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True Mobility is Just One Company Away

By: Christopher Fitch

When the most advanced smart phones were introduced, they provided a great deal of mobility to small business owners and entrepreneurs. With these advanced devices, e-mail can get forwarded to just about anywhere in the world, allowing folks to respond to such communications on the beach or golf course as if they were sitting in the office back at home.
The last obstacle to true mobility really comes down to something to effect of: "how do I deal with what happens back at the office?" Or, more specifically, how to manage faxes, voicemail, and important calls coming in from the toll-free number while out in the field.
Now that virtually any application can be handled digitally and the technology is quite inexpensive, small businesses and entrepreneurs stand to gain tremendously. By using technology to their advantage, savvy business owners can project a Fortune 500 image without increasing overhead. In fact, many can even reduce some of their overall expenses!
Ingeniously, this technology works by essentially having your customers call into a computer. This computer answers the calls or accepts faxes and, in digital format, forwards them to you. You can receive forwarded calls, voicemails, faxes anywhere -- your mobile phone, your smart phone, your e-mail inbox. This means you can be at the spa or golf course while reviewing pages of a sales contract or taking calls from your toll-free number while sitting on the train.
The market leader in this segment and the company we recommend is RingCentral. This single company alone can propel a small business's image to the big time. And since image is so important these days with company failures and consumer apprehension about dealing with new "players," image must take precedent when setting up your back-end. At any rate, through RingCentral you can project a better image through the following:
Toll-free business number. As small businesses expand their reach across area codes, having a toll-free number has greater importance now than ever before. A toll-free number not only projects a large image to the new client, but it allows your clients to reach you wherever they might be at a specific time... and with this service, their calls can be redirected to your cell phone so you can assist them from where you are!
Virtual Receptionist with music while callers are on "hold" and voicemail. Call any large company and you will probably hear music before your call gets patched through to the right party. Now you can offer this same feature even if you area one-person business. While features like this might incur additional charges with some providers, they are free with RingCentral.
Call Queues. This standard option allows you to capture as many callers as possible. Imagine that you are servicing a client over the phone when a prospect calls to solicit your services. In the past, this new client would get a voicemail and have to choose between leaving a message or calling your competitor. With a call queue, this caller gets to listen to that fancy music a little longer while you finish up your call. This feature means you lose less business.
Internet Fax. This all-important feature allows you to send and receive faxes by e-mail or online. Yes, this means you can manage faxes with most web-enabled smart phones. What a great way to win back your freedom, and it's free!
The list of free features continues and continues. Our largest disappointment with this provider is that some features likes DigitalLine, which provides VoIP costs extra. For nearly every small business owner and entrepreneur, this feature will probably be worthless anyway, and for those where it is an absolute requirement, the costs are probably irrelevant... still, we had to mention at least one drawback.
Whether you sign up with RingCentral or someone else, the most common reason for using a service like this comes back to the issue of mobility. A secondary justification would be the cost-effectiveness of the system; at $24.99, you can't get this type of service through your phone company, let alone purchase the necessary hardware and software to do it yourself.

Article Source: http://www.ezine-directory.info

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