The Call forwarding Feature Keeps You Close to Customers

The call forwarding feature of a virtual phone keeps you connected with your customers and colleagues at all times. This is an incredible feature of a phone system that gives you the flexibility to work from anywhere, anytime without missing any important call. You can forward calls to more than one phone number that includes your cell phone number, residence phone number, office phone number and other phone numbers of your choice. Out of this, your cell phone number should be your first choice since it is typically always with you.

The call forwarding feature of a virtual phone is particularly helpful for a small business owner who is always busy developing his business and does not have time to manage his calls. All his calls need to be answered promptly and professionally and should be forwarded to him. It gives him more flexibility with his work schedule, which is invaluable for any new entrepreneur. A virtual phone has a special feature called: Follow-Me-Find-Me that practically hunts you down to deliver the call.

Follow-Me-Find-Me

Follow-Me-Find-Me is an excellent call forwarding feature that tries to connect you to more than one telephone number of your choice. This could be your residence phone number, your mobile number, office phone number and other phone numbers of your choice. To use this feature, you need to provide the phone numbers and Follow-Me-Fine-Me will hunt you down to deliver the call. You can set your phone system to prevent calls to one particular number during a fixed time of a day or on a day of a week. Forget missed calls once you have Follow-Me-Find-Me feature on your phone system. Your customers can now contact you easily anywhere. The Follow-Me-Find-Me feature also works seamlessly with call screen and announce.

Call Screen and Announce

You can also use the call forwarding feature for advertising your business for free. Let your callers hear a brief sales pitch and then forward the call to the desired person/department. It also allows you to use call screening so that you can have more information about your caller and can answer your calls better.  Call screen and announce work to help you save time. You can use call screen and announce on the main number or any extension that is using call forwarding and prompt the caller to record their name. Now you can make a choice to speak directly with the people whom you think are important for your business and can divert the rest to the voicemail box.

Connects You Anywhere Anytime

The call forwarding feature keeps you close to customers always. You must be aware of the effects a missed call can have on a business. Every single call that you fail to answer is equivalent to a missed business chance. Your customers may prefer to inquire about products and services and even place orders from the comfort of their home. Each call that you receive via phone is an opportunity to raise your revenue. It is important that you answer them promptly.  The call forwarding feature allows you to answer customers even when you are not in the office, are on vacation or in the car.

Call Forwarding Lets You Speak Directly to Your Customers No Matter Where You Are

Most of the major telephone service providers now offer a call forwarding feature as part of their business phone systems. Almost every business makes use of this feature today to stay in contact with their customers or to provide better customer service. Calls are forwarded to designated phone numbers and at times to a chain of phone numbers. The user has to provide the system with the phone numbers and can also state the day and time when he is available on each of these numbers. Call forwarding is an important feature in today’s telecommuting and has several benefits for a business:

Increased Availability

The most important of these benefits is that it makes you available to your clients and customers even when you are not in the office.  It allows you to forward calls to more than one telephone number like a cell phone number, residence phone number or other phone numbers of your choice. The call forwarding feature actually hunts you down to deliver the call. You can also customize the phone system in such a way that it delivers phone calls to a particular number on a pre-determined day and time. This particular feature is known as Follow-Me-Find-Me. It always makes you available to customers so that they can speak to you directly.

Better Mobility

Because call forwarding allows you to forward calls to cell phone, you can answer customers on the go. It helps to increase the mobility of employees without reducing communication with customers. It does not matter whether you are vacationing, in a hotel or in the airport or have just stepped out of your office, now it is possible to answer customers anywhere and at any time. This also helps to reduce the chances of important calls going unanswered. 

Makes Business Look Big

Call forwarding also helps a company expand its business presence. You can assign either local or toll free phone numbers for different geographies and forward the calls to the same central location. Though all the calls are answered from a single office, it creates an impression that the business is scattered across the country. This can contribute immensely to your business image. It proves the business to be big and also credible. If you are using an auto attendant, all the calls will be quickly answered and they will be connected to the right person or department without taking much time.

Customers Prefer to Talk Directly

If you are not able to answer customers on any of the phone numbers, the auto attendant of the virtual phone system forwards the call to the voicemail box. Callers can leave a message for you at the voicemail box and can expect a reply. Often customers get disappointed as soon as they hit a voicemail box because they do not expect to be called back. This is because a voice message often goes unanswered either because they are not properly reported or because they are not answered. This is why a modern virtual phone sends alerts as soon as there’s a new voice message. You can also set a personal voice message before the caller leaves his message to assure the caller that you will reply to every message. But it is always better if customers can talk to you directly.

Call Forwarding Helps to Make Effective Call Management and Distribution

Modern technology can do wonders to your business. When you are using a virtual phone system for your business, you need no extra hardware or software or complex installation and yet it helps you in managing your calls more effectively.  With a virtual phone you can easily give your customers the impression of a big business within your small budget. One feature that really helps you in your business and makes it looks bigger is call forwarding. It helps your business grow and also makes an impact on your customers. Listed below are a few of the advantages that a business enjoys using this feature:

Effective Call Management

On a virtual phone system, the auto attendant answers your calls and directs your callers to the person or department of his choice. Now what if you are not available to answer the call? The auto attendant forwards your call to the voicemail box. So the call forwarding feature of your virtual phone helps you to reduce the chances of calls going unanswered or unattended. Moreover, a virtual telephone also offers advanced call forwarding options that make it easier for you to maintain contact with your customers, even when you are not in the office or travelling or vacationing.

Call Distribution

The call forwarding feature of a virtual PBX allows you to forward calls to more than one phone number according to your choice and priority. You should use your mobile number as the first number of your choice and then your home phone number, office phone number and other phone numbers according to your preference.  You can also set the day and time when you are available on each of these numbers, so that the phone system can forward your call according to your choice. This is a very important feature of a virtual PBX and is known as Follow-Me-Find-Me feature. It practically hunts you down to deliver your call.

