Phones can do so much more than call people hundreds of miles away. Think of your cell phone— you might be reading this very blog on your phone. It can send text messages, connect to the internet and be your credit card. Just 15 years ago, those capabilities were imaginary and now they are at your fingertips.

Your office phone can have the same infinite possibilities. The key is voice over internet protocol (VoIP).

What is VoIP?

VoIP (also referred to as hosted communications or cloud communications) allows you to ditch the traditional, on-premise phone line to use faster Internet broadband to make voice calls. Cutting edge technology expands the horizon for what an office phone can do. It’s so much more than making voice calls again. Here are seven ways cloud communications can increase productivity for your business.

1) Unify Communication

With employees working more and more on the go, businesses are relying on them to use their personal cell phone for work. With a Voice over IP solution, their office phone can be any device. A simple app will allow them to call from their cell or laptop using the office number.

This also allows for employees to transfer or continue calls from one device to another. Say a phone call is running long but you need to leave your desk to get to an appointment, you can transfer that call to your cell phone or laptop with no interruption to the conversation.

The application also stores employees’ work contacts. So, if they leave your company, they won’t be taking valuable information with them. As a team leader, this will allow you to measure their productivity— see when employees are making calls, how long they last and to whom.

2) Immediate Response with Text Messaging

Text messaging is the future of business communication, and some are utilizing this form of communication. How nice would it be to be able to send a text meeting reminder directly to your customer’s cell phone instead of getting lost in the inbox? Some VoIP solutions provide messaging through their application, so text messages come through from the office phone number. Text messages are more useful when an immediate response is needed. Advantages, like this, are why businesses take the leap, but without a hosted solution, this communication can be lost in your employees’ personal phones.

3) Stay Connected with Voicemail to Email/Text

Voicemails can be a drain. The blinking red light reminds you of all the people you need to respond to, but you just haven’t had time to be at your desk today. Options, like voicemail to email and voicemail to text, make it much more manageable.

Voicemail to email sends the audio file to your email, so you can listen to it on the go. Another option is voicemail to text. It does exactly what it sounds like. It can transcribe your voicemails into text and email them to you. So, when you have that break in your morning meeting, you can read it quickly and decide if you should email or wait till you can make a phone call. This system boosts your business’s productivity and makes responding to voicemail much more manageable.

4) Host Virtual Meetings

Meeting people face-to-face is sometimes a luxury, but the non-verbal communication that comes with it can be invaluable. With a cloud communication system, your cell phones and laptops will be able to host video meetings or presentations. This allows your employees to have flexible scheduling. With your virtual meetings being connected to your telecommunication solution, it keeps all communication in one source without having to go to multiple applications.

5) Conferencing Made Easy

Building a conferencing bridge, or phone line for a phone conference with multiple people, can take five or six steps, but it doesn’t have to. Cloud communications that use apps can make conferencing a breeze. With a single click, it can open your call up to others to join even if they do not use your solution. This will allow coworkers to connect and work together as a team. Conferencing streamlines communication and defends your team from playing phone tag.

6) Record Phone Calls

Whether it is to monitor customer service or as meeting notes, recording phone calls can benefit your business. With a simple USB input, phone calls can be monitored and stored in the cloud.

There are different options of frequency. You can record everyone’s conversations or just a random selection to make sure the customers are having the best experience. Another option is to have employees choose to voluntarily record the conversation.

Having the option to record phone calls means you can make sure your new employees understand their training, and your sales staff doesn’t have to scramble to take notes during an important meeting.Whether voluntarily or mandatory, recording phone calls can boost customer service and make your team more efficient.  

7) Monitor Productivity with Call Center Applications

Adding a call center application to your cloud communication can streamline your processes and boost productivity. Call center applications have many different options available, but the main benefit is being able to monitor the calls. This isn’t recording the phone calls, but rather, monitoring the time — how long the caller has been on hold or your employee has spent communicating with a person.

Notifications can be set up so the manager or employee on the call knows when a significant amount of time was spent with the caller, allowing them to make the decision if they need more support or a different solution. Not only will it allow you to make sure your customers have the best experience, but it will provide the analytics management needs to determine if process need to change or more employees need to be hired.

More than just an Office Phone

Your office phone has just as many possibilities and as much flexibility as your cell phone. With VoIP, you can utilize any of these options to benefit your company, because when your telecommunications system is more than a phone, your employees are more productive.

If you are interested in the different options cloud communication has to offer, discover more with Access Cloud Communication Solutions.