Reply
Wed 5 Dec, 2007 11:12 am
I've been working for my cousin lately who's starting a home business, and trying to juggle customer service along with other managerial duties. My work has been largely an attempt to set up some infrastructure, and she definitely needs a way to handle phone calls between her customers, herself, and her team. It seems like most of these PBX companies, when you strip off the meaningless bells and whistles, are really all the same. This makes the choice really difficult. We did use CallButler for a time but we ditched them because we had some customer service issues. We're still shopping around, but I'm wondering if another solution might be better.
Linksys has some neat small-office IP phone solutions. One of the cool things you can do is seamlessly transfer calls to and from your cell phone. It doesn't even interrupt the conversation.
They don't scale well to larger organizations, as the voicemail boxes get too small, but it should work for up to 16 users or so.
The small-business phone solution is a market that is just beginning to get tapped. I have worked for a few companies that fit this bill and they were virtual revolving doors of voicemail solutions. One of the biggest issues was, as you say, customer service at the phone solutions companies themselves, which at times can mean the different between winning and losing a client. We got a good referral on GotVmail from a business contact at Trinity Real Estate (a company about the same size as ours), and we've been happy with them. They offer all the essential features: 1-800 numbers and extension routing (directly to my treo phone if I need it), and their automated voice studio provides pro-grade voicemail answering. BUT I will say go with your gut and get a referral from someone you trust, and definitely emphasize how important customer service is. I learned the hard way before finding a company that would work for me.
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace