CloudPhone Blog

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.

usinesses need phone systems, so why stick to a traditional phone service when you could have a virtual PBX? Virtual PBX combines traditional telephone service with the Internet “cloud” to offer more features, greater flexibility, and significant costs savings. Companies using a virtual PBX service can reap significant savings on their monthly phone bill and forego investment in new phone equipment -- one of the biggest perks of virtual PBX. Greater capabilities and freedom, coupled with major cost savings, sounds like a deal you and your business can’t refuse. Here's how all those saved dollars add up:

Low Cost Calling

Small businesses that switch from a traditional business phone system to a virtual PBX service (which uses VoIP) reduce the cost of their local calls by up to 40% and international calls by up to 90%, according to tech.co. Even if you're running an inbound call enter, or make just the occasional phone call, your cost savings will add up, not to mention all the enterprise grade features that come standard with a virtual PBX service. 

• Save on local calls
• Dramatically reduce your international calling bills

Save Money on Equipment & Startup Fees 

If you're starting a new business, choosing a VoIP business phone system can cut initial startup costs by as much as 90% (Tech.co). However, that cost savings is amplified even further with a virtual PBX service, which eliminates the need to buy or lease physical phone equipment for your business. Just connect the smartphone you already use to your system in the cloud. Look for virtual PBX services that also offer faxing to avoid having to get a separate fax line or a fax machine.

• No cost for phone equipment
• No extra fee for a fax number or costly fax machine

No Cost (and Easy) Maintenance

When dealing with a traditional phone company, any changes you make to your phone system will cost you. Need another line? Expect to pay for setup and service. Want to downgrade? You'll have to wait until the end of your contract and you most likely will have to pay some fees. With a virtual PBX service, you don't have to deal with any of that, but here’s what you do get: 

• No maintenance or support fees
• No downgrade fees
• No extra fees for adding extensions
• A system that can grow with your company, regardless of size to accommodate your business’s current and future needs. Adding lines, removing lines, changing lines and hiring remote workers can all be managed through your personal web dashboard. 

Reduce Overhead with Telecommuting

A typical business could save $11,000 per person per year by offering telecommuting positions, according to GlobalWorkPlaceAnalytisc.com. In fact, the same source says many businesses show teleworkers are also 35-40% more productive than their traditional counterparts. With a virtual PBX service, you can keep remote workers connected seamlessly and improve productivity rates, which ultimately reduces overhead. With a virtual PBX service, workers can be anywhere across the globe and, as long as they have an internet connection, it would be just as if they were sitting right in the office. This flexibility allows you to find and retain talent, and accommodate practically any type of remote worker situation.

• Reduce costs by offering more positions to telecommuters
• Use virtual PBX service to provide a more productive and efficient work environment

A virtual PBX service offers all the great things you love in a traditional phone system like reliability, without all the things you don’t like high costs, clunky hardware and geographic restrictions – plus a lot of extras like high-end business features and flexibility. Do you have any other ways you save with virtual PBX?  Comment here or on our social channels (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or LinkedIn.)

Monthly box subscription companies are a perfect option for those looking to give a gift or participate in some self-indulgence. They’re convenient, fun and often offer exclusive products at significant discounts – and the demand is high! It’s no wonder box subscriptions companies are popping up to cater to an array of different demographics and interests.

But, with these box subscription businesses booming, how do the people behind them keep up with customer feedback, complaints and inquires? By building strong communication channels between themselves and their customers – including a professional, yet easy to manage, business voice presence.

For box subscription services that don't have a physical office location, a virtual phone system may be the most cost effective voice presence solution. Virtual phone systems offer a ton of features that a small business with a disbursed or traveling workforce may need to effectively and efficiently communicate with customers. Here are some examples:

