Let's Talk Telecom

Office managers wear a ton of hats and often do the job of several people, especially in the SMB space. Managing and dealing with the business phone system shouldn’t be one of those jobs or responsibility, but in many cases, it falls to them by default, so they take charge and get it done.

Managing the business phone system is easy as long as everything is working. When it’s not, though, and everyone in the office is screaming at the office manager, nothing could be more stressful. Here are some of the more common complaints we hear from office managers we work with every day:

• “When something goes wrong, I don’t know who to call – the system installer or the phone company.”
• “Every time I want to add or remove someone, I have to call and request it. Then we get a bill.”
• “I can’t control simple things like updating holiday hours.”
• “Our phone bill seems super expensive and I have no idea if we’re getting overcharged.”

The list goes on. In short, office managers shouldn’t be getting yelled at about anything phone system related. It’s why more and more office managers are lobbying their ownership to make the move to Voice over IP.

Why VoIP?

Voice over IP (VoIP) uses the internet to move calls from one location to another. In addition, it offers greater functionality, features, and control.

Voice over IP allows businesses to add value and provide greater flexibility to their employees. In addition to the cost savings Voice over IP provides, the features and control are what office managers seem to love most. Some of the features of a hosted (or premise-based) VoIP system include:

• Presence Management – Presence management uses real-time data to determine an employee’s availability. Operators and coworkers can know by viewing a dashboard whether or not someone is available, in a meeting, out of the office, etc.
• Call Routing and Call Management – Employees can utilize “find me/follow me.” The employee sets call forwarding rules which, when enabled, effectively follow him or her as prescribed. If an outside caller tries the employee at his or her extension and there’s no answer, the system will try the next number and so on until the employee is reached. Only when all numbers have been exhausted will the caller be asked to leave a voicemail.
• Control – Office managers have easy web-based access to the system, so things like adding and removing employees, managing holiday hours, and even the extensions and settings become quick and simple.
• Carrier Cost Savings – In addition to the feature-rich system, VoIP also enables local and long distance to be bundled into buckets of minutes. In many cases, hosted VoIP subscribers have the option to purchase unlimited use seats per employee.

These are just a few examples of the value VoIP can provide office managers and their businesses. For more information, or to request a free, no-strings-attached audit of your telecom systems and costs, click here.