Since the COVID-19 broke out, the private sector has been going through a huge digital transformation. In this very competitive market, businesses are switching to new technologies that help them stay in business. One of these technologies is called “cloud telephony,” and companies are using it more and more these days.
Half of a business’s success depends on how well it communicates, and since thousands of calls are made and answered every day, it’s becoming more important to automate this part of the business. Cloud telephony makes this easier to do by making business communication more efficient and better.
It is a type of technology that fits and meets the needs of any kind of business, whether it is a startup, a small and medium-sized business, or a big multinational company. The main goal of it is to replace regular business phones.
A survey done by the Times of India found that more than 60% of businesses are already using cloud telephony to make their communication more efficient.
What is Cloud Telephony?
Cloud telephony is a type of communications technology in which a third-party service provider hosts a business’s entire communication system. It doesn’t need expensive hardware on-site or traditional landlines, and it can be done through the web or through apps. VoIP is also called SIP Trunking, Cloud PBX, Hosted Voice, and Hosted Voice.
Businesses can use the service by paying an affordable subscription fee to the service provider, who will take care of most of the implementation.
What’s the point of Cloud Telephony?
A VoIP service provider is needed for cloud telephony to work. All the calls go through servers in other places. These servers are kept in the data center of the service provider, not in the office.
The cloud takes care of the whole phone system, including SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) Trunking and PRI (Primary Rate Interface) lines, as well as routing and switching.
It saves the business money because it doesn’t have to pay to set up and keep up the system. Like other cloud services, these servers can be accessed through the internet. Instead of the staff’s personal cell phone number, they can use a virtual number to make calls.
When a customer calls, the call is sent to the right place according to the plan. Depending on what the caller wants, the call can be sent to a staff member’s device, a pre-recorded message, etc. With a cloud telephony system, it’s easy for a business to grow, handle calls well, and add new services.
When you dial a phone number to start a call, it is your service provider’s job to figure out where that call should go. Cloud-based phones turn voice signals into data and send them to the person you’re calling over your internet connection. So, the call gets put through to the right person.
Cloud-based calls can be made from anywhere with an internet-connected device that is connected to the cloud. For example, a traditional landline phone, a computer/desktop/softphone, a smartphone, etc. You can also use VoIP phones. They look like regular landline phones, but instead of a copper phone line, they connect directly to a computer network.
With cloud telephony, a cloud-based phone takes the place of each phone extension. So, instead of a landline, mobile phones can be connected to the network and used to make calls. The company can automate the calls in a flash by using software that does it for them.
All of the data is saved in the cloud, so you can use an online dashboard to control the whole business communication system.
What does Cloud Telephony have to offer?
Cloud-based phones have many features that can be updated easily, and new features can be added based on what the business needs. Some of the things it has are:
Auto-attendant
It lets the call be answered automatically and lets the caller choose where the call goes without an operator or receptionist being involved. If a user is busy, the digital receptionist tells the caller to leave a message on the user’s voicemail.
It gets rid of the need for a human operator and automates and simplifies the process of taking incoming calls. So, a business’s auto-attendant is a very helpful and cost-effective feature.
Voice-to-Voice Interaction (IVR)
IVR calling system is a phone system technology that uses a pre-recorded message and call menu to connect the caller to the right department or agent based on what they say. The caller can either use the dial pad or speak their answer to record it.
The intelligent call routing is set off by NLP (Natural Language Processing) and DTMF (Dual Tone Multi-Frequency) tones. IVR gives customers full independence and a high level of self-service. It helps them get answers to their questions as soon as possible.
This part of cloud telephony helps both the agent and the customer save time. It gives the agents more time to work on other important tasks that need personal attention.
Forwarding calls
If the staff member is busy, they can send the call to any other phone. This feature makes sure that no caller is missed, which is good for the caller. It makes the caller feel like they are important and builds their trust in the company, which boosts the company’s reputation.
A virtual number or a toll-free number
A virtual number is used to make the calls. The staff can make calls using this number instead of their cell phone numbers, so they can keep their work and personal lives separate. This way, even if an employee leaves the company, the company won’t lose any customer information.
No matter where a company is physically located, buying different virtual phone numbers gives them a local presence in every area they want to reach. People who want to call the business can use these local virtual numbers, which are easier to remember.
Calls from local numbers are more likely to be answered than calls from numbers with unknown area codes. Your business will look more professional if it has a business phone number.
