What are the Best Call Management Features for Small Businesses?

Your business clients expect the best from you; being able to reach you is essential. Your business phone system should fulfill the needs of your clients; when you’re in your office and when your not. 

There are many options for phone systems in today’s market, but what are the features that make the best call handling solution for your business?

We’ve all had the experience of dealing with automated systems that leave us shouting “operator” and being routed in a circle. That’s the last thing you want to happen to your clients, especially when your business is new. Losing clients due to an ineffective phone system is not what any business owner wants. 

Rather than looking for an additional staff or service provider for your answering service needs, look at your phone service options. You may be surprised to find the extent of services and features they can provide. 

Top Features for Businesses

Let’s take a closer look to see which are beneficial for business call management. As a business owner or executive, your principal concern is keeping you your client happy. Making sure that they get the solutions they need is what matters most.

Auto Attendant

An Auto Attendant automatically routes calls to the extension or department your clients want to reach using menus and a virtual receptionist. It’s professional and efficient. With Phone.com, you can set this up using the web portal and can even make changes when out of the office from the mobile app. 

Mobile Apps

When your business is small mobile apps can help you be able to answer a call no matter if you are in your office, meeting a client, or on the beach. 

Business phone system apps have features that are similar to a traditional PBX system. Callers may get a recording instructing them to press, for instance, “1” for sales, “2” for accounting, or “3” for shipping. However, instead of being routed to a wired desk phone, the call is sent to your smartphone wherever you may be at the moment. 

Find Me/Follow Me

Find-me/follow-me consists of two closely related business phone services. 

Find-me services automatically direct incoming calls to a given location. This feature makes it simple for clients or partners to reach you no matter if you are in the office, traveling, at home, or hopping between locations. It works merely from one virtual number that connects to all your phones.

Multiple numbers can be routed to a single phone or answering service. This feature is useful if you work in different geographic regions or offices and keeps you accessible to your clients at all times.

Call Notification

There are times when having your calls forwarded either through direct forwarding or setting up the following service is not possible. Even though you can’t have the calls routed, you still want to know who called. That’s where the Call Notification feature helps. 

With this feature configured, you will receive an email or SMS letting you know who called you. The message not only tells you who called but when, what extension they dialed, the date and time, and how long they stayed on the line. 

Voicemail to Email

Calling in to check your voicemail messages feels so 1990s. Many business phone systems have come up with better options. Voicemail transcription sent right to your email. 

Depending on your business, have these messages in a text form can have multiple advantages. For example, lawyers can cut and paste essential details from the messages to put them into their documents. Realtors can know about future appointments on the go. 

Call Route Scheduling 

Call route scheduling is a valuable service for busy workers. You just set up a schedule, and you never miss a call. You can route incoming calls to different numbers, extensions, greetings, menus, and more, all based on the day and time when the client calls.

Live Receptionist

Having a full-time receptionist can be costly, especially for a small business. However, Phone.com now offers live call answering through a feature called Live Receptionist. With the live receptionist feature, a real person answers and directs calls to an extension or voicemail box per your instructions. Other features include:

• Answering using your business name with a scripted answer
• Taking messages and then sending them via email or SMS
• Call forwarding to voicemail, extension, or cell phone
• Call screening
• Attended Transfer, Cold Transfer, and Send to Voicemail
• Meeting scheduling

What’s Next?

All these features may seem impressive; still, the best phone answering system is the one that fits your business. If you still have questions, we can help.