staff to go where they are needed and work from wherever they need to.

If you would like to find out more about how a hosted phone system can help your business, call our team on 1888-859-0450 .

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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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.

4 Tips For Call Centre Managers During Work From Home

Acefone Editor

Author

Contact Center

April 28, 2020

5 mins read eye

Table of content

With a hosted phone system, managing a call center from home is easier than ever before.

Working remotely may be completely new for some call center managers and may take some time to transition and ensure staff are working as efficiently as possible.

But we have some tips and tricks to help ease that transition by utilising everything your hosted phone system has to offer.

Read on to find out more about how we can help you manage an effective workforce from the safety and comfort of your own home…

Monitor And Manage Through Acefone’s Online Portal

As a manager, it can be daunting to adjust your team to home working.

You may be worried that staff will not be able to take as many calls as they could in the office, or that they might struggle to adapt to working from home with extra distractions.

This is not a worry for call center managers using a hosted phone system, as they are able to access everything they need from Acefone’s online portal.

The online portal gives you the opportunity to view call time, agent waiting time, access call recordings and much more all in just a few clicks.

Using this information you can identify agents who are working well and find those who might need a bit of extra assistance and work with them to get them up to speed with their home working.

The portal allows you to add and remove lines as you need them with a few clicks too, so you can still hire temporary agents if you need to or can remove lines you are not using if you have had to furlough any staff members.

Hire The Best Staff, Not Just The Closest

Hosted phone systems give call center managers a unique opportunity to hire staff anywhere in the world to help them while staff are working from home.

Customers will expect to wait a little longer to get in contact with you, but if this starts to affect your customer experience and lose your business it might be time to hire extra staff.

While it can be more difficult to train these staff (although not impossible with access to call recordings and conference calling between staff), you can choose to hire experienced temporary staff to help your employees pick up the slack and ensure customer calls are being answered in an acceptable time.

As you can manage staff from your home, you will be able to coach them and ensure they are doing everything you need them to use the online portal.

The staff member only needs an internet connection and compatible device (laptop, computer, mobile phone or tablet) to connect and they can answer calls with the same quality as if they were sitting in the room with you.

Although having to work from home may seem hard if you are not used to doing this, this difficult time can offer a great opportunity to add talented temporary staff to your business.

These new employees can help with the development of your existing staff too.

Use IVR Systems To Direct Customers And Decrease Waiting Times

You can easily add an IVR system to your hosted phone system, which allows you to communicate en masse to any customers getting in touch with your business.

You can have an automated message advising your customers of any waiting times and managing their expectations early on in the contact; you can use this to direct customers to online resources and only have calls which are urgent coming through.

The IVR system also lets customers self-select which department they want to speak to, so with more customers going directly to the right person in your company.

This surely will decrease waiting times as customers will not need to be passed from employee to employee in search of a resolution.

The customers will be able to get their enquiry solved at the first point of contact saving your business time and money and ensuring you can speak to as many customers as possible.

The IVR system, used correctly, can be a fantastic tool for call center managers working from home as this can easily be edited with just a few clicks.

This gives you a unique opportunity to communicate with all of your customers and ensure that customer satisfaction remains high.

Keep Team Morale Up With Conference Calls

If your team is used to working closely with each other, working from home may cause them to feel isolated or disconnected from your business.

This can have a negative effect on their mental and physical health and may cause them to need to take time off or look for a new role.

As a manager, it is your duty to ensure the wellbeing of your staff and your hosted phone system allows you to hold conference calls with all of your staff to stay in touch.

Conference calling is included as standard on your hosted phone system and is a great way to keep staff engaged with team meetings.

Staff anywhere in the world can dial in and keep up to date with everything going on.

This connection increases the cohesion in your team and also ensures that important information is shared across your business – so nothing is missed and your staff can serve your customers to the best of their ability.

Working from home does not have to be a difficult task for call center managers and agents if you make the most of your hosted phone system and all the handy features you have access to and use the information you have on hand from the online portal.

You can ensure you are running an effective contact center and continuing to deliver excellent customer service in the face of adversity.

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

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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Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Communication

Ratnam Sinha

Author

Contact Center

5 mins read eye

Table of content

When we hear Artificial Intelligence or AI, the first thing that comes in our mind is a machine that can act and think like a human being.

But that reality is still far away in the future.

