Make your business truly flexible over Easter

Gain true flexibility this Easter thanks to a range of clever calling features

VoIP has you covered if you’re going to be making the most of the long weekend this Easter, but don’t necessarily want to be completely cut off from your business.

Conveniently using just your online control panel you can configure a multitude of business grade calling features, setting your business up to become more flexible and even look more professional for when you’re going to be out the office.

Whether it be not wanting to miss potentially important calls, or simply communicating a short message to customers to let them know you’re closed and when you will reopen; VoIP makes it effortlessly simple.

Route all calls to another destination

With features such as Call Forwarding you can divert incoming calls to any destination you like. If most of your business comes through inbound calls, you may want to avoid missing out on any potential opportunities whilst simultaneously enjoying your free time out and about over the weekend.

Set up calls to forward to your mobile so you can enjoy the best of both worlds, taking any calls as and when you like from wherever you happen to be at the time. Using ‘Multi Route’ you can even forward calls to multiple destinations at the same time, increasing the chances of the call being picked up by yourself or a colleague.

This is carried out in your Routing Wizard, which you can read information on using here.

Only forward specific types of calls

Receive only the calls that you want to take while you’re away from the office by putting in place an IVR menu. While IVR systems are traditionally used to efficiently get calls to the right place or department by prompting a caller to “Press 1 for Customer Services”, they can just as conveniently be used to make you more flexible outside of normal business hours.

This is helpful if you don’t want all inbound calls to be forwarded to your mobile (or other external destination), because not all of them may be important enough to interrupt your much-deserved time off. But if the nature of your business means you like to be on-call for emergencies or other urgent enquiries, or you simply don't want to miss out on new sales enquiries, you could easily set-up an IVR plan to achieve this.

For example, if you wanted to capture all new sales leads you could simply set up a concise plan that would have one option for sales and one for “all other enquiries”. When the sales option is selected by a caller they could be routed to your mobile; when “all other enquiries” is chosen you could route callers to a message informing them you’re closed, when you will reopen and then either end the call or give customers the chance to leave a voicemail.

Read more about using IVR here.

Automatically relay important messages to customers

Playing automatic greetings messages to callers is a great and easy way to keep your customers in the loop when your business is closed – you could even tie it in with your out of hours routing system.

Rather than allow customers to call your number and have it continuously ring without being picked up, audio greetings help your business look more professional. Inform customers that you’re closed and when you will reopen, or even use it as a marketing opportunity to communicate offers or guide customers to your website.

Find information on setting up audio files here.

Take your phone with you!

The very nature of VoIP allows you to plug-and-play your VoIP phone wherever you are in the world with an internet connection.

Simply unplug your device and plug it into the internet connection at your alternate location, and you will be able to make and receive calls just as if you were in your office.

No extra cost, no hassle and your customers won’t know the difference!