The increasing number of employees working from home has caused companies to have to adapt how they communicate. Virtual phones offer flexibility and reliability that traditional landlines just can’t provide.

If you’re looking for a solution that will help your employees stay in touch from anywhere in the world, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll go over the key features of a virtual phone and how they can help your business, so you’ll know exactly what to look for in your software search.

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Article Roadmap

• What Is a Virtual Phone?
• Primary Benefits
• Key Features
• Conclusion

What Is a Virtual Phone?

A virtual phone is a cloud-based business phone service that enables you to make and receive calls over the internet using VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, technology. It works on multiple devices, including mobile phones, desktop computers or even ordinary desk phones.

Unlike traditional phones, virtual phones function without the need for wires or cables and aren’t tied to a physical location. All you need to operate them is a stable internet connection and a network-connected device, with maintenance and software updates covered by your service provider. This cost-effective solution works well for remote teams, keeping them connected no matter where they’re working from.

Primary Benefits

1. Increased Mobility

Working from home is on the rise — 35% of respondents in a recent report by McKinsey said they were offered remote work on a full-time basis. As remote workforces become the norm for many organizations, virtual phones make it easier than ever to maintain effective business communication.

Staff can use any network-connected device to communicate with colleagues, vendors and clients. Managing your communications over the internet also allows you to hire employees all over the world, expanding your talent pool and company reach.

2. Reduced Costs

Because they only require a stable internet connection to work, virtual phones are far more cost-effective than traditional phone systems. They don’t require expensive hardware or involve associated costs, like maintenance, installation, service fees and long-distance or international fees. Toll bypass allows users to connect with callers on regular telephone systems toll-free.

3. Increased Professionalism

Startups or small businesses often need to work harder to be taken seriously when they pitch to themselves potential customers or investors. Virtual phones have features to improve the professional image of any company, including auto attendant and advanced call routing.

4. Easy Setup

You don’t have to wait days or weeks to start using your virtual phone system. Once the application is installed and you’re connected to the internet, you can start making calls immediately. Since it uses devices and mechanisms that your employees use day to day, there’s virtually no learning curve.

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Key Features

With so many options in the market, it’s important to know what you’re looking for. With that in mind, let’s go over some of the key features of a virtual phone.

1. Call Routing

Nothing makes a customer crankier than being stuck on hold for a long time. Worse, transferring calls to the wrong agent or department can delay a customer from getting the answer they need, creating more dissatisfaction.

A call routing or CD system allows your company to route calls strategically, sending each caller to the most appropriate available agent. That way, customers can speak with the best agents for their problems in the shortest amount of time, decreasing call abandonment rates and hold times.

Depending on your requirements, you can choose from different types of call routing options. Some of the most common are round-robin, uniform, regular and simultaneous.

2. Auto Attendant

An auto attendant system is a pre-recorded voice menu that automatically transfers calls to an extension without the intervention of an agent or human operator.

Although auto attendants don’t completely replace employees, they greet your customers when your agents aren’t available, ensuring they feel acknowledged and heard.

What’s more, an auto attendant can sometimes answer simple questions with predefined responses you set. Adding an auto attendant into the mix helps you reduce missed calls, manage high call volumes and maintain a more professional, welcoming image.

Overall view of an auto attendant dashboard.

According to Salesforce, 83% of customers expect to engage with someone immediately when contacting a company. An auto attendant can be there for your customers even when your agents aren’t available, improving the overall customer experience.

3. Video Conferencing

In an increasingly distributed workforce, video conferencing builds on the flexibility and convenience of web-based communication tools to add a much-needed human touch. The face-to-face functionality allows you to hold conferences with multiple team members from all over the world with minimal additional hardware — all they need is a webcam and a microphone.

Video conferencing features also come with a suite of tools to facilitate meetings and presentations, like screen-sharing, file-sharing and interactive group messaging.

4. Business Phone Analytics

As it facilitates your calls, a virtual phone also collects, consolidates and generates real-time reports for analysis. You can view these analytics with prebuilt templates or customize your own.

These analytics provide greater insight into your customers’ and employees’ experiences alike, ensuring that you’re providing a consistent quality of service across departments. You can also more easily identify and fix weak points in your workflows, or identify and prepare for business trends based on your data.

An example of phone analytics. Source

Some common analytics tracked by virtual phones include:

• Conversion rate
• Customer satisfaction
• Call duration
• Caller location
• Number of calls
• Speech sentiment

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5. Business Text Messages

According to a report by eMarketer, 70% of consumers think SMS texting is an excellent way for businesses to get their attention. Text messages are an ideal medium for quick and effective marketing campaigns intended to reach large audiences, like new offers and promotional deals.

Generating bulk text messages as part of a campaign.

This can be especially useful for small businesses that want to reach a larger customer base but don’t necessarily have the budget to invest in high-level marketing tools.

6. Call Recording

Virtual phone systems can automatically record calls in the cloud for future reference. These recordings are accessible at any time, useful for comprehensive record-keeping, security and training purposes. You can edit, condense and share transcripts of these recordings as needed.

You can also use these recordings to monitor employee performance. If you’re concerned about a particular employee, or just want more insight into daily operations, pick and listen to a record at random to make sure employees are following company procedures.

7. Call Queueing

Call queueing assigns callers to queues based on priority rather than transferring calls or putting them on hold. Callers listen to music or pre-recorded messages while they wait in line.

You can queue calls based on your own criteria, like priority, the order in which customers call or level of urgency. In combination with call routing, call queueing helps ensure that your customers’ queries are directed to the appropriate agents, minimizing wait times and unnecessary delays.

8. Team Collaboration Tools

With an increasingly distributed workforce, it’s more important than ever to give your team the tools to collaborate effectively. Team collaboration tools include audio and video conferencing, and shared, consolidated dashboards. Users can tag other users, assign tasks, share files and screens, react to messages, and engage in both group and one-on-one chats.

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Conclusion

We hope this list of essential virtual phone features gives you a strong starting point for your software search. Ready to take the next step? Check out our free requirements template to get a clear sense of what your business needs and what software options might suit you best.

What features of a virtual phone do you feel will help your organization the most? Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments below!