Artificial Intelligence really is the ability of a machine to do a particular work on its own and to learn from its personal experience on how to solve a problem or complete a task in the least amount of time.

Introduction to AI technologies like natural language processing, businesses can enhance customer service, streamline communication, and offer 24/7 support—all while reducing the need for human intervention in routine queries.

On the other hand, Cloud Communication is an emerging and fast-growing technology which enables interaction between people, whether the internal office communication or agent-to-customer communication, via the internet.

This enables businesses to get the benefit of loads of VoIP features and helps in avoiding the hassle of the physical on-premises hardware with a cloud phone system.

So what happens when we bring Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Communication together? Let’s find out.

IVR Solutions

IVR, which stands for Interactive Voice Response, or often called a Virtual Assistant, is an AI-based cloud telephony technology which enables self-help to the customers calling a business.

IVR or Virtual Assistant helps to Route calls to different departments without the need for any manual work.

A Virtual Assistant can also solve the minor queries of the customer on its own when the FAQs are pre-recorded into the system.

It also greets the customers with a welcome message that can be customised anytime.

AI Chatbots

AI chatbots are growing in popularity among businesses for interacting with their customers. AI Chatbots is programmed to reply to specific questions automatically.

It also collects data about the customers that are given to the agent before they interact with the customer to make it a better experience for the customer.

AI chatbots make it easier for both the customer and the business to have an efficient and easy interaction.

It also saves time of the customers as the general information is provided by the AI in the chat. Many customers prefer chatting over call, so AI chatbots are an asset to any organisation.

Robotic Process Automation

Telecommunication companies have to handle a large volume of data on a daily basis which makes the possibility of human errors more likely to happen.

RPA or Robotic Process Automation is a business process automation technology based on Artificial Intelligence that makes processing data simpler and fast for businesses, especially when combined with AI development services to enhance automation capabilities

Fraud Detection

The cloud telecommunication industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world and just like any other industry it is also prone to frauds.

Authorisation, illegal access, cloning, theft, etc. are some of the common fraudulent activities.

Artificial Intelligence is able to detect and stop these unauthorised activities and securing business data.

It is able to detect the abnormalities in traffic and block them for getting hold of any essential or sensitive information.

Machine Learning

Machine learning refers to the ability of any software to learn more and more from the activities it does. Basically, it learns from its own experiences and improves itself.

It uses prediction of data to process the tasks faster. Machine learning functionality of Artificial Intelligence allows the software to act faster every time it is used.

This saves a lot of time for the agents and the organisations and also eliminates the possibilities of errors.

Predictive Risk Management

Artificial Intelligence is capable of carrying out predictive analysis for telecommunication companies which helps them with better service.

With the help of machine learning, AI is able to use the historic data of the organisation to predict any possible risks or issues that might occur in the future.

This helps the businesses to prepare for such issues and be able to avoid them completely. With AI, the business process is uninterrupted and streamlined.

This also helps businesses make future proof strategies to improve their performance.

Optimised Networks

According to Forbes, 83% of organisations believe AI to be a strategic priority for their business today.

This is because artificial intelligence lets you optimise your network as well as infrastructure. AI can analyse, optimise, correct technological errors in real-time.

It makes uninterrupted service available. This creates a self-organising system, which is basically a network that can self optimise and self configure.

Also, AI predicts if a similar issue can occur in the future and take measures to prevent and resolve it beforehand. Thus, this improves the performance by many folds.

Creating a Physical Database

Artificial Intelligence has a lot of useful features in the telecommunication industry.

For organisations using multichannel communication to connect with their agents better and provide them with greater satisfaction, it can get a little difficult to collect all the data of different communication media in one place.

However, With Artificial Intelligence, they can create physical databases of customer interactions to store them securely in case any natural calamity.

The voice-to-text feature of AI allows the organisation to create transcripts of the conversations that happened over calls and keep it with the data of the text messages, or email conversations that were exchanged with the customers.

This ensures that the data of a single customer is kept together in a single format.

Bottom Line

Artificial Intelligence has made it possible for telecommunication companies to process enormous data quickly, detect issues beforehand, extract essential insights from the customer interaction data, resolve customer issues faster using the in-hand data as soon as possible, and offer the customers with an optimum experience.

With artificial intelligence in cloud communication, the process has become much for simpler and fast.

