Aptela Featured in TMCnet Article - Hosted VoIP Provider Keeps Mobile Professionals on the Go

Posted by: Jen Robinson

This month, Aptela was featured in a TMCnet Global Community article about how we help keep mobile professionals on-the-go day in and day out. VoIP technology has evolved to the point that companies throughout the world are leveraging this technology to streamline communications costs and integrate all operations in an all-IP environment. At the same time, mobility in the workplace is increasing as mobile workers now number more than 1 billion. With such a strong focus in this area, a number of companies are turning to the flexibility and scalability available in hosted VoIP.

As small businesses grow, the demand to extend mobile capabilities to more employees also grows. In addition, these users need real-time access to advanced applications, both of which are readily available on hosted VoIP platforms. Aptela (News - Alert) is a driving force in this space, supporting customers with a robust portfolio of mobility features on hosted VoIP platforms to keep employees going strong.

Let's take a look at Aptela's top 10:

Find Me List - Aptela's customer base consists of 53 percent of companies operating more than two business locations. In such environments, users can have their calls find them no matter what location from which they are working. This hosted VoIP provider enables customers to designate multiple numbers and forward calls.

Mobile Portal - customers can easily change the Find Me list while on the go, as well as access the office phone book and one-click calling from any smartphone. With the mobile portal, users can see all new voicemails, play voicemails and return calls; view the Find Me list and enable or disable numbers; and view the company phonebook.

Aptela Anywhere Menu - users easily save time and take care of business right from their mobile device as this hosted VoIP platform enables access to call management features while on the call, either at a desk or on a mobile phone.

To read the entire top 10 list, continue on to the TMCnet article by Susan Campbell by clicking here.

Look Before you Leap: Part 2

Posted by: Jen Robinson

In my last blog post, Look Before You Leap: Part 1, I discussed how Aptela offers a flexible, easy-to-use phone solution that gives your business a professional feel whether it's 2:00am on a Monday or 2:00pm on a Friday. You own your numbers and can take them with you whenever you move. This next part covers the challenges small businesses can face when trying to find a web-based faxing service, and how Aptela can help. Remember, a fax is attached to a phone number as well, so any number porting issues you can run into with a primary business number can also, unfortunately, occur with fax numbers.

Web Faxing Services:

Web-based electronic faxing services are often used by businesses to save money on phone lines, fax machines, paper and toner, while allowing users the freedom to be able to send a fax from wherever they can get online. Please make sure you can port your number away if you decide to use a web-fax service provider. Many are not true telecom companies, so they are not required to port your numbers to a new carrier if you leave their service. You are essentially leasing your numbers from them, just like numbers from an executive suite/virtual receptionist service as discussed in Part 1. I have seen many customers struggle with wanting to move their virtual fax to a new service provider, with no way to force the current provider to port the number away. Aptel can help - you own your numbers, and you will be able to fax at a minimal monthly cost that integrates right into your every day Aptela online usage. In addition to feeling confident about keeping your numbers, you can take advantage of these exciting features:

Fax-to-Email Integration - Forward your faxes to one or more email accounts
Large Online Fax Storage - Store thousands of faxes online or download them to your desktop
Web Access to Faxes - Retrieve your faxes from any device connected to the Internet
Receiving Faxes - Set up one or multiple fax numbers. Faxes can route to individual users or departments.

So before you choose a phone service and/or a fax service, think about what is most important to your small business. If you need a professional, reliable and easy-to-use service that caters to small businesses, you may want to consider Aptela. We're here to help!

Look Before you Leap: Part 1

Posted by: Guest Author

Many years ago I wrote an article for a local chamber of commerce, warning businesses that moving further from the metropolitan area, to save money on their monthly leases had created a whole new set of issues for many of my prospects and customers. Many did not realize that phone numbers are actually tied to geographic areas/rate centers, To keep their marketed numbers, many who moved into a new rate center had to "virtualize" their old numbers and have them auto-forwarded to their new numbers, leading to virtual number charges, multiple line-path charges (so that their were no busy-signals when more than one call came in at a time) and expensive forwarding fees.

