All posts by SystemsNet Administrator

Five Clever Ways to Use VOIP Features in Your Workflow

VOIP, , ,
Employee using a company VOIP system while working on a laptop.

Using the features of VOIP for efficient workflow.

The rise of VOIP for business phones is undeniably one of the best things that has ever happened to online work. From those whose work is primarily communication to the casual connection between coworkers, VOIP streamlines keeping in touch professionally. You may already know that VOIP makes your work phone number available through any networked device like a computer, phone or tablet. You may be familiar with common corporate uses for VOIP like virtual call centers and connecting the home-office to the work-office with a cloud platform.

What not everyone knows are the cool ways an individual can use VOIP to make your workflow easier. VOIP comes with a list of features a mile long, most of which are designed to facilitate the communication needs of an entire business, large or small. However the perks VOIP creates for individuals are often overlooked. Check out some of the handy things you could be doing with VOIP to make each workday easier and more enjoyable.

Follow Me = “In Office” and Reachable from Any Location

Find-Me, Follow-Me has long been touted as one of the primary ways that VOIP makes life easier for individuals. Find-Me rings each device in sequence to help you answer work calls. But Follow-Me is designed to let you set your own schedule and indicate the device you are most likely to answer at given times during the day.

This means you can set yourself up to be “Found” in your work office, home office, field office or – more relevantly these days – in your home office, on your tablet while you lounge in the backyard, or on your cell while you take the dog for a walk. Set your schedule and use it to be “in office” even when you’re not in an office at all.

Instant Messaging = Take Live Meetings into Casual Chat

It has never been easier to switch back and forth between live phonecall meetings and chatting in messenger. In fact, many VOIP platforms make it possible to chat and talk in the same call, then continue the chat after the call ends. Instant messenger as part of your VOIP package makes it easier to keep in touch with coworkers, but it also makes extending a call’s conversation easier as well. You can go from a live conversation to asynchronous chat or from a verbal conversation to one more comfortably held in text.

Voicemail to Text = Never Have to Listen & Take Voicemail Notes Again

We know you hate calling your voicemail, listening closely and poised to take notes. No one likes having to replay a voicemail several times to try and decipher the important information mumbled into some distant phone. VOIP eliminates this hassle with Voicemail to Text. Just like call transcription, VOIP listens to your voicemails as they arrive and creates a handy transcript record sent to your email. Not only can you permanently forget to check your voicemail starting now, you also get a handy text version of each voicemail so there’s no longer any need to sit poised to take hastily scribbled notes on each voicemail content.

Push to Talk = Clear Audio and Office Privacy in One

Push-to-Talk is a setting in which you are muted by default in a call. Whether you are part of a meeting or a one-on-one phone call, push-to-talk means that all the little ambient noises in your office are not included in the meeting audio experience. Every scrape of your chair, barking dog, and exhalation can be excluded from the call. And when you’re ready to say your part, simply push the button to turn your mic temporarily back on for your turn.

Do Not Disturb = Stop Getting Calls When You’re Unavailable

Finally, never underestimate the power of a DND setting. Do Not Disturb takes the Follow-Me setting to a new level of privacy and work-life balance. DND will send your calls directly to a specific voicemail while you enjoy some much-needed sleep or family time where your work is unable to interrupt.

VOIP is a powerful development in the business world, gaining prominence as millions of teams go remote across the globe. Contact us today to further explore the potential of VOIP for your business, your team, or for personal use.

5 Security Measures that Neutralize Common Hacker Attacks

Security, , , , ,
Computer showing a popup warning that its system is being compromised by hackers.

Going without a Cyber Security plan is no longer an option in today’s business world.

In the war between business tech and hacker invasions, we often imagine hackers with a criminal sneer. They use technical ability and corrupted software to take advantage of the digitally vulnerable. The lonely elderly, small businesses, families in crisis, and hospitals are favorite targets in the hacker community. It’s a matter of personal and professional satisfaction to close any door such that hackers simply cannot get through – or prevent hackers from gaining benefit even from successful invasions. As cybersecurity technology gets more advanced, we are now specializing not only in making our walls too thick to crack but also thwarting hackers who try bottom-feeding and loophole-exploiting methods.

Today, the cybersecurity industry has perfected several tools that not only stop hacking attempts, but actively thwart and frustrate the hackers who attempt to steal your data. We’re here to share five easy methods that any small to enterprise business could implement that will neutralize the attempts of most common hacker attacks.

