If you’re the owner of a small company, you know the dilemma: There are seven or eight of you in the office, you all come and go, working different hours. You need a phone service that offers a common platform—with resources you can all share, features that serve your customers well, and the ability to route calls in flexible and intuitive ways.
You’re not big enough to pay an arm and a leg for it though. You need a collar-and-tie phone service at a jeans-and-tee price. Hello Phone.com!
Who Uses Phone.com?
In a series of three blog posts, we’re looking at the different classes of businesses that use a cloud phone service like Phone.com. No two companies are the same, but we like to see our small-business customers in one of three groups—entrepreneurs (a business of one or two people), small businesses (three to ten employees), and growing businesses (ten to 20 staff).
This is the second in the series, and we’re looking at our SMALL-BUSINESS customers—those small shops that need uber-flexibility and lots of bigger-business features.
Meet SOAR Medical
Let me introduce you to Drs. Bennet, Leight, Chung and McPherson, partners and doctors of holistic care at SOAR Medical* in Everett, Washington.
The doctors share a small practice run by a team of six to eight physicians, chiropractors, physical therapists and traditional Chinese medical practitioners. An office manager and part-time accountant round out the SOAR Medical team.
SOAR practitioners emphasize highly personalized care, so patients calling into the office can ring directly through to the physician of their choice or leave a voice message for them.
Here are just four of the cloud phone features that support SOAR staff and their patients, and make their medical practice, ahem, soar.
1. Single Phone Line, So Many Phones!
A central phone number rings at the reception desk at SOAR Medical offices, but each doctor and staff member also has their own extension. They use a combination of desk and personal mobile phones, and some of the doctors use our free Communicator software installed on their laptops to return calls or leave appointment reminders in the evenings. The Phone.com mobile app on doctors’ personal phones are set to make calls using the SOAR Medical outgoing caller-ID name, so that patients know who is calling.
2. Custom Phone Numbers Make Marketing So Easy
SOAR Medical makes it easy for their patients and those looking for care to remember their small business virtual phone number. They purchased a custom local number, selecting their local-area code (509) and the number 867-5309, which translates to (509) SOAR-MED. They print their vanity number on their appointment cards, fridge magnets, pens and on the thermometers they give away to new patients. They also advertise using (509) SOAR-MED on bus shelters and local radio stations.
3. Using Menus and Greetings to the Max
SOAR’s office manager set up the practice’s menu system to route calls efficiently to each doctor, and she updates their phone greetings regularly to provide information about changing office hours, immunization news, and special offers on massage therapy and wellness seminars. Each doctor has a warm and friendly personalized greeting on their extension.
4. Managing Your Time and Voicemail Like a Pro
SOAR physicians and practitioners use the Phone.com Schedules feature to manage how calls are handled evenings and weekends. If a patient needs to talk with them urgently, they can call right back, or forward the caller to the doctor on call. They also love our Voicemail Transcription service, which sends visual voicemail to their mobile phones by text, so they can respond to important messages quickly.
Do You Have a Small Business?
Your business may be similar to SOAR Medical, or you may need other services I haven’t mentioned. Free conference calling? A separate fax line?
We offer a full range of business phone services. What’s important, is that most of those services—over 40 features in all—are included in our base plan for small businesses.
Take a look at our Getting Started Guide for Small Businesses to see if Phone.com is a good fit for your company, and contact our Sales agents if you have questions.
* Owners and business name are fictitious.