Hot answers tagged phone
19
I debated this when first launching our website, but felt it was really necessary to have a phone number listed if you wanted to appear as a "real" business. But I didn't want to use my own phone or cell phone....you really want to appear bigger than a 1 -3 person shop.
Ultimately, I found a service called RingCentral.com, that I'm really happy with. I'm ...
10
In a given organization, who is the best person to talk to? CEO
(she/he can be unreachable) or secretary (he/she could say to forward
message but forget later)
This depends on your product/service and the customer. Often the person you need to sell to isn't the person who writes the cheque. It's the person who will be getting the value from your ...
8
We recently had all of our corporate phones on a single account with a standard model Blackberry. The original though behind this decision was that money could be saved though contact negotiations, leveraging our buying power, and ease of support. After reading some Gardner papers and internal discussions, we have converted from a corporate liable ...
6
I think a better question is when you should get a number. If you customers want to contact you through a particular channel, it pays to listen.
So how or when are customers likely to contact you? Through your website? Email? Twitter? By phone?
In our case, it would have been better to wait to get a dedicated business phone line until after our 1.0 ...
6
There are 2 aspects to this:
You want to present a professional image to your potential customers. Obviously, having a valid address and a phone number adds some kind of legitimacy to the business. Wouldn't you agree? (Please don't read it the other way: I am not saying that companies not having an address and phone numbers are fly-by-night companies, but ...
5
Know as much as you can, going in. Do your user studies. Understand the problem from their perspective. Know the words they use to describe the problem. Know the typical structure of an organization which will have this problem, for the market segment you’re targeting. Know who will probably own the problem. To the extent possible, research the specific ...
4
What do you have to lose by actually trying this out?
I've heard that customers really like to be able to call you, and are pleasantly surprised that they can speak to the founder.
I would go for a phone number backed by VOIP like Skype (or Google Voice if they allowed you to get multiple numbers), since it will be cheaper than an actual line. Even if the ...
4
It depends. If your customers are businesses, you definitely should get a phone number and post it on your website where it can easily be found. (Hint: the top or bottom of every page is an easy place to find it.)
If your customers are consumers, and your product/service is not based on providing high levels of service, then you may not want to publish a ...
4
are mobile phones a business write-off.
Yes, as long as you use it for business purposes. If you use the phone partly for business, and partly for personal use, then you can only deduct the business portion (but you already knew that). As an example, if you only use your cell for business 75% of the time, then you can only deduct 75% of your expenses ...
4
I've written a number of WP7 apps and have been reasonably successful in the market. I took the plunge and decided to convert one of the apps over to a W8 Metro app. There's some stuff you really need to know going forward...
First: Technical
Metro apps are using a subset of .Net 4.5. Windows Phone uses a version of Silverlight, so these are using ...
3
Have office # forward to a cell phone when you are out.
Your message should provide alternate methods to contact you other than voice mail (website, email).
Include times when you will be available. Obviously you want to cater to current customers, but not to the extent to where it makes getting new ones impossible. If you charge an hourly fee, your clients ...
3
I use Grasshopper for my own business and RingCentral for my customer's business. They both are fine for what I need but if there was an easy way to move my 800 number to RignCentral I would do that in a heart beat. Grasshopper's portal/dashboard is friggin confusing and real PITA (yes, even the new one!). RingCentral's on the other hand is very intuitive ...
3
Here are some points why a business user may not want to use an Android device:
Android does not encrypt any data internally so if the device is lost any other party can have access to the information inside:
Android Issue 3748: Add support for partition/block device encryption
Android Issue 11211: Android too insecure - Encryption of the SDcard is ...
3
For small businesses, I recommend virtual PBX services Find out what that is. You don't have to install software, setup or install any equipment, or purchase an additional phone line. It also gives your small business a big business feel with features like Auto-Attendant or Virtual Receptionist, which is a custom menu that lets callers decide where they ...
3
I think its definitely a good idea to have a number, I have always had my number on The Lounge and Ruby Row sites... it just happens to be my cell-phone number. I made sure my voicemail includes my company name and I try to answer it professionally if I don't know the number. Obviously this won't scale forever and I will eventually get a nice 800 number, but ...
