For many people, remote working has been a new challenge - it’s something we’ve all had to adapt to pretty much over night. The impact on day-to-day working has been far-reaching and one of the main problems that many businesses found was how to  stay connected.

2020 was the year of the video call and, although useful, they can have limitations. Particularly for those businesses and organisations such as charities, and local support groups, that found themselves without a usable telephone system - all organisations that need to interact with customers or the public regularly.

A VoIP phone system could be the best solution for keeping in touch with teams and customers. Customers still want to phone a local or national number, and companies still want to direct those calls to team and menu structures to ensure the right person in their business handles the call. 

Since the pandemic started we’ve helped hundreds of small businesses, charities, healthcare and education establishments to stay connected whilst working remotely using our VoIP phone system. 

Here’s how VoIP can help remote teams:

Make the transition from office to home working easy

Many of the UK population will already be familiar with working from home, but the transition between office life and home working life will have been more difficult for some than others. So, having a phone system you can access anywhere has never been more important. Traditional telephony is generally fixed and immovable, meaning it is only accessible from the location in which it was installed - not ideal. 

VoIP phone systems and cloud-based phone systems like CircleLoop, are very easy to set up and implement, even if being used to replace a complex legacy phone system. And because they’re run through the internet, there isn’t the inconvenience of waiting for installation visits or additional cabling work. They can be set up quickly, and at the most convenient time. 

Plus, VoIP offers continued flexibility for remote teams, so that should working culture shift towards the option of returning to the workplace, people are able to make decisions based on what’s best for them - they remain connected wherever they want to be, rather than where their traditional phone system forces them to be. 

Features to Help Remote Working Productivity

Virtual numbers

Utilising virtual numbers makes a big difference to your team. It doesn’t matter where they are working from, they can still make calls and appear to be locally based. It’s possible to assign more than one number too, meaning that if a member of your team is based in Manchester, they can, for example, look like they’re based in London or Edinburgh. They’re able to continue to build presence and trust in the locations that are most important. It’s also possible to add international numbers and build a presence globally.

Call diverting

With smart features like call diverting and call routing, you don’t have to be at your desk to receive calls. It’s easy to divert inbound calls to mobiles or other landlines - you have complete control and can divert them to a different number, user, or team. These features mean you never have to miss a call. But, if you do, specific features like voicemail transcription will convert messages into text, which are sent straight to your inbox. 

Cloud call recording

Cloud call recording, is a really handy feature for remote teams, who can use it for training purposes to improve call quality, or to refer back to, so they don’t have to take notes. Plus, if they’re using CircleLoop to hold meetings, or run conference calls, these can be recorded, exported and shared with relevant parties. 

Hardware

If some, or all of your team prefer using hardware because that is what they’re used to, a VoIP desk phone can be plugged into any home office or working space that has an internet connection, and it will work as if it was in the office. This provides complete flexibility if switching between the office and home.

Managing remote teams is easy

Team management features like call tracking and call recording, plus call analytics mean you’re able to keep on top of your team and their work, thereby ensuring productivity is maintained. You can use these features to help provide insight into how well your team is performing, or who might be taking on too much. 

Encourage your team to set boundaries between work and personal time. CircleLoop’s IVR Menus feature means you’re able to set ‘out of hours’ periods, where you can send calls to voicemail, or to another team - ensuring employees won’t be disturbed if they’re not working, or that no call is left ignored. 

Flexibility is key, and that’s why businesses should be considering VoIP and cloud-based phone systems as part of their communication models. Whether your business is just starting up, growing, or is more established, a smarter phone system is an absolute must.