CloudPhone Blog

Those of you running your own non-employer business understand that at any given moment you might be your company’s billing, sales and marketing departments—all at once. As a sole proprietor you simply don’t have the option to turn a task over to a coworker. But just because every department of your company is actually just you, it doesn’t mean you have to look small-time to the outside world.

A small business virtual phone can provide the same features and functionality offered by traditional wire-based systems including easy-to-set-up extensions for your departments. With this technology all you need is a mobile phone to get your business looking like a Fortune 500 company. 

For example, let’s say a prospect or new client calls your business specific line—another feature of a small business phone service—with a billing question while you’re in the tunnel at Grand Central Station or on an airplane to Los Angeles. Because of your location, you’re unable to answer the call. You are unable to answer the call. With a small business virtual phone, your customer is professionally greeted and presented extension options for each division of your company, giving you big business presence that projects an air of credibility.

No matter what industry you are in, competition is stiff in today’s congested marketplace. According to a customer service survey by Zendesk, 55 percent of customers said they switched to a different company for a product after having a bad customer experience, which can include something as seemingly insignificant as an unprofessional interaction with a company’s phone service.

You’ve worked tirelessly to build a great product or service and to generate leads and the last thing you need is to forfeit lose out on business because your phone system makes a bad impression. As the saying goes, “you never get a second chance to make…” well, you know. 

Voicemail transcription is a modern day convenience. Not only does it allow users to easily read, manage and delete voicemail messages, it also saves time and reduces stress about missing out on important info. While the days of scrambling to jot down dates and numbers are long gone, there was a time when even traditional voicemail seemed liked a luxury. 

Here's a brief history of voicemail and the development of voicemail transcription: 

1877– The first public records describing voice recording were reported in a New York newspaper and the Scientific American in November of 1877, with the announcement of the phonograph by Thomas A. Edison, saying "the object was to record telephone messages and transmit them again by telephone." (Source: Wiki)

1877– In December of 1877, Edison applied for a patent and demonstrated the machine recording and playing "Mary Had a Little Lamb” and other popular tunes at the time. (Source: Wiki)

1914– Edison's phonograph business included a dictating machine (the Ediphone) and the Telescribe, a machine combining the phonograph and the telephone, which recorded both sides of telephone conversations. (Source: recording-history.org)

1970's– Judah Klausner pioneered several patents central to voicemail transcription while doing work on early PDA technologies for his company Klausner Technologies. (Source: digitaltrends.com)

1974– The mid 1970's saw the introduction of a simple, pager/beeper that was generally offered in conjunction with answering services that handled busy, no-answer overloads and after hours calls for businesses and professionals. Rather than recording a voice call, operators manually transcribed the caller's message, sent a page alert or "beep" and when the party called back, an operator dictated the message. (Source: Wiki)

1976– Robin Elkins, a blues-rock saxophonist, invented what became an important backbone to voicemail—a digital/analog storage technology—while trying to figure out a better way to record his music. His invention found a duel use, allowing paging and telecom companies to handle client messages electronically. Operators recorded a 5-6 second message which was delivered automatically when the client called the answering service. (Source: Gawker)

1979– The first modern day voicemail application was invented by Gordon Matthews. When he was on a business trip, he became frustrated that he was playing telephone tag while trying to contact the office. After the incident, he mentioned to his wife that he needed to invent a telephony system where people can send each other recorded messages and voicemail was born! (Source: Wiki)

1980– The term voicemail was coined and trademarked, but eventually became a generic name for all automated voice services. (Source: Wiki)

2000– Voicemail had become a ubiquitous feature on phone systems serving companies, cellular and residential subscribers. (Source: Wiki)


2007– Voicemail transcription was introduced to mobile users by Apple's iPhone. (Source: Wiki)

2007– Access to voicemail transcription from email or web browser through a third-party application was introduced by YouMail, a multi-platform visual voicemail service for mobile phones. By storing voicemail in the cloud rather than the mobile carrier's network, users were also able to access it through any web browser or by e-mail. (Source: Wiki)

2011– In January of 2011, Voxox consumer app launched voicemail transcription – the first ever to be integrated into a desktop messenger style application. (Source: voxox.com)

2014– Voxox Cloud Phone, a virtual PBX Service for one-10 person businesses, added voicemail transcription to its services on July 24, 2014 (Source: voxox.com) 

Do you use voicemail transcription? Tell us why you love voicemail transcription and how it helps you keep your messages (and life!) organized – Twitter and Facebook.

