Category: Virtual Phone System

Key Takeaways

1. The business communications platform you use as a small business is an important factor in standing out among other small businesses
2. Opt for a solution that provides advanced calling features and helps you to streamline your team’s work flow
3. Devyce helps you to enhance customer service efficiency, improve call handling, and experience with features like AI call summarisation, call grouping/forwarding, CRM integrations and do not disturb functionality

Navigating customer service can become a significant source of frustration in life. How often have you dialed a company’s number, only to be trapped in an endless loop, reiterating your concerns to different representatives? We’ve all encountered this situation, and it’s an experience we wish to steer clear of. Set your business apart by upgrading your communications platform to Devyce. 

Devyce’s virtual phone number is designed to help your customer-facing teams work more efficiently and build better relationships with customers. Learn more about how to leverage features like AI call summarisation, call groups & forwarding, CRM integrations, and ‘do not disturb’ to stand out in the competitive small business world.

AI Call Summarisation

Have you ever come off a phone call with a customer or potential client and rushed to write down every important thing you could remember? Manual note-taking is time-consuming and increases your chances of missing important details. Save yourself the trouble by using Devyce’s AI call summarisation feature. 

How does it work? Your calls are automatically transcribed as it’s happening. The transcription then gets passed through an AI language model (think GPT). The language model uses the transcription to create a summary of the call which then gets sent to you in a handy text message. This process can take under 15 seconds! You’ll be able to access these summaries from both the Devyce app and your Team’s Management Portal. 

Call Grouping & Forwarding

When a customer’s call is repeatedly missed, it can lead to lost business or negative reviews. Both of which will impact your company’s image, leading to prospective customers turning away from your company. Avoid this by creating call groups and setting up call forwarding. Devyce’s call grouping feature allows incoming calls to be directed to any employee within the group that is free to answer the call. Meaning incoming calls will always be answered by the next available team member. Call forwarding also helps your team avoid missed calls by forwarding calls that cannot be answered by one employee to another. We’ve found from our customers that call forwarding works best for smaller teams whereas larger teams opt for call grouping. Either feature helps to create a positive experience for your customers.

CRM Integrations

Bringing your phone system and CRM software together streamlines your team’s workflow and increases the efficiency of collaboration among team members. It enables your team to effectively handle inquiries without delay as team members can quickly pull up a breakdown of a customer’s previous interactions with your support team eg. emails, call logs, etc. while on a call. 

Additionally, integrating your phone system and CRM software provides valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences. Allowing your team to personalise interactions and deliver a more tailored customer experience. By having a comprehensive view of each customer’s history, your support team can proactively address issues, anticipate needs, and ultimately build stronger, long-lasting relationships with your clients.

Set Your Business Hours

Devyce works on your phone by facilitating calls and texts through our app. It uses a WiFi or data connection to do so. Meaning you don’t need another phone or SIM card. However, we know that can raise concerns that you and your team may not be able to get a healthy work-life divide if you’re still receiving work notifications after hours. This is especially true for small business owners and employees! That’s why we added our ‘do not disturb’ feature. 

Set the hours you’d like to receive work notifications and we make sure you aren’t disturbed out of those hours. You’ll also be able to set up your business voicemail to ensure anyone reaching out to your team after hours know when and how to reach out to your team. 

Empower Your Team With Devyce Today

Give your team the right tools they need to excel in delivering high-quality customer service and build lasting relationships with your clients. With Devyce Teams, your team can work more efficiently, collaborate seamlessly, and provide a superior customer experience that sets your business apart in the competitive small business world. Switch to Devyce Teams today. 

In today’s fast-paced business environment, small business owners need to leverage the latest technologies to stay ahead of the competition. Virtual phone systems have revolutionised small business communications. They offer an affordable and feature-rich alternative to traditional phone systems and the need for second mobile phones, enabling small business owners to stay connected with their customers and employees from anywhere in the world. 

Explore the benefits of virtual phone systems for SMEs and how they can be a game changer for their businesses, in this article. 

What are SMEs currently using as their business communication tools?

The go to for most SME owners are one of these three options: 

1. Using their personal phone
2. Using a second handset
3. Using a traditional desk phone set up

What are the challenges small business owners face with these options?

Using a personal phone for business communication can present several challenges for SME owners. It can be difficult to separate work and personal calls, leading to missed calls and decreased productivity. Additionally, sharing a personal phone number with customers can compromise privacy and blur professional boundaries. 

Getting a second handset may be a solution to achieving separation and privacy concerns. However, that in itself presents additional challenges. It can be inconvenient to carry and manage two phones. SME owners may struggle to keep track of which phone to use for which calls, leading to confusion and missed opportunities. Additionally, this is not a scalable solution, as your team grows, setting up phone contracts and purchasing second handsets can be a costly endeavour which doesn’t accommodate scaling up or down depending on your business needs. 

What about traditional desk phone systems? They’re much more expensive to set up and maintain, which can strain the budgets of small businesses. Moreover, traditional desk phone systems are often inflexible and lack advanced features such as call forwarding, auto-attendant and software integrations, which can limit communication options for SMEs. Desk phone systems are also typically location-bound, meaning that employees cannot easily make and receive calls remotely. This can create communication gaps and limit the ability of SMEs to reach customers effectively.