It is just a matter of minutes for AI to process data that might take a normal human about a week. This has made it possible for the telecom industry to provide uninterrupted services to its customers and grow at a rapid rate.

If you want Seamless cloud communication service for your business, contact one of our experts at 1888-859-0450 or drop an email for your business requirements at [email protected], and we will make sure you get what you need.

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.

Why Every Business Needs VoIP Solutions

Acefone Editor

Author

Voice - VoIP

6 mins read eye

Table of content

VoIP phone solutions are an ideal addition to any business owner who is serious about improving their communications and bringing their company into the 21st century.

With innovative solutions providing a range of amazing features and giving staff the freedom to work from wherever they want to, every business no matter if they are large or small needs VoIP solutions to truly unlock their business’ communication potential and elevate their customer services.

In this article, we will explore exactly what a VoIP solution can do for a business and why your business needs to invest in this innovative technology.

Amazing Features From Your VoIP Phone System

VoIP solutions bring with them a whole host of benefits, from customisable telephone numbers to call conferencing and easy remote working.

The features which you can add to your hosted phone system are incomparable to a traditional phone system. With VoIP phone system from Acefone, you are in control of your hosted phone system and are free to pick and choose which features will work for your business and work within your budget.

So you can create the best, most feature-rich phone system which exactly matches your needs. Here are just a few of the exciting features available to you with a hosted phone system…

1. Custom Phone Numbers

Businesses large and small can customize their phone number; creating a freephone number, local number or memorable number.

Whatever your marketing goals, your phone number can help you achieve this.

If your business is wanting to look more established and larger, a freephone number is great for making this impression on customers.

Should your business want to increase local community ties and trust, a local number is perfect for this goal.

You can create a phone number that works for you with complete ease; and whatever number you choose, your calls will come through to your employees (wherever they may be) who will enjoy crystal clear communications with your customers.

2. Easy To Manage Remote Working

All staff need to connect to your phone system is an internet connection and a compatible device (laptop, mobile phone or tablet) to work from and they are ready to take calls!

With Acefone’s online portal, it is easy to manage remote workers even if they are in a different country to you; as you will have access to all the analytics you need to manage their performance and check everything is running smoothly.

With the online portal, you can listen to call recordings, see call statistics, agent waiting times, number of incoming and outgoing calls and much more.

You can also monitor the cost of your calls here too, ensuring you are on the right package for your business’ usage.

With a VoIP solution, your business will have all the tools necessary to open and run a hosted contact center, with low costs and easily accessible management tools.

This gives businesses of any size the opportunity to broaden their recruitment drives worldwide, so you can hire the best talent and not just people who are local to you.

3. Direct Calls With An IVR System

If your business has multiple departments or locations and you want to save your agents time and therefore yourself money, a business telephony service can help.

With a VoIP solution, this is completely personalisable and you can record your own message and add options which are relevant to your business’ departments.

An IVR system lets a customer choose who they want to speak to based on their query, stopping your agents from having to keep transferring customers from person to person to find the right answer for them.

These systems also help improve customer satisfaction, as customers spend less time on the phone to your business and are much more likely to have their query answered on the first call; which is great for both business and customer!

4. Plug-in And Play

At Acefone, we understand that your business needs to keep running and taking calls from customers.

You have a level of customer service to uphold and our VoIP solutions ensure that nothing will stand in the way of this. If you had a traditional phone system installed, you could expect lengthy downtime and a period of time where customers cannot contact you – which could lose you valuable business.

With a hosted phone system you can simply plug in your phones and start using them in minutes rather than hours; the simple set up means that you can start enjoying all the features of your hosted phone system right away, and customers will still be able to contact you and benefit from the crystal clear communications from day one.

If you are concerned about any downtime, then your business needs a VoIP solution to ensure that you are reachable at all times to your valued customers.

5. Secure And Compliant Phone Systems

Your customer’s data is important and should be protected as much as you possibly can.

Particularly in today’s climate data attacks are more frequent and customers are much more choosy about who they give their data to.

If you are to attract more customers to your business you need to have a secure and robust system which can handle their data appropriately, and a hosted phone system provides this for you.

Our VoIP solutions are fully compliant, adhering to PIC, FCC, GDPR and CPNI and data is stored in different geographical locations – adding an extra layer of protection for your business in the event of a crisis or attack.

6. Protect Your Business From Disasters

Should the worst happen, you as a business owner want all the protection you can get for your business.

