CloudPhone Blog

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.

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.

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.

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.

It’s no coincidence that all phone commercials stress their competitive pricing, but only cloud-based phone services really provide just that.

Phone systems are an expense many businesses consider a foregone conclusion and a sunk cost. Additionally, downtime, hidden fees, and lackluster support are considered norms. But traditional providers sticking to that old-fashioned model are in for a rude awakening, because there’s a new sheriff in town—small business virtual phones.

By offering service maintained by a host over the Internet, a small business virtual phone lets businesses slash hardware installation and maintenance expenses. Cloud technology also makes the service more reliable and less vulnerable to disasters. Better yet, the monthly fee associated with the service is peanuts!  

Small business phone service also take all the business features of a legacy enterprise system and make them accessible from the one thing professionals almost always have in front of them: their smartphones. Those features include:

• A digital text box for customized greetings that can be adjusted quickly on the fly
• Voicemail transcription that lets you read messages when listening isn’t an option
• Reach Me Anywhere call forwarding that ensures you are reachable anywhere
• Instant conference calling that facilitates better collaboration
• A business-specific number that you can start giving to clients right away

To review, small business virtual phone systems are less expensive than legacy service, and they are feature-rich. They are easier and faster to install and more convenient to use and maintain.

Remind us: why exactly would any business want to stick with a legacy system?

This summer, will your small business explode like a Roman candle on July 4, or fizzle out like a dud? Here are a few ways to light up your small business with a robust suite of cloud communications solutions:

Increase productivity:  You may be busy, but business continues even when you leave the office. Contacts need to be able to reach you wherever you go. The cloud will give you the ability to carry around your enterprise communications solutions at all times, so you never miss a crucial call or voicemail.  

Cut costs: The costs of maintenance and installation prices for on-premises phone equipment is staggering. It’s much easier—and cheaper—to pay a small monthly fee and gain access to fully baked feature set than to pay for new equipment and make upgrades. You will also avoid the hefty costs of network downtime, which is difficult for a business of any size to recover from.

Leverage big business features: When a customer tries to reach you, they should not be able to tell you are a small business with six employees or a Fortune 500 company. Features such as an auto attendant, voicemail to email transcription and the ability to route calls to other members of your team will add a processional touch to your operation that will let you look like a much bigger business. 

The stats don’t lie: In a recent study, 70 percent of respondents indicated that the cloud can deliver efficiencies and cost savings. So, are you ready to make the great migration to a cloud-based phone and watch your profits explode skyward like Independence Day fireworks?

Every June, sons and daughters present their fathers with cards, ties, sweaters and various other presents to show their appreciation for their dads. But whether you are a father or not, if you own a small business, this Father’s Day is as good a time as any to give yourself the gift of cloud communications.

Cloud communications can help your company cut expenses and boost productivity by offering big business functionality at a reasonable price. A cloud-based phone service, for example, is maintained by a third-party over the web, meaning you can invest in this gift without paying for a complicated installation or any hardware upkeep. Additionally, the phone system’s settings are also accessible through the web which allows you to make changes on the fly.

The vast array of features you can leverage with a cloud-based system lets you project a big business image even if you are a sole proprietor. For instance, top-shelf products offer:

• A toll free business-specific phone number to give to customers and contacts
• Reach Me Anywhere technology that connects your incoming business calls anywhere you choose on any device
• An auto attendant that greets callers professionally and presents them with menu options
• Voicemail transcription that lets you read your voicemails when you can’t listen
• Business-class voicemail to email that ensures you never lose an important old messag 
• Instant conference calling that facilitates collaboration among your employees

So even if your schedule is full this Father’s Day, find some time—maybe between breakfast in bed and dinner on the town—to investigate cloud communications. Because although Father’s Day comes only once per year, your company needs best-in-class business tools the other 364 as well.    

Growing small businesses often struggle with phone services that are difficult to set up and costly to scale to their ever-changing needs. So, if you’re like most small businesses, your phone service is a major pain point and sometimes even causes more communications blunders than it solves. With all the options on the market, it can be difficult for small business owners to find the right phone service to fit their needs, but with a cloud-based phone service all those stress-inducing thoughts can become a thing of the past.

Photo courtesy of Sebastiaan ter Burg

There's a number of cloud phone service options that are specially designed to provide full service telephone capabilities to the small business owner without costly equipment or difficult installation. In fact, by utilizing the reliable technology and feature-rich functionality of the right cloud phone solution, small businesses can unlock the potential benefits hidden within the phones they already have.

Here’s how a cloud-based phone service will change your small business for good…

Eliminate Hardware Costs         

A cloud phone service can give your business the professional image you're looking for without requiring any special on-site hardware for you or a technical person to manage. Incoming calls placed to your business phone number, which is nestled in the cloud, can be forwarded to your employees' existing cells through simple extensions for each employee or department. This type of web-based phone solution not only makes things easy for you to manage, but it also gives the perception of a bigger business.

Convenient Calling Features

With a cloud phone service, you get all the amenities you love from a sophisticated phone system – a single business number, a customizable professional greeting and extensions that can reach employees worldwide -- without all the things you don’t, like upfront fees, bulky hardware and costly maintenance. Plus, with all calls routing from a single business phone number, a cloud-based phone service removes the necessity for you and your team to use personal cell phone numbers for business communications.

Connect From Anywhere

If missed calls, lost messages and tracking down employees have dented your bottom-line, a cloud-based phone solution could be the answer to your communication problems. The ideal cloud-based communication service connects everyone in the company on any device through a single business phone number. Not only does it save a ton of money on long-distance and international calls, but it’s also a great solution for mobile employees and companies that don’t have a traditional office setting. 

The truth is, there isn’t a business phone service available that is easier to set up and manage than a cloud-based phone service. Owning a business can be overwhelming, but Voxox Cloud Phone can help take the complexity out the equation and simplify your life, so you can focus on more important things, like running your business!

Does your company use a cloud-based phone service to stay in touch? Or, do you have questions on how to get started? Join the conversation by posting in the comments below or connecting with us on social media – Facebook, Twitter.