For any small business, its phone line is its lifeline. This is a way to communicate with vendors and provide support for customers. Making this small business phone line professional and efficient can help you save money, retain customers, and have more business flexibility.
To do more with your phone line for less money, all you need is a virtual PBX system, like the one offered by RingCentral. You can have an auto attendant to send calls to the right place, customized hold messages, call forwarding, and many other features usually only found in a more expensive phone infrastructure. Access voice mail from any phone and set up professional messages.
For a low monthly fee, you can have a small business phone line that will help you impress customers and win business.Labels: IP Phone, Phone System
Posted by RingCentral
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All you need for a VoIP service is an Internet connection. This lets you have a reliable phone system without going through the phone company. But not all VoIP services are made equal. For businesses, you need to be able to have multiple lines and additional features that customers, clients, and other callers will be expecting.
Look to make the most of not having a land line based phone system, including getting call forwarding and call answering rules. Get inexpensive 1-800 numbers for quick customer service. All this can be done with a VoIP service created for businesses. RingCentral has just such a service and can save you money without sacrificing functionality.Labels: Small Business, Toll Free Number
Posted by RingCentral
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Not all businesses have the traditional structure of one office that all employees commute to each day. In fact, some companies have no actual office at all. And yet, they need to look to customers and clients like a trusted organization, even if the human resources are scattered. The answer is a virtual office. This can be affordable, with low overhead. There are some advantages as well as some things to keep in mind while managing virtual offices.
- Choose what number you want customers to use, whether that means a local number for them or a toll-free number.
- Work very hard at keeping communication going so that everyone is on the same page.
- Hire employees who are self-starting and motivated to achieve success. Post jobs far and wide online since your talent pool isn't limited by location.
Labels: Small Business, Virtual Office
Posted by RingCentral
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What happens to customers who calls your main line? Are they being sent to the right people quickly? These are things that every business needs to keep in mind when setting up a phone system. When you don't have the money or space for a full time receptionist, consider an auto attendant strategy. Here are some considerations:
- Divide the phone options by what customers, clients, and other callers will need help with or want to know, not by the organization of the company.
- Make sure customer service lines are always answered. Consider having calls forwarded if the main contact is unavailable.
- Plan ahead when creating the phone option menu. Changing it after it's implemented can be easy with the RingCentral system, but the new menu could cause unnecessary confusion for return customers.
Labels: Phone System, Small Business
Posted by RingCentral
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In these challenging economic times, a change of strategy may be required to weather the storm. Today we are going to look at some of the various strategies the small business owner can employ to become lean and mean. The first impulse might be to cut costs and leave it at that but there might be more you can do.
Keep Metrics and Note Trends
 Photo Credit: Ky Olsen
How can you know where you are going if you don't know where you are? Who is buying your product? What product are they buying? Where are they coming from? Why are they picking you? This is a different economy than the one you knew even a few months ago. Certain businesses are doing well because they align to what people need and want now. Recording and surveying what people want now can be essential so you can strengthen what part of your business is working. A big mistake is to assume what worked before will work now. That may be true for sum (I hear bankruptcy lawyers are doing very well) but for others, you may have a tailor your products, services and promotion to now, not one year ago. Increase Promotion  Photo Credit: Freddy the Boy I know the advertising budget was one of the first things you looked at cutting but advertising is the thing that gets customers in the door. Advertising is not cheap for the most part but there are great value methods that are in some cases the best forms of promotion. Take that idle front desk guy and put him on the phones or email to previously content and happy clients for referrals. Word of mouth is the best advertising so nudging that happy customer to find you some business is a successful action. Just by contacting your previous customers, you may pick up some business from them. The web provides many options for cheap or free marketing options for small businesses, use them. If you choose to reduce your advertising budget, fine but you need to work out how to get more advertising for less dollars. Do not reduce advertising and expect the savings on cost to protect you. Increase your advertising while lowering the cost. Cutting Costs
 Photo Credit: Lisa Yarost
Can't get around this but there is value out there. Many of your vendors are probably feeling the crunch too so they would be more willing to cut a few prices (or their competitors would) to keep your business. Investigation of all your expenses may find value options such as hosted telephony compared to traditional or online advertising as opposed to old media. Simple things like getting your business checks printed at a printer over the bank will save money. You will find ways to trim your costs, just investigate each expense. You and your crew need to be "all hands on deck" to weather this storm. Less breaks, get yourself and your crew running as opposed to strolling. Your crew will understand if you explain to them that you don't want to let anyone go. Use that extra effort for promotion and better service. Tighten Discipline  Photo Credit: Tinou Bao
You and your crew need to be "all hands on deck" to weather this storm. Less breaks, get yourself and your crew running as opposed to strolling. Your crew will understand if you explain to them that you don't want to let anyone go. Use that extra effort for promotion and better service. Labels: Small Business
Posted by RingCentral
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Everyone has advice on how to make sure your business survives the recession. Much of this revolves around tallying up expenses, cutting costs, and trying not to panic. These are all good points and valuable advice, but there are other tips you may not have thought of. Here are some additional ways to keep your business competitive:
Cut Troublesome Clients – The temptation now is to get money from any available source, but this is not always wise. Consider dropping troublesome clients that cost you money, time, and aggravation. It may be a recession, but you still need to charge a fair price for a valuable service.
