Top 3 Virtual Communication Services That Small Businesses Should Outsource

The first impression you give to your customers is the one that lasts the longest. If a customer can’t reach your company over the phone, you’re going to be fighting an uphill battle in that sales pitch; if they ring back at all.

We know that SME’s have it tough. There’s a variety of excuses for not picking up the phone but when you consider that 85% of all missed calls will not call back, can you afford to let it ring?

Cloud IVR Services are considered to be for big companies that receive hundreds of calls in a day. But this perception is changing with rising competition among small businesses. Automating calls is one aspect, but answering every incoming call to a business is the most important need for the business, especially SMEs. For the small business owners it is highly important that they or their staff are able to take calls anywhere and not miss calls.

So, cloud IVR services have become an essential requirement for SMEs these days. A cloud based system works 24×7. It receives calls even during non-office hours and stores the call records for future purpose. Those calls can always be returned ensuring no loss of possible business leads.

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With a cloud telephony system in place, owners can totally depend on the progressive calling services and focus more on their core business activities. Cloud telephony companies India offer voice & data communications applications and services, hosting these on servers that the providers own and maintain, giving their clients access to the cloud. The advanced concept of cloud telephony services offers great flexibility to employees to work anytime anywhere. This excellent benefit of greater flexibility is the best reason to invest in cloud telephony system.

What is Cloud Telephony System?

For the small business owners it is highly important that they or their staff are able to take calls anywhere and not miss calls. However with traditional EPABX system it is impossible to keep track of calls, not miss calls, and manage incoming leads.

“We all agree that a primary aim of a phone is conversation. Cloud telephony is the technology that allows businesses to manage their increasing volume of phone calls and integrate the data from those phone calls with their CRMs, Helpdesks and mobile apps. McKinsey predicts the cloud telephony is the next enterprise software that businesses will invest in after purchasing a CRM.” (Source: Knowlarity)

Cloud telephony helps you receive and make phone calls and text messages, anywhere, anytime, without any wires or upfront setup costs on equipment. You can pick up and make calls using your own mobile phone or landline number. As an added advantage, no equipment maintenance or support cost is involved when you use cloud telephony.

When it comes to understanding the cloud telephony technology, there are two most prominent characteristics of every cloud model that we can study.

• On-demand self-service: A user can automatically provision telephony resources like phone numbers, PRIs, and audio storage as needed.
• Broad Network Access: Users are able to login from anywhere, view their calls, integrate telephony into their current applications, and have an API to access their capabilities.

Why You Should Use Cloud Telephony for Your Business?

A high-end product of technological advances, cloud telephony system has no doubt offered multiple benefits to businesses large and small. Evident from the large scale shift that businesses are making to get on the ‘cloud’, cloud based software solutions have made life much easier in the business world.

The benefits of cloud IVR services seem to constantly outweigh the costs involved –

• Access to advanced features like complete records of all incoming calls, automatic screening of incoming calls, personalized customer interaction by integrating with web-based customer relationship management (CRM) systems.
• Cloud IVR Services let users take take advantage of customer payment solutions, click-to-dial CRM integration, conferencing, inbound and outbound surveys and audio streaming.
• Cloud IVR services allow you to host web-based customer service applications.
• You can integrate location-based services into existing IVR applications. The cloud based solutions excel at multi-channel integration – there is no match when it comes to the ease of connecting your other business systems, your other commerce channels, and more, together.
• Cloud IVR services give you the scope for scalability and much greater flexibility.
• No need to spend on equipment like handsets, softphones, routers, and training. Instead, you just pay a simple, reasonable monthly fee to host your cloud IVR services.
• Without the installation of hardware, or the need to visit your premises to get your new cloud based system up and running, implementation is quick, easy and seamless.
• When a cloud based communication solution is installed in a business environment, there is no need for employees to be worried about hardware expansion, database management and software updates. Everything is handled by the cloud IVR services provider.
• When you transfer your business telephone system to a cloud solution, your contract may include automatic system upgrades. With Cloud IVR Services you will always have access to the latest software and technology, there will be no need to remember to upgrade systems and you can rest assured that the system you are using is the latest available.

SME Joinup has lined up top cloud IVR service providers for small businesses, you can choose suiting your business requirements and budget accordingly:

Spark TG

Having a wide experience in the field of technology, we have developed a brand that is assured to work well. For 22 years of working for the development of IVR, we have learned and acquired the right skills and enough knowledge to providing people with the most effective tools in developing their communication system.

Spark TG is Cloud based Unified Contact Center Solution provider based in India. It was successfully founded in the year 2002. Since then, the company has been offering technology based communication system which also made us known to be one of the pioneers in providing platform for the cloud telephony in India in the year 2009.

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Knowlarity

Knowlarity provides a suite of hosted products that makes business telephony reliable and intelligent. Its flagship products SuperReceptionist and SmartIVR can process over a million calls an hour. Backed by Sequoia Capital and Mayfield, two of the most prestigious Venture Capital firms worldwide, Knowlarity is headquartered in Singapore; and has offices located in India, Turkey, Dubai and the Philippines.

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Static King

Static King IVR technology functions as a tool to give you all the benefits confident and efficient business management. Availing our IVR Virtual Number Service Delhi or getting a virtual local number from us will help you in boosting your brand image as the entire communication process of your company will be positively affected by their service.

