In the bad old days of PSTN telephone services, you used to have to rent a specific number of lines for your business. Once all of these were in use your callers would receive an engaged tone and your staff would be unable to call out.
VoIP offers a lot more flexibility as typically a VoiP phone number can handle several calls at once and it’s also much easier to expand your calling capacity should you need to. But this flexibility also throws up some interesting problems in terms of how you manage calls.
Handset features
If you have more potential for calls coming in, but only the same number of staff to handle them, you need to think about things like transferring calls, placing them on hold, queueing them and so on.
When you are sourcing VoIP handsets you will come across models that are fitted with a number of ‘line’ keys. These will usually have indicators that light up when a particular line is busy. You can, therefore, see when a line is in use and other calls are waiting or on hold. This gives you the flexibility to pause a call while you answer another, or divert an incoming call elsewhere or send it to voicemail if you are unable to take it.
A wholesale VoIP termination provider like https://www.idtexpress.com/blog/2018/04/27/wholesale-voip-termination-choosing-a-provider/ should be able to advise you on the types of handset that will best meet the needs of your business. Crucially, making the right choice means that your customers should hardly ever be faced with an engaged tone.
User benefits
Inevitably some parts of the business spend more time on the phone than others. Sales teams, in particular, need the right telecoms tools to allow them to do their jobs effectively – https://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/sales/sales-management/managing-your-sales-team. It is, therefore, important to tailor your phone system to the needs of your teams rather than apply a one-size-fits-all solution.
Sales teams need to be able to transfer or escalate calls quickly to ensure that customers aren’t kept waiting for too long. They will, therefore, benefit more from a desktop system that can handle multiple lines. Features like automated menus to ensure calls reach the right destination first time are also key. Other office workers, by contrast, may be best served by a simpler system. When you are sourcing VoIP handsets you will come across models that are fitted with a number of ‘line’ keys. These will usually have indicators that light up when a particular line is busy. You can, therefore, see when a line is in use and other calls are waiting or on hold.