Keeping track of calls and analyzing them
One feature of a cloud-based telephony system is that it can record calls and keep track of daily call analytics. Calls made with cloud technology are of good quality, which helps teams that work in different places. These call analytics give useful information about how productive the agent is and help figure out who the best agents are and who needs more training.
Managers can also use these analytics to decide if they need to hire new agents or fire some of the ones they already have. They can also tell when the busiest times of the year are and find out where most calls come from, among other things.
Auto-dialing, Click-to-Call, and Call Scheduling
With Auto-dial and Click-to-Call, it’s easier to make phone calls. These features make it easier for the team members to handle thousands of calls. They can save a lot of time by putting the numbers on auto-dial, and they can make and answer calls with just a click.
The call scheduling feature lets you set up voice or video calls with prospects and automatically connects you to them at the time you set. It also lets them know if the schedule changes, which keeps things from getting confusing or inconvenient.
Integrations
In addition to the features listed above, cloud telephony lets you use your favorite workflow tools without any problems. It lets you connect to different ATS and CRM platforms, which makes it easier for your business to communicate. Integrations make it so that users don’t have to switch between multiple apps throughout the day.
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These also help you improve your customer service and make sure all your contact information and call history are in one place.
Physical telephony setup vs. Cloud telephony setup
Cloud telephony doesn’t require any complex and expensive setup. It only needs a VoIP service provider and a reliable broadband connection. The staff can talk to customers and to each other using any device that can connect to the internet.
A standard landline phone system, on the other hand, needs to be set up inside the office. It links all of your phone extensions together and connects them to a public phone network through PSTN or ISDN lines.
Complex hardware needs to be taken care of by a team, and calls need to be managed and sent to the right department or agent. So, it takes a good amount of money to get started. Keeping it running takes a lot of work, and it needs a really big space to live in.
Call forwarding, call conferencing, voicemail, and many other features are also available on traditional phone systems, but they all cost extra. All of these extra costs, along with the high cost of maintenance, make it very expensive for the companies. Traditional PBXs also have more downtime, which makes it harder to recover data.
Because their phone numbers are tied to a phone set, it doesn’t give them mobility and flexibility. This makes them less productive and less able to pay attention, which hurts the productivity of the company as a whole. Using the old system to make long-distance calls costs more than using the cloud telephony system.
Adding a new team member and connecting a new phone to these systems is a lot of work. If the business moves its office, it will have to set up the landline system all over again.
This could cause businesses to lose their phone numbers, which could cause them to lose customers as well.
A traditional phone system is made up of a complicated network of wires, but a cloud-based communication system only uses the internet.
Cloud telephony is replacing landlines because landlines can’t keep up with the changing needs of business communication. At the same time, cloud-based calling is always doing a good job of making calls easier. Mobile networks and broadband are always getting better, which keeps the internet stable and makes the cloud-based communication system more reliable.
Even though landlines are reliable, they are becoming less and less important. Businesses need to put money into cloud telephony if they want to stay in business and grow in the long run.
Benefits of Cloud Telephony
Here are some reasons why your business should get a cloud telephony service:
Flexibility
Businesses have had to change how they work because of the pandemic. This has made cloud telephony systems even more popular in the private sector. It gives remote workers the freedom to work from home or any other place in the world. They can make business calls using a virtual number, which keeps their cell phone number secret.
So, they can keep their personal life separate from their work life. With cloud telephony, the workplace is more flexible. Since the web is how calls are routed, businesses can stay in touch with their customers and employees at all times.
The cloud-based phone system gets rid of the need to use actual phones to talk. It gives its users full freedom of movement. They can put apps for call automation on their phones and computers, so the business is completely mobile and can be accessed from anywhere, at any time. It helps improve business productivity and makes it easier to handle business communications, even from afar.
Cost-effective
Not only is it good for businesses, but it’s also cheap. Every business wants to spend as little as possible on capital and operating costs. The low cost of cloud telephony is the main reason why many businesses move their operations to the cloud. When a business moves to the cloud instead of keeping their old phone system, they save a lot of money.
Putting together a physical infrastructure of phone lines that connect to each other costs a lot of money and space. In cloud telephony, the infrastructure, updates, and maintenance of the system are all taken care of by the service provider. Also, when you switch to cloud service, your tech staff can focus on more important tasks, which saves you money on hiring staff.
