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Dropped calls, inaccessibility, and high calling costs are unacceptable when it comes to enterprise communications. Without high-quality voice, your business will have a hard time connecting with essential customers and vendors. The answer to this problem is simple. Your business requires a phone service provider that can support your communication needs and traffic. And that’s where VoIP termination comes in.

In this post, we’ll go over what VoIP termination and origination services are and how to find the right provider for your business.

Understand VoIP and Voice Termination

Think of VoIP calls as having two endpoints. The origination end is where calls are placed, while the termination end is where receivers are being called.

In reality, making and receiving voice calls are two separate services, even if you use one device for both. And since they are different services, your VoIP origination and VoIP termination providers don’t have to be the same.

To fully understand how VoIP calling works, we must first understand how VoIP calls are connected and terminated. Once you get the basics down, you can determine which termination or origination providers best suit your needs.

What is VoIP Origination?

VoIP origination refers to incoming calling. The term ‘VoIP origination’ simply refers to the process of handling the originating call (incoming call) and delivering it to the receiver (your business). In other words, it focuses on how a phone call is placed and how it travels to the receiver.

So — even though the wording is confusing — your business is not actually placing or originating the call. Instead, your provider receives the call and routes it to your business phone number without any obstacles. This means, you need a valid and functioning phone number to facilitate voice origination services and receive calls.

What is VoIP Termination?

In short, VoIP termination is outbound calling. VoIP call termination is the process of routing phone calls from one provider (usually a VoIP network) to another provider (PSTN or VoIP networks) until the recipient receives them. It is the process of delivering outgoing calls to the numbers dialed. While you do not need a phone number to send or terminate calls, you need a voice termination service.

VoIP termination is also called voice termination and call termination. And providers offering this service are called VoIP termination providers or voice termination providers.

How to Choose the Best VoIP Termination Provider

A VoIP termination provider or termination carrier is a telecom provider that offers voice and call termination services — the ability to place outbound voice calls to your receiver’s phone numbers.

Since origination and termination are different services, the providers are not always the same. There are plenty of providers out there. So, it is important to understand what each provider offers and how their services can help you build an efficient phone system. Most VoIP termination providers deliver the following:

• High-quality voice calls
• Intelligent call routing
• Security and redundancy
• Centralized call management

When choosing a VoIP termination provider, you need to keep a few factors in mind.

1. Cost and Value

In most cases, your call termination provider decides how to route your calls, pays for that service, and charges you a markup. So, they can decide to use least cost routing (LCR) for a more cost-effective service while still charging you high calling rates. Low-cost routes lead to low-quality audio – which causes dropped calls, muffled audio, delays, and more. Opt for a provider that is transparent about their services and networks.

2. Infrastructure and Network

Additionally, your provider may use network partners to route calls outside their own VoIP infrastructure, especially for long-distance and international calling. But if they work with low-grade carriers instead of reliable routes, that can also impact call quality.

On top of that, routing calls over multiple layers can also affect call quality and security. So, it’s important to understand what carriers they work with and how they route their calls.

3. Access and Controls

Ideally, your voice termination provider gives you full admin privileges to route and manage calls when you receive them. Different providers offer different levels of access control. So, it is important to understand if your provider can accommodate your routing needs.

You can always reach out to your provider’s tech support team to understand what this will look like for your business. With Global Call Forwarding, you can manage advanced routing for different numbers, phone lines, and offices, all through an intuitive, online control panel.

4. Availability

You also want to find a provider with high redundancy and failover support. This way, you have backups set up in case your primary system fails due to outages, server failures, natural disasters, and so on. With VoIP geo-redundancy, you can get your phone system back up and running quickly, with little to no downtime.

5. Features and Flexibility

Each provider offers different features and functionalities with their phone service. Now, you may not need all of these features, but some essential features include:

• Advanced routing
• Local, toll-free, and international phone numbers
• Caller ID management and local caller ID
• Softphone for outbound calls

So, it is a good idea to list down core features needed and filter through to find providers who can support your needs.

