CloudPhone Blog

Independent consultants are busy people. Phone calls are coming in, client requests are being made and keeping up with the workflow can be a challenge in itself. So, when it comes to business communications you need something reliable and professional -- with customization capabilities that work for you. 

To get all these features, you might think you're stuck with an expensive centralized phone system, but you're wrong. We know independent consultants have unique schedules and work environments -- whether you're on the go, or have co-workers all around the country who connect remotely, or because it's just you in your home office. With all these factors in mind, you probably don't have the need for a phone tied to a physical location. So,what's the solution to your individual situation and communication needs? A customized phone system that connects directly to the mobile phone you already have.

Here's how phone customization can help improve the life of a busy consultant:

1 - Separation of business and personal identities

Many consultants often have one or a couple of co-workers in the business, but would prefer to have the image of a bigger business. Having a distinct business phone line and voicemail greeting that establishes your consulting business as a separate entity from you personally with a voicemail greeting that speaks to a more professional image, and may win customer trust more easily.

2 - Improved focus balanced with communication needs

Oftentimes, consultants are working on a project that requires a chunk of time with heavy focus. Customization of phone settings allows for minimal disruptions at the times that matter most. This includes receiving voicemail transcriptions, instead of picking up calls and setting notifications to email only so that texts don't distract from the focus-heavy project.

3 - Time savings through efficiency and better coordination

When a consultant has multiple co-workers or business partners working for the same clients, it might be easiest to set up extensions through the business line so that the caller can use the auto-attendant to reach the appropriate person at the business, without having to look up a bunch of phone numbers. Oftentimes, consultants work from their home office, so these extensions can be life-savers in coordinating communication without a "middle-man".

4 - More professional business image

There are many ways that customizing your phone presence can make your business look bigger and more professional. Perks to customization include: getting your business a toll free number that's easy to remember; routing your calls to multiple calling devices, if that's your preference; customizing your business message to say exactly what you need it to say right now, and more.  

Does your current phone system let you do all this? If not, it's time to make the switch and see how customization can help you boost your productivity and provide better communication between you, your team and your clients. Comment here if you have more ideas on how to improve business phone communications.

Contrary to what you’ve heard your entire life, when it comes to business, what you don’t know can hurt you. If you own a small business and haven’t taken time to investigate how a cloud-based phone service can benefit your company, that lack of knowledge is most certainly hurting your bottom line.

A cloud communications application essentially replaces a legacy wire-based phone system, giving you all the same functionality and none of the hassle or unnecessary expense. With just your personal mobile number you can start to configure the system immediately over the Internet. You don’t need any technical expertise or savvy—all you need is a desire to improve your critical business processes. If you are intent on sticking with a traditional phone service, you’ll miss out on:

Big savings

A cloud communications application is maintained by a third party over the Web, meaning you don’t have to pay for installation or equipment upkeep. In exchange for a full suite of features you receive just one low monthly bill.

Customer satisfaction

Features like an auto attendant, virtual extensions, voicemail-to-email notification and voicemail transcription ensure your customers can reach you when an important issue crops up. Your key targets will feel comfort knowing you’re within arm’s length if an emergency occurs, meaning they’ll likely stick around for the long term.

Mobility

Mobile working is a staple of today’s business environment. A cloud communications application facilitates smarter on-the-go business by giving you access to your phone system from anywhere on any device without dialing into a complex office system.

If the idea of adopting a cloud communications application hasn’t occurred to you until now, have no fear, because today is as good a time as any to get started. While the summer is a great time to hit the beach, as a business owner, you simply can’t afford to bury your head in the sand.

Regardless of the industry you're in, your business needs a way for customers to contact you directly. While email and online forms are convenient for some, many consumers still prefer to speak with an actual person when contacting a business. As an entrepreneur or small business owner, you may be wondering what's a better option for you -- going the local number route or the toll free number strategy. 

Many businesses have already discovered the benefits of having a toll free number, but if you're not sure if an 800 number is right for you, here are few questions to ask yourself:  

Do you want to encourage customers to place orders over the phone?

Advertising a toll free number is an effective way to drive phone traffic because it can be easier to remember. Choosing a toll free number with a pattern or repeat numbers means people are more likely to call you, generating more sales!

Do you provide customer service via phone?

A toll free number has the perception of being customer-friendly, as the idea is to make calls free of charge for customers who want to connect with you. In the age of the mobile phone and unlimited plans, the cost savings of a toll free number isn't what is used to be, but the perception of reliable customer service is still in play here. There's nothing worse than needing help with a product or service and finding it nearly impossible to get a hold of a real person -- talk about frustrating! The toll free number is inviting and accessible, so it makes your customer feel welcome to give you a call (and more likely they are to remain a customer).