A cloud service is usually easier and simpler to manage, and it can be done through an online interface that is easy to understand and can be accessed from anywhere. Help desk staff can learn how to use the service quickly. Also, calls made with a virtual number are much cheaper than calls made with regular business phones.
So, if a business invests in cloud telephony, it can save a lot of money on call costs.
Easy to connect to applications
Using customized APIs, it makes it easy to connect to different ATS and CRM platforms. These integrations make it easier for the business to do its work. The business needs to keep in touch with its customers and serve them better to build long-term relationships with them and give the brand more credibility.
Integrations that work so well help the team members handle calls better. Businesses can better serve their customers by integrating with CRM platforms. It can help you find more leads and close deals more quickly. This will help boost sales and also make the team more productive.
In these never-before-seen times, it’s important to make as many sales as possible to stay alive and get through this without losing a lot of money. Even though this is the case, the businesses can still grow if they only use these integrations. They can easily find and get new leads, even if they are working from afar.
Call records
Cloud telephony comes with a number of extra features that make business communication easier and more effective. It gives you ways to keep track of and keep an eye on your business calls. Every call that comes in and goes out is recorded and written down. Call recording not only lets you check the quality of the call, but it can also be used to answer questions or clear up doubts.
Since all customer information and call history is stored in one place, the user can tailor the conversation to the caller’s needs. They can get to this information at any time, so they can quickly answer questions and solve problems without having to call the customer back.
The managers can also look at daily call analytics reports to keep track of all the team’s incoming and outgoing calls and messages. It can help them keep track of how each team member is doing and how the communication processes are going.
Scalability
To stay in business, every business needs to grow. Sometimes you need to hire new people, and sometimes you need to let some go. Cloud telephony makes it easier to grow. The cloud makes it easy to add new users and teach them how to use it.
Even if an employee quits or gets fired, business operations don’t change because communication is handled in the cloud. Small- to medium-sized businesses and new businesses can easily switch from a physical phone setup to cloud-based phone services without spending a lot of money. It makes growth easy because it needs few investments and overhead costs.
Safe and Dependable
Cloud-based solutions are easy to update and can be switched to the newest software without any problems. It makes it easier for the business to get to and control its data. They can be trusted because they are always being watched and managed. All the data is saved in the cloud, so all the call records are safe and sound. This means that no data is lost during downtime, software failure, or any other technical disaster.
Improves customer experience
Cloud telephony makes it easier for businesses to respond to customer needs. It helps them stay in touch with their customers around the clock. It makes sure that customers’ questions and doubts are answered as quickly as possible and that no call goes unanswered. Cloud-based calling has ways to keep track of missed calls and makes it easy for team members to follow up on calls they missed.
Customers can become unhappy and switch to a competitor’s service if their questions aren’t answered or deadlines aren’t met. Customers are more likely to stick with a business with good customer service, which makes the business grow faster.
Some Issues You May Face with Cloud Telephony
The business has a lot to gain from cloud telephony, but there are a few things to think about before making a decision.
Depends a lot on the internet
Since Cloud telephony relies on the internet, it can be hard to talk if your broadband connection isn’t stable. To start the calls, you need a strong and consistent internet connection. If the power goes out or the bandwidth shrinks, the user and caller will have a bad time.
If your business doesn’t have a stable broadband connection, cloud telephony might not be a good choice. Also, security problems like hacking and malware can happen with cloud-based phones. So it’s important to make sure the connection is safe. The service provider should tell you about all the security steps it takes to keep your data safe.
Integration Problems
It’s possible that your workflow tools won’t always work well with the cloud system. Before choosing a service provider, businesses need to do their research. They need to choose a platform that works well with their applicant tracking system (ATS), customer relationship management (CRM), and other key applications.
Spend money on some hardware tools
Even though you don’t have to set up any hardware to use a cloud-based service, a business might still need to buy some equipment, such as new handsets that connect to employees’ computers.
Migration is hard
Some businesses, especially large ones, may find it difficult to move to the cloud. For example, some countries don’t let users record international calls, even though they might need to. Users at different sites could have different needs and restrictions.
Before choosing a cloud telephony service provider, the business should know what all of the users need. The most important thing for a successful migration is a detailed planning process.