VoIP Termination with Global Call Forwarding

Global Call Forwarding offers VoIP termination through our Outbound Calling service. We provide high-quality termination to PSTN, VoIP, and mobile networks or GSM. Our diverse and highly-available voice network of local and international providers enables us to offer local, toll-free, and international calling at competitive rates.

With our geo-redundant network paired with Tier-1 carriers, you can experience high-quality calls with fewer hops. This creates a better call experience for all users.

Why Your Business Needs Call Termination?

Voice termination lets you place high-quality outbound calls from any location or device. You can even customize your outgoing caller ID to display specific phone numbers. This lets you personalize the way you reach out to different customers and vendors around the globe and increase response rates.

So, why do you need VoIP termination and what do you get with the service?

Global Call Forwarding offers the following with our Outbound Calling service:

• Termination of local, interstate, and international calls
• Full geo-redundancy with multiple data centers and POPs
• International SIP trunking
• Caller ID management
• Receive calls back on desired numbers
• Integrate with your existing phone system
• Access to our Softphone
• Consolidate all voice services into one global telephony platform
• 24/7 responsive customer support
• Dedicated account management
• Multiple pricing plans starting at $25/month

Scale Globally with Global Voice Termination

From small businesses to large enterprises, every type of business requires inbound and outbound voice calling for their corporate and satellite offices spread across the globe. Use our service to add global voice coverage to your business phone system.

Chat with our telecom experts to find a suitable solution for your business communication needs. Call us at +1 (561) 908-6171 or request a demo.

When you’re running a call center, managing calls effectively is of the utmost importance. But, to successfully manage calls, you need to determine the type of call center you are running. Specifically, will your call center focus on inbound or outbound calls?

Call centers with inbound and outbound services serve different purposes and therefore need different approaches. Let’s compare inbound and outbound call centers by discussing definitions, features, and differences. This will help you determine what call center software and solutions fit your needs.

Understanding Inbound and Outbound Call Centers

It is essential to understand the type of call center you run — this will help address communication needs, implement new protocols, measure success, and more. Additionally, inbound and outbound call centers require different cloud-based call center software and features to communicate with callers effectively.

Let’s dive in!

What is an Inbound Call Center?

“Inbound” refers to incoming calls — calls coming into your business. Inbound call centers focus on receiving incoming calls from customers and prospects. In other words, agents wait for users to contact them instead of vice versa.

Most call centers with inbound services specialize in customer support, as the majority of calls come from existing buyers. These typically involve questions about the service, troubleshooting assistance, or product issues. But, they sometimes also include inbound sales, where interested prospects call to learn more about a business’ products or services.

Inbound Call Center Features

Successful customer service at inbound call centers occurs when agents respond to customer situations and quickly identify the best possible solution. So, what types of tools help teams achieve this?

Let’s take a look at these 3 essential inbound call center software features:

1. Advanced IVR (Auto-Attendant) – This cloud communication tool automatically answers all incoming calls and routes callers to their desired department or agent. It can also assist callers with simple tasks and provide general company information.

Cloud IVR systems increase your inbound call center’s efficiency and help avoid customer frustration, by reducing repeat calls and hold times.

2. Call Flow Builder – Use this tool to visualize and build call flows according to your call center’s evolving needs. This feature enables complete control over the way inbound calls travel through your system. So, you can manage your incoming calls more efficiently and improve the caller’s experience. You can even create custom call flows for different clients and offer more personalized experiences.

3. Routing Strategies – With advanced routing capabilities, you can effectively manage and distribute your call center’s inbound calls. Since these preset strategies or “rules” are managed in the cloud, you can modify or scale them to your call center’s growth as necessary.

Integrate strategies like Round Robin routing and Time of Day routing to improve customer satisfaction and balance your team’s workload. Or, use techniques like Failover Forwarding or Find Me Follow Me to ensure you never miss calls again.

Related: Call Center Trends in 2023

What is an Outbound Call Center?

