BaldwinTel

Gadget Review: Plantronics' CT14 Headset Phone Connects Your Home Based Call Center Employees For Less

By Dan Baldwin, Editor
951-251-5155 email 

One of the big cost-saving benefits for Southern California businesses when switching their phone system to a VoIP based solution is they can instantly allow their "desk based" call center employees to work from a home office.

This saves the company the overhead of maintaining an expensive office cubicle and opens up the potential labor pool to a whole lot of qualified U.S. based call center employees who are glad to "do a quality job for less" so long as they can work from a home office.  

This single benefit is one of the biggest reasons many businesses are bringing off-shore call center jobs back to the U.S. that had, in past years, been outsourced to India, the Philippines or some other far away land where they "kind of speak English" but not completely -- and not to the satisfaction of your upset customers calling into your call center.

 

Do Home-Based Call Center Employees Need an Expensive VoIP Phone? No!

The big purchase decision question for businesses trying to properly outfit home office employees so they can tap into the new VoIP enabled office phone system is "How expensive of a phone do home workers need?"

Well if the home-office employee is the CEO of the company, then the most expensive phone that Polycom sells. But what about your call center employees that don't have stock options?

Many VoIP and SIP phone vendors will tell you that you don't need to buy your home-office workers a phone at all, saying "the beauty of our VoIP phone solution is all your home office people need is our 'soft phone' that appears right on the screen of their computer".

Well, in theory, soft phones work just fine -- until the soft phone user has opened up 27 browser windows on their computer or you get confused about using the keyboard and mouse for both their phone call and order fulfillment on their computer at the same time. 

Combining your computer and phone keyboards or trying to get your computer to be a phone is really a recipe for inefficiancy and "angry at the IT guy" home office employees.

 

Split the Different for WAY UNDER $200!

The most important phone feature for your at-home worker is the ability to work hands free. Whether your home-based employee is a call center worker keying an order into their computer or your highest paid sales person just needing to wave his or her hands while giving an empassioned sales pitch, you'll likely not find a "work at home phone" that better splits the cost difference than the Plantronics CT14.

Does Your Business Telephone Number Show Up Correctly in a Google Search? Here's How to Check it (and Fix it...)

By Dan Baldwin

The whole point of having a Southern California business phone number and a published listing is so people can call you and do business with you.

But until customers and prospects commit your phone number to memory or your multi-location business phone numbers earns a spot on their speed dial list, how do you suppose they're going to find your number?

Pull out the latest 10-pound printed phone book from their desk drawer - no.

They'll Google it, if course.  

But does your business phone number, your address and a little map pop up as the top listing when your business name is Googled by customers and prospects?

If not, you need to fix that. It doesn't cost anything and it's pretty simple to do

 

Google Business  Listings 101

To see an example of what a semi-proper Google listing should look like, Google search "ATEL Communications".  

Below is an example of what this search delivered the day I wrote this blog post. Click on the image to see it bigger.

When's The Last Time You Reviewed the 411 Directory Listings for Your Business? How to Fix Problems the Problems...

By Dan Baldwin

 If a prospective customer or business partner calls 411 directory assistance in an effort to get your Southern California phone number, what happens?  

Are you having trouble getting credit extended to your business? Maybe your prospective creditor couldn't find your business in the phone directory.

When's the last time you called 411 yourself to make sure your multi-location business phone listings are correct in both your main location and all your satellite locations?

 

Business Phone Listings & Yellow Page Ads are Different

Many business owners cancelled all their Yellow Page ads long ago in favor of Google ads or some other form of Internet marketing.  Because many people equate Yellow Page ads with White Page business listings, many people neglect to make sure their business phone listings are kept up to date after they stop paying for Yellow page ads.

It's not uncommon for a business owner to brush off a business listing when switching from AT&T or Verizon to some other business phone service provider by saying, "Oh we don't need those listings because we're advertised on the Internet".

While the Internet may be sending a business all their new customers, proper business phone listings are still required to ensure that a business is seen as credible in a local community.  Business owners need to pay as much attention to their 411 listing as they do to their 911 service.