What is a virtual phone system?

A virtual phone system is a cloud-based phone solution that allows businesses to make and receive phone calls using an internet connection rather than traditional phone lines. This means that there is no need for second handsets nor expensive hardware or costly phone lines to be installed. They can work on your existing phone or a computer and are accessed via an app. Virtual phone systems can be a game changer for SMEs. 

What are the benefits of a virtual phone system to an SME?

1. Cost-effectiveness: Virtual phone systems are typically much more affordable than contracts for work phones or desk phones. With no need for expensive hardware or dedicated phone lines, SMEs can save money on both setup and ongoing maintenance costs.
2. Advanced features: Virtual phone systems offer a range of advanced communication features, such as call forwarding, auto-attendant, and business voicemail. These are typically not available with traditional desk phone systems or personal mobile phones. These features are important for growing SMEs to enhance customer communication and thereby improve service.
3. Flexibility and scalability: The cloud-based nature of virtual phone systems makes them highly flexible and scalable. This is an ideal solution for growing or fluctuating SMEs because the software can be easily expanded or downsized depending on business needs. It also allows for remote hiring as employees can make and receive calls from anywhere in the world, as long as they have a strong internet connection.
4. Professional image: By using a virtual phone system, SMEs can present a more professional image to customers and clients. They can use a dedicated business phone number, rather than their personal mobile phone number, and take advantage of features such as auto-attendant and call forwarding to improve customer service and responsiveness. This gives SMEs a competitive advantage.
5. Increased productivity: Virtual phone systems can help SMEs to increase productivity by enabling employees to stay connected and responsive, even when they are on the go. Employees can easily manage and prioritise their communications, ensuring that important calls are not missed.

How Devyce Does It Better

Our market leading technology provides you with the perfect cost effective, smart and reliable phone system to take your business to the next level. Our solution can be tailored to your business needs from providing a virtual business phone number to a comprehensive communications stack for your customer service team. 

Cost Savings

While virtual phone systems already save you a fair amount on business communications. Devyce can save you up to 70% on business communications. Our pricing plans are kept low for you because of our exclusive deal with a UK Mobile Network Operator. This means that we can provide you with a virtual business number at a much lower cost than other providers. The best part? We don’t believe in contracts. We’re confident you’ll love our service so we won’t ever lock you into lengthy contracts – you can leave at any time, at no extra costs. 

Advanced Calling Features

Our advanced calling features extend to a Teams Management Portal designed for team leads at growing businesses to track and manage their team members’ calls. With access to call reporting and analytics, you can identify key areas that need attention in your call handling. Additionally, through the portal you’re able to quickly allocate/deallocate phone numbers as well as listen to calls and business voicemails across all your lines. This means your team will always be up to date with the progress of your calls and create a seamless experience for customers. 

Devyce is also AI powered, offering smart call summarisation. After each call made, you’ll automatically be sent a summary of the call generated by AI technology. This improves efficiency in your business operations as it saves you time in call reporting. You’ll no longer need to manually take notes after each call so you can use the saved time for more important tasks. Additionally we offer integrations with a range of CRM softwares. 

Small business owners often wear many hats, juggling multiple responsibilities such as sales, marketing, accounting, and customer service. Communication is at the core of all these activities, but it can be a significant challenge for small business owners, especially those with limited communication resources. This is where virtual phone systems can be a game changer for small businesses. By providing affordable, flexible, and feature-rich communication solutions, virtual phone systems help to bring the communications strategy of SMEs up to the standards as expected of larger, developed businesses. This makes virtual phone systems a game changer for SMEs to enhance their communication capabilities and achieve business success.

Still using a second phone for work? Or worse… a landline phone system? You may want to consider upgrading your business communications methods to something more modern… 

Virtual phone systems are the future of business telecommunications because they’re much more reliable. Here’s why: 

What’s the difference between traditional phone systems and virtual phone systems?

Traditional work phone systems can be desk phones or second handsets provided to employees. These require a lot of hardware and contracts to be set up by network/phone providers. The service runs using traditional phone lines. 

On the other hand virtual phone systems use an internet (WiFi or data) connection to operate and they can be installed on your existing mobile phone. The phone service is usually accessed through an app. Meaning you don’t need to purchase lots of devices to use a virtual business phone system. 

Why aren’t traditional phone systems reliable?

1. Dropped Calls

Picture this, you’re in the middle of an important sales call with a valuable client. All of a sudden, you hear the dreaded call end beep. You check your phone and see that the call has dropped. Now it may not be disastrous, you could just call them back and apologise then finish the deal… right? 

Except that when you do call back, the call doesn’t connect. Your phone service provider is experiencing disruption and by the time you manage to call back, your client is no longer interested because your company now appears unprofessional. 