1) Unreadable Data Loot: End-to-End Encryption

Getting hacked eventually has come to be a business fact of life. Between an army of copy-pasted malware spammers and the few actual hacker-brains in the horde, eventually, something will skim your database or compromise one of your many cloud services. The only question is what your hackers find when they open the loot-bag after raiding your data.

Encryption is our best defense against the inevitable database swipe or website skim. Encryption ensures that hackers might have your data – but they have it so deeply encoded that your data is useless. Not a single username or business plan is stolen if your data is properly encrypted at every step in the creation, transit, and secure storage process.

2) Un-Phishable Email: Advanced Email Spam Filters

Email and social media phishing have become the leading method for hackers to slip their malware or scams into company systems. Phishing has become the top type of “hacking”, now called “social hacking” because it’s a scam with a dash of malware or espionage on the side.

Well, just like the spam-mail of old, phishing emails have become so common that we have learned how to recognize them. More importantly, our AIs can recognize them. Modern email filtering features include ways to detect then flag or filter any email that follows a known phishing message pattern. This keeps your entire workforce safe when installed into the company email server.

3) The Fool-Me-Twice: Blacklist and Report Every Attack

Let’s say you do get hacked – make sure your monitoring software is in place. The fool-me-twice maneuver ensures that you are never successfully targeted by the same methods or hacker domain twice.

Network monitoring services and malware tracking can reveal a lot of useful data that can protect you (and the whole community) in the future. If you get a source domain name, catch a malware ReadMe file, or track suspicious IP addresses – blacklist whatever you find. Then submit your collected evidence of the hack to your security regulatory board and federal authorities. The more known bad-actors are blacklisted, the fewer large-server hacks can be conducted against businesses and individuals.

4) UnRansomable: Backup and Disaster Recovery Plans

The threat of ransomware that cripples hospitals and businesses is the file encryption. Encryption used as a weapon can suddenly make your entire system’s data unavailable. But what if you have a complete and recent backup of the system? Would you really need to preserve the current malware-infected files? The answer we smugly give is “no”. A great backup and recovery system – with a smooth re-installation of everything you backed up – can ensure that even the worst system-wide ransomware can’t take your company down for more than a few hours.

If your system and all vital data is already backed up, you simply cannot be held for ransom. You can factory-reset on that malware and have your system running again without paying a single bit-coin or decrypting your files.

5) Un-Hackable Team: Cybersecurity Drills

Last but certainly not least, you can also empower your entire team with a fun security-building exercise. Cybersecurity drills are conducted by your IT team to help employees (and execs) across all departments learn how to protect themselves from phishing and common malware attacks. Start with training, teaching everyone how to spot, stop, and report any suspected hacking attempt. Then release occasional faux-phishing emails and other suspicious tactics to keep everyone on their toes.

Congratulate employees with sharp eyes and uplift the team when a drill is detected and reported correctly. Once your team associates reporting a phishing email with Friday cupcakes, hackers won’t stand a chance.

Looking to optimize your company tech solutions and cybersecurity? Contact us for more great insights and to consult on your business security needs.

5 Easy Steps to Improve Your IT Help Desk

Manage Service, , , ,
Diverse group of employees with headsets working at computers in an office.

The IT help desk is a fast paced area that is constantly evolving.

The customer assistance center, also known as the IT help desk, is one of the key points in your business; It is through this that many reassuring or traumatic experiences transit for your clients. Call centers play a vital role in business efficiency. At the end of the day, your level 2 help desk technician team is often the face of your factory, and customer experiences will often be defined by the skills and quality of support they receive. The following will therefore help you better understand what needs to be done to improve the quality of your customer care center.

1. Reorganize the hiring and training process

One of the best methods to improve the quality of your IT help desk is to improve their service levels. Effective training and coaching practices can make your agents highly competent and help them move closer to their individual goals.

This is only possible if you hire a level 2 help desk technician with the right skills from the start and offer them personalized training to give them the opportunity to excel in their role.

A dynamic, motivated, and competent team of technicians will undoubtedly develop a sense of excellence and reduce the operational costs of the call center.

2. Revitalize and motivate agents

One of the keys to having a team of effective IT help desk technicians on hand is motivation.

To have motivated teams, team managers must design different strategies and activities that will strengthen team spirit. Establishing a valuation of each agent and a good corporate culture is one of the best ways to keep the morale of the troops at its highest level.

You can set up a reward-based motivation system like bonuses. Managers can also develop self-assessment programs for your level 1 help desk technician group and identify relevant actions to improve KPIs.

