Virtual Office Resource

Two facts: Customer service is now one of the key differentiators in business, and nobody likes to leave a voicemail.

With the Internet connecting consumers with companies all over the world, it is now harder than ever to have a truly differentiated product or service. What is winning and keeping customers today is a good customer experience, one that is both efficient and creates positive associations with the customer.

One way to lose the customer service competition is through missed calls. For most prospective buyers, an inability to reach a company is an invitation to pivot and use another firm. For existing customers, not reaching the business implies a lack of professionalism and poor customer care. Whether a new customer or not, going to voicemail can be a real and costly turn-off.

Thankfully, even small firms can avoid this scenario with virtual office technology. The key is using call forwarding, a feature common on most voice-over-IP (VoIP) platforms.

Call forwarding allows a phone number to be aliased over another number. This means that a call to an office phone can be forwarded to the employee’s cell phone when he or she is out of the office. Or, a call can be forwarded to a different employee depending on the time of day.

This is the magic of many foreign call centers, although it can be done even with a two-employee company. During the day, a caller might be routed to someone in the United States, but at night the call might go to a call center in Asia.

Using a related technology, call hunting, it also is possible to have a call go to several phones at once or in succession, making sure that the call reaches someone instead of going to voicemail. This can bring great flexibility to businesses and ensure that no call ever goes unanswered.

Indeed, call forwarding makes it technically possible for the end of voicemail.

Regardless, it also can bring together a workforce that is geographically dispersed, in that a single toll-free number can be used to house a company directory that can then forward the call to the right employee, even if each employee is working from a different part of the country.

What’s more, this technology can make a global business seem local. A host of local numbers can be forwarded to a single centralized number, helping to make a global business seem local to key markets.

Once businesses begin to consider the various uses of call forwarding, it quickly becomes apparent that the technology can help build better relationships with customers, ensuring that every customer service experience is a good one.