What is Voice Mail
History Of Voicemail
The voice mail system was developed by Bob Cohn and Peter Olson in 1982. Voice mail system is a centralized answering machine which stores, records and plays back the voice message from users both inside and outside a company. Voice mail systems support shared message storage, fax delivery, teleconference, voice to text transcription, retrieval via printers and more. The two basic operations of a voice mail system are telephone answering and voice messaging. It is not possible to attend every phone call coming to an office during busy hours. In such a situation getting a small business voice mail service would be the best choice.
Hosted PBX (Private Branch Exchange) is ideal for small businesses. These telephone systems are integrated with VoIP technology and provide excellent voicemail features. VoIP services are used to receive calls directly through the internet or from a VoIP PBX. Each staff can be provided with a unique voice mail box. If any call remains unattended, the caller will be automatically forwarded to the voice mail. With voice mail services, users can be notified of new messages, and they can simultaneously pick up or leave messages from anywhere via email, computer or phone. In addition to this, you can forward or delete the received message.
Voicemail For Small Business
Nowadays, every small business looks forward to benefit from voice mail services. Advanced voice mail service providers offer automated attendant facility with directory service access to make calls to various departments in your office. Small business voice mail service is a complete and full function telephone service with no heavy investment required for setup. Considering their functioning, voice mail services can help to give your small business a professional image, make ordering service easier, enhance customer relations, and improve productivity. Therefore an efficient voicemail system is an excellent option to consider, when launching small businesses.
Nowadays, all major telephone operators are providing voice mail services to customers at affordable costs. Voice mail services allow small business firms to maintain that customer friendly image. Voice mail services figure among the most powerful types of telephone services available today. By skillfully making use of this advanced technology, small and medium business can grow at a much faster rate, creating a great impression on their customers and associates.
Voice Mail For Interaction With Customers
Communication is critical to the success of any business and constant interaction with customers is the key to stay and survive in business. But there are certain practical difficulties as many business owners are not always available to handle customer calls as they have a host of other things to attend to.
Voice mail service for small business is cost-effective telecommunication solution to aid small business maintain better customer relations. This service will allow the customers to leave a message which can later be returned. All incoming calls received during the business owner's absence from office or when the business owner is otherwise busy, will be systematically handled by the system.
Hosted PBX systems with auto attendant facility will direct callers to the voice mail, when the subscriber is not available to attend the call. Thus the callers are not kept waiting or feel annoyed listening to busy tones. As a part of customer relationship efforts, every call will be automatically greeted with a polite and professional welcome message. If the contacted person is not available even at the provided extension numbers, the call is automatically transferred to the system, where the caller can leave his message.
Not attending to important customer calls leading to loss of business has ceased to be a problem for business enterprises. The mail systems will allow the callers to deliver their messages in the voice mail boxes and thus totally eliminate the chances of missing any important business deal. Voice mail is also capable of simultaneously handling multiple calls. Voice mail service is mainly provided with the existing PBX phone systems and can effectively manage all inbound and outbound business calls.
As many of us may be aware, It has two basic modes of operation - Telephone Answering and Voice Messaging. The function of Telephone Answering mode is to answer external calls and takes a message when the extension is either busy or no- response. The function of Voice Messaging is for any subscriber, with a mailbox number, to send messages directly to any one or many subscribers' mailboxes without first calling them.
Voice Mail Feature
Unlike an answering machine, which is no more than equipment, Voice Mail is centralized computer-based system of managing telephonic messages for a large group of people. Apart from fulfilling the standard functions of an answering machine, Voice Mail is capable of many other advanced features such as:
(i) handling several phone calls at the same time
(ii) Storing all incoming messages in personal voice mailbox
(iii) forward received messages into any other voice mailbox
(iv) simultaneously send messages to more than one user voice mailbox
(v) option to add a voice introduction when forwarding a message
(vi) store in reserve voice messages for future delivery
(vii) alert the user whenever messages are received in his/her mailbox through a phone call or paging service
(viii) Play different message greetings to different callers.
This service in a business house can mean better customer care service leading to increased productivity. The service can be programmed to provide the customers important information regarding your products and services on a 24/7 basis. Voice mail service is offered at affordable rates so that even small and start-up businesses can avail this extremely useful facility. With an affordable office voice mail service, small businesses can considerably improve their profile and acquire a big image.
Suggestion Voice Mail
If your company uses an automated system to process calls make sure it provides the best customer service by following these suggestions:
1. Keep your greeting short and sweet. (No one cares that your menu options have changed. They only want to know what options they have now.)
2. List your menu options according to popular usage.
3. Tell callers how to reach another human early in the process.
4. Think twice before using voice mail for customer service issues.
5. Survey your customers from time to time to see how they feel about your voice mail system.
6. Try calling your own system occasionally and find out first hand what your customers are experiencing.
Voice mail can be either an incredible asset to your business or an incredible pain for your customers. Don't force innocent people to spend their valuable time in your voice mail jail.