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Essential Office Phone Features And Why They Still Matter

Everyone has a cell phone these days. Doesn’t this render your office phone system less important than ever? You could simply give employees a business cell phone stipend or ask them to be available on their personal phones.
Yes, some businesses can and do choose to go this route. But by doing this, you miss out on a number of productivity-enhancing features. Here are the most essential office phone features and why they are still important even now.

Auto Attendant
What happens when no one is around to answer the phone? Voicemail is one option, but most people expect more from a business these days. Auto attendant ensures that no call ever goes unanswered. Anything less will be seen as unprofessional at best. Auto attendant can route calls to a more appropriate extension and provide important information like office hours and location. It’s essentially like having a 24/7 receptionist on staff to assist callers. Considering all that it does for you, it’s one of the most cost-effective phone features around.

Phone Conferencing
These days it’s normal to have employees and clients spread out all over the country, or even the globe. With a good office phone system you get access to voice conferencing features and in some cases even video conferencing features. These are essential tools for dealing with the modern fragmented business environment. In addition, having conferencing features integrated into your office phone system means you don’t have to resort to lower quality options like Skype or Office 365. Your remote meetings will benefit greatly from the better call quality and the ease of use.

Call Analytics
Your phone presence is still important, even in the internet age. Most people will probably always prefer speaking to another human directly over interacting with a computer interface. Given this, it’s important to make sure your team is effectively communicating with everyone who calls. That’s where analytics can help.

At the most basic level, call analytics can track how many calls you’re taking and how long they last. More advanced features include:

  • Recording: Calls can be automatically recorded, allowing you to listen back later and identify the areas that need improvement.
  • Automatic Transcription: To avoid having to physically listen to each and every call, some phone systems can automatically generate a full transcript that can be read or stored for posterity.
  • In-Depth Reporting: Some office phone systems allow you to sort calls by categories like date, time of day, geographic location and duration.

Group Directory
Group directory is a feature that larger businesses can’t live without. It allows you to search for internal contacts and then dial them directly from your handset. This saves you time if you need to get in touch with someone but don’t know their extension off the top of your head.
These are just a few examples of the features available to you on your average office phone system. Going with another option, such as cell phones, for example, may work out well for a small minority of businesses. For the rest of us, features like these are practically a necessity.

Making sure you get the right office phone system with the right features for your needs will always be important. But it’s easier said than done. If you need help finding the perfect office phone system for your business, then don’t hesitate to contact us today at Atlantic Communications Team.