Cloud telephony is the future of business communication. It makes it easier for all kinds of businesses to handle their communication. It has many features that can be used to automate business calls without sacrificing quality. This makes it possible for businesses to grow without any problems.
By moving their operations to the cloud, businesses can focus on more important tasks, like improving the customer experience and making more sales. It improves the way people talk to each other without tying them to their desk phones. This gives them more freedom, control, and better work at a lower cost.
With a call automation platform like Office24by7, you can move your business to the cloud and get a number of features that will make it easier to communicate.
However, with Office24by7 there is no need to worry about any of these things. Apart from depending on the internet, our product doesn’t have any other issue.
Things to Think About Before Opting for a Cloud Telephony Provider
No matter whomsoever the provider is, you need to get a clear picture about these things first.
Does the service provider offer a way to try before you buy?
Most of the features, except for a few, will be available to you in a trial version. This will show you how the platform works and how quickly it delivers, and it’s free! Yes, businesses can still try out this option before signing up for a paid version of cloud telephony for business solutions, but only for a limited time.
How do you know what features to look for in a trial version once you’ve signed up for it? Before you buy cloud telephony solutions from a service provider, scroll down to find out what features you should think about.
Is it easy to set up your cloud-based phone service?
When you choose a service provider, a quick and easy set-up is a big plus. In the beginning, you might not know how the system works like the back of your hand, but it shouldn’t take you too long, like a few weeks, to figure out how it works.
So, it’s always best to choose a platform that lets you and your team start using your customer service desk right away on their own.
If you need an outside team to help you set up your call center and teach your employees how to use the tools, you should probably stay away from such service providers.
Let’s say one of your agents has trouble understanding how your call center works. If your team can’t find a way to explain it and always needs help from the system provider, it’s not the right choice. This will also change how long it takes you to answer a customer’s question, which will affect your brand and image.
A simple and quick set-up is always easy to use and depends on the provider very little. This will not only help you grow your business, but it will also help you train agents faster. When a new person joins your team, he or she can start using your customer service center right away.
How many groups or agents can I add?
Since every business wants to grow, you should check to see if your provider has any limits on how many people can be added. Let’s face it: if you want to run a business that keeps growing, it makes sense that as your business grows, you’ll need more agents.
Make sure that the system you choose can add or remove agents, change their shifts, etc. If the number of agents that can be added is limited by your Cloud telephony provider, check the maximum number of agents that can be added. Also, don’t forget to find out if they have a paid plan that lets you add agents, and how much it will cost to add agents after you’ve reached the limit.
Does it have a way to route calls and keep an agent on the line?
Check to see if your provider’s platform gives you the option to route calls. This way, you can make sure that customers don’t have to wait as long and that the agents handle calls in a consistent way. One of the best ways to make sure you don’t miss any calls from customers is to use call routing. It also helps make sure that all agents get the same number of calls, so that no one agent gets too many calls.
Moving on to the sticky agent option, we’ve all been in situations where we had to explain the same problem we had as customers over and over again to different people. This takes a lot of time and makes customers even more angry because they have to explain their problem to each agent. Sticky agent option lets your system send the call back to the same agent who has already helped that customer with a certain question. So, the agent will have all the information they need to answer the question, and the customer won’t have to give the same information over and over. This also saves time for your call center and makes it easier to answer questions quickly.
During a live call, can your agent take notes?
What do you do if, for some reason, the sticky agent can’t help the customer with their problems during their shift? This problem can be fixed with a call disposition notes option. An agent can quickly enter the details of the last call, making it easier for the next agent who logs in to take over the problem and find a solution.
Does the Cloud telephony platform let you transfer calls based on which agents are free?
You might be wondering what difference it makes. But it’s one of the most important things to think about if you want your customer service center to do well. With a good cloud telephony platform, you can see if an agent is offline or online and ready to take calls. You can set up rules that automatically send calls to agents based on their availability and how well they know how to handle the calls.
Set up an IVR right away!
Even though you can still think about the other options, you should never give up on an IVR, or interactive voice response. It’s how people see your customer service. An IVR is a feature that every call center with a lot of calls needs and will find very helpful. Setting it up should be quick and easy. It should have a number of widgets that let you change your call center to suit your needs and make it more interesting for customers.
How easy is it to look at reports and recordings of calls to see how your call center is doing?
Reports and recordings of calls are direct ways to measure how well your call center is doing. It’s the best way to keep track of your agents’ performance and find out where they can improve, which will help them do their jobs better and give your customers a better experience.
