Increase Productivity with Cloud-Based Telecommunications

By Dave Moorman, Founder and President, DynaSis

VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol (making voice calls over the Internet), has become almost commonplace. Many consumers and small businesses have adopted VoIP as their primary "traditional" telephone technology (in addition to their mobile service, of course). Some companies use VoIP and don't even know it. If your phone cord plugs into a modem and not a wall jack, you're using VoIP.

Sending and receiving calls over the Internet is convenient and inexpensive, but if you are not taking advantage of the benefits of cloud-based telecommunications, you are missing the real power behind the technology.

With a cloud-hosted telephony solution, information about your calls, contacts and preferences can be stored on secure cloud servers and tied in with calendars and other software. This enables a variety of value-added benefits. A few of the perks include:

• Find Me, Follow Me Services: Calls ring on all your phones at once or are routed to the phone where you are (simple systems do this through forwarding based on preferences you set; more advanced ones tie in with your calendar).
• Call Management: Although some personnel want every call getting through to them, others need selective call routing. Different classes of callers—or specific numbers—can be given priority in the queue, routed to specific individuals or be processed in other ways based on preferences you establish.

• Better Service: Call reports can identify if your customers get through to the right person, or anyone at all. Some cloud-based telephony solutions can connect with your inventory databases to allow customers to place reorders or request information, confirm if orders have been shipped, and retrieve other valuable information, often without human intervention at the time of the call.
• More Effective Sales Efforts: Additional reports can pinpoint how long sales people and other customer-facing employees talk on the phone with customers and prospects. Paired with closing percentages and monthly sales revenues, you can gain a real measure of staff effectiveness.

With cloud-based telephony, your "telephone switchboard" is in the cloud and it is more powerful than you ever imagined. Perhaps these features are already present in your current phone system but you are not using them. Or, you may need to upgrade to a more sophisticated but still affordable cloud PBX solution. A quick assessment of your current telecommunications environment by an IT expert will identify whether you require a new solution or simply need more training on your old one. To start the process, give me a call.