With a VoIP phone Service, your phone system provides 99.9% uptime and you are protected from disasters, should anything happen to your physical premises you can pick up where you left off on another device and work from anywhere in the world while your office premises are repaired.

You also will not lose any of your precious data as it is securely backed up at a different location, so you can restore your system quickly and get back to business as usual in no time.

Why Does My Business Need A VoIP Solution?

If you want to update your communications and provide an improved experience for customers and a more effective system for your employees, through a phone system which connects seamlessly with your CRM system; a VoIP solution is for you.

If you want to keep your customer and business data safe and secure while ensuring your business can carry on through whatever life throws at you, a VoIP system can make this happen easily.

Finally, VoIP solutions do not only feature-rich and secure – they are also cost-effective.

With call costs much lower than traditional phones, even with international calls as they are made through your internet connection.

So, if you want a telephony solution to save your business money while improving your customer relations speak to one of our expert advisors today on 1888-859-0450 and see what VoIP can do for your business.

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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Toll Free Number: All Questions Answered

Acefone Editor

Author

Contact Center

April 27, 2020

4 mins read eye

Table of content

We are sure you have a lot of questions before investing in a toll-free number. Do not waste time combing through pages with jargon, limited resources or outdated information. We have compiled a nifty list that answers all common queries:

1) What is a toll free number?

It is a phone number where the service provider bills the owner of the number for all received calls. In simple words, the person making the incoming call is not charged for call time.

These were first seen in the Western Hemisphere in the 1950s, as a solution for long distance calls which were otherwise a financial burden on consumers. Toll-free numbers are also called ‘800 numbers’ because the first prefix used for them was ‘800’.

In India, the 1800 toll free number is most common. Today, they are assigned according to geographic area codes around the globe.

2) Are there different kinds of toll free numbers?

Yes, there are three basic types.

The Universal International Freephone Number (UIFN) is for companies with multinational presence who want to maintain a single number for all the areas they service. Your business needs to be registered in at least two countries for you to license a UIFN—and mind you, they are the most expensive type. Corporations with a hefty global presence usually subscribe to UIFNs.

International toll-free numbers are country specific digits that a consumer can dial without being charged. They help maintain individual national presence but can bear extra charges if the caller is making their request from a mobile phone.

However, the most common choice for businesses is a domestic toll free number solution, as they do not incur additional charges for calls from mobile users. The prefix of your number will, naturally, depend on which configuration you choose in your package.

3) How are they billed?

Depending on your subscription plan, toll-free numbers can be billed on either the number of minutes spent on call per month or per year. Fixed monthly charges in India are not exorbitant and are mostly within a few thousand rupees.

However, there can be additional charges for processing your subscription request, to submit a security deposit, and for each received call.

4) Does setup and maintenance take long?

Not if you buy a toll-free solution from a cloud telephony provider. Physical phone lines and switchboard operators are quickly becoming a thing of the past.

Choosing a cloud based number helps avoid old school infrastructure setup, maintenance, and training costs, which saves office space and avoids any potential downtime.

5) Are toll free numbers redundant today?

Quite the opposite!

They can be found in every company wanting a well rounded customer experience. Businesses enjoy the additional features that come with buying a cloud based toll-free solution, such as call recording, call forwarding and call routing, which boost productivity and performance.

Companies also choose to buy cloud telephony bundles, which combine toll free numbers with multi-tier IVR systems to handle giant call volumes.

6) What is a vanity number and is it charged differently?

Much like vanity plates on cars, vanity numbers are a type of alphanumeric toll free number where you can customize what characters feature in the final display.

They are useful in creating customized phone numbers according to your company image and help boost brand recall. These numbers are usually priced at a higher rate than your usual toll free number since they offer more leeway to tune things to your liking, but at the same time, they offer businesses a greater return on investment.

7) What kind of industries invest in toll free numbers?

The range is vast and well warranted. The most obvious choice is general emergency helplines for government agencies, natural disaster mitigation departments, or charity work. Toll-free numbers are also widely used in sectors that secure bookings, such as medicine (consultations, ambulance, paramedic calls) or travel (hotel bookings, ticket confirmations and cancellations).

Today, it is indispensable in e-commerce for enquiries and grievances, as well as for small and medium enterprises to build a robust brand reputation.