 

Call 411 Yourself to Make Sure All Your Listings are Correct

You may have decided that your business does not need AT&T, Verizon or the other old "Ma Bell" phone companies because you've rolled your service to business VoIP or some other new business phone service, but you really do still need the "big 3" phone companies for your proper 411 listings.

Increase Sales & Appointment Setting 400% Without More Phone Equipment Using a Hosted Predictive Dialer

By Dan Baldwin

Any Southern California based company that frequently contacts large numbers of prospects or customers by phone can achieve four-fold productivity increases with a hosted predictive dialer.

A predictive dialer is an amazing call center "SaaS" or software as a service solution, and can be particularly beneficial to any business that relies on inside sales people, either working on site or from a home office, to identify new sales opportunities; gather information about their marketplace, their customers, or their competitors; generate revenue; schedule large numbers of appointments; and perform other tasks that require extensive outbound outreach via telephone.

 

Phone Activities Improved by Hosted Predictive Dialing Include:

• 
  Appointment setting
• Cold calling
• Qualification and prioritization of campaign responses
• Nurturing of “hot” leads
• Phone-based sales to new prospects
• Up-sell and cross-sell initiatives to existing clients
• Customer loyalty programs
• Satisfaction surveys
• Market research
• Competitive analysis
• And much, much more!

Without a predictive dialing software package in place, agents waste valuable time repeatedly calling number after number – only to receive busy signals, voice mail messages, no answer, fax machines, or disconnected numbers. This reduces the number of “live” conversations they can conduct, and prevents them from spending as much time as possible interacting directly with their target audience. 

Predictive dialing software helps companies overcome these challenges. Predictive dialer systems are proven to dramatically improve the speed and effectiveness of agents and reduce costs, while allowing a much greater volume of calls to be initiated and maximizing talk time. As a result, business can more rapidly achieve their goals by performing faster, more successful outbound outreach. 

Industries that use hosted predictive dialers include:

Should You Buy Your Next Business Phone System From "Scramblin' Fran" Tarkenton?

By Dan Baldwin

 If it makes sense for retired boxer George Foreman to sell you a grill you can use indoors then I guess it makes sense for retired Minnesota Vikings football great "Scramblin' Fran" Tarkenton to sell you your next hosted VoIP business phone system for your Southern California multi-location business. Right?

That's what Ari Rabban of Phone.com must be thinking as he's recently signed up with the former quarterback to secure Tarkenton's celebrity endorsement of Phone.com's hosted VoIP business phone system solution.

 

Does it Make Sense to Take Phone Buying Advice from a Retired Quarterback?

I admit it's kind of a silly question. Sure Fran's a great guy and some of my earliest memories of watching football on TV were of watching Fran make defensive ends and linebackers look silly trying to sack him in the backfield. 

But choosing a VoIP business phone system? I'm not sure.  If you watch the short video below that features Ari and Fran discussing the benefits of the Phone.com solution, at no time during the video does Fran say, "I switched to Phone.com's solution for my business a year ago and it's better than any other phone service our business has used in 30 years!".

Now if I found myself playing quarterback at a Deacon Jones family reunion I would certainly seek Scramblin' Fran's advice about how best to survive the event.

 

Ask Fran About QoS and the Differences Between Broadsoft, MetaSwitch & Asterisk Before Buying

When choosing someone to explain to my wife the difference between a "nickel" and "dime" defensive football scheme or how to throw a touchdown pass into a zone or man-to-man coverage, Fran Tarkenton is definitely my choice, especially since my wife hails from Minnesota.

Happy Birthday to our New & Improved Blog!

By Dan Baldwin, Owner
951-251-5155 email

If you're a business decision maker for telecom or IT in the Southern California metro market then this blog is for you.  

Tired of the "he said, she said" squabbling between your competing consultants, vendors and service providers?

Wish you could find a reasonably objective portal where you can access other real business customers, honestly independent consultants and high-quality, low-cost service providers?

This is it!

I've been in the voice and data telecom and IT business for over 20 years. I've got an address book with over 5,000 contacts in it. If you've got a problem, I can put you in touch with a dozen professionals I trust to help you solve your problem.

And this blog is where we're going to talk about it all...

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