At the end of the day, many regretted moving and many were not saving much, if any, money. My article was basically a cautionary message to "Look Before You Leap" into a cheaper lease.

Start-Ups using Executive Suites:

I have seen something similar with startup businesses. Often a new business owner wants to get going without a lot of overhead. The desire is often to look well established, without the overhead of an expensive office. Many approach executive suite providers to get a "virtual office" location. For a fraction of the price of an actual office, they can get their mail sent to an executive suite in a class A building, show the building's picture on their website, etc. If they need to meet clients, they can rent offices by the hour or even lease an actual office for the short or long term.

The executive suite can also provide a business phone number, virtual (shared) receptionists (to answer calls as your staff), and even to do secretarial work for you. Many of the businesses that use executive suites and virtual assistants are home-based, with calls coming into the virtual office receptionists, who then answer in your company name, can answer FAQ questions, and then transfer calls to your home or cell phone, fully screened-and-announced, giving callers-in the sense that they are calling an office with a sizeable staff answering phones, in a Class A facility, in an expensive part of town.

While callers-in to your new business number are often impressed by your well-trained staff, and you are getting your calls fully screened-and-announced, and then transferred to you wherever you are, problems arise the minute you pick up your home phone or cell to call a client. Many see the caller ID is different, and will call you back using that number and find out that those calls go straight to you, un-screened and un-announced. This leads to calls at home or on your cellphone late at night and on weekends, and all the boundaries that you had hoped to set with the virtual reception service are soon out the window. Now your clients have your home and/or cell phone numbers and they can call you without going through the gatekeepers you have set-up. Over time, I have seen this problem get worse, until a client often asks why he has the virtual reception service at all, if he cannot show the number he wants callers to call back on, for his home or cell phone caller ID.

Additionally, many virtual offices close at 5 PM. Start-up businesses rarely do. Callers to your main number are now going to voicemail, while you might prefer to get your calls live for a few more hours. Most executive suites don't have time of day routing controls for individual clients. They are either available, answering live for everyone, or not, with calls after-hours going straight to voicemail. Some holidays are also a problem, where you might want to work and the executive suite personnel are off.

More problems crop up when you are ready to get your own real office and want to take the number you were given by the executive suite to another service provider. Because these businesses are not telecommunications companies regulated by the FCC, they are not obligated by the Telecommunications Act to port your numbers over to a new carrier when you want to leave their service. I have seen many business owners who were furious with an executive suite for not warning them about this issue before they signed up for service, and printed all their marketing materials, etc. The executive suites want their customers to stay on their service, so they rarely, if ever, warn their own clients that the numbers they provide them are not portable, in my experience.

Small businesses and startups can't afford to make these kinds of mistakes. Losing marketed numbers, having to reprint marketed materials, etc., can be devastating to a small business, costing them time, new business, money, and effort, better spent towards building the business.

How Aptela Can Help

There are solutions to these issues. Aptela can provide services that allow you the comfort of knowing all your numbers are portable. How? We offer the ability to forward calls to off-site reception services during business hours, while showing your main number to your clients when you call out from your phone. Or skip the virtual receptionists completely! Our system can screen and announce callers names, and announce callee, so you know if they called your extension, or your department (Sales, Billing, Support, etc.). Take calls live any time, or let the auto-attendant offer your clients' options and information that a simple voicemail box cannot match when you are unavailable. Plus our voicemail is unlimited.

If you move, you can just hand-carry your phones to the new office, without changing your number or paying forwarding fees. You can even use our Find-Me service to blast all of your lines, or to hunt sequentially through all of your numbers, so you never miss a call, or have a virtual receptionist service charging you for 3 calls because they had to track you down with separate calls to all of your phones before finding you. Our solutions provide more connectivity, improve productivity, maintain boundaries that you set, and provide the peace of mind of knowing that you own the numbers and can take them with you at any time.

Have You Heard About Aptela’s Referral Agent Program?