Research institutes can use toll free numbers for studies inviting self-reportage or calling for registration. And of course, on the most primal level, toll free numbers are good for impulse based ventures like telemarketing, where the customer should face no barrier in wanting to buy a product.

8) How many toll free numbers can a single business buy?

The TRAI does not impose limits on the number of subscriptions a single business may purchase. You can pick out different numbers for different campaigns and retire each when they have run their course.

Naturally, it is not advised to hoard an incessant amount that can confuse customers or trouble other business owners during their selection.

Toll-free numbers are a familiar resource that customers tap into when they want to sample a company without any commitment (read: spending) in return. If combined with timely call reports, analytics and an efficient real time dashboard, toll-free solutions can quickly capture genuine callers and grow a steady and loyal client list for your business.

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UCaaS vs CPaaS: What’s The Difference? Which Is Better?

Acefone Editor

Author

Unified Communication

April 22, 2020

5 mins read eye

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Table of content

When choosing a business communication solution, you must always question each solution presented to you to figure out which is going to work best for your business.

Investment in communications can be quite a significant outgoing cost for your business, so you need to make sure you have all the information you need before committing to a solution.

In this article, we are answering your questions about UCaaS and CPaaS, including explaining what these are and how they can both benefit your business in different ways.

What Is A UCaaS Solution?

UCaaS, or Unified Communications as a Service, provides a single platform for all your business communications, including; telephony, video calling, messaging and collaboration.

UCaaS solutions often integrate with your CRM system and provide seamless transmission of information internally through your staff.

With a UCaaS solution, customer’s data is securely stored in the provider’s data center and provides a “plug and play” solution for customers who do not have complicated technical requirements and are ready to use a great tried and tested communication system.

What Is A CPaaS Solution?

Communications platform as a service, or CPaaS, are cloud-based delivery models that allow organizations to add real-time communication capabilities, such as voice, video and messaging to their existing business applications by the use of API’s to customise what the communication system can provide.

By integrating with custom API’s, a CPaaS solution can provide organizations with a much lower cost alternative to building a custom app for their customers.

By using their existing communication system they can create real-time communication facilities using a range of platforms, often including APIs, SDKs, and Java or .NET libraries.

Some providers can also offer the use of drag-and-drop visual tools to enable those with little experience in development to build these custom integrations.

UCaaS vs CPaaS

Now we know what each of these solutions does for businesses, we will look at how they compare to each other, giving you as a business owner the opportunity to weigh up your options and find out which could benefit your business and which may provide you with everything that you need in your communications systems.

CPaaS solutions allow developers to build real-time communication structures into your business apps and communication methods.

The simplification of developing your communication in this way allows you to pay for just what you need and saves you time and also open up brand new lines of communication within your existing apps.

If you have an app for customers to look at their accounts and make changes to their details, you could also add a video function for customers to connect directly with your agents to discuss any questions they may have about their account.

This quick and more personalised style of communication gives a much more polished and professional view of your company and can help customers feel much more connected to your business and therefore this connection and satisfaction can help foster loyalty.

CPaaS provides quite innovative communication solutions, at a much lesser cost than building your communication app from scratch.

Some providers even have a drag and drop feature so those without as much coding experience can create some fantastic communication services for customers.

CPaaS solutions ensure your business is at the forefront of technology, and as customers expect to be able to reach you with the minimum of effort, CPaaS communications give you the chance to focus on building exactly what your customers need on the app level, rather than spending valuable time working on the back end of the app.

UCaaS solutions, on the other hand, provide a plugin and play communication solution.

By providing a single platform for all of your business solutions these types of communication systems are more suited to boosting internal communications rather than opening up bespoke ways to communicate with customers.

UCaaS solutions combine all of your methods of communication into your phone system, so you do not need to invest in many different pieces of hardware to communicate with both customers and colleagues, no matter where in the world you are based.

If it is important to your business to encourage collaboration between staff, UCaaS solutions are perfect as they are quick to set up, reliable and completely portable.

Staff anywhere in the world can communicate just as easily as if they were sitting on a desk together and this is all at a low cost as this integrated communication solution runs over an internet connection.

UCaaS solutions are also much more reliable than traditional telephony solutions, as the provider takes care of all the updates and technical issues through a maintenance package.

So if your business is looking for a solution where staff can collaborate easily but you want to be able to just plug in and go with a simple, easy to use interface then a UCaaS solution has everything you need.