Call reports and recordings help you figure out the most common problems customers have so you can help them better and get fewer calls for the same reason.
Other Important Things to Ponder On
1. What kinds of things can the platform do?
Before we can talk about the capabilities of the platform, we need to take care of step zero. Can you write down what you want your business to accomplish with cloud telephony? You might be tempted to skip this part, but I think you should spend some time with your team coming up with requirements.
We would suggest that you make your needs as clear as possible so that you can be sure you are checking all the right boxes.
For instance, if your list of points looks like this –
1. Sending out sales calls
2. Routing calls for help
3. Keeping customers up to date
Try to narrow it down even more.
• Can calls be recorded on the platform? Is there anything else that costs money?
• Can you use a native integration to connect to the CRM we’re using?
• How much does it cost to call?
• Can you send a lot of SMS from the platform?
• How much does the platform cost and how can it be used?
• Can I use an API to start the campaign right away?
The more specific you can be about what you need, the easier it will be to compare the tool to what you need. It is also important to think about what your needs will be in the future. For example, if you think your sales team or customer service will grow in the near future, you should take that into account. This will change the way the platform works and how well it can serve you.
2. Can you trust the platform?
When it comes to talking to people, reliability is the most important thing.
Most cloud platforms share their uptime in a clear way. Exotel’s operator uptimes, for example, are between 99.94% and 100%.
In reality, no communication platform can promise you 100% uptime because this also depends on the uptime of phone lines, the internet, and other things. If you have trouble finding this information, make sure to ask the support team.
3.Can you try out the product’s features before you decide?
The trial period is a great way for a user to get to know a product. It gives you the freedom to try out and test the tool’s features without taking the financial risk of buying it.
Try to get the most out of the platform by making communication flows and using the free credits to test them out. This will help you figure out what the product can do and if it’s a good fit for your needs.
Here are some tips on how to get the most out of the trial period:
1. Give yourself enough time to learn about the product. Make sure you spend time on the product’s features and functions that have a direct effect on your business.
2. Request for a 1:1 demo. A demo is a quick way to learn about features that are important. It also lets you clear up any questions you have.
3. If you can’t try the product in the time allowed, feel free to ask the support team to give you more time.
4.Is it easy to set up and switch from another platform?
Setting up and running a cloud phone system should be easy. This is the main benefit of a cloud solution over an on-premise one. In an ideal world, you shouldn’t have to spend days getting started.
Here are some things you can think about:
• Does this platform need to be set up and kept up by a professional?
• How easy is it to connect it to your other apps, such as your CRM, Helpdesk, Web apps, or mobile apps?
• Did the knowledge base help you figure out what the product was all about?
• Is the documentation for the APIs clear?
If you already have cloud telephony set up and want to switch to a new platform, you should know how to do this with as little trouble and data loss as possible.
5. Is your information safe on the platform?
When communicating with customers, sensitive customer information is shared. So, it’s very important to know if the platform’s security is strong enough to keep your data safe.
Here are some things you should look for on the platform:
• Security certifications: Does the platform follow security standards set by the industry? ISO certifications and being in line with GDPR can be good places to start. If your industry has specific security requirements, please make sure to look into those as well.
• Accounts with two-factor authentication (2FA) to stop unauthorized logins. • Network encryption (TLS 1 and above) to protect data in transit. • Audit logging and monitoring to see who is using your platform. • Data backup and recovery plan to stop data loss.
Find out how the Exotel platform keeps your information safe.
6. What is the way they set their prices?
It’s important to know exactly how much the software costs. If their prices aren’t listed anywhere, make sure you talk to the team to find out if there are any hidden costs. At Exotel, we went a step further and wrote a blog post called “Why you pay what you pay for Exotel.” In it, we explained the prices and why they are what they are.
A cloud telephony platform usually has two costs: the cost of renting the software and the cost of making calls. But this could be different for each platform.
Note: When choosing a plan, be sure to ask exactly what features you’ll get with that plan.
Wrapping It Up
Investing in a cloud telephony platform is a costly affair and I am sure that this guide of ours have helped you in understanding the things that you have to look out for before you make the purchase.
If you are looking for some easier solution, then Office24by7 is here. Just book a demo call with us and we will walk you through all the required details. For more details, give us a call on +91 7097171717.
