A virtual phone system puts all the great features of a traditional business phone system into the hands of small businesses and entrepreneurs like you, but without the high cost and maintenance.
Today, businesses are using virtual phone systems to help them sound professional and stay connected when they’re on the go. But a virtual phone system has a lot more to offer than great features and a toll free number! Did you know how flexible a virtual phone system can be?
Check out these examples of unexpected ways to make the most of your virtual phone system:
1. The Red Line
If you’ve watched political thrillers that took place during the Cold War, you probably remember the bright red phone on the President's desk -- a single, dedicated line to Russia he could use to negotiate away from nuclear annihilation. You too can use your virtual system for essentially the same thing. Create a special number to give out to your most important -- or crisis-prone -- clients. When that one number rings, you know to drop everything and answer.
2. The Virtual Corporation
So your 'office' consists of a corner of your family room with a desk that's as likely to have baby bottles and a teddy bear on it as any business documents. Your clients never have to know that though. Simply set up a phone tree on your virtual phone system that allows callers to press '1' for billing and '2' for customer service. Callers will think you’re an established company, but never know you're the entire staff for either departments, or that working you’re working from your house in your pajamas.
3. The Stalker*
Virtual phone systems let you create unique phone numbers for a variety of purposes. This gives you have the ability use multiple numbers to call hard-to-contact leads from a different number each time. That way, when you call them 6 times in a weekend they don't realize it's you until you make actual contact. This trick works especially well for billing and collections.
*We don’t actually recommend you stalking your clients but you get the idea! Get creative.
4. The Virtual Blog
By creating a phone number for a specific product -- such as an individual property you represent as a realtor -- and leaving a recorded greeting with information, you create a resource for potential buyers that requires no extra time for you and gives them the information they need, when they want it.
Even better, your system will track the contact numbers for each caller so you can reach out to those potential clients and follow up when the time is right. A series of messages like these can become an unparalleled lead-generation resource for your business.
5. Voice-to-Text
Many virtual phone systems will send you an email with a transcribed copy of your voicemails. This is great for quickly reviewing voicemails, but did you know you can also use it as a dictation service? Say goodbye to losing important notes! Simply call your phone number and ramble away your reminders, commitments to customers and appointments. This information will then be transcribed and sent to you as an email so you’ll never lose them.
How are you making your virtual phone system work harder for you? Are you using Grasshopper in an innovative way? We want to hear about it!
