It’s more than Voicemail!
When you hear the word “voicemail,” if you’re like me, you thought of basically a clunky automated system that’s basically a computerized answering machine. I guess those original paradigms tend to stick with us. But today’s enhanced voicemail service definitely isn’t your father’s voicemail.
The Enhanced Voicemail Services of today aren’t just for answering the phone when you’re not there any more either. Voicemail services today can be the heart of your business, insuring that every customer is handled professionally and reaches the right person. It can free you from your desk and make your whole business work together more smoothly.
The right service can definitely make a difference in your business
I can tell you from my own personal experience, adding an enhanced voicemail service helped my business grow from a one man operation to a virtual office with several people, able to work together very efficiently, from anywhere, all without the typical overhead and hassles of an office. It also gave me much more control and flexibility which has really been invaluable to me personally. That control allows us to distribute calls better so I can focus more on what I call the “money calls” while allowing the other people who work with me to handle more of the regular calls and free up some of my time too.
Toll free voicemail can be critical to your business. That is why it’s so important to get the right service and why a problem with your voicemail service can be totally paralyzing. It also doesn’t help that all of voicemail services use different terms and don’t lend themselves to easy comparison. Even a mediocre service can be made to look good if you compare just their best points to their competitor’s worst. So don’t judge a voicemail service based on their website or take advice from someone who’s trying to sell you something. Even if they look unbiased or like they’ve made a fair comparison, do NOT believe a website if you don’t know who wrote it and why. There are several fake comparison sites that are really just trying to sell you something.
We help you get the right number and the right service
It’s also important that you get your toll free number outside of the voicemail service you are considering because that’s your insurance and what keeps them honest. Voicemail services tend to be small and often play games with the ownership of the number. But if you get the number from an independent provider and transfer it into their service, you’re guaranteed to be able to transfer it away. In a small business, even if they don’t do a bad job, your needs are going to change. And your ability to transfer your 800 number is what keeps them honest and insures you’ll always have the best service and price.
So even though they’ll tell you that you can just get a number from them, that means you have to rely on the people that want to keep you there for your ability to transfer away. That’s kind of like leaving the kids in charge of guarding the cookie jar. It’s well worth just a little effort to not only insure that nobody can hold your business hostage, but to get the best most memorable number for your business.
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aBetterOffice, Office Space Advice and News (2 comments.) says:
December 3, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Bill -
I agree with this completely. It’s the same principle I founded abetteroffice.com on. Providers usually offer only biased marketing fluff, and you have to be very careful with third party websites because they’re often biased (by $) towards or owned by one of the services it recommends.
Anway, I’ve discussed the same point on my website many times – not all virtual offices are the same. Do your homework before you make a decision and if you’re going to trust a third party recommendation, make sure it is a truly unbiased third party like tollfreenumbers.com.
Terri Shores says:
June 9, 2009 at 2:36 pm
I’m new to the whole 800 number business so if you can answer a few questions, that would be helpful.
I see there is a one time set up fee of $49 and then there are different fee structures depending on which type of number you choose. Are those monthly or annual fees?
Are there any other services that go with those 800 numbers such as vmail, voice to text email messages, recorded messages, setting up extensions, etc?
Thanks,
Terri Shores
Bill Quimby (678 comments.) says:
June 9, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Hi Terri,
Our fees are a ONE TIME fee. They’re not monthly or annual. We give you free temporary service for the first 30 days and then help you transfer it to whatever company you want for the ongoing service. The extra features like that depend on the type of company you want to transfer it to, since those aren’t part of the toll free number itself.
You should take a look at http://www.tollfreenumbers.com/800-numbers/voicemail/voicemail-service-like-milk-and-milkshakes.html for more about reg service vs enhanced voicemail services.
You also don’t want to get your toll free number from anyone that offers voicemail directly because most say that the toll free number is THEIRS and will refuse to release the number if your needs change or you want to go somewhere else. This can be a significant issue when you have it in all your advertising.
Bill