1. Customizable greetings allow you to brand your voice presence just as you would your packaging and website. If your box subscription service is called “MeowBox” and is targeted toward millennial cat owners, having a fun greeting incorporating your brand name might be just what you need to secure brand loyalty or persuade a new customer to buy. Customization with a virtual phone service is typically easy to manage so you can change your message as often as you would like, allowing you to test out different messages and keep customers up to date on important information – if certain products are out of stock, wait time on responses, etc.
2. Mobility means you can take your business phone anywhere. If you’re at a trade show looking for new items for your next box and your business partner is out of town, or if you have team members dispersed across the country, you can all stay in touch with customers conveniently from the smart phones you already own.
3. Menu options and caller directories let incoming callers choose who they want to talk to. Whether you and your team (or maybe just you), are together in a room or spread across the country, callers can choose which department – billing, sales, product information, package tracking, etc. – they want to talk to. Not only does this give your business a bigger feel, but it lets you organize calls and get the caller to the right person quickly.
4. Voicemail transcription is a no brainer for a box subscription business. If you’re busy stuffing boxes and trying out potential products, do you really have the time or hands to take notes while listening to a voicemail? Probably not. Voicemail transcription takes the words down for you so you can easily read, save, respond or forward any messages you get.
5. Easy set up allows you to sign up for a virtual phone system and have it working within minutes. Some virtual phone services are easier to set up than others, but pretty much all are easier than setting up equipment for a traditional phone system. Plus, since the phone system works virtually, you never have to worry about the headaches and costs of maintenance.
6. Scalability lets you add and subtract lines as your demand changes. During holiday seasons, as subscriptions and gift box orders rise, adding a few extensions or virtual numbers for seasonal help will ensure you always have the services you need, at a price that fits your current situation.

If your business’ phone presence can’t deliver on all these features, then it’s time to think outside the box (pun intended) and sign up for a virtual phone system. We can have you making calls in just 3 steps – get started now

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?

Imagine you are a New York-based tax attorney with a sterling reputation in all five boroughs. Recently, some of your longtime clients have retired to Florida and have been referring friends to you. Because of the years of good work you’ve done for your customers you are being presented with a tremendous opportunity to expand your client base. Some of these new prospects, however, may be a little thrown off having to call long distance to reach you. 

Fortunately, with today’s technological solutions you can get a business-specific local phone number from a cloud-based phone service to put new customers at ease. Best-in-class solutions make it easy by requiring just a mobile number and 60 seconds of your time to set up your new number. Now, when your loyal customers from up north recommend you to their new friends in the Sunshine State, the new prospects don’t have to worry about dialing to an unfamiliar area code and you don’t have to worry about losing out to a competitor solely based on geography.

As an added bonus, local small business virtual phone numbers powered by cloud-base phone services offer features that give you big business presence, including:

• Auto attendants that greet callers professionally
• Multiple extensions for different departments, even if each department is really just you
• Business-class voicemail to email to ensure no client messages are ever missed

So don’t lose out on new business over something as small as a few digits in a phone number. After all, you don’t need to be in the same city or state to provide great service to your clients—all you need is the talent and expertise you bring wherever you go.

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?

We just got a really cool recognition from ChannelProSMB - Voxox was named a "Vendor on the Vanguard 2016" in the Unified Communications category, and one key reason is Voxox Cloud Phone!

ChannelProSMB compiles an annual list of "lesser-known innovators you may not have heard of yet, but will be glad to know better" based on the suggestions of analysts and industry influencers. The list is published in the ChannelProSMB March 2016 print issue cover story, which highlights 2-3 companies per industry category. Voxox is on p.24. Here's a quote:

"Voxox Cloud Phone enables cash-strapped businesses to turn a collection of iPhone and Android devices into a robust business telephony system at an affordable cost."

Here's a link to our page in the digital issue of the magazine and our official press release is below:

Voxox Recognized in ChannelPro-SMB's Annual Vendors on the Vanguard List for Innovation

Voxox Cloud Phone featured as major reason for company making prestigious innovation list in channel community

SAN DIEGO – March 22, 2016 – Voxox®, the most comprehensive unified communications Platform as a Service company, today announced that the company was named a "Vendor on the Vanguard 2016" in the Unified Communications category by ChannelPro Network, part of EH Publishing Inc. ChannelPro Network's editorial staff compiles an annual list of "lesser-known innovators you may not have heard of yet, but will be glad to know better" based on the suggestions of analysts and other industry influencers. This list, which is well-respected in the channel community, highlights two to three companies per industry category and is published in the ChannelPro-SMB March 2016 print issue as the cover story. 

Voxox is featured on p.24 specifically for its innovation related to its Cloud Phone service. According to the article by the editors of ChannelPro-SMB, "Voxox Cloud Phone enables cash-strapped businesses to turn a collection of iPhone and Android devices into a robust business telephony system at an affordable cost."

"We are thrilled to be recognized in this prestigious list of innovators in the channel community," said Bryan Hertz, CEO and co-founder of Voxox. "Cloud Phone continues to delight customers and partners with its refreshing user experience, convenient features and affordability. It has gained momentum as an instrumental communications tool for the smallest of businesses and this honor, along with other awards and designations, validates Cloud Phone's role in the market."