Their virtual phone numbers give you the ability to handle calls from anywhere. You can also forward the calls to the right person, for getting solutions to queries. Their services make sure that your customers as well as your business associates stay connected all the time, thereby improving the productivity and efficiency of your business. The powerful features of their IVR technology include voice mails, notifications for lead follow up, call recording, welcome messages, call conferencing and so on.

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Missed Call Services

Missed Call Service has become an effective way to engage and involve customers by any brand/business. The missed call service is targeted and a cost effective means for businesses to reach out to its target audience. The target audience could be in regions where Internet penetration is low or when you want to give a call to action to an online customer who needs to engage with you offline.

What can small business do with a missed call services?

• Lead Capture –Marketers who advertise across mediums still find a challenge to judge ROI’s. Missed calls help to capture 100% of the leads coming from across different mediums which allow businesses to make strategic and cost effective decisions.
• Survey/Feedbacks – Businesses can get real time feedback on customer experience on service/product and if required alerts can be built on SLA’s and action can be taken. The surveys/ feedback can be in the language of choice by brands .
• New user activations – Generate interest and get new users engaged with the brands via different kinds of campaigns
• Run Contests – Incentivize users / target audience to engage with the brand
• Content on Demand – Bring content on demand to users on information like help material, new offers, new products etc

SME Joinup has got top “Missed Call” service providers for small businesses, mentioned below are the vendors that will help you leverage a profitable business:

Knowlarity

Static King

Static King provides an efficient Missed Call Alert Service  that based on advanced automated web based applications. Missed Call Service Provider enable you to receive real time notifications of every call made to your dedicated phone numbers whether they are mobile, landline or toll free. They have a system that features professional greetings for the callers and the option of custom voice. Hosted by IVR service, their miss call alert system can be availed on local numbers and your own personal numbers as well. They also allow feedback by the user and support the service with missed call sms alert.

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 Virtual Receptionist

A virtual receptionist is an phrase used in the business sense that refers to an individual who answers phones or performs the duties of an on-site receptionist, but is not actually located at the primary business’s location. Customer service representatives, answering service agents, and even appointment schedulers could all be classified as a virtual receptionist if they are working off-site or at a remote location. In the majority of cases, the receptionist is working from a home office.

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A company that employs virtual workers often does so to improve customer service by extending hours of availability and covering all time zones in addition to saving money on overhead and payroll costs. In this role, an individual’s job duties typically include taking incoming phone calls. Often, these are calls for product ordering or questions about product ordering, but retail is not the only field that employs virtual workers. For instance, medical staffing companies sometimes employ these receptionists to answer incoming calls after hours and schedule temporary workers to fill in.

How does a Virtual Receptionist Work?

Since the virtual receptionist works from a remote location, they use specific software that is dialed into your computer and phone system. This allows all the incoming phone calls to be routed to the virtual receptionist. They can take messages and deliver them to the right person in your company from there.

This service will operate when you turn it on and stop when you turn it off. VRs can cover breaks, help you when you’re out of the office or handle all of your phone calls. A few examples of how a virtual receptionist can be used include:

• Lawyer – Use the VR when you’re in court and out of the office.
• Dentist – Use the VR when you’re with a client and they can schedule appointments and provide reminder calls for you.
• Small Businesses – Any small business can use a virtual receptionist to help with busy seasons.
  These are just a few of the many examples of how a virtual receptionist can be used to help your business and how they work.

Reasons to Hire a Virtual Receptionist

Did you know that about 75% of the calls coming into a small business end up as hang ups after reaching an answering machine? This is a massive amount of missed opportunities, which could catapult your business to the next level.

With a virtual receptionist, you can cut the percentage of calls ending up as hang ups on your answering machine to nearly none. As long as you use your VR properly, you don’t have to miss out on any opportunities any longer. A live person answering the phone will provide far better customer service than just a machine that most customers will hang up on anyway.

Compared to running the show all by yourself, a virtual receptionist can help you look and act as a more professional and larger business. You will gain more time and you will have the ability to take better care of your clients with a virtual receptionist.

Along with these reasons, compared to a traditional receptionist, a VR can save you quite a bit of cash. They cost about 20% of the cost of a traditional receptionist and provide the same services, sometimes even more.

If you’re looking for a way to provide better customer service and grow your business, consider a virtual receptionist from Conversational Receptionists.

SME Joinup has got top “Virtual Receptionist” service providers for small businesses, mentioned below are the vendors that will help you leverage a profitable business:

 Knowlarity

SuperReceptionist is a virtual receptionist service that allows small business owners to manage incoming and outgoing calls on their phone. It is designed to ensure critical calls are not missed in the course of doing business. Integrate this with your CRM applications to intelligently handle inbound and outbound calls.

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Ozonotel

Ozonetel offers Multi-channel ACD (Voice, Email, SMS, Social Media), IVR, Dialer, Quality Monitoring, Interaction Intelligence and more . Start your contact centre in 30 minutes. Zero installation, all contact center applications delivered out of internet browser. Improve your call centre sales efficiency. Use innovative mobile marketing techniques to engage your customers. Provide extra ordinary contextual support to your callers.

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Outsource now!

Enjoy premium quality virtual communication outsourcing services to reduce cost and boost productivity only at SME Joinup. Get in touch with us today.

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