Setting up a new business involves many decisions, to work from home or rent an office? How much space will be required, where and on what terms? What furniture will be needed? What computer equipment? And of course what communications in terms of broadband and telephony?
For small office phone systems, most people will tend to think in terms of a standard 'PBX' based system with a number of extensions and desk phones but time to consider the alternatives will be worth the investment.
In fact, with hosted communications monthly based services there is no need to make a capital investment at all and no need to have the responsibility for ensuring the system is running efficiently day to day.
One challenge for the small or newly formed business is to give the impression of being an organisation of substance, of providing services levels and standards of professionalism naturally associated with larger companies. This is particularly important with respect to incoming calls and ensuring your customers and perspective customers feel they are getting a helpful and swift response to their needs, and this is where a top quality auto attendant system can pay dividends.
The two points of initial contact with a business are through its website and by telephone. With a website it is relatively easy to present the right image because there is time available to design and refine the site before it goes live and even then editing and updating is easily undertaken.
The 'problem' with the telephone as the point of contact is that it always real-time and each incoming call gives a new 'first impression' to the caller. Having an effective call answering system is the equivalent of planning your web, but this is not always straightforward for the smaller business where the human resource available to handle incoming calls is limited.
At worst the call my not be answered at all or the caller maybe asked to leave a message that will be responded to at some later time or for the caller may be asked to make a further call to a number specified by voice mail. It is easily apparent that none of these alternatives is good enough - messages may not be left, and onward calls may not be made. If callers are not handled effectively there is a cost in lost sales to the business. Even where someone is available to take a call, what happens when a second call comes in at the same time? If a prospective customer gets no answer or the engaged tone they may never call back.
The solution to this is easy and cost effective, simply to use the technology readily available through the Internet and the use of broadband, utilising a high quality automated attendant to provide your phone answering system. There are significant benefits of so doing.
Disclaimer
NB: This web log is in the public domain and is presented here for public benefit, not for the purposes of business generation.