This recognition comes on the heels of Voxox's recent announcement in regards to its major end-of-quarter channel sales promotions, including its 200 percent spiff for Hosted PBX and SIP trunking deals turned in before March 31, 2016, and wholesale SMS discounts. For more details, channel partners can contact their Voxox channel managers.

For more information on Voxox business solutions, please visit www.voxox.com/business. Sign up for Cloud Phone at www.cloudphone.com.

About Voxox

Voxox is an innovator in unified cloud communication solutions for consumers and businesses. The foundation of the company's offerings is its award-winning unified communications Platform as a Service, which enables the company and its customers to build powerful, scalable applications and services. For consumers and service provider partners, Voxox delivers cutting-edge mobile and desktop applications that integrate voice, video, messaging, fax, media sharing and more. For businesses, Voxox provides an extensive suite of carrier-grade business phone solutions, including hosted IP-PBX, SIP Trunking, a wide array of wholesale services, such as high volume SMS, and the company's new virtual PBX service, Cloud Phone. Voxox is headquartered in San Diego. For more information, please visit http://www.voxox.com.

Big news for Cloud Phone!  Our web app has just been dubbed the winner in the Best Mobile Utility category of the 2014 Silicon Valley Business App Awards, organized by market research firm Regalix. Approximately 200 nominees -- including well-known brands such as Citrix, AT&T, Accenture, HTC, Cisco, Sugar CRM, ADIDAS, and others -- were considered for several categories, and 8 emerged in the winning slots, including yours truly!  (Did we mention that we beat out some of our large, established competitors, including Ringcentral and Grasshopper? ;)

Here's the official press release....

Voxox’s Cloud Phone Named Winner in Best Mobile Utility Category of 2014 Silicon Valley Business App Awards

Cloud Phone is one of eight competition winners among roughly 200 nominees, which include well-known brands such as Citrix, Accenture, AT&T, HTC, Cisco, ADIDAS and more

SAN DIEGO – October 15, 2014 – Voxox®, the most comprehensive cloud-based rich communication service for consumers and businesses, today announced that its virtual PBX service, Cloud Phone, has been named the winner in the Best Mobile Utility category of the 2014 Silicon Valley Business App Awards (SVBA) - sponsored by Regalix, Inc. Hailed as the most prestigious app and device awards program in Silicon Valley, the SVBA recognizes and rewards the best achievements in mobile, social, and wearable technology. The SVBA Awards attract entries from across the world and are judged by a panel of independent, highly respected experts. This year’s competition had approximately 200 nominees, including well-known brands such as Citrix, AT&T, Accenture, HTC, Cisco, Sugar CRM, ADIDAS, and others. Cloud Phone, an HTML5-based web app that launched earlier this year, garnered top honors over large, established competitors, including Ringcentral and Grasshopper.

"Voxox’s Cloud Phone has set the standard for innovation and creativity in the mobile utility app world," said Vikas Sharan, CEO, SVBA Awards. "This award is a testament to the skill, ingenuity, and vision of its creators."

Cloud Phone empowers small business owners with a dedicated toll free or local business telephone number that can be forwarded to a user’s existing phone. Cloud Phone supports multiple employee extensions worldwide, and offers convenient telephony features, such as sophisticated call routing, transcribed voicemail-email delivery, web callback and more. The all web-based service is managed through a sleek user interface and can be set up in under a minute. Since its introduction to the market in February 2014, Cloud Phone has won multiple awards for its simple yet effective phone solution for one-to-10 person businesses. A 30-day free trial is available to all new subscribers.

"We are thrilled to see Cloud Phone take home the win in the prestigious Silicon Valley Business App Awards, having competed alongside such renown brands as Cisco, HTC, ADIDAS and other household names,” said Bryan Hertz, co-founder and CEO of Voxox. “We launched Cloud Phone earlier this year to address the gap in the micro-business market for a powerful yet easy-to-use business phone solution that centers on the smartphone. This award is a milestone to our commitment to Cloud Phone’s continuous evolution.”

The SVBA panel of judges, comprised of industry experts who have made significant contributions to the advancement of technology, selected the winners from submissions received from around the globe. For more information about the SVBA competition, please visit http://www.svbaawards.com/. To learn more about Cloud Phone, please visit www.cloudphone.com. 

