5 Most Popular PBX Features That SMBs Are Using These Days

The use of Hosted PBX systems is growing at a fast pace today and there are many features of this system that can help mark a difference in the business world today. These PBX features can offer small enterprises the benefit of maintaining a phone channel that works seamlessly in promoting business relations. The most important features for business organizations today include:

Interactive Voice Response: The use of this feature makes it easy for clients to manage communication seamlessly. This feature greets your clients warmly and provides them with a menu that they can follow. According to the choice made, the client can be automated towards the direction chosen. This is beneficial when there are a number of departments in an organization and the overhead of calls in one hinders all the others. With this feature, calls can be carefully routed to the desired destination. In case, the channel rings busy, a call queue can be maintained so as to direct the calls whenever the channel is free.

Click to Call: Integration of your website with some of the PBX features is likely to bring a better response. With this feature, your website can have a simple button that can be clicked and the user can be connected to it in a moment. This feature can use a free account like Skype or can be connected at a back end with an 8xx number. This feature saves time that the customer would invest in noting down your number and making the call. Moreover, you can cut down the time for him to have second thoughts. He may instantly call you and add to your business network.

Call Blast: This is one of the most widely used PBX features that are progressing in the telemarketing world. This PBX feature can be used to direct calls to a number of clients so as to let them know about any new enhancements that you have introduced in the system. This type of calling not only reduces the effort required to build a strong client base but it also helps your taskforce involve in some other work that can utilize their skills. Furthermore, this type of calling can create a better business impression as clients are likely to think of your business as a large one when they hear an automated call.

Toll free number: 800 numbers are becoming the life of marketing techniques opted by most of the business enterprises today. The series in these numbers vary from 800, 888, 877, 866, and 855 to the upcoming 844, 833 and 822. These series are chronologically arranged in the order of their birth in the telecommunication market. The more you are established, the older your number should be. So, an older number can work the magic vice-versa and give your business a well-established image even when it is new. Your first choice of your business phone number should be an 800 and then you should consider other options. You may as well get a vanity toll free number for a better customer impression.

Call Conferencing: Conferencing and the need to hold business meetings can arise at any time and letting physical constraints hinder your communication decisions is not a wise path to follow. Call conferencing in an audio or video mode is one of the most outstanding PBX features that are provided by the service providers. With this feature, no matter where you are, you can simply login to your account and be a part of the Conference that is progressing in either audio or video format. 

How Do PBX Features Form a Closed Business Call Loop

The use of Hosted PBX systems came into existence when the customary telephone lines were incapable to handle the large overhead of calls flowing into your business network. The old phone systems had a number of phone lines running in a parallel manner with a series of numbers that the customers would dial in when the channel rang busy. With no provision to maintain a log of missed out calls or show a waiting call, this old phone system is now unfit for business purposes. This is where the contemporary PBX features evolve to deal with all these call management issues.

The current business phone system needs to be maintained to protect the loss of any business opportunities. These features help in maintaining a closed business loop that prevents any business lead from missing out. These features include:

Call hunt: This is one of the most widely used PBX features that extend business mobility by allowing the calls to be directed to a prioritized list of extensions. This ensures that if a call is missed out at one place, there is a chance that it will be received at a different extension. Even if one extension is busy, it can skip to some other extension.

Simultaneous Ringing: Hosted PBX offers this feature to give the final try to the employees to receive the call. When a call set in a hunt group rings at each extension but is not received at any of them, then this feature directs the call to all the extensions simultaneously so that if any extension operator is available, he can receive the call.

Call Waiting: Waiting call is one of the biggest problems faced while handling a large number of calls when all extensions are busy. This makes the users wait in a call queue that directs the call to the concerned department as soon as any extension is free. However, if a user drops out a waiting call, the records are maintained.

Music on Hold: This is one of the most useful PBX features as it makes the clients form an impression that their request is in process. So, they tend to hold on for a longer duration of time. This has been proved through a research that the average waiting time for calls has been extended by at least 30%.

Call Return: There is a log of waiting calls that is maintained in a log file in the interface provided by Hosted PBX providers. When the employees at the extensions are free, they return the calls to the customers who couldn’t connect to them earlier. In case the user does not respond to this call, this feature calls him back repeatedly unless he receives the call or it has been half an hour, whichever is less.

Voicemail: When the user plans to drop out a waiting call, he has an option to leave a voicemail regarding his query or a certain business scenario. There are many PBX features that may direct the messages to voicemail. This leads to security of business opportunities as they can be contacted later. These voicemails are available in the inbox where all other messages are stored and thus, response can be initiated as soon as the user goes through the recorded voicemail.

These Hosted PBX VOIP features are equipped with the business phone channel of almost all the small and medium scale business enterprises. These features offer some of the best advantages to the SMBs. These benefits include cost-effectiveness, mobility in business operations, flexibility in requirements, projection of a large corporate image and reliability in data transmission.