Consolidate Technologies - Consolidating technologies can be a great way to do more with less. Instead of running many different technologies and paying many different bills for the priveledge, try to simplify services, like telecommunications and devices. This will take less effort to manage, saving money and time.
Continue Product Development - It can be tempting at this point to cut back on everything non-essential. The problem with this is that it's difficult to know now what will and will not make a difference in the future. In order to keep a competitive edge, continue product development, even if research is being done on a more modest budget.Labels: Small Business
Posted by RingCentral
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Whether the office is closed or an employee is on vacation, there will sometimes be extended periods of time when a phone extension is not going to be answered. When this is the case, it can be helpful to change the voice mail message to alert callers of this out-of-office update. This information can include the exact dates of the absence as well as who to contact for immediate help.
RingCentral makes this kind of change easy. By pressing just a few buttons you can change your message and then when you get back, it's easy to return to the original voice mail. While you are away, you can phone in and check messages via computer if needed and call back with a click of the mouse, so you don't miss anything important.
And the best part is that all these features come for a low price and don't require the usual phone infrastructure.Labels: Voice Mail
Posted by RingCentral
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One of the useful features offered by RingCentral is call forwarding. You no longer have to decide between giving a client your personal cell phone number or having to stay near your desk so you don't miss an important call. It's also an easy way to make a company whose employees are geographically separated seem like a cohesive, traditional office. With a few quick tips, you can be using call forwarding to your full advantage.
- Set up Answering Rules: Instead of setting up call forwarding from your office phone to your cell phone before you leave each day, have calls transferred at a certain time daily. That way you won't forget and you'll save time.
- Use FindMe: If you have a hectic schedule and never know where you'll be, FindMe can make sure all your phones ring, so you don't have to bother with setting up forwarding.
- Bypass the System: If you have things set up like Answering Rules of FindMe but you find yourself at a different phone entirely, that doesn't mean that you have to miss urgent calls. Use FollowMe to override any rules quickly and get the call to you.
Labels: Digital VoIP, IP Phone
Posted by RingCentral
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Currently, all small businesses are looking to do more with less to avoid becoming a casualty of the economic downturn. Cutting back is the name of the game, but that doesn't mean you can cut everything. What questions should your small business be asking about telecommunications in order to decide what your needs are and how you can get a good deal? Here are 3 questions that could help you.
- What role does the telephone or fax have in your customer or client relationship? If you are an Internet business who rarely gets a call, having a professional phone service isn't quite as important. However, if you rely on phone conversations to make sales or help customers, you should use the opportunity to make a good impression.
- Where do you tend to do your business? If you always work in an office and primarily deal with other businesses on a standard office schedule, your needs will be fairly standard. But if you deal with customers, are on the go, work odd hours, or have clients in different time zones, you may need additional options like call forwarding and answering rules.
- What features are most important? If you need to have extensions, have to have hold music, or love your current phone menu, you will want to find a phone system that is cheap yet has all the options you want. Try RingCentral.
Labels: Phone System, Small Business
Posted by RingCentral
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