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GH in the news- @Grasshopper
- Find some of the GH Labs crew & @Chargify at #SXSW http://bit.ly/aGLNUC
- @picobits - We have no immediate plans to implement a softphone feature.
- RT @OPENForum: 4 Employee Benefits at Little (or Zero) Cost. http://www.bit.ly/a42ABx
Tips & Tricks Archive
10 Tips for Writing Better Email
Sonja Jacob, the Founder and Chief Cultivator at The Cultivated Word LLC, and the creator of the Grasshopper “Entrepreneurs Can Change the World” video, gives us ten tips for writing better email.
People receive more email in their inboxes today than ever before–an estimated two million email messages are sent every second–so why not make the email you send stand out for its concision and clarity? By following these ten simple steps, you’ll increase the likelihood that people will understand and act on your email.
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Hit the right note.
Sounding positive over email makes people want to communicate with you in the future. Be aware of how terms such as “good” come across as, “eh, it’s ok” in email. If you’re genuinely pleased with someone’s work, avoid “good” and opt for more effusive language.
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Avoid sarcasm.
Ever joke in an email only to have it misconstrued by the recipient? Email relies on fewer senses to convey messages, so you don’t see any physical clues to the meaning of words. Avoid sarcasm or jokes in email unless you know the recipient well.
Six Feet of Snow? No Problem with a Virtual PBX
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.
Unlimited Extensions Create Personal Touch with Customers
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. So what is this entrepreneur doing that is so great?
Creating personalized extensions for each client.
Each client has their own extension with a personalized name greeting and voicemail. When the client calls in, they’re addressed with a greeting specifically for their company, the business knows who is calling so the call can be routed to the right person, and even when no one can take the call, there is a personalized voicemail message. What a great concept!
By creating these personal extensions, your business is able to accurately track call time through online call reports, save time by automatically directing calls to the right people and eliminate miscommunication issues. All without any extra costs.
Create a Good First Impression with Custom Greetings
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:
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Make sure there is no distracting background noise i.e. ambulances racing by, phones ringing, tv commercials.
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When using background music, make sure you choose music that fits your business. Pop music for a spa probably isn’t the best strategy.
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Enunciate your words clearly to ensure the caller can understand your greeting. Avoid strong accents.
Using Phone Numbers to Track Marketing ROI
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:
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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.
How To: 800 Forwarding with Grasshopper
One of the top features of the Grasshopper virtual phone system is the ability to forward your 800 number to any number on any phone. No really, ANY phone/phone number in the entire world! Your home phone, your office phone, your cell phone, your mom’s cell phone…it doesn’t matter.
Setting up call forwarding for your 800 (or local) number is easy through your online account manager.
We have broken it down into 3 simple steps:
1. Login to your Grasshopper account, choose “Settings“
2. Under Settings, choose “Call Forwarding“
3. Choose “Add Number” & Put in the desired forwarding number (click image to see full size)
That’s it!
Balancing Life & Work in a Virtual Office
Many of the customers who use our Virtual PBX service are entrepreneurs starting out in a 1-2 person operation, working out of their homes or even their cars. They have created a virtual office for their business.
There are plenty of articles out there on creating a virtual office but there are not very many on what to do once you have done so. Working in the place you live can lead to unhappiness, burnout and tension at home. However, it can be an ideal situation if you properly balance life & work responsibilities.
Here are three tips for creating a work/life balance in your virtual office:
#1 – Create Boundaries
Set Up an Area Specifically for Work
Having a dedicated area will help you remember that there needs to be a separation between work and the rest of your life. Whether it’s an office in the house, a spare bedroom or a certain corner of the kitchen table, make sure that spot is where work takes place and nothing else.
Choosing the Right Toll Free Number for Your Business
As most people know, Grasshopper is a virtual phone system designed for entrepreneurs and small businesses. We have tons of great features (if we do say so ourselves), including call forwarding, unlimited extensions, voice mails delivered to your email and more. Our most popular feature is, of course, toll free numbers.
Toll free numbers can be extremely valuable to a business when they are looking to project a professional image, sound bigger or just give their customers an easy phone number to remember. 800, 888, 877 and 866 numbers from Grasshopper have helped tens of thousands of small businesses grow over the past six years and will continue to do so in the future.
How do I choose the right toll free number for my business?
How Do I Dial a Vanity Number on My Blackberry?
While this may seem like a no-brainer for some, it’s actually a common question!
“How do I dial a vanity number on my Blackberry?”
If you don’t know what a vanity number is, it is a custom phone number (toll free or local) that spells out a particular word. Here are a few examples:
- 1-800-Flowers
- 1-800-Contacts
- 1-888-BestBuy
So, how exactly do you go about dialing a vanity number on your Blackberry?
Well you could try to figure out what letter corresponds to what number, or you could simply hold down the ALT key. That’s it!
By holding down the ALT key, you can dial every letter on the keyboard, spelling out any number you need, including your Grasshopper vanity number!
How To: Manage, Tag & Map Messages
Instead of the usual Friday Flix videos we present on the team blog, this week we thought we would provide a “How To” on managing messages in your Grasshopper account.
This video gives a quick overview on managing voice mails, including mapping the call to a specific location on a map, adding contact info, sending an email and storing.
Log in to your Grasshopper account to get started. Don’t have one? Sign up today!