An outbound call center is essentially the opposite of an inbound one. “Outbound” refers to outgoing calls. Outbound agents proactively call consumers and prospects instead of waiting for customers to contact them.

Typically, call centers for outbound services specialize in quality sales, brand awareness, and effective cold-calling. And, these calls usually revolve around prospecting, upselling, offering upgrades or renewals, and promotions. Sometimes representatives also use outgoing calls to conduct surveys and collect market research.

Related: 11 Tips to Improve Your Outbound Calls Strategy

Outbound Call Center Features

The main goal of agents at call centers with outbound calls is to generate leads, target users, and drive sales growth. So, are there any features that help outbound agents reach their goals?

Here are 3 beneficial features for outbound call centers:

1. Caller ID Management – This cloud telephony feature allows you to hide or mask your outgoing caller ID with another phone number. You can also choose to display a country-specific caller ID when making calls to customers around the world.

By displaying a familiar, local caller ID, you encourage users to answer, increasing sales and revenue. Caller ID management also protects an agent’s caller information when working remotely or on the go.

2. GCF Softphone – A softphone is a web-based dialer that enables you to make outbound calls from anywhere in the world to anywhere in the world. Most softphones are compatible with PCs, tablets, and smartphones. They make connecting teams across multiple locations or reaching out to international customers effortless. Additionally, they include features like in-network calling, attended call transfer, and voicemail. If your call center needs a cost-effective solution with UC capabilities and a quick installation time, consider using a softphone.

The GCF softphone is also capable of receiving calls. However, most providers only offer this service if you have an outbound calling plan.

3. Call Detail Records – Call detail records log important details about the calls on your system. Learn more about your customers’ calling behavior, pain points, preferences, and more using call records.

This information allows you to craft a more personalized and enhanced customer experience, leading to a growth in sales. Additionally, you can analyze call data to identify quality leads and new target markets.

Call Centers with Inbound vs Outbound Services: 3 Major Differences

The difference between call centers with inbound or outbound services comes down to three primary functions – call direction, overall goals, and call center software.

1. Direction

Of course, the first major difference is how most calls in your center travel. Inbound call centers have a majority of incoming calls. And, call centers with outbound services have mostly outgoing calls. The types of services you want to offer determine your call flow. Sales and outreach will need an outbound call center solution to manage outgoing calls and cold-calling. On the other hand, customer service will require an inbound call center to handle incoming calls.

2. Purpose and Goals

Second, the main goal and purpose of call centers with inbound services differ from those with outbound services. Inbound call center agents primarily offer support to existing clients. Whereas outbound reps usually concentrate on generating leads and targeting customers for sales. So, strategies, prompts, software features, and success measurement will vary at either call center.

3. Call Center Software

The third significant difference between call centers with inbound and outbound services is technology and software requirements. For instance, inbound call centers need features like advanced IVR or auto-attendants for call management. And, outbound call centers require dialers for placing outgoing calls.

But, simply supplying inbound call centers with a dialer or outbound centers with an IVR makes these tools less effective. This is because they don’t fit the primary purpose of each call center. That’s where you will need a solution that combines services of both types of call centers.

Enter: blended call centers.

Blended Call Centers

If your business requires both inbound and outbound call center capabilities, you don’t have to choose one or the other. Blended call centers, also known as hybrid centers, help your company provide both incoming and outgoing communications through one channel. By centralizing your business communication in one call center, you create a more consistent customer experience.

In addition to the features previously discussed, blended call center reps benefit from cloud call center features — like recordings, integrations, and analytics — that work for both types of calls. For example, call recording can improve productivity and works as a great training tool, which is useful for sales and support teams. And CRM software integrations can also open your system’s functionality and efficiency.

Choosing The Best Call Center Software for Your Business

Whether you’re running a call center with inbound, outbound, or blended services, you need the right call center software. Consider your communication goals and budget when choosing the best call center services for your business.

A reliable VoIP provider, like Global Call Forwarding, offers your call center access to advanced call features and tools to create a phone system that fits your needs. Call center software for inbound and outbound services comes with any of our cloud phone number plans.