You can add and remove features to your phone system (such as virtual receptionists, IVR systems and more) and can tailor your hosted phone system to meet exactly what you need and fall in line with your budget.

Both UCaaS and CPaaS solutions have their benefits, but the answer to which is better depends on what your business is looking for from your communications.

If you need a more flexible way to communicate with clients and customers and have the technical know-how to build apps to provide innovative ways to communicate with your customers then a CPaaS would be for you.

If you are looking to boost internal communications and are looking for a simple solution which provides feature-rich telephony at low costs, UCaaS is for you.

If you would like to find out more about our hosted telephony solutions, call our team on 1888-859-0450 for more information.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

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Why IVR Is Suitable For Small Businesses As Well As Large Enterprises

Acefone Editor

Author

Contact Center

April 21, 2020

5 mins read eye

Table of content

If you have not heard about IVR before, an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system is completely personalisable and gives customers the opportunity to choose which department they come through too, before the call is connected to your operators.

With a hosted phone system, you can personalise this system to ensure it is branded and a good representation of what your company can offer.

IVR saves time for both customers and agents as they can go straight through to the correct department and do not need to be passed around from agent to agent to find the solution to their query.

IVR for Larger Businesses

Ordinarily, IVR systems will be heard when calling large enterprises.

Larger businesses tend to have more staff and more departments a customer could potentially want to speak to, so this gives these businesses the opportunity to funnel these customers to the department they need rather than taking up the time of another department trying to figure out where to send them.

Customers have some level of expectation when they call a large company that they will be able to self select the department which is most relevant to their query and in having these IVR systems in place businesses are meeting customer expectations and helping them be more satisfied with the process.

IVR For Small Businesses

As this is the norm for larger enterprises, smaller businesses could follow suit and make use of this exciting feature on their own hosted phone systems.

This is a quick way for small business telecommunications solutions to exceed customer expectations by giving them the option to self-select which department they are put through to.

This also makes a small business appear larger and more established and professional, increasing trust in a potential customer from the minute they dial your number.

A smaller business could personalise this feature so that when a call comes through you already have some idea on what the customer is wanting to talk about, so your agents (or you as a business owner) can be prepared to impress a customer as soon as they come through with your extensive product knowledge.

Inform Your Customers

IVR systems can not only serve to direct customers to the correct department, but they can also be used to give out messages of importance to your customers en masse when they call.

Particularly during the current Coronavirus pandemic, it is useful to manage customer expectations through putting messaging on your IVR system explaining there may be delays in answering your call or even that you are closed for business if your opening hours have changed.

Businesses both small and large should be using this feature to ensure customers are kept informed about your business and are not met with long waits to contact you with no explanation as to why.

Professionalism

There is no reason why a small business cannot make the most of an IVR system in the same way a large business would.

Even if you do not have multiple departments in your business, you can make it appear to customers that you do and just have the calls direct to either yourself or an employee who can field any enquiries on your behalf.

A customer calling a small business will be impressed by this level of professionalism and it will give them more confidence in using your business for whatever it is they need.

As you will come across as much more established with a dedicated business phone system rather than just a mobile phone number on any online listing.

Portability

Calls put through an IVR system can be diverted to mobile so as a small business owner you will not be chained to your desk.

Hosted phone systems are designed to be as portable as you need them to be so not only will customers call a professional line and be able to self select an option based on their enquiry, they will come through to you on any device you choose with no difference to the call quality, sounding as if you are on a landline in an office building.

No matter where you are or where your employees are, you can pick up calls just like you are in the office quickly and professionally.

Improved Customer Experience

As well as being able to solve more queries in the first call, increase your professional image and improve customer experience; IVR systems can help smaller businesses get ahead of their competition.

It is unlikely that comparable smaller businesses will have IVR systems set up to improve their customer experience.

So, during a customer’s research phase they may call multiple companies to find out more about their services and if they are greeted by one company who’s professionalism stands out to them – they are of course much more likely to go with the company who comes across as the most established and professional.

An IVR gives a small business many opportunities to win new business and keep existing customers loyal and satisfied with their customer experience.

For larger enterprises, the benefits are obvious by saving employees and customers time when the business does a range of different things and customers may be calling about any one of their services.

But for smaller businesses the benefits can be even greater, taking small businesses professionalism to the next level and ensuring they stand out from competitors and can even rival larger enterprises in their professionalism and customer experience.

