VoIP

Growing a business means upgrading your systems and tech to use more efficient solutions that will help your employees do their job better.

Upgrading your business communications, in that vein, means improving the way your business communicates internally and externally. This means gaining high-quality voice, reducing downtime, and maintaining business continuity. A transition to cloud communications can ensure your phone system functions efficiently and continuously without interruption, no matter where your teams are.

Here is an in-depth guide on migrating to cloud communications, focusing on:

• • Why Should You Transition to the Cloud?
  • Benefits of Migrating Communications to the Cloud
  • What to Avoid During a Cloud Communication Migration?
  • What to Keep in Mind When Transitioning
  • How to Transition to Cloud Communications Successfully, 6 Steps

 

Why Should You Transition to the Cloud?

A recent trend within business technology is the adoption of cloud solutions such as cloud storage, cloud computing, cloud-based management systems, cloud communications, and so on.

The main reason to upgrade your legacy phone system is access to better and more secure services. But that aside, there are many reasons to transition to cloud communications—from wanting to revamp its business phone system to bringing on new features and services. You can get:

• Access to advanced features and services
• More reports and data
• Better cloud security
• Flexibility and scalability
• Increased collaboration and productivity
• Improved business continuity and disaster recovery
• Cost-effective and user-friendly systems.

Benefits of Migrating Communications to the Cloud

But why your business should consider cloud communications depends on what you want to achieve with a cloud phone system.

• Do you want more reliable service?
• Do you want to expand globally in a cost-effective way?
• Are you looking to scale your customer support and sales reach?
• Do you want to manage local, global, and remote teams through one centralized communications platform?

A transition to cloud communications can help you do these and more. Here are the top benefits you get when you migrate to cloud communications:

• High-quality voice service with multiple layers of redundancy and low downtime
• Access to new and advanced call management features
• Ability to work from any location and device
• Support for local, global, and remote teams
• Reduced risks and improved business continuity across different locations
• Ability to scale your business globally with cloud phone numbers.

What to Avoid During a Cloud Communication Migration?

Even as you prepare for the switch, you may miss out on some key aspects that can impede the success of your new communication system.

Thankfully, you can avoid and resolve these issues by communicating with your employees and cloud phone service provider. An experienced cloud phone service provider can help you avoid these issues and transition smoothly.

Related: Transforming Your Legacy Contact Center

What to Keep in Mind When Transitioning

When you decide to adopt cloud communications, you need to pay attention to 3 key elements:

1. Technology

Your phone system technology and equipment must be aligned and prepared for the transition. It is, therefore, important to review what you currently have and if you need anything else.

Tools and features — Which services and features are being used, why, and by whom? How do your teams communicate internally and externally? What valuable tools and features are missing in your existing phone solution? What business processes can benefit from new communication features?

Network — Can your existing phone network and internet service handle the increased demand of the new provider and service? Do you need a new provider who can support your plans to scale your business? What changes do you need to make to improve security, such as switching your router or firewall?

Equipment — Can existing equipment and hardware be reused, or do you need to replace them with new hardware? Does your cloud telephony provider a service that can be integrated within your existing network? For example, using a softphone for placing business calls through the computer.

2. Processes

This part of the process focused on understanding what your ideal business communication process looks like and identifying gaps to fill.

Map Out Existing Communication Processes — How does your business communicate internally? How do your local, global, and remote teams share information and collaborate? What are some ways to improve this type of communication? How do you handle customer-related inbound and outbound calls? What disaster recovery and redundancy plans do you have in place or need to have?

How to Improve These Processes — How can new features support your business communication goals and processes? What new features and additional services do you need (instant messaging, live chat, advanced routing, etc.)? How can you use cloud telephony to expand globally and improve call management?

3. People

Part of preparing your business for a transition to cloud communications is to get everyone on board, including employees, suppliers, customers, prospects, stakeholders.

First, you need to understand how your staff uses the existing communication system and what they need from the new phone system. Their feedback is crucial in the successful adoption of the new system.