Call us at +1 (561) 908-6171 or request a demo to learn more about our services and what we can do for you!

E-commerce businesses are more accessible than ever before. They’ve spread to a wide variety of platforms and even modified themselves to different devices. If you have an online business of your own, you know it’s a very saturated market. So, figuring out how to build a memorable brand can be difficult. That’s where e-commerce marketing strategies come in. These tactics help online businesses boost and sustain their growth.

The Growing Need for E-Commerce Marketing Strategies

Whether you’re starting up an online business or you’ve been running one for years, it’s vital to invest in e-commerce marketing strategies. These online marketing tactics and trends are constantly evolving to better suit users. If you want to see even more sales come through your business, following these digital marketing techniques is critical.

What is E-Commerce Marketing?

E-commerce marketing is a strategy that helps businesses sell products and services online. These strategies drive up e-commerce sales by promoting brand awareness and directing attention to the products. A good digital business marketing strategy informs and engages the business’ customer base. Some examples of e-commerce marketing include:

• Blogs and content marketing
• Banners and pop-ups
• Digital ads
• Social media posts

E-commerce marketing is equally as important to business growth as order fulfillment and other aspects of doing business.

Challenges of E-Commerce Marketing

E-commerce is an extremely competitive space for businesses. Since other online businesses use e-commerce marketing strategies to increase their sales, it is hard to stand out. To successfully build brand awareness, businesses need multiple marketing channels and approaches. Although this leads to more staff and time spent, it is required to drive business growth.

Developing a Successful Marketing Strategy for E-Commerce

Before you jump right into creating a growth marketing plan, there are some foundational elements to consider. Defining these fundamental components is vital to creating a successful e-commerce marketing strategy. Here are some key points to keep in mind:

• Identify your target market – Your target audience influences brand voice, messaging, communication methods, platforms, and more. With a key target audience in mind, you’ll draw the right customers to your company. But if you don’t understand your target market, you’ll end up with a weak campaign that doesn’t drive profitable customer action.
• Establish goals and objectives – Outline what you want to achieve with your e-commerce marketing strategies. Goals keep your strategy focused on the bigger picture. Objectives break down your goals and strategies into smaller, achievable steps. Clearly identifying goals and objectives will also help you measure success down the line.
• Analyze your business journey so far – Take a close look at your business’ evolution and current progress. In what areas are you struggling or succeeding? What types of strategies or campaigns worked for you in the past? Your business’ journey will help highlight the areas to focus on in your strategies to increase business growth. Additionally, you can recycle strategies that previously worked, saving your business both time and money.

9 E-Commerce Marketing Strategies for Your Business

After you’ve developed your foundational elements, it’s time to begin planning your e-commerce marketing approach. Here are some e-commerce marketing strategies to help get you started:

1. Create & Promote Original Content
2. Optimize Your Website
3. Communicate & Interact with Your Customers
4. Create a Personalized Experience
5. Offer Incentives & Rewards
6. Enhance Customer Service
7. Expand to Social Media
8. Keep Up with Your Competitors
9. Create a Community & Following

1. Create & Promote Original Content

Original, quality content attracts and retains your target customers and, if successful, leads to profitable consumer action. This e-commerce marketing strategy focuses on the production and circulation of consistent, timely, and valuable materials.

Your content should deliver messages, inform, and, of course, entertain to keep the audience coming back for more. Use your content to support different departments (i.e., marketing, sales, production, etc.) in their goals. Additionally, use web pages, blog posts, and guides to further amplify your business’ products, services, brand, and more. This establishes your company as an industry expert and a trustful source.

So what kind of content should you create? There is so much freedom when it comes to creating your content. For example, here are a few different types of content you could develop:

• Blog posts
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
• Newsletters
• Knowledge bases
• Videos
• Podcasts
• Social media

It may be obvious to state, but different types of content provide different types of value to consumers. But, all should work together to guide users through their customer journey.

