Advanced Phone System Features Enhance Performance and Productivity

The importance of effective communication cannot be over-emphasized. For commercial operations, seamless communication facilitates sales and helps close deals. In the public sector, phone systems link officials and public servants with their constituencies. Non-profits and charitable organizations rely on phone systems and other communications channels to solicit support and provide public service. Hospitals, clinics and health care facilities of all kinds depend on phones for critical contact, which can literally mean the difference between life and death. Schools are also deeply vested in good communication, supporting the needs of teachers, administrators and parents. The stakes are high in each case, so advanced phone features are used to address the needs of these diverse industries and organizations.

There is no reason to settle for mediocre phone system performance – modern alternatives furnish solutions tailored to each need. And since technology drives the telecom industry forward at a steady pace; progressive professionals are already looking for tomorrow’s answers.

In order to start enjoying the benefits of advanced phone features, compare available service options with providers experienced working within your niche. With the help of reputable phone system vendors, you should be able to match the particular needs of your business, with effective advanced phone system solutions.

Modern Phones Support Collaboration and Efficiency

Modern phone systems do much more than handle incoming calls and outbound dialing. The advanced communication possibilities available to today’s users extend phones’ usefulness, integrating widespread functions through links with computers and cloud services. In practice, state of the art phones systems use advanced features to increase productivity and facilitate greater collaboration among professionals.

• Conferencing Capabilities: There are many ways to connect with clients and associates. Social media channels, texting, and email have taken-over casual communications, but professional settings benefit from conferencing capabilities. Bringing together close collaborators is not always possible in-person, so the best phone systems enable voice and video conferencing, to link remote workers and far-flung associates. Today’s VoIP solutions enable users to utilize Web conferencing alongside their voice systems, simplifying the video conferencing process and making access more reliable. Any organization with remote staff or partners spread across a wide geographic area is a perfect prospect for advanced conferencing features. Today’s conferencing capabilities simultaneously support dozens of callers.
• Call Screening: In competitive business environments, staffers must prioritize, or risk falling behind. Screening functions announce who is calling, enabling users to screen incoming calls before answering. This advanced function helps keep priorities in-line, giving you a heads-up – even when you are already on another call.
• Call Recording: Accountability is essential for building client relationships, so recorded calls furnish a helpful tool for training and achieving customer service goals. Not only is it easy to program modern systems to record some or all your incoming or outgoing calls, but the recordings are also easily migrated to other devices for easy review.
• Click to Call: Phone systems linked to computers enable users to click on their screens in order to make connections. The feature, offered by Vonage Business and other vendors, is particularly useful for workers tasked with making many outbound calls.

Seamless Integration Facilitates Customer Care
While some advanced phone system features streamline in-house operations and enhance intra-office communications, other advanced features are focused on creating and maintaining customer relationships.

• Advanced VoIP Functions: Modern phone systems use Internet connections, rather than traditional phone lines. As a result, phones can now be seamlessly integrated with computer functions, creating customer relations management possibilities unavailable just a few years ago. Advanced system users accomplish common tasks with a few mouse clicks, reducing customer wait times and enabling unified data collection.
  Upgrading to an IP PBX furnishes many benefits, and the transition is easily accomplished, regardless of the type of system you now use. Despite expanding your communications options, a hosted PBX system simplifies management, letting you focus on core business, rather than telecom concerns.
• Voice Recognition Services: Imagine an automated system capable of collecting information as efficiently as a live operator. Voice recognition facilitates efficient operations, enabling callers to share data at any time during the day or night. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems are often associated with automatic attendants. The technologies are distinct; however, and address different needs. IVR enables callers to use voice or keypad responses to achieve various results. In practice, IVR is a more powerful tool than an auto attendant, as an AA simply routes calls.
• Auto Attendant: An auto attendant functions as a virtual operator, connecting extensions and routing calls without the help of a live operator. The efficient systems can save money for some organizations, by trimming personnel costs, but the real value of auto attendants lies in the service provided to callers. Menu prompts guide quick connections, which can include an operator extension, for general callers needing personal contact. The best modern systems are capable of sending calls to mobile phones, IP phones and traditional hard-wired extensions.
• Integrated Customer Service and Inventory Control: In competitive business environments, facilitating sales is one of the most important phone system functions. To make the most of customer contact, today’s forward-thinking businesses use customer relations management (CRM) platforms to focus the effort. The best systems integrate inventory management with CRM, helping customer service staff provide timely information about stock levels. Integration also expands and simplifies data collection, which can be used to refine marketing and sales strategies. In addition to stimulating sales, advanced integration ultimately enhances operational efficiency, accuracy and customer care.

These are only a few of the advanced features available from industry-leading phone system providers, like Cisco, NEC and Toshiba.

Telecommunications needs fall across a wide range of possibilities – some specific to particular industries. To make the most of your phone system and keep your communications capabilities on the cutting edge, consult with informed professionals, who have the best handle on custom, modern alternatives. By weighing the costs and benefits of each system and plugging-in the best solutions, it is possible to introduce advanced features, without exceeding your telecom budget.