Once the migration process begins, everyone will need formal training to move the process along smoothly. Everyone who uses the new system will need the training to understand how the new system and features work. Your provider should provide such onboarding training and support. It’s a good idea to create guides and knowledge bases that everyone can access for information.

If there are any changes to workflow and processes (such as flexible working options or new customer support centers), make sure to communicate these effectively with policies in place.

How to Transition to Cloud Communications Successfully

By preparation for your transition to the cloud, you can:

• Migrate with little disruption and low downtime
• Implement a solution tailored and customized to your business’ requirements
• Improve your workflows and processes
• Provide training and support for staff, stakeholders, and customers.

Here are the 6 steps to a smooth and successful cloud communication migration:

Step 1: Visualize End Goals

First, you need to determine what you want your new business phone system to do and how much you want to spend on it. Then, you can start to look for the right provider with relevant features and a compatible service plan.

Step 2: Review the Current Situation

Next, audit your current system. What assets, capabilities, and processes are working well? What is essential to your business and teams? Get feedback from employees and others using your phone system.

Step 3: Identify Improvement Opportunities

When doing your review, identify what is lacking in your current system. Different cloud phone service providers offer different tools, features, and add-ons, but not all may be necessary for your needs. So, it is crucial to know what you need from your provider to make your business run smoothly and efficiently.

Step 4: Find the Right Cloud Phone Service Provider

Once you identify what you need, you can look for the right provider and cloud communication solution. Compare top providers, review plans and pricing, look at customer reviews and testimonials. You also want to understand the onboarding process and migration support so that you can transition smoothly without any interruptions or downtime.

Step 5: Prepare your Business

Then, you need to get everyone on the same page with training and onboarding. This change will impact different sections of your business: staff, customers, vendors, and suppliers. So, they need to prepare as well.

Step 6: Assess Network and Test

As you transition to the new cloud communication system, you want to test and make sure everything is running efficiently on your network. Your provider can help with configuration and testing.

Cloud Communications Transition with Global Call Forwarding

Migrating to the cloud is a big step, but one in the right direction. It can elevate the way your business communicates with customers and partners, and it can support your expansion plans and establish your business as a credible and reliable one.

Global Call Forwarding can help you build a cloud communication system that works for your business. We offer a wide range of call management tools and additional services so that you can focus more on your business and customers instead of your phone system.

Speak with our experts to learn more. Call us today at 1-888-908-6171 or chat with us online.

Are you looking to improve caller experience when customers contact your business? Responsive phone support is crucial to increasing caller satisfaction.

And one way to make your business reachable and responsive is with call routing. Try different advanced call center routing strategies to reduce wait times and help callers reach the right department or employee quickly.

• What is Call Routing?
• How Does it Work?
• Benefits of Call Routing
• Strategies and Best Practices

Call Routing Explained

Call routing is a call management tool that distributes incoming calls based on rules set by your business. In other words, you can set rules to route incoming calls to specific employees, offices, departments, or phone lines, as needed. This can help you manage high call volumes.

For example, you can set a rule to route calls coming to your main office to another location (such as a satellite office) during certain hours of the day. Or, you can set a rule to route calls coming from certain locations to a remote worker in that time zone or region.

These routing strategies help you organize incoming business calls during on and off-hours. And you can ensure callers are taken care of even outside of your regular business hours.

How Does Advanced Call Routing Work?

Advanced call routing is also referred to as an automatic call distributor system (ACD) since it automatically distributes calls to the right person or department. Callers do not have to input extensions. When they call a business, they may interact with a cloud IVR system or auto-attendant. Based on the rules set, the IVR will automatically route the calls or ask for more information about the caller and then route the call to the right department.

Benefits of Using a Global Call Routing Service

But what are the benefits of advanced call routing for your business? By routing calls strategically and effectively, you can help callers get assistance quickly. This improves customer experience as they don’t have to wait in long lines or move from employee to employee just to get information. And you can improve the overall experience of your customer support and sales teams by dividing the work and spreading it evenly.

