Five Underutilized Cloud Business Phone Features

A business phone plan may sound pretty standard: a main phone line, extensions for employees and a few features like voicemail and fax to cover the bases. But today’s unified communications platforms have a lot more to offer than the basics, and it’s likely you’re not fully utilizing features that could take your internal and external communications to a new level.

Here are five cloud business phone features that should be part of your current business communications solution (or the next solution you choose), and why they are worth incorporating into your daily workflows this year.

1. Receptionist Console – Provide Robust Tools to Manage Calls and Enhance Customer Service

Receptionists play a pivotal role at every company, greeting visitors, fielding phone calls and supporting business functions with efficiency, skill and a helpful attitude. Why not make their job a bit easier with a receptionist console, found in many business phone platforms.

A Receptionist Console allows for easy-to-use, intuitive call routing right from the individual’s desktop. Using the console, the receptionist can answer, transfer, park, put on hold or place calls. Because the console displays all telephone extensions at a glance, the receptionist can always see who is active and who is unavailable so calls are transferred appropriately.

A well-designed receptionist console enhances customer service, because calls don’t get missed or ignored. When call volume is high, the receptionist can have calls forwarded to a backup person. Or, the receptionist can enable a call queue service that lets him or her place calls in a queue and either prioritize or separate them. For instance, queues can be set up related to a particular product, language, region or other criteria. Other team members can connect to a call queue to support high volume or address specialized needs.

2. Automated Receptionist – Get Virtual Support for Call Routing, Screening and More

If your business regularly has callers waiting on hold, you may need another receptionist – an automated one, that is. This function, also called interactive voice response (IVR), is available through many cloud business phone solutions. It can significantly improve the caller experience by getting people the assistance they need more quickly and efficiently.

Even if you already use an automated receptionist, you may not be taking advantage of all its features. For example, here’s all the functionality you can get through Cloudli’s Automated Receptionist:

• Rule-based routing – Configure the system to determine where it should transfer calls, and when.
• Caller options – Let customers decide whether they want to remain in a phone queue, leave a voicemail or get a call back when an agent is available.
• Do not disturb – Allow team members to indicate if they are busy or out of the office and want all their calls to go directly to voicemail.
• Call screening – Avoid unwanted calls by pre-selecting phone numbers and having them intercepted and routed according to your defined processing option.

Did we mention all these features are virtual? That means your automated receptionist can be in one location while your agents and employees are located elsewhere, giving you full flexibility in how you configure customer service.

3. Virtual Faxing – Fax from Anywhere

Many businesses use fax to transmit important documents – especially those that contain private and secure information. That works well when you’re sitting near a fax machine, but what about when you’re on-the-go? Virtual faxing is the solution.

If your business phone solution has virtual faxing, it’s an easy feature to use. You simply scan the document you want to fax and attach the PDF to an email or an online portal provided through your plan. Then you enter the recipient’s fax number in place of an email address, and it’s ready to send.

The same thing occurs when receiving a fax. The document lands in your email inbox and is available for instant viewing, saving or printing.

Remember, the document is being faxed, not emailed, so it will maintain all the data protections and conveniences faxing provides. Cloudli’s Virtual Fax service encrypts data at rest and guards against hacks using strictly controlled roles and continuous tracking of all access attempts.

4. Group Calls and Chats – Communicate Better with Your Team

If your business phone plan has business texting capabilities – and it should – you can use it to communicate quickly and easily with your team.

For instance, you can convert a text chat with one co-worker into a group chat with multiple teammates, allowing you to share information, send meeting reminders, clarify project details and answer simple questions through your common business phone number. If an issue requires more discussion, it’s easy to instantly turn the chat into a group call.

5. Call Recording – Record and Save Calls for Reference or Training Purposes

Have you ever finished an important call only to think, “I should have recorded that!”? Or maybe you need to review calls as part of training or quality control. If so, it’s time to utilize the call recording feature on your business phone platform. With many cloud business phone solutions, you can record calls and save them on your portal for easy access.

The feature should be easy and intuitive to use. With Cloudli, you simply enter a short code prior to the call or click the “record” button during the call to start recording, depending on the solution. The system automatically notifies the participants the call is being recorded, so you won’t run afoul of privacy laws. As soon as you hang up, the recording is either accessible through the app or sent to you by email where you can listen, save or delete the file to suit your needs.

Upgrade to Get the Features You Need

Thinking of transitioning to another cloud business phone solution that has more of the features you need? Cloudli provides the always-connected functionality essentials to the modern work-from-anywhere office – at a price companies of all sizes can afford. Reach out today to discuss your requirements with a Cloudli expert.