Now, let’s discuss promoting content. If you don’t market your content, there’s a chance no one will see it. Marketing is just as important as content writing and creation. The most popular technique for content marketing is search engine optimization (SEO). A strong content marketing method and e-commerce SEO strategy help increase brand visibility and awareness.

Overall, content marketing and the use of a reliable SEO text generator for content creation, can contribute to your brand’s distinctiveness in comparison to online competitors. This approach not only helps in cultivating a loyal audience but also plays a vital role in establishing trust between your brand and consumers.

2. Optimize Your Website

Up to 100 percent of your business is probably done on your website. So, making sure it’s fully optimized will ensure customers navigate your website seamlessly and feel encouraged to make purchases. There are a few different elements that go into creating a fully optimized website. Let’s take a look.

• Website Design – Your website’s layout and design should be simple and attractive. You want to draw customers in, convince them to stay, and ultimately, make a purchase. Here are some tips for creating a well-designed website:
  • Grab your user’s attention with high-quality photographs, graphics, and color choice.
  • Make sure important information like return policies are clear and easy to find.
  • Present products and services in an unforgettable way.
  • Offer easy access to significant content that will help them in their buying journey.
• User Experience – User experience (UX) is the most important element to consider when building your website. Good UX occurs when you understand what users want to see and access and help them do that effectively. Make their experience as smooth as possible by creating an easy-to-use website. Avoid complicated site navigation, slow transitions, unnecessary content, or complex designs.
• Conversion Rates – A responsive site contributes to better UX and website design. It keeps visitors on your website and reduces bounce rate. A responsive website includes the following:
  • Quick loading times
  • Mobile conversion
  • Good page-to-page connectivity
• Checkout Process – A smooth checkout process can single-handedly boost your e-commerce sales. It doesn’t take much to create a great cart and checkout design. The key is to be as transparent as possible with shipping costs, taxes, and other fees. This ensures the customer doesn’t encounter any surprises that scare them away when purchasing. Additionally, provide multiple payment options such as PayPal and major credit cards.

A fully optimized website aims to remove as many roadblocks as possible in every design element.

3. Communicate & Interact with Your Customers

Customers expect responsive support. So, when they want to get in touch with your business, you must make it easy for them to contact you. Consider adding a contact page to your website with omnichannel options like email, business phone number, chat, social media, and more. This way, your customers can reach out to you through their preferred method of communication.

Having omnichannel communication methods is also a great strategy for reaching out to your customers. Take a look at these 3:

1. On-Platform Messaging – Providing a way to communicate on your e-commerce platform removes all roadblocks for you and your customer. This method transforms your online store to literally a one-stop shop for both sales and support. With everything on the same platform, you can access customers’ purchase histories. This means you can quickly update users on order status and return policies, without searching through your archives. For example, Etsy allows buyers and customers to message each other.
2. Outbound Calling Service — Increase both sales and brand awareness with outbound calling for your online business. Adding outbound calling to your e-commerce marketing strategy gives you the opportunity to welcome new users, send out reminders, collect feedback, and much more. Through this method, you’ll receive valuable insight into your consumers and services. And, you’ll also craft a more personalized experience for customers in the process.
3. Email – Email gives you the opportunity to follow up on abandoned orders, send promotional coupons, direct users to onboarding info, and more. You can personalize each email to different target audience segments. This method allows you to generate leads, boost traffic to your website, and drive sales.

If you can only use one of these methods, consider your business needs, target audience’s preferences, platform’s capabilities, and overall budget.

4. Craft a Personalized Experience

A personalized experience creates a lasting impression on customers, bringing them back to your business. This e-commerce marketing strategy helps increase consumer loyalty, brand reputation, and revenue. Most of all, it separates you from your competition. One way to do so is by using headless e-commerce platforms that deliver highly personalized shopping experiences to each and every customer. A tailored service encourages consumers to stay with your brand instead of switching to another. That is so important in such a competitive marketplace.