Posted by: Jen Robinson

Do you work with small businesses OR are thinking about it? Think about this: adding Aptela's Business Class Phone Service to your solutions portfolio is a smart move. Our Referral Agent Program gives you an opportunity to immediately refer business to Aptela...and make money fast. No revenue commitments. No certification requirements. No resources required. It's never been easier to work with us! Start earning rewards today!

How to Start:

• Anyone can become a Referral Agent - Aptela customers and non-customers are eligible.
• Agents will receive a payout for each and every referral that becomes a customer - currently 1X Monthly Recurring Charges (MRC)* per new referral account - up to $500 per account!
• You will be eligible for your referral payment when the customer account is active and the customer has paid for two (2) consecutive months of Aptela service.

Our Referral Agent Program Lets You:

• Provide a business-class phone service solution to your customers - Every small business needs a phone system. By adding Aptela Business VoIP to your portfolio, you can provide your customers with innovative and affordable solutions to improve their efficiency and productivity.
• Increase your earnings - With Aptela's Referral Agent Program, you can make money simply by referring candidates to our team. Quickly establish a new source of income with no upfront investment.
• Free training and online resources - You'll have access to sales and technical training for you and your team. You will also have access all of our marketing material to help introduce Aptela to your customers and colleagues. We make it easy for you to succeed!
• Innovative technology-Aptela offers features and functionality unavailable through most phone systems. And Aptela is designed specifically for small- to medium-sized businesses, as well as businesses with multiple locations or remote workers. 
• Expert provisioning and support-We pride ourselves on delivering a consistently high quality customer experience from sale to service.

To get started right away, or get your questions answered, click here, or call us at 866-548-3895. Become an Aptela Referral Agent today!

 

*The referral payment will be calculated based upon the account's monthly recurring charges (MRC) at the time of the second billing cycle. MRC excludes taxes, regulatory fees and minute usage of any kind. Referral Agent and customer must be in good standing at this time. Please refer to our Agent Terms and Conditions for more detail.

Attend to your Auto-Attendant

Posted by: Guest Author

All About Auto-Attendants

Our small business clients often come to us having previously used landlines for phone service. Typically, they have a main number that they publicize and then roll-over (hunt-group) lines for times when multiple calls come in simultaneously. Calls are answered live, and if all lines are busy, or a call comes in after hours, a voicemail box kicks in with a short message and the call goes to the (group) voicemail.

There are even cases when I call a number for a small business, all lines are busy and it doesn't even go to voicemail - I just get a busy signal before disconnecting. Not a great first experience for a potential client, if they can't talk to anyone or even leave a voicemail.

When clients transition to Aptela, it is not uncommon for them to get their phones and voicemail set-up and then to continue to use Aptela's solution in a similar manner. It always surprises me to a degree when clients sign up for the service, which includes 70-plus features, and then don't take advantage of the system's powerful, business-enhancing, capabilities.

It should be noted upfront that your callers will never get a busy signal with Aptela's attendant. If you use the attendant to greet callers, every caller to your main number will be greeted and offered all the menu options, and then be routed according to the options they choose, regardless of how many people call-in simultaneously to that number. If you answer live during business hours, all calls will route in, and if you can't get to them all, will either route to voicemail, or to some other user or group, or back to the attendant, according to your preferences. We don't give callers busy-tones.

Real Customers - Real Auto Attendants

In my mind, Aptela's auto-attendant should be considered part of a company's marketing program. Often the first contact your prospects have with you is when they call in to speak to someone at your company. Our attendant can offer a customized greeting, [which can be different for different times of day (on-hours and off-hours greetings), different days of the week, and days of the year] and then offer dial-by-name directory options, information message options (audio blocks), options for groups/departments (like sales, support, billing), and even fax-back options (to receive a fax of our menu/price-sheet/newsletter/whitepaper, press #__).

