Equip Your Small Business Office with a Low-Cost, Fully Functional Virtual PBX
Have you priced PBX phone systems lately? While enterprise organizations have the resources to pay hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars per user, small business owners are rarely in a position to do the same. Instead, they make do with smaller systems or multi-line business phones. If you’re thinking there’s a probably a better way, you’re right. Consider a virtual PBX.
What is a Virtual PBX System?
Instead of investing in PBX hardware, a virtual PBX is “hosted” by a telecommunications provider such as us. You simply order a plan and receive calls on your designated ring-to number. Depending on the plan you choose, you could order local virtual numbers, a toll free number, or global virtual numbers and then set them to ring to your virtual phone system.
While similar to local or international call forwarding, virtual PBX systems have more features and extensions. For example, with multiple extensions, you could set up an extension and voice mailbox for each employee. You could also designate different extensions for different purposes such as “press one for sales, two for accounting, three to get directions to our office,” and so on.
World-Class Features; Low Costs
Virtual PBX systems come with a number of important features – and they’re surprisingly affordable. Some of the more notable features include the following:
- No busy signal
- Time of day routing
- Call alerts
- Online dashboard
- Toll free numbers
- Voicemail or live answer
- Auto-attendant
- Outgoing message
- Low cost, month-to-month plans available
Using a Virtual PBX to Pre-screen Leads
Virtual PBX systems with multiple extensions and numerous features are appealing to small business owners because of their capabilities and low costs. Not only can you create an impressive image and route calls more efficiently, you can also use your virtual PBX to pre-screen sales leads. Here’s how:
- Choose a hosted phone system that supports long (up to ten minutes) outgoing messages
- Record an audio presentation about your company, product, or service
- Configure the feature to allow leads to leave a message or be routed to a live salesperson
- Advertise your informational “hotline”
Once your hotline is set up and advertised, interested leads can call your toll free number to learn more about your product or service. The informational recording provides your prospects with valuable information and prompts them to take the next step. Once they’ve left a message or have opted to speak to a live agent, they will be better informed about your product and service and ready to move forward. Those who need more time or simply aren’t interested can simply hang up. This technique can be used to ensure that your best sales agents are spending their time working with interested, informed prospects.
Since your local and global virtual numbers along with the entire virtual PBX system can be configured to ring to specific numbers as needed, this solution is also extremely portable. While large organizations can afford to invest in the latest business phone systems with all of the bells and whistles, most small businesses don’t have that luxury. With a virtual PBX system, you can get similar features along with unique benefits at an affordable price. Plus, your customers and leads won’t know the difference!