Now imagine this happening all throughout the day… 

This usually happens because of a faulty sim or patchy network coverage where you are. While dropped calls are not uncommon for virtual phone systems either, as dropped internet connections do happen, it happens significantly less. Additionally the problem can be fixed a lot faster as you can simply reset your internet settings or restart the virtual phone app. Meaning virtual phone systems are much more reliable. 

2. Missed Calls

Building on the problem of dropped calls, missed calls are also common to traditional phone systems. Again it’s due to poor network connectivity and we don’t need to tell you… Missed calls are missed business. 85% of customers whose calls are missed don’t call the business back [1]. Meaning potential loss of revenue, especially as it will add up over time. 

With virtual phone systems, you can significantly reduce the number of missed calls your business receives. This is because of the ability to set up a call-forwarding feature which directs your call to the next available team member on the line. Meaning you can ensure your customer’s calls get through as quickly as possible. 

3. Lack of Calling Features

Traditional work phone systems typically don’t offer many features that enhance your customer’s calling experience. Enhanced features may not be necessary however they can greatly improve your customer service. Poor customer service can motivate people to seek out competitors with about 60% of consumers reporting they would go on to do business with a rival company after experiencing poor customer service [1]. Now you don’t want that… 

Virtual phone systems can be set up with a variety of call features such as auto-attendants, and creating call groups. The auto-attendant feature allows customers calling in to be directed to the correct department so you can provide assistance as quickly as possible. Call groups enable you to organise your network of agents into relevant groups so inbound calls directed to the right group can be answered by any member within the group. Features such as these are great for optimising your customer service experience leading to higher satisfaction rates that drive customer loyalty. 

4. No Software Integrations

Wouldn’t it save you so much time if you could link your phone system to a customer relationship management (CRM) system? Second work phones or traditional phone systems usually cannot be set up to link your customer calls to any CRM platforms. This is because you don’t have access to a central management portal where you log call data. Meaning you have to manually log customer call information into any CRM software you are using. 

Virtual phone systems allow for robust software integrations eg. with CRM platforms to be set up. This allows for automatic syncing of your call data to your chosen software, eliminating the need for manual logging, so you have more time to focus on more important aspects of your business. Additionally, virtual phone systems can be integrated with various software depending on your business needs, not just CRM platforms. Meaning you can create a reliable digital framework for your business communications centred around your virtual phone system. 

5. Lack of Security

With desk phone systems, the phone service operates using traditional phone lines that usually run through the ground. Security of your call data could be compromised if the wires could be accessed by someone outside of the organisation, allowing them to listen in on your calls. Furthermore, phone service providers usually stipulate that it’s your responsibility to ensure your data is secured when using their services for work phones. 

Alternatively virtual phone systems meet stringent security requirements, ensuring the safety of your data won’t be compromised. This is because the servers hosting virtual phone networks are constantly monitored by the provider and validated by third party companies to check for vulnerabilities. Making virtual phone systems much more reliable for security than traditional work phone systems. 

Choosing a reliable virtual phone system

There are currently many virtual phone systems on the market. Meaning making the switch can be daunting if you are unsure of where to start. So here are the key things to look out for when choosing a virtual phone system: 

• Uptime: This is the amount of time that the servers/software is up and running. Usually given as a percentage. Ideally, you should choose a provider with an uptime of above 99%. You can usually check service status on a dedicated page on the company’s website.
• Certifications: These will help you to determine whether a company is meeting industry regulations.
• Features: The great thing about virtual phone systems is that calling features can be easily activated and usually at little extra cost. Be sure to check if the features your business requires are provided.
• Contact customer support: Businesses don’t need to be told that customer support is an important indication of a company and their services’ reliability. So it can be helpful to speak with a member of the support team before you switch to a virtual phone provider to answer any questions you have as well as determine how reachable the company is should you use their services and encounter any problems.

Devyce ticks all these boxes, and more…

Devyce is the smarter, more reliable business phone solution for the future of business communications. Why? Because of these key reasons: 

• Our uptime is 99.95%
• We are GDPR compliant and follow all UK Telecommunications regulations
• We offer a range of calling features suited to your business needs at no extra or hidden costs so you get what you see
• Our support team is reachable 24/7 via email and you can speak with a member of our specialist teams within minutes within business hours. We are also able to provide demos of Devyce before you sign up for any of our plans.

With our Teams Plan, you’ll have access to a management portal where you can access key call data metrics and analytics, allowing you to identify your most active channels and measure your call performance against SLAs. Additionally you can utilise the advanced calling features through this portal such as setting up call groups.

We offer all of this at a much lower cost due to our exclusive deal with a UK phone network provider. Meaning we can keep the costs of our services low while still providing you with the best standard of service. Best of all, we don’t have any contracts. This means you’re welcome to stay with us for as long as you’d like! 

Switching to a virtual phone system for your business communications couldn’t be easier with Devyce. Try it out for yourself today by booking a demo with us today!

References:

[1] https://www.unicomcorp.com/blog/the-impact-of-missed-calls-for-your-business/#:~:text=Roughly%2085%25%20of%20the%20people%20whose%20calls%20you,That%20lost%20revenue%20adds%20up%20after%20a%20while.