Remote Office Phone Systems

The covid-19 pandemic has ravaged the world from top to bottom. It has affected almost every corner of the socio-economic life of people, including office work. Office culture has thoroughly changed because of the pandemic, and still, it has not gone back to normal. Many businesses have been pushed from offices to homes; consequently, a whole new phenomenon is introduced known as “Work from Home”. Employees are working from home rather than going to the office due to covid-19 restrictions. But now, employees need new technologies and equipment that could enable them to work remotely without affecting their efficiency.

Nowadays, employees are more interested in those companies which offer them work from home benefits. On the other hand, companies that are swiftly adopting this new rule of thumb are outperforming those that are not flexible enough to adapt according to external circumstances. Work from home phone system is inevitable in this situation as they provide the basic framework for employees and companies to work remotely.

According to a survey, 38% of companies have employees who are working from home, and these members are more liable to communicate with their bosses through email and phone. So, it is time to equip your employees with an effective remote phone system that can be accessed from anywhere and increase their productivity simultaneously.

In this article, we are going to discuss the features, costs, and advantages of such systems. The sole purpose of this article is to enable you to make the right decision according to your needs. So, let’s dig in!

Features

• Caller ID – This function enables your employees to identify who is calling even when they are away from their business telephone.
• Automatic Call Distribution – If you run some kind of customer care center, service center, or call center this feature would be very useful for your employees. It enables them to distribute incoming calls to available operators
• Call Forwarding – This enables a representative to receive an incoming call from their phone rather than a business phone consequently, make the transition swift and smooth.
• Auto-Attendant – The VoIP phone system makes calls efficiently with an auto attendant. So, an automatic virtual assistant welcomes the caller and directs them to the representative.
• Visual Voicemail – Standard voicemails system is pretty simple and obsolete. This feature enables representatives to listen to voicemail on their computer and also gives authority to play them back using a mobile application.
• Voicemail to Email – This feature automatically directs voicemail to the agent’s inbox, which saves the time for the team; furthermore, like an email, they can be forwarded.
• Voicemail Forwarding – If a team member is not able to receive a call maybe because he or she is busy with another project, this feature permits him or her to forward a message to a teammate so that he/she can attend to the customer.
• Advanced Call Management – In a work from home scenario, maybe your all employees are not in the same room, so the system offers you functions like N-Way calling, Conference Bridge, and Simultaneous Ring. All the functions are customizable as per your requirements.

Cost

Maybe as a businessman, it would be the most important aspect for you. How much work from home phone system cost? Well, it depends upon the features you add to the system. Although, it could cost you less than 20$ per line, again depending upon the features you use. But in contrast to primitive landlines system, it will always be cost-efficient. Let’s find out why

First and foremost, there is no need to buy expensive hardware to set up the system. The remote phone system encompasses a computer application called softphones. You can reduce the cost significantly by replacing your desk telephones with this setup. All you employees need to do is download an application on your mobile, and they are good to go.

Secondly, there are remote phone systems that contain tons of features that are not available in a simple landline setup. Fortunately, most of these features are available at one flat rate, meaning no extra fee. Most importantly, these features make your employees efficient and seamless, which is very important for any business owner.

Third, it is far speedier than old telephones. You do not need to add an extra telephone line PBX system in the office. What you need to do is to add VoIP lines that are a few clicks away.
Lastly, you can save more money by making an annual subscription rather than a monthly payment. This will further slash the cost of the system. Believe it or not, remote office phones would be your best investment.

Advantages

1. This setup empowers you to use your office phone number to work from home; thanks to VoIP, you can receive any call from anywhere you have internet, and you do not need to stick to your desk.
2. You can always be connected to your customers and co-workers simultaneously. A cloud system containing directories and addresses makes you unable to access your clients, contracts, or employees’ data from anywhere in the world.
3. Every employee employed by you shares one office phone system. When everybody in your company is working remotely, it can become difficult to contact them discreetly, thanks to the remote phone system you won’t face this problem again.
4. Remote employees do not have the risk of missing important phone calls while travelling because they are always connected to the system. So, all they need is an internet connection, consequently boosting their efficiency.
5. This system permits you to call voice or video conferences any time regardless of where your employees are residing. They can attend the meeting at any time. This significantly increases the decision-making process, therefore increasing productivity.

Ending Thoughts

Work from home phone systems is the need of the hour. The pandemic caused drastic and long-lasting effects on society which will remain with us for a long time; therefore, we need to live and adapt to the changes. These technologies will make your business productive, competitive, and efficient. If you want to win, go with the flow; don’t oppose it!