Here are some of the key benefits of using a global call routing service:

1. Route callers to the right person or department; eliminate confusion
2. Offer 24/7 follow the sun customer support
3. Provide global customer support
4. Reduce wait time and call abandonment rates
5. Reduce the number of missed calls
6. Connect callers with agents within their time zone or location
7. Connect callers with employees they have previously interacted with
8. Improve customer satisfaction
9. Offer virtual voicemail and self-service options
10. Add custom greetings and pre-recorded messages
11. Balance out employee workload

Call Routing Strategies and Best Practices

There are a few different ways to route calls coming into your business. This mainly depends on what you are trying to accomplish and the size of your business and customer-facing teams.

Once you have these basics down, you can start identifying routing strategies that fit within your infrastructure. You can route calls through an IVR system or ACD system with pre-set rules and pre-recorded messages. Here are the top call center routing strategies:

1. Time-Based Routing

With time-based routing, you can route calls to specific offices, lines, or employees based on the time of the call. For example, calls that come in during off-hours or the weekends can be directed to remote workers or employees in different time zones. This type of routing is also known as time of day routing.

2. Location-Based Routing

Route calls based on the location of the caller. This is a good strategy for businesses that have customers in multiple regions and countries around the world. You can group together regions within the same time zone or close by. And then forward incoming calls coming from customers within these regions to agents assigned to these regions. You can also forward calls internationally to different offices or locations with an international call routing service.

3. Skill-Based Routing

This strategy works along with your IVR system. The IVR system presents the caller with a menu of options to choose from. Based on the caller’s input, the system routes the call to the agent with skills that match the caller’s input. For example, customers needing assistance in specific languages can converse with employees fluent in those languages by opting for that option within the IVR.

4. Simultaneous Routing

With this routing feature, you can ring multiple phones with one number. This means incoming calls ring on all phones assigned within your hunt group or ring group. You can set your ring group to include employees in the main office, satellite offices, remote workers, and so on. Then, as a call comes in, whoever is available can jump in and assist the customer. The customer won’t have to wait for an available line.

5. Sequential Forwarding

Sequential Forwarding — also known as sequential ringing — delivers incoming calls down a predetermined list of numbers. If the employee assigned to the first number doesn’t answer it, the call moves to the next in line.

6. Round Robin Call Routing

The round robin routing strategy is the most common one. Most businesses start out with this routing technique and then evolve from there. This routing strategy helps distribute incoming calls evenly. The first call goes to the first employee in the predetermined list. The second call goes to the next person on the list, and so on. Once the last person on the list receives a call, the next call is sent to the first employee.

7. Least Occupied Agent Routing

With this strategy, calls are routed to the agent waiting for the longest. In other words, the call is sent to a line that hasn’t received a call in a while. This routing strategy ensures that no agent stays idle for too long. And distributed calls evenly among agents.

8. Holiday Rules

Set call forwarding rules for major holidays in advance. Calls coming in on these days can be forwarded to voicemail or office different locations. This way, callers can leave a message or get a response from your teams in other countries and time zones, when your main office or core employees are on vacation.

Get Advanced Call Routing with Global Call Forwarding

The call center routing service from Global Call Forwarding is highly customizable. So, you can design a phone system that works best for your needs. Map out different ring groups. Set up rules for different situations and times. Upload voice messages, custom greetings, and menu options. And create a better caller experience for your customers. Speak with our experts to learn more about what our service can do for your business. Call us at 1 (888) 908 6171 or chat with us online!

Picking the right softphone for your business determines how your business interacts with its customers and vice versa. Find out how to choose a softphone with relevant features and add-ons that will improve business-customer communication and enhance caller experience.

What to Look for in a Softphone?

A softphone is an application that allows users to place calls from any location and device. All you need is a headset, VoIP service, and a stable internet connection. Then your teams can make and answer business calls from anywhere in the world.