Conclusion

If you would like to make your small business appear larger and more established then an IVR system can provide a quick and effective solution, which you can add your own branding and style to, to ensure your branding is consistent from your marketing through to customer contact.

This can be added to your hosted phone system easily and for very little cost, and you can manage everything about your phone system from Acefone’s online portal – making you only a few clicks away from a professional IVR system!

If you would like to find out more about how an IVR system works and how it can benefit your business, small or large, call our team on 1888-859-0450.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

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10 Things that can Hamper Your Business Growth [Infographic]

Acefone Editor

Author

Business Communications

April 20, 2020

4 mins read eye

Table of content

Growth is the primary objective for any business, which is the reason why organizations are willing to go the extra mile to push forward. While unlocking opportunities is one aspect of inching closer to your growth targets, it is equally vital to identify the challenges that may be slowing down, or worse, killing your business. The sooner you are able to get hold of them, the quicker you can resolve them and take your enterprise in the right direction.

Here is an infographic that lists the common challenges that might be slowing down the growth of your business.

10 Things that can hamper your business growth

Challenge #1: Lack of innovation

Perhaps the biggest reason why your business may not be growing is a lack of innovation. Automation is the key, whether it is about automating call center solutions, finance and accounting, human resource management, manufacturing workflows, marketing operations or any other aspect of running your business. The lesser your dependence on human workers, the better are the chances of moving up the ladder.

Challenge #2: Less focus on customers

Customers are the key growth drivers for any business, and the ones that do not go above and beyond to deliver the best products, business phone service cost and support to them are bound to lose on their growth targets. The ever-evolving customer expectations and market trends are the main hindrances, but you need to be on top of them. Seamless communication is also vital to ensure that your customers are happy and satisfied.

Challenge #3: Bad buzz

Unhappy customers bring your business bad buzz, which is the easiest way to kill it. Anything that customers have to say about a business is easy to believe and can impact the opinions and decisions of potential customers as well. Your prime concern, therefore, should be to go the extra mile to make them happy.

Challenge #4: Inadequate funding

Not having enough money to fund your business will hamper its growth. How can you imagine opening the growth potential unless you invest in the business? You need money for everything, from product development to employee remuneration, business and marketing operations and technology adoption. Explore funding options and ensure that you fuel the organization with enough money.

Challenge #5: Low team productivity

Team productivity is a significant aspect of business growth, and you cannot get even closer to your targets without the support of a committed and productive team. First things first, you need to hire judiciously and onboard people with the right capabilities and experience. Give them the right tools to maximize their productivity and you will be able to more with less.

Challenge #6: Employee dissatisfaction

Apart from low productivity, low levels of employee satisfaction can be a silent killer for any organization. Just as you must go above and beyond to make your customers happy, follow the same approach for employees as well. A happy and satisfied workforce will contribute to your growth and will stay with you as well. Retention improves reputation and cuts down the costs in the long run.

Challenge #7: Strong competition

Another major challenge that can stunt your growth is strong competition in the domain. A greater number of competitors mean that your potential customers have more options. The probability of choosing your business over them depends greatly on the quality of products, services and support you offer. Moreover, you need to have a great marketing plan and right tools to outperform your competition and win customers.

Challenge #8: Burden of compliance

Organizations often end up in a rut when they have to fulfil multiple compliance requirements to run smoothly. Not doing so can land you in legal trouble, which can impact your growth. Conversely, complying with them can create financial pressures on the organization. Still, the burden of compliance is something that you have to bear, the sooner, the better!

Challenge #9: Absence of good work culture

Another major growth challenge for businesses is the absence of a good work culture. It affects your partners, employers and customers and reduces the trust they have in your organization. Lack of trust translates into poor credibility and bad reputation. These are not great from the growth perspective and can push your business far behind the competitors.

Challenge #10: Dearth of strategic leadership

Besides poor work culture, you cannot grow without strategic leadership. Unless there is a good leader to help the organization with the right kind of experience, positive attitude and strong understanding of the market, growth is just a distant dream. A strong leader, on the other hand, can even infuse life into a dead enterprise and get it going strong.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

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9 Benefits of VoIP Phone System For Small Business

Ratnam Sinha

Author

Voice - VoIP

April 16, 2020

5 mins read eye

Table of content

VoIP Phone System or Business Phone System or Hosted Phone System or Cloud PBX doesn’t matter what you call it, it is the backbone of small business communications solutions in the current scenario.

