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.

Most WiFi enabled access points operate in the 2.4 Ghz frequency range.  This unlicensed frequency range is also shared by many common household and business devices such as cordless telephones and microwave ovens.  Use of these devices within range of your wireless enabled ISP router can cause interference and other negative effects ranging from seemingly insignificant brief Internet outages up to the need for router resets.  Internet outages lasting only several milliseconds will be disruptive to VoIP calls using a Hosted PBX or Hosted VoIP provider.

If your ISP router is equipped for wireless networking service and is not being used on your network, I recommend the wireless feature be turned off.  Turning the wireless feature off eliminates the negative effects of any interference and a potential security risk to your network.

If your ISP router is equipped for wireless networking service and is in use on your network, it could be a source of negative voice quality issues as it bypasses the necessary quality of service (QOS) management for voice traffic.  Migrating wireless network devices to a separate wireless access controller is recommended.  Further, when you use a separate wireless access controller from your ISP router, interference from other devices in the same frequency range will have no effect on the operation of your Internet router.

For more information on how you can insure the best possible VoIP call quality from your Hosted PBX or Hosted VoIP providers, please read my other blog articles.  Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.