The travelers may become overly dependant on their mobile phones for communication. With mobile phones, calls cannot be transferred to other parties leaving the traveler stuck with follow-up tasks that should be handled by others. In addition, personal mobile phone numbers may be called by customers. Now customers and business associates are calling a phone number that the company has no control over and will leave when the employee leaves.

Hosted PBX services offer several solutions to this problem including hoteling and mobile PBX.

In a Hosted PBX environment, multiple offices are connected seamlessly together as one phone system. Hoteling allows the traveler to walk into any connected office and turn any phone into their extension by simply entering a code. They will receive all calls transferred to their extension, button assignments will be theirs, DID numbers assigned to their extension will ring directly to that phone and voicemail indicators will work as needed.

Mobile PBX integrates a user’s mobile phone with their desk phone. Calls ringing to their desk phone will also ring to their mobile. Once the user answers a call on their mobile, they can process calls as normal including transferring them to other extensions on the system. Mobile PBX keeps an employee in touch with their desk phone calls wherever they can receive mobile calls.

Hoteling and/or Mobile PBX keeps a traveler in touch with his business phone calls. Better contact with customers may improve sales and customer service. These features may prevent travelers from giving out personal mobile numbers for business use. Now the company can retain control of the telephone numbers that customers and business associates call.

As a final note, Hosted PBX services that provide the features above are also based upon VoIP technology. Many services allow their phones to be unplugged and moved to wherever broadband Internet access is available. Simply moving a Hosted PBX telephone to another location may also work as a solution for travelers.

Companies, who sell parts to the general public, may have parts desk employees who have a difficult time checking parts, processing calls and handling walk-in customers. Employees frequently have to leave the desk and place calls on hold checking for part availability. While they are away from their desk and phone, calls are left on hold for extended periods of time and other calls are missed. Potential customers, left on hold, may hang up and call a competitor. Unanswered calls may go to a competitor and waste the marketing money used to get the call.

The work environment creates stress on parts desk employees. As they return from checking on a part, they may be faced with customers at their desk and new calls ringing their phone while they are responding to the original caller. Upset customers may add to their stress and deter future business.

HostMyCalls Solution

HostMyCalls Hosted PBX Service offers several potential solutions for parts desks. Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) can stack waiting calls and distribute them in the order they were received to the next available employee. This process ensures calls are handled efficiently and encourages callers to be patient.

Our Hosted PBX Service also features the widely popular Siemens Gigaset cordless phones. These phones have a usage range of up to 175 feet from their base station indoors and 900 feet outdoors. Their range will allow parts desk employees to continue processing calls while they are away from their desk. Calls managed by the Hosted PBX ACD application can be delivered to the Gigasets.

HostMyCalls Hosted PBX Service also offers its Flexicall feature. Flexicall integrates mobile phones to ring simultaneously with desk phones. Mobile phones can handle calls similar to a desk phone. Flexicall allows employee access to company calls anywhere they can find cell service.

Customers are no longer put on hold while checking parts availability with the use of ACD, Gigaset cordless phones and/or Flexicall. In addition, calls can be answered while the parts staff are away from their desk. As they return, they are ready to answer the next call or walk-in customer. Calls spend less time on hold and are handled more quickly. Each employee can process more calls and generate more business for the company. Fewer callers are turned away to competitors by long hold and ring times. Quicker call processing leads to more satisfied callers and a less stressful work environment.

Hosted PBX services offer the ability to implement advanced solutions such as those mentioned above with little or no capital expenditure. In many cases, companies can save money overall on their telecommunications costs while implementing these solutions.

How It Typically Works

Some business telephone systems and a few premium Hosted VoIP providers offer the ability to integrate existing mobile phones with your desk phone.  When turned on, the desk phone and mobile phone will ring at the same time.  Whichever phone you answer, will get the call.  Should you answer the call with your mobile phone, transferring it back to your desk phone can be easy.  If you do not answer, most services are flexible in their programming and will allow you to designate either your mobile phone or your office voicemail to take the message.

In some instances, you can do away with your desk phone and take all calls with your mobile.  Once you have the call on your mobile, you will be able to transfer the call to any extension on your system and possibly to any number in the world just like you do with your desk phone.  The best Hosted PBX services and telephone systems will also allow you to place calls from your mobile phone through your system.  You will not give your private mobile number out ever again!

Transforming Your Business

Pairing the mobile phone with your Hosted PBX service provides an incredible opportunity to cut costs, increase sales and provide superior customer service.  Removing the desk phone is only a potentially small savings.  The big savings comes from how to handle your fixed in office answering point.  With mobile phone integration, the position is no longer chained to a desk.  You can put them to work in the office or field or assign the duties to more mobile personnel or eliminate the position all together.

In addition to cost cuts, mobile phone integration with your Hosted PBX service can help increase the productivity of your sales team.  Sales people can handle important calls while they are out of the office as if they were sitting at their desk.  Business no longer waits for the sales person to return to the office.  In addition, sales people will not get bogged down by customer calls that can be best handled by others such as customer service departments.  For example, when they receive a customer service type call, they can gracefully transfer the call to that department with or without call screening.  Now they can focus their attention on their next sale and give immediate attention to their active customers.

Similarly to their sales colleagues, customer service personnel can handle customer care calls even while they are away from their desk.  Should they not be the best resource for the call, they can easily transfer the call to the appropriate person.  Customers will acknowledge a superior customer service experience when they can routinely get the live person on the phone they need for help.  Further, employees will no longer need to give out personal mobile numbers to keep in touch with their clients.  Beyond an improved customer care experience, you can protect your base by not having employees leave who are contacted by your customers through their personal mobile phone number.

Integrating your mobile phones with your Hosted PBX service gives you the opportunity to reinvent and reinvigorate your business.  Besides being able to eliminate or redefine several positions, you will keep your key employees in contact with your customers while making them more efficient.  This all leads to cutting costs while increasing sales and improving customer service.  A winning combination for any business!