How To Never Miss A Business Call

Every call matters, as an entrepreneur you can’t afford to miss that important call from a customer or investor. How you manage calls makes the difference between winning a client and losing a sale.

Most businesses start small and one of the biggest advantages this brings, whether you’re just setting out, a home-based business, consultant or freelancer, is that you can offer your customers a personal, responsive service that larger conglomerates can’t match. A high proportion of small businesses in the UK have so few employees they can struggle to answer customer calls at busy times or outside normal hours.

If you operate in a competitive marketplace, an enquirer may simply call one of your competitors rather than leave a message, so how can you be ‘always available’ and make sure you never miss that important call?

Innovative technology is constantly pushing the limits of what is possible, as well as affordable. VoIP methodology, where calls are carried over the internet, is revolutionising the way small businesses can interact with customers by lowering the cost of advanced calling features that were previously only available to massive corporations.

Here Are Some of The Services Now available:

Call forwarding

This is a great tool if you are on your own or part of a small team, and unable to be in two places at once. This feature redirects a telephone call to another destination, which may be, for example, a mobile telephone, voicemail box or another telephone number where you are available; your calls can then follow you wherever you are.

Sequential ringing

When a customer calls, all of your contact numbers, including mobiles, will ring in sequence, giving you more chance of receiving the call. The caller is given a greeting and asked to hold and the sequential ringing service loops several times. If all the numbers remain unanswered, they are forwarded to voicemail.

Simultaneous ringing

Forwards calls to multiple phones simultaneously. This feature eliminates the possibility of missing an important phone call. This can be to your home, mobile, or other office line, sending your incoming calls to multiple lines at once, as soon as any phone is answered, simultaneous ringing stops. This allows you to be available on both your landline and mobile phone at the same time.

Auto attendant

This is a really effective way of making your business look bigger and more dominant. Auto Attendant or Virtual Receptionist are terms used to describe a service that directs calls to relevant areas of your business, e.g. press 1 for sales, 2 for accounts, filtering your calls by department. It may also direct them to your website, or transfer them to an automated account or payment service, solving their problem immediately without the need for a voicemail.

Dedicated business lines

If you’ve only got one phone line to deal with every kind of query, you could be missing customer calls without even knowing it. Or you may find personal calls taking over your phone line, especially if you’re a home business or using your mobile. With a dedicated second line you can keep your business calls separate from your personal calls.

Virtual phone systems

Being easy to set up and manage, small businesses can truly benefit from a virtual phone system because it allows a more flexible work schedule, consolidating your mobile and land line calls wherever you are. You are no longer tied to your desk waiting for a call. You can easily work from any location and have your calls professionally answered and routed to wherever you are, so there are no missed important calls.