As the half the United States becomes inundated with snow today, offices across the country become empty and productivity is lost.

With today’s technology, many people can work from home using a computer and VPN with no problem but what about those important phone calls? Support, sales, etc.

Can you really afford to miss one, two, five days because of weather?

The nice thing about a virtual PBX is that you can forward calls to ANY number on ANY phone. We say it all the time but it really is a great feature for any business.

An employee simply has to log into your Grashopper account and change their call forwarding number to their home or cell phone. All those calls you could potentially be missing are avoided and the employee doesn’t have to worry about giving clients their personal phone number.

As a business, being able to ensure your customers can reach you and no important calls are missed, despite what is happening with mother nature, is a great feeling.

It recently came to my attention that one of our customers, The KARS Consulting Group, is using our Unlimited Extensions feature in a brilliant way.

As a small consulting company or freelancer with a handful of clients, your relationship with each client is imperative to the success of you and your business. Any extra effort or personal touch goes a long way.

Remember the Seinfeld episode where George decides to create a catchy jingle for his answering machine?

Aside from a website, your phone greeting could be the first impression customers or potential customers have of your business. While it doesn’t have to be as clever as George’s, it’s important that it sounds professional and helps the caller with what they are looking for.

Here are a few tips for creating a main greeting:

• Make sure there is no distracting background noise i.e. ambulances racing by, phones ringing, tv commercials.

• When using background music, make sure you choose music that fits your business. Pop music for a spa probably isn’t the best strategy.

• Enunciate your words clearly to ensure the caller can understand your greeting. Avoid strong accents.

Grasshopper and the Web 2.0 Show have teamed up to help entrepreneurs like you promote your business.

“Pitch the Show” is a new element to the Web 2.0 Show that gives ANY person the chance to be featured on the show! You will have the opportunity to talk about your business in front of a large audience as well as a monthly special guest who has left their mark in the entrepreneurial world. It’s a great opportunity to gain exposure and extremely simple:

“Call 1-888-WEB20SHOW and give your best 90 second pitch about your business.”

Two pitches will be selected each month and along with exposure on the Web 2.0 Podcast, you will be featured on the Grasshopper blog.

It’s important to remember that Twitter is a big part of this contest as well. By engaging @grasshopper and @web20show on Twitter you can actually influence your chances of getting featured. Here at Grasshopper, listening is a really big part of what we do, and that is why we will be tracking hashtag #pitchtheshow, so make sure to tag your tweets!

For more information check out Web 2.0 Pitch the Show and start pitching your business!

As a small business it is often hard to track exactly where your customers are coming from; Television, radio, web, partners, etc, etc. While analytics have certainly made it easier to track web traffic, offline efforts aren’t as clear cut.

A great way to track offline marketing efforts and determine ROI is to use multiple phone numbers. Using separate phone numbers for separate campaigns can help you track where your visitor came from and give you insight into which campaign is working the best.

Using Multiple Phone Numbers to Track ROI:

• Place a phone number on your website that is found no where else. This will allow you to track conversions from people visiting the site and then picking up the phone and buying. You can even create use separate numbers for your pay-per-click ads.
• Use a specific phone number in your television or print ad. This can be as easy as creating a new extension for your toll free number or using a completely separate phone number. Perhaps you want a local number for your television ad but an 800 number for your print ad since it will be less geo-targeted.

The more accurately a business is able to track marketing efforts, the more efficient they will be and the more money they will save.

Remember, with Grasshopper, additional phone numbers are only $5 each and additional extensions are FREE! Start tracking your marketing efforts now!