Like a website, this means the client can now learn about your business when you are unavailable, hearing (or getting faxed) information they need (if you are open or if they have reached you after-hours, and more). The possibilities for making a super-professional first impression on your callers is one that businesses should take advantage of, even if only for after-hours and times when all hands are on calls. And we all know: You only get one chance to make a great first impression.

Many customers tell me that they pride themselves on answering all calls live, with a real person picking up. Our auto-attendant can be set to ring live to a receptionist, or group, during business hours, and if no one answers, roll-over to another person or group, or even back to the auto-attendant if no one picks up. Some companies use their own staff during business hours and answering services after hours. We can alternate how inbound calls route through our time-of-day controls. No longer will businesses need to manually forward, or toggle over the auto-attendant, before they leave the office (OR FORGET TO, and then have to come back to work or call in using Remote Call Forwarding, when they finally realize they forgot to reset the system).

Aptela created the Auto Attendant with a wide range of business models and personal preferences in mind. Individual users and groups can have custom hold music/messages, custom transfer messages, and more. There are many other options to allow each company, and each extension under it, to customize every aspect to exact preferences. For example:

• Some of my restaurant customers have found it extremely helpful to not have to constantly pick up calls (especially during rush periods) just to tell people their address and give directions, how late they stay open, how to find their menu online, or to fax a menu over. Efficiency is dramatically increased when they can keep people on the floor during rushes, rather than faxing menus and giving directions constantly.
• We have hundreds of insurance agencies that require an after-hours menu. These agents use the after-hours menu for an ‘After-Hours Emergencies' option that routes calls directly to their 24-hour response groups at their headquarters call-centers when the office is closed.
• Many medical offices offer after-hours emergency messages and options, and most also like being able to customize the on- and off-hours options based on the doctor's varying office hours. It is not uncommon to see doctors with different hours for each day of the week. Once the system is pre-programmed it does all the work.
• Realtors often like using submenus to route calls to audio blocks that can give details on a specific available property.

Frequently we hear from SOHO Businesses that they want to sound "bigger" or "well established" to callers. Most companies want that polished attendant sound, to reassure prospects that they are doing business with a professional company (without having to buy/replace expensive equipment). Clients with multiple businesses often just add an extra attendant to offer a whole different greeting and new set of menu options, which then route to the same phones that are already in use for their primary business. The possibilities are endless.

Letting Aptela's Auto Attendant Work for You

And the Aptela system is always being improved by our developers, with new features and upgrades. Any in-suite PBX system would just get older and out-of-date over time unless you paid for modules to be added, with replacement looming eventually. Users outside the office would need sophisticated VPN programming to get on the office system, which is often beyond the scope of small business owners. Aptela's cloud-based system is always getting better without needing replacement, and is scalable up and down at any time, to handle anything from one to hundreds of users, regardless of location.

One caution: I call into businesses every day that contact Aptela by filling out a form online, requesting a call from an Aptela rep. When I call their main number I often find myself trapped in what I call an "auto-attendant maze", often with no exit. I don't have the person's extension, or the person did not give a last name (and the dial-by-name directory only uses last names), and none of the menu options offer the person's name that I am looking for, or an option to speak to an receptionist (or the receptionist doesn't answer and I go into their voicemail), etc. We've all been there, unable to get to the person we want or even get to their voicemail. It can be a nightmare for customers who really need to speak to you.

When our clients sign up for service, we assign a dedicated set-up rep to each new account. We encourage new customers to take the time with their set-up rep to customize their auto-attendants and to call into them, like a customer or prospect, and try all the options. This helps them make sure that their customers will be impressed by the logical way everything is set-up, and to ensure that there are no frustrating or confusing options/omissions.

Summary: Aptela's service is customizable, built for a wide range of business types, and is capable of enhancing your businesses sales and marketing efforts by providing audible and faxable information, while making a great impression on callers into your business. Everything can be modified at anytime, by you, online through our web portal. Upload your own hold music files, record messages with your phone, or use Text-to-Speech options. We even offer professional voice services if you are interested. Spending a little time on your auto-attendant up-front can return dividends for your company for a very long time.

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