Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) platforms provide cost savings and better call quality compared to legacy phone lines, but their full benefits go far beyond that. VoIP’s key advantages like in features that not only streamline internal processes but also transform how customers experience your brand. If you are still unfamiliar with VoIP and using your internet-powered phones to just do the basics like your old phone line, you’re missing out on tools that can make a real difference.
Here are five often underutilized phone system features and how they can help your business deliver better service and improve efficiency.
Auto-attendants: Keep things moving the easy way
An auto-attendant is your virtual receptionist. It greets callers, provides them with menu options, and connects them to the appropriate person or department. This automated solution requires no human oversight and ensures that customers are never left waiting or confused, even outside of business hours.
When used strategically, auto-attendants help your customer service team:
- Reduce hold times by guiding callers directly to the right place.
- Present a polished, consistent first impression for every caller.
- Ensure callers can get help or leave a message with the right department, even during off hours.
You can even customize messages based on the day or time, giving your business a professional edge regardless of staffing levels.
Call queueing: A small change to prevent hangups
Call queueing allows multiple callers to wait on hold instead of receiving one of those annoying busy signals. It sounds simple, but it can be a game-changer in preventing missed opportunities, especially during peak hours.
Instead of losing frustrated customers to long wait times and perceived lack of care, call queueing can:
- Let you manage high volumes of calls without overwhelming your staff.
- Provide estimated wait times and hold music to keep callers engaged.
- Share helpful information or promotions while customers wait, turning dead air into a useful marketing or communications tool.
This feature helps you show customers that their time matters even when you're busy.
Intelligent call routing: Getting the right call to the right person
Intelligent call routing can check caller history, time of day, or inquiry type and direct calls to the best available team member automatically. Being digital, software-driven platforms, VoIP platforms are capable of leveraging multiple data points, unlike analog phones.
By using data to automatically direct call transfers, smart call routing:
- Cuts down on call excessive transfers and frustration.
- Improves issue resolution time, increasing customer satisfaction.
- Boosts internal efficiency by reducing misdirected calls.
Voicemail-to-email transcription: Cut through the noise
As the name suggests, voicemail-to-email transcription is a unique feature that converts voice messages into text and emails them directly to an inbox. It’s easy to overlook, but incredibly useful for keeping track of customer inquiries, internal communications, and more.
This tool improves your workflows by:
- Letting you quickly scan or search messages without listening to audio
- Making follow-up easier with searchable, timestamped records
- Integrating your inbound communications so that no message gets lost or overlooked
With automatic transcription, your voicemails become detailed records instead of bloated audio logs you have to keep coming back to.
CRM integration: Personalized, informed conversations
The best VoIP feature for supercharging your customer service is its ability to integrate your phone system with your customer relationship management (CRM) platform. This enables real-time access to caller history, notes, and preferences as soon as a call comes in. When your team can instantly see who’s calling and why, customer interactions become smoother, faster, and more effective.
CRM integration enhances your customer service by:
- Giving staff vital information before they even answer the phone
- Logging call data automatically for future reference and analysis
- Enabling more tailored, proactive communication with customers
A swift and smooth customer call does wonders for your image, and the data gained from CRM integration is highly valuable for further improving your customer service, marketing, and core operations.
Ready to see what advanced VoIP features can do for your business? Contact outsourceIT’s VoIP specialists for a free consultation, and we’ll provide a customized plan for supercharging your customer service with a personalized VoIP solution.