VoIP phone systems are basically cloud-based communication solutions that allow the business to make or receive calls over the internet, providing an alternate way of communication apart from the traditional ISDN lines previously used in business communication systems.

A VoIP phone system has many features for small businesses that help them grow and prosper in the market. But there is a common misconception about Hosted PBX that it is for large enterprises only.

Let’s bust this myth today and take a look at what benefits VoIP phones offer small businesses.

1. Lower Cost

For any new business, which is just starting out, spreading its wings, money is a very important factor. Naturally, they would want to reduce the expenses as much as possible.

The VoIP phone system is a perfect option for such businesses as it is a cloud-based technology that requires no hardware to be set up in the office premise.

Moreover, it makes and receives calls via the internet, which is also cheaper than the traditional ISDN lines.

2. Conferencing

With a VoIP phone service, businesses can keep in touch with their employees via call conferencing.

In case of remotely located teams, regular meetings can be held over voice or video conferencing to enable streamlined work process and keep everyone connected.

3. Worldwide Access

As mentioned before, VoIP is a cloud-based technology.

This means as long as an employee has an active internet connection, they can utilize all the features of the phone system no matter where they are in the world.

This makes remote employees, and remote teams very feasible for organisations, and they can even monitor them efficiently.

4. Multi-device Access

VoIP phone system allow the user to access the portal on any device of their preference.

They can make and receive calls using a computer, a tablet, or a phone. It ensures that no important call is ever missed and the customers get an optimum experience.

This feature is very important for small businesses as every customer is valuable to them, and any new customer needs to be attended always.

Check it out: What is a VoIP Phone System?

5. Scalability

A small business might not have a permanent place in the beginning, or they might want to expand their business.

Moving to a new location with Hosted PBX is very easy as there is no heavy hardware involved.

You can just contact your VoIP service provider, and they will set up the phone system at the new location, and in a few hours, your business will be ready to work again.

Even if the business is expanding, it is quite easy to expand your phone system too. Just upgrade your plan, and your new location will have a separate extension giving it its own identity.

6. Security

VoIP phone systems are much more secure than people perceive.

Having your data stored in the clouds means that in case of a natural calamity, you will always have an additional backup of your data.

To any business, big or small, data is crucial. Cloud phone systems are protected with multiple layers of security, and provide uptime even in times of disasters.

This makes sure that no one breaches your data and you always have access to it whenever you want.

7. Packed With Features

VoIP Phone Systems offer loads of features which benefit any small business.

Features like Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Call recording, Call Whispering, Call Transfer, Music on Hold, Call Barging, Call Flipping, Caller ID, Call Blocking, Voicemail to Email, Call Monitoring, etc.

With efficient features like these, any work process becomes simpler for both the employees and manager to track and acquire real-time analysis information for every call made or received for efficient analysis of business performance.

They help the organisation build better strategies and provide better satisfaction to the customers as well.

8. Multiple Extensions

If your business has different departments or different locations or both, a VoIP phone system is a perfect fit for you.

It provides as many extensions as you want for your business without any IT-related hassle that would be required in traditional phone systems.

And with an IVR solution, it is very easy to route calls to those departments which not only provides your customers with a self-help option but also efficiently routes them.

9. Increased Productivity

With all the useful features and no hassle of dealing with heavy and complicated hardware, VoIP phones increase the productivity of your business.

They provide your agents with an easy to use platform, your managers a reliable way of keeping track of everything that’s going on, and your customers an optimum experience.

Conclusion

Getting a cloud-based phone system for your business is a smart choice.

Cloud communication is taking over businesses in every industry. They are much more reliable, secure and cheaper than the traditional phone system and provide the business with loads of features.

VoIP Phone Systems also offer customised plans according to your unique business needs.

This ensures that you pay only for the features you want, and can totally avoid the features that are useless to you. This adds up to your savings and helps you improve your business ROI.

The above benefits clearly prove that VoIP systems are a great choice for new and small businesses.

This is why most businesses are switching to cloud solutions from traditional phone systems.

If you are looking for a VoIP phone system for small business in the United Kingdom, you can talk to one of our experts at 1888-859-0450, to get a free consultation on your business phone system requirements.

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.

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