According to Gartner Group statistics, as much as 80% of your company’s future revenue come from existing customers. That's a huge to reason to invest in ways to boost customer loyalty and retention. By building the reputation of your business as trustworthy and reliable, customers will be more likely to go with your company over a competitor. Projecting a big business image helps build buyer confidence and a simple to use virtual office phone system is a “must have” if you plan to reap the advantages of an improved professional business repuation. 

Customers want to go with a company that they trust, and with a virtual phone service, your business will provide greater reliability. With advanced call routing and customized menu options that make it easier for callers to reach you, your business will enjoy improved customer retention and loyalty. 

Enabling call routing forwards calls to any number simultaneously or in order so that customers can get a hold of you, every time. By being responsive, your customers will be able to get the help they need, and with ease. You and your team can even be working remotely and still take care of your customers without any hassle.  

A professional automated greeting gives your customers the feeling of security through professionalism. The automated greeting is the first impression your customers get of your company and needs to convey professionalism while efficiently directing them to the appropriate department or extension. Nothing is more frustrating then a call that goes unanswered.  Answering inbound callers promptly and effectively gives them a sense of trustworthiness and that their issues are being addressed.

With the myriad of benefits that improving customer engagement, employing a virtual office phone system is one of the best decisions you can make. The right business phone system comes equipped with a variety of features designed to suit the needs of any business, regardless of company size or industry. Cloud Phone lets you can manage all of your business communications through the convenience of your mobile device. To learn more about how Cloud Phone can increase customer loyalty, leave a comment here or on our social media channels –  Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or LinkedIn.

In case you thought we were overstating the benefits of VoIP communications and the rate at which it’s being adopted by businesses, we’d like to point you to a new report from Infonetics. Among the many impressive statistics in the report is the revelation that the VoIP and UC services market is still growing rapidly and will expand to $88 billion by 2018, a marked increase over $68 billion last year.

Photo Courtesy of Flickr User Jim Larrison

“Hosted unified communications are seeing strong interest up market as mid-market and larger enterprises evaluate and move more applications to the cloud, and this is positively impacting the market,” said Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS at Infonetics in a press release.  

A major reason VoIP phone service adoption is still growing is the increasing emphasis businesses are putting on mobile working. According to a recent report from Forrester, 29 percent of the global workforce are now “anytime, anywhere information workers.”     

Today, cloud-based VoIP phone service offers businesses major cost savings. Cloud Phone does just this and the best part is that Voxox manages the system, the burdens of installation and maintenance expenses are removed. Cloud Phone is especially beneficial for SMBs because it's designed specifically for smaller companies. Cloud Phone has a small monthly fee rather than tacking on a bunch of extra fees and hidden costs. Cloud Phone provides small businesses with important features like:

• An auto attendant that greets callers professionally
• Easy-to-configure extensions for all employees
• Voicemail messages sent directly to email for review

So what’s the bottom line? Businesses of all sizes across various verticals are adopting VoIP—the Infonetics research clearly proves what we’ve been saying all along.

Not that we think you didn’t trust us.

Do you operate your business from the comfort of a home office? Well, you are certainly far from alone. According to Forbes 52 percent of all small businesses are home-based, which makes sense given the economic advantages. As you know, working at home saves money on office space and travel while simultaneously providing great work/life balance. 

But even if your home-based business is thriving, you may still be encountering some age-old problems associated with home offices. For instance, what phone number do you give out to customers? If it’s your landline, you risk one of your kids pick up the phone—presenting a slightly less than professional image—or worse, somebody in your family answering a call while you’re out and forgetting to give you the message. Giving out your mobile number might be a better option, but giving customer a personal can also leave you looking small-time.

Fortunately, there is another option—a small business phone service. Leveraging this technology, you can use your mobile number to get a business-specific line that rings to your existing mobile device so worrying about projecting the wrong image or missing important messages from customers becomes a thing of the past.

These systems also provide auto attendants and extensions so that even when you can’t answer a call your home office presents the customer with the feeling that they’ve reached a corporate headquarters in midtown Manhattan. Last but not least, best-in-class virtual phone systems are not merely designed for small businesses—they are priced for them as well.

 So whether you are considering switching your business to a home office or looking to improve operations for an existing one know that there are technological solutions out there designed to make your life easier. After all, there’s still no place like home.