Summer can be a difficult time for any business, particularly smaller businesses with fewer staff members. Employees are heading off to lie on a beach or sunbathe by a sparkling pool and you’re left wondering if business operations are going to run as smoothly with fewer team members.
With a VoIP system, you have a range of features that will help your business operate smoothly, even when there are fewer staff members available! In this blog, we’re going to outline how VoIP can help your business when staff members are on annual leave.
Call Handling With VoIP
If a staff member is heading off on holiday, you want to make sure that any phone calls to their number are not missed. Missed phone calls can lead to unhappy customers and can even lose potential leads. If a customer cannot get through to your business, chances are they’re going to quickly give up and call your competitors instead.
Call handling with VoIP allows you to divert phone calls from one staff member to another. So, if a staff member is taking their annual leave, you can divert their incoming phone calls to someone else in the office.
Choosing which staff members to divert the calls to couldn’t be easier with VoIP. The VoIP communication system enables you to monitor and analyse call data. This way you can analyse which employees are receiving the most calls and have a busy workload and which employees are receiving fewer calls and have a lighter workload. You can then use this information to divert the calls to the correct employees.
Message While Routing With VoIP
Message While Routing allows your employee to easily record and upload an introductory audio greeting, which can then be played to customers or clients who call their number.
So, before your staff member goes on annual leave, they can record a greeting message to reassure the customer that they have reached the correct company and explain that they are currently away on annual leave.
The greeting message can then offer options to the customer. For example, asking if they would prefer to leave a voicemail for the employee who is currently away, or if they would prefer to be put through to another employee or department.
Clients or customers who prefer to deal with one particular staff member will appreciate the option of leaving a message for them. As well as establishing that your business is professional and organised, this also demonstrates that your employees care about their clients and loyal customers.
Voicemail To Email
As previously mentioned, callers can be given the option to leave a voicemail for a specific staff member. With a VoIP system, this voicemail is then sent to the employee’s email address.
When your staff member returns from annual leave (or if they want to check in during their holiday), they can listen to their voicemails by checking their emails or dialling into the system from the mobile phone. This way, no important messages or voicemails are missed, and your employee knows exactly which customer or client he/she needs to get back to when they return to the office.
Virtual Receptionist
Rather than diverting calls to another employee when a staff member is on holiday, they can use the VoIP Virtual Receptionist instead. The VoIP Virtual Receptionist has numerous features. It will take the callers details including their name and number before asking them to relay their enquiry.
This will then be sent to your staff member’s email (much like the Voicemail To Email feature) for your employee to pick up when their annual leave ends. This prevents your staff from missing potential business leads whilst they’re on holiday.
Call Forwarding And Multi-Route
Some staff members, particularly those in a higher position such as Department Managers or Project Managers etc., prefer to check in on their emails and calls when they’re on annual leave.
For staff members wanting to stay in the loop when they’re away, VoIP’s Call Forwarding and Multi-Route are incredibly helpful features. Call Forwarding allows the staff member to forward their business calls to wherever they happen to be in the world.
They can do this by forwarding the calls directly to their mobile phone number, or by setting up a VoIP app on their smartphone. This will enable them to answer phone calls on their smartphone through their VoIP number.
Alternatively, if your employee only wants to answer certain phone calls when they are on annual leave (such as a specific client) they can use Multi-Route. Multi-Route allows incoming phone calls to ring simultaneously in various destinations.
This means, if the staff member on annual leave doesn’t answer the phone call, somebody else will pick it up and the enquiry will still be dealt with.
Contact VIP VoIP
VoIP systems have a wide range of benefits. To discover more about how a VoIP phone system could help your business, please contact VIP VoIP on 03300 881 182, email sales@vipvoip.co.uk, or complete our online enquiry form, and we’ll be in touch as soon as possible.