Solve Common Problems with Your Business Phone System

How to Solve Common Problems with Your Business Phone System

  Once you get your business phone system solid and running just the way you want it to for the company, you probably aren’t going to have too much go wrong with it, but things do happen from time to time, so it’s good to know what you’re getting into when that occurs. We’re going to address most of the issues that you will run into in this post and provide some real solutions that you can employ to resolve it. With this knowledge, you may not ever have to call your service provider or carrier because it’s possible to solve it yourself. Keep in mind that this applies to a virtual phone system, although much of this can also be applied to conventional systems, as well.   Forwarding Phones Not Ringing   This can have a variety of different causes, and like many similar problems, it can either be …

StephanieHow to Solve Common Problems with Your Business Phone System
No Business Too Small for Phone System

Why No Business is Too Small for a Phone System

Is your small business just too darn small to need a professional phone system? Absolutely not! Whether you are running a one-person shop out of your home office, managing a remote team, or huddling with your staff in a small office each morning, your company needs a business phone system. In fact, not having a professional phone system could put you at a disadvantage to your competition. People expect to get routed into a business phone system when they call a company, store, or office. After all, that’s been the way we’ve done commerce in the U.S. since the 1960s. For about 80 years before that, all calls, both business ones and personal ones, got managed through a single switchboard in the town or neighborhood. The telephone operator managed things by plugging a cord into each person’s jack on the switchboard, and then letting you talk through the cord. But …

StephanieWhy No Business is Too Small for a Phone System
Misconceptions About Phone Systems

5 Misconceptions About Phone Systems, Debunked

Business phone systems are becoming increasingly advanced and complex thanks to constantly evolving communication technology. These new systems provide excellent alternatives to the traditional phone systems that have been in place for decades. As with most new technologies, however, misconceptions, myths, and legends have cropped up around these new communication systems, and consequently, some companies are growing wary of investing in the latest phone system technology. Many professionals seem to think that their old phone system worked just fine. They think the company should call in the repair team one more time to keep it alive instead of buying something new for the office. Is this the right approach to corporate communication technology, though? Can virtual phone systems really stand up to the old-school, traditional systems that we know? The answer is not as easy as saying “yes” to every new technological innovation that a major telecom brings to market. …

Stephanie5 Misconceptions About Phone Systems, Debunked
Office Phone System Should Go Virtual

10 Reasons Your Office Phone System Should Go Virtual

  1. Trim the Fat & Lower Your Cost Have you considered switching from a traditional phone company to a virtual phone system? A virtual phone service like Talkroute is most likely going to be much less expensive than using one of the main phone carriers that you may be using right now. Many of these suggestions are of course for businesses that run out of a separate office, but you can use most of the same principles by applying them to your home business, too. Business phone systems can get pricey very quickly, but thankfully the traditional providers are not the only option you have at your disposal. Switching to a virtual phone service provider can save a business a lot of money by eliminating the need for additional phone hardware and network equipment because you can simply use the phones you already have. Traditional providers also tend to …

Stephanie10 Reasons Your Office Phone System Should Go Virtual
How Business Can Benefit from Virtual Phone Number

How Your Business Can Benefit from a Virtual Phone Number

  As virtual phone numbers were basically created for businesses, it’s a given that they carry with them a lot of benefits for businesses. Those benefits are not always spelled out for businesses by the virtual service providers, though, so we thought it fitting to show exactly what you can do with a virtual phone number as a small business owner. In their function, they function pretty much the same exact way as a normal number, but in addition to the standard service that you would get with any other number that you’re used to, virtual numbers are actually quite a bit more versatile. It’s kind of like when you switch from using CDs for your music to using mp3s. You’ll be able to do a lot more with mp3s than CDs, and you’ll be able to do it quicker, more cheaply, and more easily. Your business has more options …

StephanieHow Your Business Can Benefit from a Virtual Phone Number
Google Voice Alternative: Talkroute

Google Voice Alternative: Talkroute is Better for Business

  Google Voice is one of those services that was created by a very large company who found and employed an elite team of very smart people, who then took a great idea built by GrandCentral, put the power and resources of Google behind it, and made it even better. What they really did was to design Google Voice in such a way that it was appealing and useful for a much bigger market. GrandCentral, the phone management service which Google bought out for themselves back in 2007, really wasn’t much more than a basic carrier with a lot of infrastructure and massive inventory of phone numbers. Google took that to use as the backbone of their new Voice app, but what they created with it was much more than what GrandCentral had. One of the problems with the Google Voice app, though, is that it only has basic features …

StephanieGoogle Voice Alternative: Talkroute is Better for Business
800 Number History

The History of 800 Numbers and Why We Want Them

Toll-free phone numbers have been around for quite a long time now, and their value to businesses remains even until today. There are a few benefits to having a toll-free number, most notably the fact that anyone can call it without assuming any charges, but it’s also a simple way to give your business a national presence. On top of that, it works great to turn it into a vanity number to make it easier for customers to remember and identify your business, especially when it has the original (800) area code. 800 numbers have come a long way to become what they are today. All the way from collect calling, to expensive, regional-based numbers offered during the time when AT&T still monopolized the telecom industry, to the affordable, nationwide toll-free service with which we are familiar today. In this article, we’ll explore that extensive history, its gradual development over …

StephanieThe History of 800 Numbers and Why We Want Them
High-Quality Phone System

8 Ways to Tell If You Have a High-Quality Phone System

Every business needs some kind of phone system. Well, nearly every business needs it. There are some businesses today who actually manage customer support entirely through email and other messaging platforms, but even for those who have the ability to do that, it’s questionable whether it’s a good idea to completely eliminate phones. Back in the old days, there was only one type of phone system which consisted of landlines and nothing else, but then alternative types of systems were introduced, such as VoIP lines, virtual phone systems, and even personal cell phones. It can be pretty tough these days to choose one and to be sure that you’re getting everything you need to properly manage calls for your business. That’s why we’re providing some points here to give you a basic barometer that will tell you whether or not your phone system has exceptional quality and performance. If your …

Stephanie8 Ways to Tell If You Have a High-Quality Phone System

What to Do When Your Business Line Gets Excessive Unwanted Calls

Your first instinct when you start getting a lot of unwanted calls to your business number will be to become panicked and angry. That is natural and totally understandable, but try not to freak out because you do have some pretty effective options to stop it from happening. It can be extremely frustrating when this happens to you, as it can make you feel completely powerless. In addition to feeling like there’s nothing you can do to stop it, you might also have a hard time getting anyone to help, including your own phone service provider. Even if you can’t get the help you expect from your provider, there are definitely measures you can take to handle it yourself, sometimes pretty quickly. Try out these options, and by the time you get through all of them, you’ll probably have eliminated most of the unwanted calls, if not all of them. …

StephanieWhat to Do When Your Business Line Gets Excessive Unwanted Calls
which do you need

Toll Free or Local Number: Which One Does Your Business Need?

Something as simple as a phone number isn’t often on the minds of entrepreneurs starting a business for the first time. With most business tools found in the cloud or on your computer, you probably won’t need to worry about your phones until you have at least a few customers. As your company grows and evolves, the number of phone calls you have to handle will increase, and having a professional business number provided by a reliable virtual phone number service will prove to be invaluable. This leaves you with an important choice to make: should you go with a local or toll-free phone number? These different types of phone numbers provide a similar user experience, but offer a diverse range of opportunities along the way, making it critical that you consider them carefully. What Are They? When setting up a business phone system, you’ll need to choose the right …

StephanieToll Free or Local Number: Which One Does Your Business Need?