3. Solicit customer feedback

No matter how proactive you are, you will never be able to address every problem every customer has. To make sure you learn more about the good and unpleasant experience of your customers, create an easily accessible way for them to provide feedback.

You can opt for a telephone survey at the end of a service call or an electronic survey sent directly from your CRM tool and even a form on the “Contact Us” page of your website. It also helps dissatisfied customers to express their dissatisfaction.

Whichever option you choose, remember the importance of customer satisfaction feedback. Not only will you notice touchpoints and resolutions that need improvement, but your subscribers will see that you have a top-notch proactive IT help desk for them.

4. Take negative reviews into account

No one likes to receive negative reviews and yet everyone gets criticized at one time or another. Instead of being hurt, take them as a great opportunity to turn your customer’s experience into something satisfying. No one runs a perfect business with the perfect clients.

Receiving any kind of feedback can help you learn and grow as you go (as long as the criticism is constructive …). Dealing with a complaint or a bad experience shows customers that their voice is heard and that each and every one of them is important to every Level 1 help desk technician in your business. This engagement can thus increase the loyalty of your customers.

5. Invest in monitoring services

There are several software formats for help desk monitoring. Investing in an eye like this can turn out to be a good investment. SystemsNet can provide managed IT services that offer full tracking of the user experience from the first call to the outcome satisfaction survey after product delivery. Choosing a reliable IT Help Desk solution is undoubtedly a good way to improve the quality of call tracking. Contact us to learn more!

Consider Choosing VOIP for Your Call Center

VOIP, , , ,
Team of diverse employees working for a call center company.

Using a reliable VoIP service for your call center business provides flexibility for your business

While recent years have seen various changes in the way call centers operate, many call centers continue to operate legacy landline phone systems. However, as the owner of a call center, there are many benefits that you stand to gain by upgrading to a modern voice over internet protocol (VoIP) phone system for your business. Not only do call center owners benefit from reduced costs with VoIP, but agents and customers alike will benefit from improved features and customer service. If your call center continues to rely on a landline phone system, here is a look at just a few of the reasons you should consider adopting VoIP.

Reduced Costs

One of the main reasons call center operators choose to adopt VoIP phone systems is that doing so can help to reduce costs. The fact is that call centers utilizing landline phone systems can be extremely expensive to set up and operate due to the cost of setting up lines, paying for equipment, and paying costly calling rates. Additionally, future upgrades and expansions can be costly with legacy phone systems should additional lines be needed. These costs can add up quickly and eat into your profits.

Alternatively, VoIP phone systems are known to be much cheaper to set up and maintain than legacy phone systems. By utilizing your existing internet network, it is easy (and cost-effective) to add additional lines when needed, as you will not need new infrastructure. Additionally, VoIP rates are much cheaper, which can help some call centers to save as much as 40% on operating costs.

Better Customer Service With Unified Communications

VoIP phone systems can also give you more ways to contact and connect with your customers with integrated unified communications. VoIP’s internet-based nature makes it easy to integrate email, instant messaging, SMS, and other web-based communication methods into your VoIP system, giving your employees more ways to connect with customers. This can improve customer satisfaction, as you will be providing customers with more ways to contact you should they feel more comfortable with alternative methods of communication.

Mobility

Another popular benefit of VoIP phone systems is that they are extremely mobile. In a business environment where it is becoming common for people to work from home, or on the go when traveling, it is important for call center employees to be able to stay connected. While landline phone numbers are tied to a given location, VoIP systems can be accessed anywhere the user has a stable internet connection. This gives you the flexibility to allow your employees to work from home, or you may even choose to hire remote employees from other regions who are more qualified for the job. VoIP phone systems can then bring a new level of flexibility to call centers.

Customization and Scalability 

One of the biggest problems with landline phone systems is that they are extremely difficult to scale. For growing call centers, adding additional lines is no simple task as new infrastructure will likely be needed. Alternatively, adding a new user with VoIP can be done at the touch of a button. This makes it simple for you to scale your call center up or down based on your current needs without any additional stress.

VoIP phone systems are not only easy to scale, but they can be customized in additional ways to meet your needs. From choosing customized hold music to adding additional auto attendants, you can fine-tune your VoIP phone service to meet your exact needs.

More call centers are ditching legacy phone systems in favor of VoIP due to the many benefits internet-based phone services can provide. Feel free to contact us to learn more about how your call center could benefit from adopting a VoIP phone service.