What is a Cloud Phone System
When running a business, you may want to use a tool that can support your business phone system, customer support, call center, and sales team. All of this can be easily enhanced with the use of a cloud-based solution.
If you are reading this article, chances are you are interested in investing in a cloud phone system and facing many challenges smoothly. Thanks to the development of new technologies, there are many systems on the market that can meet your needs. Below you can find all the essential information on this topic, including the definition and advantages of these tools.
Cloud Phone System: Definition
A cloud phone system is a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)-based business phone platform that is hosted and managed by a third-party provider. Cloud Talk can be an excellent example of this type of tool.
The crucial differences between cloud VoIP system and local phone system are advanced features, ability to work remotely and access from anywhere.
Now that you have an idea of what a cloud phone system is, check out how it can be used in your business and why it’s worth it. Keep reading!
Why does your business need a cloud phone system?
Telecommunications are the core of business communication. Before the Internet, phone calls were essential. Today, while we happily communicate over the Internet, calling is still a quicker and more personal way of dealing with customers or recruiting new ones.
The telephone system allows, at a minimum, to have a main telephone number and extensions that allow certain employees to be reached. Thanks to Internet phones, everyone can be connected via software to a server through its IP network. However, it can be a challenge for small or medium-sized organizations, as installing such a system requires human and budgetary resources, as well as infrastructure. You should also pay attention to security and system settings. If you want to benefit from VoIP but don’t have the ability to manage it yourself, you can always find a cloud phone system provider to take care of it professionally so you can focus on achieving your business goals.
Cloud Phone System: advantages
New technologies offer new opportunities and facilities in many aspects of our lives. So how can you take advantage of them to boost your company’s efforts?
Save time
Once you decide to implement a phone system in the cloud, you can save a lot of time in the whole process, including configuration, updates and security. As you will be using existing software, you need a minimum implementation time, so that your team can benefit almost immediately.
The second insight when looking at the time savings from using a cloud phone system is that your sales or customer service team will likely improve their productivity by taking advantage of the handy features (read more to explore these options).
lower costs
This can be a hurdle for most small and medium businesses. Above all, you do not need to invest in the heavy and expensive installations required. Also, there is no need to maintain equipment. You are also free from the charges of a traditional phone system.
Mobility
Thanks to the mobile application, your employees can receive and make calls from anywhere in the world. This also enables remote work, which is a trend and sometimes a must-have option for today’s businesses.
Security
When it comes to running your own business, you always have to think about securing your communication channels. Cloud phone systems are exposed to hackers, who can take control of VoIP and use it for their own purposes. A trusted provider pays attention to security issues.
Integrations
Cloud phone systems can be easily integrated with many business tools , such as CRM. Thanks to this, your team can have easy and fast access to customer data and provide them with more accurate customer support or prepare personalized offers. Every call and information will be saved in the history of a contact. It can be very useful for e-commerce businesses. Real-time integration can mean a change in communication with current and potential customers.
Intuitive
Although a cloud phone system has many features, it is not complicated to use. You can easily manage your system, add new team members and customize your dashboard with just a few clicks. This way, system configuration can be faster and done without the involvement of an IT department.
Functions
When running a business you have to focus on the big picture. Let the tools take care of many operational tasks and let your business grow. CloudTalk, as an example of a cloud phone system, is packed with handy features that will make your team more efficient. Among the most useful you can find call recording and queuing , automatic callbacks , internal phone number labels , personalized voice greetings , voicemail and contact labels.
For more advanced options, you can create a multi-level Interactive Voice Response (IVR) menu that guides callers through possible options so they can reach a certain department or agent. One cool feature is that you can choose a preferred agent for callers so they will always be directed to this person. In this way, your employees can build a relationship with your clients and close deals more easily or simply be more helpful, since they are familiar with the case.
Powerful analytics
One of the most important aspects, although still undervalued, is analytics. With cloud phone systems you have control of all calls. You can monitor its duration and effectiveness and find room for improvement. By analyzing the recorded calls you can find the strengths and weaknesses of communication with customers and work on it with your team. You also have access to a real-time dashboard that will show you an up-to-date view of your team’s productivity.
Scalability
VoIP allows you to scale along with the growth of your business. Since you don’t need any infrastructure, you can simply decide to expand the capacity of your call center software at any time. This is also useful when it comes to remote workers who can connect to the system anytime, anywhere just using the Internet connection. The limit is up to you!
No physical space needed
A cloud phone system doesn’t require any equipment, so you don’t have to spend space on it. In addition, the absence of equipment implies less energy use and, therefore, the reduction of the carbon footprint of your company.
How to choose the best cloud phone system?
Like any service, implementing a phone system in the cloud is an investment. First of all, it is important that you understand the needs of your company in this area. Across different cloud phone system providers, the basic features are likely to be the same, so pay attention to details and additional features that may be useful to your team.
Compare offers based on whether you need to run a call center, a customer service department, or a sales team. Of course, it may happen that you need all the features – luckily CloudTalk has the complete package. You can also try some tools before your final decision. This way you will be able to know if the given systems are intuitive enough and satisfy your needs.
As you can see, a cloud phone system can significantly increase the productivity and efficiency of your organization on many levels. Don’t hesitate to try CloudTalk for your company. You can sign up for a 14-day free trial and test its options to discover its full potential.