Softphones work through the internet and on most devices, as opposed to desk phones. So, whether your set-up includes Windows or Mac devices, you can use a softphone with ease. However, you will need a VoIP service with credentials to log in. And an internet connection with enough bandwidth to handle multiple VoIP calls.

How do you pick a softphone that fits perfectly within your phone system while offering you advanced telephony features? Here are a few things you must consider.

1. Operating System

What type of softphone would work best for your employees and teams? Do you need one that runs on a desktop or smartphone or both? Does it matter whether the softphone is compatible with Windows, macOS, iOS, or Android devices?

There are various forms of softphones: mobile apps, desktop apps, web extensions, and web browser apps. Certain softphones can be accessed by logging in on a browser (such as Chrome) while others need to be downloaded to a device to use. Many softphones use WebRTC for functionality.

You will need to decide what type of softphone is most suited for your business set-up. For instance, if all your employees work out of the same office and reuse the same devices (computers), a desktop app or browser extension works well. On the other hand, if your teams work remotely, you may want a more remote-friendly option such as a browser extension that can be accessed for any type of device. Most softphone providers will offer their dialer in these different formats.

2. Softphone Features

The next, and perhaps most important step is determining your needs and required features. The main purpose of a softphone is to make and receive calls from any device and location. But that is not all a softphone does. Softphones can also store call details and records, allow for internal transfers and conferencing, and more. When choosing a softphone, you may want to consider the different features that come along.

For instance, the Global Call Forwarding softphone offers the following features:

• Two-way voice calls with any of our numbers
• Call transfer within departments
• Free in-network calls
• Advanced call routing options
• International call forwarding
• Customized caller ID
• Call detail records
• Fully integrated contacts and call history features
• Cloud call recording
• Ability to call with one click
• Voicemail

Think about how these features can further streamline your business communications. If you hold multiple offices or manage remote teams, being able to quickly transfer calls can save a customer’s time. Additionally, having an outbound calling service with a dynamic caller ID ensures you call international customers through numbers they recognize and feel comfortable answering.

Furthermore, having access to call records and contact information goes a long way in ensuring your teams stay up-to-date on customer interactions and offer better service.

3. Pricing Structure and Options

Softphones are cost-effective. However, different providers offer different pricing structures and payment options. Compare the prices of different providers along with the features and services they offer. Some things to consider include:

• Do they offer different pricing tiers depending on the business’ size and the number of users?
• Are monthly minutes included?
• What features come with the plans?
• Are there additional add-on services?
• Do they offer a free trial that you could use to test the service?
• How is the pricing structure laid out? Is it month-to-month or long-term contracts?

You do not want to get locked into a service contract when the service does not live up to promises made by the provider. It is important to test out the service and easily cancel it if needed.

4. Support for Outbound Calling

Your softphone should be able to support your outbound calling strategy. This means that if you have long-distance or international customers, your softphone should help you connect with these customers without any interruption or service issues.

Global Call Forwarding’s outbound calling service lets users connect with long-distance and international customers with high voice quality. Furthermore, we offer a dynamic caller ID feature that lets your employees customize their caller ID when calling these customers. In other words, you can override the existing caller ID to display a local or toll free number when calling customers in foreign countries.

Your customers will feel more comfortable answering your call when it comes from a local number than an unrecognizable and unknown foreign number.

5. Local and International Coverage

Lastly, can this service provider support your local and international calling needs? For example, you will need local and international numbers to stay connected to your customers. And so, it helps if you can get both your softphone and phone numbers in one place and through the same service provider. This can help reduce costs and time spent on two different providers and platforms.

Learn More About Global Call Forwarding’s Softphone

Global Call Forwarding is a leading softphone provider. And we offer a multitude of cloud-based phone services. Curious about how our softphone can help your teams make business calls with high-quality service? Chat with our experts online or call us at 1 (888) 908 6171. We offer a free trial for businesses and are available 24/7!