Looks Bigger than You Are

This advanced call forwarding feature – Follow-Me-Find-Me, makes your business look bigger than it actually is. Moreover, it helps you project an image that you are always available to answer your customers. This is very significant for the development of your business.  Your customers feel assured that then can reach you immediately at the time of their need. If you choose to use a toll free number as your business contact number, it will be an added advantage. Because your customers know that they can reach you anytime without spending a cent.

Maintaining Constant Contact with Customers

With the advanced call forwarding feature of your phone system you are never far from your customers. It helps to keep you in constant touch with your customers.  So even if you could not answer a call for some reason, do not be scared that you have lost a business opportunity because that call will be forwarded to your voicemail box, where your caller can leave a voice message. Your phone system also sends out alerts as soon as you have new voicemail. Moreover, you can keep your phone in Do Not Disturb mode until you are available to answer calls and all your calls will be forwarded to your voicemail box. It makes you more organized in answering calls and reduces chances of missed calls or missed voicemails.

Forget Missed Calls with the Call Forwarding Feature of a Virtual Phone

Call forwarding is an important feature of a phone system. It is a significant component in the traditional phone system as well as in a virtual phone system.  But there are significant differences between the call forwarding of a traditional PBX and a modern phone system. Modern phone systems are equipped with advanced features that make communication with your customers simple and easy.  Further it tries to make sure that you miss no business calls because missing a call can prove expensive for your business and can also spoil your business image forever.

Follow-Me-Find-Me
Follow-Me-Find-Me is an important call forwarding feature that differentiates a traditional phone system from a virtual phone. It gives your business phone system more power than a simple call redirect of your residence phone or your mobile phone service provider.  In addition, you have a special feature - Follow-Me-Find-Me that locates you at up to three phone numbers of your choice.

Follow-Me-Find-Me is an incredible feature of a virtual phone system that tries to connect you up to three telephone numbers of your choice. You can provide your phone system up to three phone numbers  of your choice and call forwarding will hunt you down to deliver your call. The first number could be your cell phone number, the second number could be your residence phone number and the third number could be any other number of your choice.

You can set days of the week and even hours when you are available on each number and can customize exactly where and how you want your customers to reach you. You can also program the system in such a way that it prevents calls on one particular number during a fixed time of a day or any particular day of a week. If you are busy and cannot answer calls, it is better to use the “Do Not Disturb” mode until you are available.

Call Screening and Announce
You can also program your virtual phone system in such a way that your callers hear a brief sales pitch and then they can forward calls just by pressing zero. It also allows you to use call screening so that you can have more information about your caller and can answer your calls better.  Call screen and announce help you save your time. You can enable call screen and announce on any extension that is using call forwarding and prompt the caller to record their name. So now you can speak directly with the people you think are important for your business and can divert those to your voicemail whom you think are time wasters.

Available All the Time
The call forwarding feature also helps you build your business image. It makes you available to your clients 24x7. It also allows you to set the day and the time when you are available on each number.  But a feature, like Follow-Me-Find-Me can have immense effect on your business and your customers.  It makes you available to your customers all the time. No matter if you are in office, at home or on vacation – you are never far from your customers and prospects. Follow-Me-Find-Me will hunt you down to deliver your call. So now you have no chance of your calls going unattended. Just forget missed calls – rather forward calls.

Divert Calls

Divert Calls to Your Cell Phone when Out of the Office

While being available to take telephone calls is certainly very important, it is just not feasible for a business owner or other employees to wait faithfully by the phone during business hours, much less 24 hours a day. The ability for business owners and employees to divert calls to their cell phones while out of the office can make business and personal life much easier.

Business Portability
Business owners who run a very small company from home may not have any other employees on-site at all times. For this reason, it is often their sole responsibility to answer all of the telephone calls while handling the majority of the company’s operations. Since it is not likely that the business owner will be able to wait by the telephone all day in anticipation of business calls, it is often best to find a way to divert calls. This is simple when choosing a call forwarding feature from a virtual phone system provider. By simply clicking a few buttons on the computer screen, business owners can easily divert the calls to their business phones over to their mobile phones instead.

Always Available
Stepping away from the office may not be as stressful as long as there is another individual on-site, but this does not negate all of the employee’s telephone responsibilities. While another department may be able to handle a business owner or manager’s calls, customer escalations must be dealt with by following a chain of command.  Even when the manager is out of the office, the ability to divert calls to a cell phone puts them in an always-available position. This means that other employees and customers can stay in contact without having to remember any secondary telephone numbers and the manager does not have to be concerned with being unavailable.

Maintain Privacy
When a business owner or employee chooses to divert calls from the office phone to their cell phone, the calling parties have no idea their calls are being redirected. In fact, the cell phone number is never revealed to the caller, whether that caller is an employee or a customer. The call is forwarded seamlessly with no break in service and no announcement to the calling party that they are being rerouted. This way, business owners are not required to provide their employees or their customers with their personal telephone numbers whenever they leave the office, maintaining their privacy and making things easier for everyone involved.

Ease of Use
When a business is able to divert calls successfully, this can even add to productivity in the workplace. If employees are used to punching in extension numbers to contact other departments or employees, they can simply perform the same actions in order to contact these same people on their cell phones. There is no need to look up mobile numbers in telephone directories or search through company records.

Any business owner or company employee likely knows that being available to answer the phone is a very important job requirement. With the ability to divert calls, answering phones has never been simpler or more mobile. This feature allows people to keep their personal telephone numbers private while staying in the loop at all times.