Tag Archives: #DoNotDisturb

Five Clever Ways to Use VOIP Features in Your Workflow

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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.

What Key VoIP Features Are You Missing Out On?

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VOIP, communications, telecommunications, remote, phones, technology, systems

Voice to email transcription, conference calls, call screening – VoIP systems do it all.

Many small businesses have either made the switch or are thinking about making the switch to Voice over Internet Protocol(VoIP) services. VoIP has the ability to provide many benefits and advantages to your business over landline phones. Today, we want to provide more insight into VoIP, including the features you may not be aware of.

Voicemail to Email Transcription

Did you know that one of the ways VoIP could simplify your workflow is by translating your voicemails to text? It does not matter if you have been away from your business for an extended period of time or if you generally receive a high volume of calls on a daily basis, you can use this feature to make sure you never miss a voicemail message.

When you use this feature, you will be able to open your inbox, click the message, and listen to the message that was left for you. You will also be able to manage your email inbox by removing, saving, or forwarding the voicemails you have received. You will no longer have to worry about frantically looking for paper and pencil to write down phone numbers and names from the voicemail message.

Conference Calling

While conference calling may not be a feature that is necessarily hidden, this feature can be used in more ways than many business owners know about. When conference calling is used, audio meetings can be held with dozens or hundreds of attendants through any device that is connected to an internet network.

Conference calling can be of great use for businesses that have created remote teams. Conference calls will allow teams to work collaboratively even when they are miles apart.

Call Recording

If you want to record incoming and outgoing calls for training purposes or for reference purposes, we encourage you to use the Call Recording feature that is available. Depending on the type of service you are able to use, the calls can be recorded individually or on a company-wide basis.

There are some call recording solutions that will offer storage space in the cloud so you will not have to store every phone call on your network. There will be times when you will want to save some conversations for a variety of reasons, and call recording is a great feature that will allow you to do this.

Call Screening

If you want to feel in control of the calls you answer, you can make use of the call screening feature. As we all know, Caller ID provides information about who is calling so that you can make the decision to answer, decline, or send the call to voicemail.

The call screening process can also ask callers to state their name and any other identifying information. The information the caller leaves will be relayed to you. We understand that you are not always able to answer every call that comes in, so the call screening feature will allow you to answer the calls you feel are a priority.

Do Not Disturb

This feature probably does not need an in-depth overview. The “Do Not Disturb” feature can be put to great use when you do not want to be interrupted for an extended period of time. If you are in the middle of another phone call or if you are in the middle of a face-to-face meeting, this feature will allow you to turn the ringer off the phone during this time.

Do you currently have VoIP services? Are there any features you have not used because you were not aware they were available? If you would like to learn more about VoIP features that can improve your business, please do not hesitate to contact us today.

Lesser-Known Benefits of VoIP Phone Systems (Part One)

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VOIP, communications, remote, phones, technology, systems

VOIP phone systems provide advantages such as transcription and call routing.

Even in the age of emails and social media, the telephone still plays a critical role in the way many companies conduct business. However, the latest technology has definitely begun to shape the way companies use the phone, as VoIP phone systems, and the unique features they provide, give new ways for businesses to take advantage of their phone systems. If you are considering making the switch to a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone system for your business, then it is likely that you have heard about the more popular benefits these systems provide such as portability and reduced costs, however, there are a variety of additional benefits of choosing a VoIP phone system as well. Here are a few of the lesser-known features a VoIP business phone system can provide.

Voicemail to Email Transcription

While staying on top of voicemails is critical in order to ensure that you are responding to clients/customers in a timely matter, listening to all of your voicemails each morning can be time-consuming. Fortunately, VoIP phone systems provide an alternative to listening to each of your messages. With voicemail to email transcription, your voicemail messages can be immediately transcribed into text and sent to your designated email, where you can read them at your leisure at a later time. With voicemail to email transcription, you can scan voicemails quickly for pertinent information, greatly reducing the amount of time you spend reviewing voicemails each day. This also makes it easy to access important information from voicemails such as names, phone numbers, and addresses without having to scramble to write everything down before the message cuts off.

Find Me/Follow Me Call Routing

For business owners who are constantly on the go, a great feature of VoIP is its find me/follow me call routing. If you do not spend the entire day chained to your desk, you may run the risk of missing an important phone call you have been waiting for. Fortunately, your VoIP phone system can help prevent this situation with find me/follow me call routing, which allows you to create a list of numbers where you can be found before a call gets sent to voicemail. For instance, you could program your phone system so that if your office phone does not get picked up after three rings, then the call would be routed to your cell phone for two rings, followed by your home phone. Only after all of the phones on your list have been tried would the call then be routed to your voicemail, increasing the chances that important calls get through to you.

Do Not Disturb

Do Not Disturb (or DND) is another great feature to help prevent important calls from going to voicemail while allowing you to maintain a certain level of professionalism. The fact is that you won’t always be able to answer your phone. Sometimes, it may even be critical that you silence your phone, such as when you are meeting with clients, so that you do not get interrupted. DND not only allows you to temporarily stop incoming calls to your phone when needed, but it also allows you to program your VoIP phone system to redirect calls when you have Do Not Disturb turned on, allowing another colleague to answer the call at the touch of a button. This can then prevent important calls from going to your voicemail.

For businesses that still use legacy telephony services, switching to a VoIP phone system could give them access to a variety of useful features that could help to boost their overall productivity. Contact us to learn more, and look out for our next post as we continue to look at some of the lesser-known benefits of VoIP phone systems.