There are many things the home office simply cannot do without and virtual phones are one of them.
Perhaps the most obvious reason to have a virtual phone is that it allows you to separate business from personal life. Many people will openly advertise either the home or mobile phone number to clients or the general public as a method to reach them and their business. However, this can mean being constantly barraged with business calls during off-duty hours.
There are several great advantages to having a virtual phone system for your home business. Below are six reasons virtual phones could have a value-added effect on your home business.
1. Give a Professional Look
Having a virtual phone system allows you to advertise a professional phone number. This is an affordable option for a start-up, and also decreases the chance that a family member accidentally answers the business phone with the wrong greeting, for example. Virtual phone systems also allow for professional phone features, such as a hold option.
During off-hours, the phone can be sent directly to voicemail making potential customers or clients aware of proper business hours while also keeping the phone from ringing off the hook in the middle of the night.
2. Increase Overall Productivity
These types of phone systems allow them to be answered anywhere you are, either through redirect calls on your mobile phone or through your computer or smart device. In most cases, virtual phone systems allow for the option to send voicemails to your email address in the form of an audio file. With a virtual phone system, you can also set up fax and have them delivered again to your email as a document file like a PDF.
3. Quality Assurance
Digital systems also mean an easier time keeping track of phone calls as well as the ability to screen and record all your phone calls. Digital phone systems can help to filter out unwarranted solicitation to your business phone number as well as blacklist callers or numbers you have had issues with in the past.
Monitoring or recording phones calls is a great benefit when dealing with lots of information. Not only does this provide greater accountability for you and your customers, but it allows you to go back and listen to phone calls to see if there was anything you missed regarding specific desires or instructions from clients and customers.
4. Inexpensive and Less Bulky
With today’s virtual phone systems, such as those found on here https://www.easyringer.com/virtual-phone-number/usa-numbers, most phone providers operate everything through cloud servers. This saves your business money on the cost of expensive hardware, IT services to maintain the hardware, and ultimately repairs for the system. Most virtual phone providers already have the hardware and the expertise to use it, thus your business will only be charged for the system.
Additionally, no hardware means not having to dedicate personal space for the servers or having to run wires everywhere through your house.
5. Provide Customers with More During Off-Hours
In addition to having a professional-looking 1-800 number on your website or business card, off-hours voicemail can be set up with menu options for customers calling early or late. It is also helpful for customers who are calling just to get information about services offered or hours of operation.
Have more than one person working on your team? Virtual phones can be set up to provide extensions and directories so customers can be sent to the right person.
6. Systems Grow with the Demands of Your Business
Because the phone systems are virtual, they can be grown to match the operational tempo of your company. Businesses who need to add new employees such as virtual assistants for administrative tasks do not have to add new and expensive hardware to match workforce increases. Simply have employees added to the system and have extensions made that can be redirected to their mobile phones and voicemail rerouted to the email.