With personalized service, you eliminate irrelevant options for users and direct them to products they need. This establishes a relationship between your business and the customer. You can incorporate personalization into your e-commerce marketing strategy through:

• Personalized emails
• Recommended products
• Targeted ads and pop-ups
• Websites and pages customized to users’ interests

Targeted strategies like these make the consumer feel understood and boost loyalty towards your business.

5. Offer Incentives & Rewards

Who doesn’t love a good reward? This is a sure-fire way to drive sales up. Incentives motivate consumers to interact with your brand. Incentive marketing for e-commerce grabs a user’s attention with unique offers, discounts, sales, and more. It gives consumers who are on your website an extra push to make a purchase. Here are some incentives to offer:

• Coupons
• Promo Codes
• Loyalty Programs

These incentives and rewards encourage repeat clients and repeat purchases, while promoting consumer retention and loyalty.

6. Enhance Customer Service

Customer support and service are parts of any business, whether it’s online or in person. Support methods are always adapting to the consumer. But, here’s an opportunity to expand your e-commerce marketing strategies past traditional avenues. Delivering high-quality customer service starts with these methods:

• Omnichannel Communication – Multiple channels of communication such as over-the-phone service or chatbots provide customers with options. This way, they can choose their ideal method of communication.
• Accessibility and Reachability – Being easily accessible is the minimum requirement for a high-quality service. Customers want to immediately reach you when they need help. Local and toll-free numbers come in handy for global businesses or businesses looking to expand internationally. These numbers provide an easy, free way for callers to get a hold of you. Make sure to advertise your toll-free number to your customers, if they need it.
• Round the Clock Support – 24/7, real-time support builds reliable and quality customer service. Consumers always know you’re available if they require assistance no matter what. To provide constant support service via phone, consider time-based or follow-the-sun routing models. This way, you are always available to all your consumers around the world.
• Personalization – (Surprise, surprise) Personalization goes a long way in customer service too! Consumers want to know you’re going to solve their problems according to their individual needs.

Successful, high-quality customer service results in delighting the consumer and establishing loyalty. Happy customers increase brand reputation and can even lead to great publicity through word-of-mouth.

7. Expand to Social Media

Social media works not only as an e-commerce marketing strategy, but also as another opportunity to sell. Social media is a powerful tool for attracting new customers and boosting sales. You can increase your exposure by using social media for marketing purposes. A social media proposal is a great way to show off the products you offer, connect with potential clients and build awareness about what exactly makes up an excellent customer experience.

There are so many options when it comes to social media marketing. Starting with platforms, there’s a variety to choose from, with a different target demographic tied to each. For example, Facebook has a different user base than TikTok. Select the platform that fits your target audience and brand identity.

Additionally, you can pick from paid or organic posts, depending on your business needs. Influencers also bring visibility to your brand and showcase your products to a wide audience.

Social media gives your consumers another opportunity to interact with your brand. Consumer engagement increases through likes, shares, comments, hashtags, and more. It’s easy for users to share information between different platforms, which helps your business reach an even wider audience. Trending hashtags work as an attention-grabbing strategy. You can use these hashtags to measure your campaign’s success.

8. Keep Up with Your Competitors

Always keep an eye on your business rivals. This means looking at their e-commerce marketing strategies. Consider these questions:

• What type of content are they producing?
• What services do they offer that you don’t?
• Are they using any incentives or reward programs?
• What social and digital platforms are they on?

By reviewing your competitors, you get an outside perspective on what’s working and what can be improved. Then, you can incorporate the successful tactics into your own marketing strategies. A failed campaign gives you the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and make an even better version!

9. Create a Community & Following

Building a community around your brand adds another level of value for your consumers. A community gives your consumers a space to interact with you and each other. Here are some examples:

• Comment sections
• Forums like Reddit, Quora
• Social media groups like Facebook groups or Slack channels

Community building is a great e-commerce marketing strategy as it gives customers a sense of belonging.

Real-World Benefits

Although your business and these e-commerce marketing strategies happen mainly online, they have real-world benefits. Your business will build brand awareness, increase revenue, establish a loyal customer base, and so much more. We’ve discussed many different strategies here but your next steps depend on what you need. So, choose the ones that work best for your business!

