Call forwarding is the action of routing calls from one number to another if the first number is unavailable for some reason. But how important is it for businesses to have call forwarding? The answer is extremely important.
Never Miss a Call
Call forwarding UK means that business owners can receive important business calls from any location on any device. The feature ensures that those vital calls that could lead to closing a sale, securing a new contract or being alerted to an emergency will never be missed. In business, a missed call could easily equal money lost.
Don’t be Tied Down
IDC predict that by 2015 the number of people who work via cellphone will increase from 1 billion to more than 1.3 billion. And it’s been reported that 93 percent of Brits work from home at least part of their work week. In this mobile work environment where the office seems to move from day to day, call forwarding functions make organizations accessible no matter where in the world that they are.
How to use call forwarding effectively for business
There are several situations where RingCentral call forwarding can be used to enhance the performance and productivity of a business.
Telecommuting – Reduce costs by having a workforce that is home-based. Businesses of any size can employ workers to work from the comfort of their own home. Without the cost of a physical office to pay for, more money can be spent on marketing efforts or product design. Business owners needn’t worry about employees being placed around the world as many call forwarding features can be set up to route calls to multiple numbers at the same time. This means that consumers can receive 24 hour customer care at a fraction of the cost. A conference call feature means organizations can hold team meetings between staff all over the globe as easily as pressing the dial button on a mobile. With call forwarding, every employee will be guaranteed to be able to take the call.
Entrepreneur/One-man business – During the economic crisis, many people have been forced to think outside the box when it comes to making enough money to put food on the table. As a result, there has been a sharp increase in the number of one-man businesses. When there are no employees, there is one person to answer customer’s inquiries and it’s vital that a business owner doesn’t miss a call.
Set call forwarding up to route calls to multiple phones in a sequential order. If nobody picks up the home office phone, then the call will get routed to the mobile, then the laptop etc. With this flexibility, business owners can travel, network and take care of any part of the business they need to while being confident that they won’t miss out on an important phone call.
Toll-free call forwarding – Toll free numbers are a great way to increase credibility and improve accessibility with consumers. Toll free call forwarding works by forwarding calls made by consumers to any given device that the user happens to have at the time. The consumer never knows that the call has been forwarded. They get the same service without paying a penny for the phone call. This is a great way to improve sales opportunities and gives even the smallest of companies the same opportunities as their larger competitors.
Features to look For
When looking for a call forwarding feature, it’s important to know that not all services offer the same quality of call forwarding. Whether it’s RingCentral call forwarding services or another provider that has caught your company’s eye – the particular points to look for are:
- How many numbers can you forward a call to?
In this case, the more the better. Perhaps right now you don’t have a huge empire but if you limit yourself by choosing a service provider that will only forward your calls to 2 numbers, you don’t leave yourself very open expand. - Can you set days and weeks that certain numbers are in use?
Some call forwarding features can be customized so that only certain numbers are used on particular days. For instance, if nobody is in the office at weekends, you could route the weekend calls to a mobile on Saturdays. - Call screening?
Choose which calls get forwarded and which ones don’t. Non-essential phone calls during important meetings don’t need to come through. This would also indicate that a notification on the mobile in this situation was an emergency. - Can I forward calls to international numbers and is this expensive?
Accepting calls from anywhere in the world at a fixed price means that businesses can extend their global reach easily.
Conclusion
Call forwarding is a highly effective tool that is an essential feature for any business in today’s fast paced world of mobile business. However, for the feature to be used in the best way to improve a business, companies must explore all the options available and discover which suits their needs.