Some reasons why a business prefers a VoIP system may be its obvious features the system offers such as Music on Hold or voicemail. However, the VoIP system offers many other underutilised features which businesses should explore such as Interactive Voice Response and more.
IVR (Interactive Voice Response)
This feature allows the phone system to recognise touch tones and voice waves during a call. For example, when you call a major company they have menu options such as: “press 1 for new inquiries, press 2 for old inquiries”, the IVR allows callers to respond to their specific request and direct them to the most suited department for their call. This allows a large-scale business to maximise their efficiency.
Call Parking
This allows users to “park” a call to be retrieved later by the same person who answered or a different department. This feature is similar to transferring a call except it still allows the individual who first answered to answer the phone again. When the phone is parked for the time period, the company hold music. If the phone call is parked for 2 minutes, it can be sent to voicemail and the company can later call back the person.
MOH (Music on Hold)
This is one of the common features why a business utilises the VoIP system. It is self-explanatory where you may put the caller on hold to gather information they have requested, and the company music or radio will play in the meantime. To optimise the MOH feature, important messages from the company can be voiced, the audio tone must be consistent, and the volume should not be too loud.
Time Switching
Time Switching provides the option of the contact number to only be put through between 9am-5pm and forwarded to voicemail between 5pm-9pm after hours. It allows the user to still receive calls and respond to them later.
External number diversion (Divert a call to a mobile or external number)
Allowing a phone call to be diverted to an external number is another feature of the VoIP system. For example, the caller is attempting to reach an individual who is currently out of the office, the call can be diverted to their mobile number.
Call pickup
The Call Pickup feature is a great way to be efficient with picking up the phone… For example, an individual may be out of the office but calls are still being diverted to them, this feature allows another user to pickup a ringing call from another call which would increase efficiency and reduce the wait time of the caller therefore decreasing the dissatisfaction of the caller with minimal wait time.
There are so many more features a VoIP system offers, and these are only a few of the underutilised features.