Would a higher call volume benefit your business?

Whether you sell directly over the phone, have a brick and mortar or are a consultancy, more calls generally mean more sales. A toll free number can also give the impression that you have a large operation -- providing the instant credibility you need to gain more business! 

Do you have a broad geographic customer base?

Wherever you're based, if you are able to serve customers outside your local area, a local number may be limiting. A toll free number can help you capture new markets.  

Did you answer yes to any of the questions above? If so, it may be time to take advantage of all that toll free numbers have to offer. Still have questions?  Comment below or ask us on our social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or LinkedIn.

Cloud communications applications offer business owners unparalleled flexibility and speed in a marketplace that demands it. Delivered wirelessly through handheld devices and over the Internet, this technology brings the power and reliability of legacy phone systems squarely into the digital age and into your palm.

Legacy phone systems are expensive any way you slice them. Installations are time-consuming and pricey, repairs are frequent and downtime can be costly. Solutions like Voxox’s Cloud Phone, however, eliminate those downsides and replace them with powerful and mobile tools. See three big reasons why it's time for you to embrace this!

First, with an intuitive interface and app, there is no break in service and virtually no training necessary to bring yourself and your employees up to speed. Cloud Phone is 100 percent web-based and comes pre-configured based on your specific business needs.

Secondly, the state-of-the-art phone features include:

• Reach Me Anywhere technology that connects incoming business calls to any location on any device 
• An auto attendant that greets callers professionally and presents them with menu options
• Voicemail transcription that turns voice messages into text that can be read when listening is not an option
• Business-class voicemail that makes retrieving old messages simple and easy
• Instant conference calling that boosts productivity and enhances collaboration

Finally, cloud communications applications’ costs are very manageable in comparison to legacy systems that can run hundreds or thousands of dollars a month. Cloud Phone has a fixed, low monthly fee and an additional maintenance or hardware costs.

Whatever your phone hurdles at present, Cloud Phone can help you clear them. Additionally, in an era of hopelessly disparate communication services and needs, Voxox can consolidate them into a single device. And that’s about as 21st century as it gets.

Whether you are working on fixing a customer’s broken cabinet, cleaning gutters, repaving a cracked walkway or any other job, the common denominator is that you are out working in different locations. As professional “Mr. Fix It,” you do all kinds of work for your clients, from month-long major projects to quick emergency repairs and you need a small business phone system.

Considering how much time you spend out and about, spending money on a brick-and-mortar office doesn’t make much sense. Still, even if you decide to forego a traditional office, you need to be reachable to potential and existing customers. For instance, if you are out working on a roof somewhere, you probably aren’t going to want to reach down and answer a call coming in from a client who needs a walkway repaved.

That is where a small business phone system comes in to play. Rather than wasting money on space and equipment you don’t need and will never use, you can get a business-specific number using just your existing mobile number. Additionally, you can set up professional greetings for incoming callers and customize them any way you want by accessing your settings through the Internet. The entire system is maintained by the vendor in the cloud, so you don’t have to worry about setup or maintenance.

On any given day, you could spend a morning putting in a new mailbox for one customer, an afternoon across town fixing a garage door, and the evening hours repainting a family’s living room. So you need communications capability that fits your mobile work life while also providing big business phone features. Because as you well know, you aren’t called a handyman because you sit on your hands—you are paid to use them.

Whether you’re venturing out as an independent consultant, opening a small retail shop or starting the next billion-dollar brand from your garage, there are a few things every startup should be doing to maximize their business from the get-go – and the wonderful thing is they are all basically free and take only a few minutes to set up…

Website

It should go without saying that these days every business should have a well thought out website, but you can save creating your ultimate vision until your business is up and running – but to start, consider a quick and dirty template-based website with free hosting. There are several companies that offer free websites for business including, AwardSpace and Infinity Free, each with DIY website builders and domain name registries. For now, all you need is a page that announces your business and gives people the ways to contact you – which brings us to hack two...

Business Phone Number and Answering Service

Three big reasons you want to get a service like Voxox Cloud Phone. First, you don’t want to give out your home/cell number as your business number for both privacy reasons and to help keep your sanity and work-life balance intact. Second, getting a local number in the area code of your choice (or toll-free) can help you create a successful image immediately – imagine having a consulting firm with a Manhattan or Washington DC area code. And finally having auto-attendant features such as automatic call answering, hold music and routing (“dial 1 to speak to sales”) immediately gives a professional image to a caller and makes it easy to add more lines as your business grows. Cloud Phone is the most affordable out there and comes with a 30 day free trial.