3
I would use the following guidelines
Call/See somebody if they would be happy to hear from you
Call/See somebody if you have a personal thing to say
Call/See somebody if there is a chance that your message can be misinterpreted by email
Call/See somebody when you have to followup an important email
Send emails for keeping people updated on statuses/news
...
3
I work for Bandwidth.com and it sounds like Phonebooth might be a great option for you.
As Dheer mentioned, Bandwidth.com does have a solid reputation in the industry and we aren't a fly by night company. Bob mentioned Google Voice, which relies on our network.
Phonebooth has Find Me Follow Me (calling the office phone can ring the salesperson's mobile on ...
3
People who cannot get help at the time they need it move on to someone who will help them right now. You're hurting your software business and losing customers. Do whatever you have to do to answer the phone during business hours.
Here are a few ideas:
Avoid messaging services. They are usually a very small step above an answering machine in terms of ...
3
Grab a stock photo of a phone. Here's one of the iphone, here's an android-like one. (And there are more on that site if you don't like those).
Take a screenshot from the device itself (easy to do on either phone), combine in Photoshop.
2
I wouldn't publicize a phone number when you have no intentions of answering during business hours. A 1-3 person company that lies about the size of their business is going to get caught regardless of the electronic voice mail's accent. If you had an international business, you'd be listing your international customers.
The sites that don't advertise their ...
2
There's little advantage to having a single provider for all of these services. Yeah, consolidation is nice and all, but you already have to deal with different providers for different services as is: gas company, electric company, water, sewer, trash pickup, dsl, etc. By separating these services out, you have the opportunity to pick best-of-breed services ...
2
Google Voice. Let me give you two reasons why
-Instead of wasting time sequentially listening to voicemail, I read (and can listen to) voicemails, picking which to respond to with one click.
-By having text on your screen, you and your staff can copy and paste that text into whatever systems you need to quickly define a to do. This is an amazing timesaver.
...
2
Tim has already linked a similar question, the following is my response from there:
a few Real VoIP options worth
considering are:
Voip.ms:(Not a very intuitive UI,
not tough to use either, lots of
different customization and fallback
options at no cost, helpful support
staff, great rates)
Bandwidth.com:(More intuitive UI,
cant ...
2
We have been using ReadyTalk for 7 years now (wow has it really been that long!) and we are very happy with them. We originally signed up to use them just for our teleconferences because we used WebEx at the time but after a while we figure out we could use ReadyTalk for our web conferencing also for much less that WebEx was costing us.
The are a few ...
2
Toll free is crazy cheap these days. If you are using a landline look at pioneer telephone.com. If you want something more flexible maybe http://grasshopper.com/ would serve you. I definitely would not let cost concerns hold you back.
Keep in mind if you expect international callers you will also want to publish a 'local' number as reaching toll free ...
2
My experience is that a toll free number is still used and much appreciated by customers. See my prior answer about toll free numbers here and the related comments that it sparked.
AT&T just recently offered to add our toll free number to our unlimited long distance outbound coverage for a flat $12 per month. I think this kind of pricing makes it a no ...
2
You are much better off making the account a business account. Should any tax questions arise that alone should resolve the issue.
Whether talking about cell phones, auto depreciation or travel expenses the IRS rules are as clear as mud. Even the IRS doesn't understand the rules, though they won't tell you that. I had to reseach the issue a few years ...
2
My business continues to use several landlines for the following reasons:
Sound quality. No cell phone comes close to a landline in sound quality. We have had numerous calls from customers on cell phones that were completely unintelligible. It becomes tedious to ask them to repeat something over and over again. Many have had to call back on a landline.
...
2
I would stop making Windows Phone 7 apps immediately and move on to Windows 8.
Windows Phone 7 Apps will run on Windows Phone 8, but in legacy mode. And Windows Phone 7 will not be able to upgrade to Windows Phone 8, so it is basically dead.
More people use Windows than Android and iPhone combined ... so there is a huge marketplace.
Windows Phone 8 ...
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