Want to learn more about cloud telephony solutions for e-commerce? We can help with that! Call us at +1 (561) 908-6171 or chat with our reps online!

It’s no secret that collaboration and communication are two driving forces behind any well-functioning sales or customer support team. Your reps need to be able to communicate with others (co-workers, supervisors, managers, etc.) when the time arises. And in some cases, they may need to collaborate with others during a call with a customer. The ability to quickly add someone to the call saves time and moves the process (closing the sale or support ticket) along smoothly. That’s when having 3-way calling within your cloud phone system comes in handy.

What is 3-Way Calling?

3-way calling is a call management feature that allows you to add another person to an ongoing call. Other common terms for 3-way calling include call merging, conference calling, or call conferencing. To do this, you will have to initiate the second call and then merge the two calls together.

There have traditionally been a few different ways to add another person to a call:

• Conference call numbers or codes
• 3rd-party services
• Call waiting, and so on.

But these resulted in reduced call quality and confusing mechanisms. It sometimes even led to the first call being dropped.

To solve these issues, phone service providers have made it easier to merge calls, leading to the birth of the 3-way calling feature.

Benefits of 3-Way Conference Calls

So, how can your business use 3-way calling? When conferencing with others, you can:

• Collaborate internally on projects within customer service and sales teams
• Conduct quick virtual meetings with important decision-makers
• Offer more responsive service by getting help and support quickly
• Save time on having two separate calls or meetings by having just one
• Train new employees by showing them how to respond in certain situations
• Boost customer satisfaction and caller experience by cutting down wait times and long transfers
• Have faster and more efficient meetings and conversations
• Increase first call resolution rates
• Converse and collaborate across different departments, locations, and devices.

Call merging helps your teams connect and work together towards a common goal: improving your business’ sales and customer support initiatives. And with a cloud phone service provider, your teams can do this even during remote work periods.

How to Get 3-Way Calling with Global Call Forwarding?

You can get 3-way calling with any phone service provider. Global Call Forwarding offers a variety of call management features and services along with our virtual phone number plans.

If you are a Global Call Forwarding customer, you don’t need conferencing numbers or codes to engage in a three-way call conference. You simply need an Outbound Calling plan. Then, you can download the GCF softphone and use the Merge feature to add another person to your ongoing call.

Get Outbound Calling and other advanced business communication features with Global Call Forwarding. Call us at +1 (561) 908-6171 or chat with our telecom experts today!

Whether you’re taking calls from customers, clients, or employees, an effective communication system is essential to every business. Find Me Follow Me call forwarding helps you stay connected when you’re on the go. That’s why this routing strategy is offered as a common Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) feature.

Understanding the Find Me Follow Me Phone Service

Find Me Follow Me is also referred to as call hunting, call routing, or call forwarding. However, this service is not the same as a basic call routing system. Instead, Find Me Follow Me allows you to set up forwarding rules that meet your needs.

This feature keeps you connected to incoming calls by routing them to your desired destinations and devices. Staying in touch with callers has never been easier or more flexible than with Find Me Follow Me. And since it is a cloud-based service, you don’t need any additional, expensive hardware!

What is Find Me Follow Me?

Find Me Follow Me is actually two different VoIP forwarding strategies that are commonly used together.

The “Find Me” strategy automatically routes inbound calls to a specified destination. This gives you the ability to receive calls at any location whether you’re in the office, at home, or traveling.

“Follow Me” forwards calls to designated phones, ringing calls simultaneously or sequentially. This service makes you available across several devices.

When these strategies are used together, your incoming calls route to a predetermined list of alternate locations, numbers, and devices.

You then have the option to ring these numbers or devices one after the other or all at once. This feature will continue down the list until the call is answered. If the call goes unanswered on all devices, you can decide what happens to the call next.