Google Local Listing

Now that you’ve got your website and business phone number you want to list your business with Google Local – this will make sure it gets found by people searching for your business or service. It’s easy and free to setup. Just head to Google’s My Business site to get started.

Facebook Business Page

You can worry about all the other social media avenues later, but just like a standard website, every business should at least have a Facebook page. Not only does this serve as an advertising opportunity, but it is one of the top ways people connect with the businesses they are interested in. For now you only need to have some basic information and some catchy photos to get started, but it’s important you get your business page name registered with Facebook as, like the highlander, there can be only one.

A Big List

At some point you will start to market to potential customers, but before you can market to them, you need to collect and organize their info. You may not be in the market for a Salesforce Enterprise plan yet, but a free HubSpot CRM account will go a long way in getting you started down the right path. You can even use their form plugins to start asking for email addresses when people visit your site or Facebook page, or even just do it the old fashioned way be asking people for their business card.

Did you have any other ideas, tips or questions? Share them with us via comment below or on the Voxox social channels.

Summer is the most popular time for couples to say “I do.” But while wedding vows are meant to last a lifetime, the technology that powers your business shouldn’t stick around for better or for worse.

Just like marriage, communications are complicated. Consider everything involved with wedding planning. Coordinating all of that is enough work to keep the bride, groom, their families and a few hired professionals busy for months, but your small business phone service doesn't have to be. 

Similarly, business communications can be frighteningly complex. In a globalized marketplace, vital information is exchanged over a wide swath of channels, often at a frenetic pace. Legacy phone systems— which frequently experience downtime – are challenging for many businesses.

Enter solutions like Voxox’s Cloud Phone. These cloud-based phone systems are served over the Internet, meaning they are significantly faster and more accessible than their legacy competitors. With integrated features like peer-to-peer voice and video calls, large file transfer and total access to a company’s directory, they provide all the benefits of legacy systems and then some.

But the biggest perk of cloud-based phone services is their price. Unlike many weddings, where you get what you pay for, solutions like Cloud Phone offer their array of features under a monthly service rate that might be as little as one of their legacy competitors’ fees. Also consider that their monthly rate includes reliable support and troubleshooting, without any of the added expense of hardware maintenance. 

All told, cloud-based phone systems can be a match made in heaven for businesses of any size. Partnering with a provider like Voxox might just lead your business to a happily ever after.

The toll free number has evolved over the years from a novelty during the days when AT&T had a monopoly on them in the 1960s, to the ubiquitous customer service and marketing tool it is today. But the world has changed. Modern customers often aren’t as concerned with who is going to pay for a call, especially with many home phone plans now including long distance and mobile phones which will ding them for minutes no matter where the call is ending up. So it begs the question: are toll free 800 phone numbers still relevant today?

The early days

From the creation of 800 numbers in the 1960s to the 1980s AT&T held a monopoly on them, and charged a premium many times those of regular calls for the service. Fortunately that came to an end in 1982 when the monopoly that was “Ma Bell” was divided into more seven independent companies. The ensuing competition for long-distance rates, including 800 numbers, drove rates down. This opened the door for businesses that previously could not afford 800 phone numbers and many adopted them as a standard business practice.

Following the breakup is also when the vanity number cropped up. Customers could now select their phone number associated to numeric keypad codes and with it unforgettable corporate numbers. This innovation changed the way businesses marketed phone numbers forever. 800 phone numbers became so popular and such an accepted business practice, that by the late 1990s there were none left and thus the creation of 888, 877, 866, and, most recently in 2010, 855 numbers were introduced to meet growing demand.

The year 2000 and beyond

While the Internet age has delivered a multitude of voice options for consumers including various VoIP offerings and the growth of mobile phone usage has changed our communication patterns and business landscape, the need for toll free numbers is still present today. Even though the draw of the toll free number has less to do with cost to the consumer than in the old days thanks to the unlimited phone plans of today, toll free numbers still offer the perception of reliable customer service. They offer a professional image for businesses, as well as the ability to appear larger, either in size or geographic scope. This is especially important for businesses looking to represent themselves across various cities and states, but also for the smallest businesses who want to appear larger and more established. That combined with the advances in technology that allow for call forwarding with the aid of a virtual assistant make it an essential business tool even in today’s mobile world.

What’s next?

