Internal Phone Systems are Limited by
the Number of Phone Lines and may
Choke a Small Business

I had a referral from an associate to a doctor who needed a "phone tree". He needed to have a caller make a selection to reach different people in his offices. The phone tree he described started with the basics:

Routing for IT support calls can be hard to manage. Internal phone systems can direct calls to an extension when someone makes a selection. And it may be able to ring several phones at once so all of the support staff can take turns with calls. But after hours are a different issue. Routing calls to a single phone after hours may not be a good option. Rotating calls to the support staff cell phones is the solution.

We just finished a Virtual Receptionist system for a real estate team of three women that are specialists in short sales. They needed one central phone number to advertise on their brochures, website, cards and property signs. The number had to give caller the options to reach each of them and rings their cell phone or get information about their business (office location, website, fax number etc.).

We have a new client whose phone service provider is Suddenlink. She needed calls to be answered if her line was busy or she did not answer after 4 rings. In order for our Virtual Receptionist to go live the client had to add change the Basic Call Forwarding to No Answer Call Forward with Suddenlink.

Small and medium sized businesses need to have the most efficient operation possible with regard to their phones. Here are 10 reasons why the small office needs to have a Virtual Receptionist.

Phone systems have limitations that may choke a small business. During normal call situations a small business phone system should be capable of handling several calls at once. If the system can't manage more than a couple of calls then the system may be loosing customers.

Small business phone systems quite often fall short when handling calls after a business is closed. They do not give the caller options to efficiently resolve the issue they are calling for. For some offices a simple voicemail will suffice for most of the calls. The caller can hear the office hours and leave a general voice message that someone will check in the morning.

When you setup your business phone services you may consider the receptionist at the front desk as a key component to the system. She (or he) will screen your calls giving you the option to take the call or not. In an automated phone system a Virtual Receptionist will screen your calls and give you the option of being connected or not in much the same way.

All Call Technologies has joined the American Apartment Owners Association (AAOA) as vendors of phone services. We are pleased to be members of AAOA and are excited to help owners and property managers with their phone services and consult on phone issues.

The 4 line phone is the workhorse for small offices around the country. This phone is inexpensive, has basic features and reliable. Small offices all over the country use these phones as the simple PBX (Personal Business eXchange) they need to run their business efficiently and inexpensively.