The lead up to Christmas is normally a great time of year for many of us, with food, gifts and retail therapy. That means that November and December are among the busiest months for so many of the UK’s biggest sectors, particularly retail and hospitality.
A second lockdown may have thrown original plans into chaos, but come what may, many businesses will need to capitalise on this time of year. The time of year brings inevitable higher levels of enquiries over the phone.
Can your phone system handle it? A VoIP phone system is designed with plenty of tools and functionality to make things that little bit easier during your busiest times — here’s how a new phone system could make things easier during one of the most trying times of the year.
Staff working from home
One of the big changes caused to workplaces by the Covid-19 pandemic is that many more of us than ever before are working from home. In years gone by, working from home would have been virtually impossible, as staying in close communication with your team would have proven extremely difficult.
The beauty of VoIP is that you have so many choices. If you want to use a desk-phone then simply plug in and off you go. Staff can take their handset home, plug it into an internet connection and the phone will work! For others an app on their mobile may be the way to go or using a computer and a headset. One, two or a mixture of all three approaches… the choice is yours, it’s the ultimate in flexibility.
Deal with higher call volumes
If your phone is ringing off the hook throughout November and December with orders, requests for information or discussions over purchases, it can be difficult to know how to handle the excess number of calls you’re suddenly getting.
An auto attendant helps to filter through those calls and ensure they’re getting to the right places. It also helps to make sure that you don’t have a single member of staff dealing with every single call.
Work around unusual hours
Do you have slightly unusual hours for Christmas? Perhaps your organisation shuts down for a full week, or just a handful of days? Whatever your arrangement, you’ll need to communicate that to your customers and clients.
If your business is closing its doors at some point, a VoIP phone system easily allows you to record and switch on an automated message so that when someone rings, they get an informative and simple update on your opening hours.
Erratic staff numbers
During the winter months, many businesses will lose staff for a few days due to illness. With the Covid-19 pandemic telling people showing any symptoms of the disease — including coughing — to stay at home and self-isolate, there’s a big chance that staff numbers will be even more erratic than normal. That doesn’t stop the phone from ringing though. So how do you handle all those calls with less staff?
Hunt groups is one solution; it allows for phones to be grouped together, so when someone rings that group, each of the phones connected to it rings. Grouping means the call is still answered, even if a member of that group is off.
An alternative is call forwarding, which allows callers to be forwarded through to another number at the press of a button, with minimal fuss.
What about voicemail? We can even have the recording emailed to you or a colleague so every contact is handled appropriately.
VoIP is amazing for a wide variety of reasons, and these functions will prove useful all year round; to talk to our experienced and local team, please give us a call here at Equations on 01237 420010.