Here’s an example of Find Me Follow Me:
A call comes into your desired destination – your desk phone. The call rings for 30 seconds and goes unanswered. The call is then routed to your mobile phone and home phone until the call is answered. Find Me Follow Me will ring your devices sequentially or simultaneously.

Sequentially: It first rings your mobile phone and after 30 seconds, it rings your home phone.
Simultaneously: It rings both your mobile phone and your home phone at the same time.

If all devices go unanswered, calls are routed to voicemail or your backup team.

How Can Find Me Follow Me Help Your Business?

Find Me Follow Me ensures that you never miss an important call and increases your availability with callers.

Once you set up this feature, Find Me Follow Me automatically sends incoming calls to your predetermined list. So, the calls “find” you whether you’re bouncing between locations, working from home, or going out to lunch. This is also extremely helpful if your schedule is constantly changing or if you travel for work.

11 Benefits of Using the Find Me Follow Me Service

Most VoIP providers agree that Find Me Follow Me is a powerful tool for business communication systems. This call management feature not only offers a flexible way to stay connected, but many other benefits as well. Some of these benefits include:

1. 1. Receive incoming calls from any location and on any device
   2. Optimize your availability
   3. Customize to fit your system
   4. Reduce the need for additional hardware
   5. Decrease call wait times
   6. Reduce the number of missed calls
   7. Keep your personal numbers private
   8. Improve caller experience
   9. Advertise only one, primary number for your company
   10. Boost your team’s productivity
   11. Easily scale your business

Who Benefits From Using Find Me Follow Me Call Forwarding?

Now that we know the specific benefits that come along with the Find Me Follow Me service, let’s discuss its use cases. Here are a few examples of those who benefit most from using this routing strategy:

• Customer Service and Sales Teams
  Find Me Follow Me call forwarding enables your support team to deliver a responsive and consistent service. The feature helps agents maximize their availability. Additionally, your sales team will never miss out on a lucrative sales opportunity. Using Find Me Follow Me, both support reps and sales agents can deliver quick response times and improve the caller’s overall experience.
• Remote Workers
  If your company needs an easy way to forward calls from your workplace PBX to an employee’s personal phone, Find Me Follow Me is the perfect solution. The virtual service not only allows you to route calls to other devices, but also to any location. This is a seamless and efficient way to connect customers to your remote team.
• Business Owners
  Small business owners and solopreneurs are constantly pulled in multiple directions — whether you’re attending meetings, checking in with employees, or networking. Find Me Follow Me will ensure that important calls always reach you.
• Healthcare Providers
  Doctors and healthcare professionals are always on the move. So, they need a healthcare communication solution that keeps them connected even when not at their desks. Find Me Follow Me allows patients with emergencies and urgent questions to quickly reach their healthcare providers.

How to Set Up Find Me Follow Me

Most VoIP providers include the Find Me Follow Me service with their cloud phone plans. Here’s how to set up Find Me Follow Me with Global Call Forwarding:

1. Log in to your Control Panel.

2. Choose a phone service line and click on Settings.

3. Select Call Forwarding from the horizontal menu and click IVR.

4. Click the orange Manage IVR Application button.

5. Select Phones from the menu on the right-hand side and click Add a new phone. Here, you can add the number where you want your calls to first arrive.

6. Click the green Save Changes button.

7. Select Add a new phone again. In the Call Destination window, choose your ringing method. Add as many numbers or devices as you want by clicking the orange Add button.

8. Hit Save Changes.

9. Then, select Create New Application in the IVR Manager window.

10. Choose Phone Call from the list of actions. Here, add a name and select the desired number calls should come to first (see step 5). Note: Skip the prompt section.

11. Customize the Max. Wait time between transfers.

12. Click the arrow in the Failed bar and choose Phone Call again. Add a name and skip the prompt section again.

13. In Destination, select the phone group you created for backup devices.

14. Click the blue Close button and hit Save Application at the top.

Get Advanced Routing!

To learn more about Find Me Follow Me from Global Call Forwarding? Speak with our representatives today or connect with your dedicated account manager today! Call us at +1 (561) 908-6171 or chat with us online.