Some have even speculated that we may see 1-800 data in the future, where customers will avoid costly data usage to glean customer support via the web. We will have a front row seat to that debate, which is sure to continue. One thing is for sure, there is no replacement for talking to a live human being, whether that dialogue kicks off with a web search or not, you will want to make sure you have all the bases covered. Customers expect to be able to contact you in their preferred mode of communication and for some that still means picking up a phone and calling someone. For many businesses, offering 800 phone numbers means projecting a professional, larger appearance while also giving them the ability to pair it with many modern conveniences to route calls.

So yes, they are still relevant today, for many reasons. Wondering if you need a toll free number? Visit our recent post to learn more, 4 Ways to Gauge Whether You Need a Toll Free Number.

If you own a small business that’s been passed down through generations of your family, chances are that it’s pretty important to you. You probably have a reputation in town for being reliable and for charging reasonable prices, part of the reason customers keep coming back to you.

Unfortunately, the economic climate is a bit unstable at the moment and you can’t always be sure what your revenue will be from month to month. But even in the most financially trying times the business means too much to you personally to ever sell it—and you know business always picks back up eventually and a cloud based phone service can help.

One way to ensure you’ll be able to pass the company down to the next generation is to adopt a cloud-based phone service. A cloud communications phone application puts all the functionality of an enterprise system in your mobile phone. That means you can go meet with new clients or suppliers and still be sure you won’t miss a crucial business call. You can also have your voicemails transcribed and sent directly to your email so you can read an important message during a meeting without leaving the room.

Furthermore, with a cloud-based phone service you can slash your communications expenses because you don’t have to worry about hardware installation or equipment maintenance; the entire system is maintained over the Web by a third-party vendor, so you can start seriously thinking about ripping out your legacy wire-based system.

A family business is about more than making money. It’s about a connection that lasts for generations and a feeling of pride an entire family can share. Cloud communications can help make sure that connection remains unbroken, far into the future.

If you're looking to save more money in 2018, you're not alone. In fact, nearly 40% of people have committed to spending less in the New Year, according to YouGov. While you may have good, but short-lived intentions to eat in more often or do less online shopping, one thing you can easily save money on all year long is your business phone.

Chances are you are spending way too much on your traditional business phone system and not getting all the features you want. So now is the time to replace it with a virtual PBX system. This type of virtual business phone system is entirely in the cloud and connects to the mobile device you already own, saving you tons on extra equipment and set up fees, and offering total convenience for on the go communications. Most virtual PBX systems also come with a slew of professional features you'll need to propel your business into high gear this year. With easy set up and no hassle maintenance, this will be the one resolution you can keep.

Here's what you need to know:

1. No new equipment costs

Virtual phone systems are just that – virtual –which means it requires no hardware to buy or set up. Virtual numbers allow you to transform your smartphone into a full business phone system by connecting your new business line to ring to your cell, and also to any other phone(s) of your choice.

2. Free professional features

Virtual phone systems hook you up with a slew of enterprise level features. Some services, like Voxox Cloud Phone, give many of those capabilities to you for free. From time saving features like auto-attendant and voicemail transcription, to business SMS and fax, every communication feature your business needs will be with you wherever you go.

3. Phone numbers that fit your business

Every business has its own communication needs, which is why many virtual phone systems offer both toll free and local numbers. Voxox Cloud Phone gives you the option to have multiple numbers available within a single account. You can even port and use your existing number so you won’t have to update clients or change your business cards.

4. Pay for only what you need

Most virtual phone systems allow you to avoid expensive contracts with affordable month-to-month service and/or pay as you go options. Some also let you add or remove numbers and extensions as your business needs change, meaning, if your business grows, it’s easy to have your plan grow with you – without breaking the bank. Some systems (Voxox Cloud Phone included!) offer a 30-day free trial so you can try it out for yourself!

5. Online management

Virtual phone systems are fully managed in the cloud so you can manage your account on the fly. For example, Voxox Cloud Phone allows you to pay your bill, update users, add numbers and see usage accounts right from your personal dashboard. The user experience is simple, but contains robust features and functionality.

6. Easy set-up

With no outdated hardware to figure out or cords to tangle up, a virtual business phone system can be set up and working in just minutes. To get started, choose your provider of choice, sign up, and choose a number. It’s really that easy. Setting up more advanced business calling like menus and other customized features (pressing 1 for sales and 2 for accounting, etc.) is pretty simple too!

Virtual phone systems enable small businesses to quickly, easily, and affordably set up business phone numbers without having to purchase hardware or establish expensive contracts with local carriers. So what are you waiting for? Go make your New Year’s resolution of spending less a reality. Sign up for a virtual PBX service now and start saving.