About Voxox

Voxox is an innovator in unified cloud communication solutions for consumers and businesses. For consumers and its operator partners, Voxox delivers cutting-edge mobile and desktop applications that integrate voice, video, messaging, fax, media sharing and more. For businesses, Voxox provides an extensive suite of carrier-grade business phone solutions, including hosted IP-PBX, SIP Trunking, a wide array of wholesale services, such as high volume SMS, and the company's new virtual PBX service, Cloud Phone. The foundation of the company’s offerings is its award-winning unified communications platform in the cloud, which enables the company and its customers to build powerful, scalable applications and services. Founded in 2006, Voxox is headquartered in San Diego. For more information, please visit www.voxox.com.

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.    

We are excited to announce that Cloud Phone now includes free business texting for all of its calling plan subscribers. This is particularly awesome because many popular virtual PBX services do not offer two-way texting for free within their monthly calling plans. We are including between 1,000 and 5,000 monthly text messages at no additional charge for Cloud Phone customers because we want to provide the best business value. 

Check out our full press release below:

Voxox Cloud Phone Adds Free Two-Way Business Texting Across U.S. and Canada for Customers with Paid Monthly Calling Plans
Two-way SMS is typically not included without additional cost with popular virtual PBX services, differentiating Cloud Phone for its business value
SAN DIEGO – October 5, 2016 – Voxox®, innovator in cloud communication solutions for businesses with the most comprehensive Unified Communications Platform as a Service, today announced that it has included two-way texting at no additional cost for all customers subscribed to Cloud Phone, the cloud-based virtual phone system for entrepreneurs and very small businesses. The paid subscription plans, which range from 1,000 to 5,000 minutes per month, will now also include between 1,000 to 5,000 free text messages per month, depending on the plan. Popular virtual PBX services typically do not include two-way texting within their monthly calling plans without extra charges or fees. The inclusion of free SMS for Cloud Phone customers is in line with Voxox's strategy to differentiate its services by providing the best business value. 
"Two-way SMS has been our most requested feature for Cloud Phone with 60 percent of customers indicating in surveys their desire to add business texting to their accounts," said Bryan Hertz, CEO and co-founder of Voxox. "Not only did we add the feature but we also included it for free with all Cloud Phone calling plans, which is unorthodox in our space. Our goal with Cloud Phone is to disrupt the marketplace with innovative features and unique offers that empower micro-businesses."                                                                                                                                            
Cloud Phone enables “micro-businesses” (businesses that operate on a very small scale), as well as individuals and small organizations seeking a business-grade telephone presence, to easily obtain local and toll free numbers that support up to 25 extensions and advanced call routing capabilities. With Cloud Phone, users can place and receive calls, manage call activity, access features such as voicemail transcription, call recording, device transfer, faxing, and much more -- all within a sleek, elegant design. No special equipment or advanced skills are necessary to use Cloud Phone. Once a Do It Yourself (DIY) set-up is completed online, all that a user needs is a calling device (e.g., mobile or landline phone) to which calls can be routed. The effortless user experience and set-up process, which can be completed in less than a minute, along with highly competitive global calling rates and exceptional call quality, are key differentiators as compared to alternative solutions.
Cloud Phone comes with a complementary mobile app for iOS and Android. The Cloud Phone mobile app leverages Voxox's new breakthrough VoIP codec, a technology used to encode and compress voice signals into digital form for transmission. This is particularly significant for small businesses with a disbursed or traveling workforce, as the codec dramatically improves voice quality in poor bandwidth settings, such as hotels, convention centers, rural locations, etc. To hear the dramatic difference visit, www.voxox.com/codecdemo.
Apart from two-way business texting available through Cloud Phone, Voxox also offers wholesale SMS services for text-enabling business communications through a web service API. More information available at http://www.voxox.com/business/sms.
To sign up for Cloud Phone, please visit www.cloudphone.com.
About Voxox
Voxox is an innovator in unified cloud communication solutions for businesses. The foundation of the company's offerings is its award-winning unified communications Platform as a Service, which enables the company and its customers to build powerful, scalable applications and services. For end-users, Voxox provides an extensive suite of carrier-grade business phone solutions, including its flagship business app, Cloud Phone, as well as SIP Trunking, hosted PBX, and a wide array of wholesale services, such as high volume SMS. For service provider partners, Voxox delivers cutting-edge mobile and desktop applications that integrate voice, video, messaging, fax, media sharing and more. Voxox is headquartered in San Diego. For more information, please visit http://www.voxox.com.