Conference Calling Service: Factors That Make the Best
Communication is coming of age and is getting more and more critical. Conference calling is one answer to that criticality. Sometimes conferences quickly lose their value if they are not properly conducted. It is imperative to find conference calling service providers who will deliver feasible as well as cost-effective conference calling solutions. The best conference calling service providers deliver these solutions regularly.
The key here is the selection of the best service provider. There are certain factors that make a conference calling service provider different from the rest of the lot. Let us look into some of the contributing factors that make the best service providers in a pool of many.
Sound Technical Support
Firstly, end users will have to make sure that they get sound technical support from the conference calling service provider when needed. The best service provider thus will have to have an infrastructure that will go all out in helping his customers, whenever they will need any help.
Conference Calling Service QOS
There is a number of conference calling service providers who tend to compromise on quality in order to keep the prices down. They do this just to grab more and more customers. However, this is not worth it for you in the long run. An ideal conference calling service provider needs to stick to optimal quality, even if that results in some extra spending on the part of the customers.
Secondly, the mission and vision of a conference calling service provider have to be pleasing its customers. Customer satisfaction has to be their primary business objective. Hence, they need to explain the latest developments in the conferencing world in a very lucid way to the customers. This will have two effects. Firstly, the customers will understand the technical nitty-gritty of the latest trend. Secondly, they will understand why they need it.
Strong Customer Service
Any good service provider will have a very strong customer service department. This makes sure that they can be approached by the customers at the drop of a hat. Moreover, it is not wise to sell packages to the customers. They just need to provide the technology and plan that will allow the customers to go for instant messaging and have a secure web conferencing setup. Some of the better service providers even arrange for a secure storage center. These centers allow the customers to share necessary data with their associates and stakeholders over a secured platform.
Attractive Prices
While the price does not always have to be the deciding factor, conference calling service providers also need to make sure that they do not put a Himalayan price to their service. Overcharging should be a strict no-no. While initially overcharging might bring in some choosy customers but, in the long run, this is not going to pay off. This is more important, taking into account the extent of competition this industry is facing at present.
Honesty And Reliability
Last but not the least, the conference calling service provider will have to be a genuine one. A service provider might claim that he is a global player. However, that means nothing if he is not strong enough to provide assistance at the time of any real-time crisis. Hence, when a service provider claims he is genuine, it has to be so in every aspect – be it in terms of services rendered, quality of service, ease of operation, and technical capability of solving issues immediately.
These are some of the contributing factors that make a conference calling service provider a top-notch one. There are many such service providers in the market. In order to be different from the rest of the lot, they need to consider to consider these are the value added factors. And, these are some of the factors you should be addressing when you are choosing your service provider.
About Universal ComOne
Universal ComOne offers award winning business telephone systems that are right for any business. We can design a solution to fit your needs. Please visit our conference phones page to get more details on our conference calling features.
Call 337-205-9364 for all your business phone system, data cabling and communication needs.
Why do organizations need to record calls?
VoIP offers the unique feature of recording each and every call made using the system. You can save the recorded files in the form of a voice files that can be later reused for various business purposes. There are several call recording tools available in the market that can be used to record VoIP as well as PSTN conversations. This is in fact a great way of immortalizing the conversations and reusing them as and when required.
After you have recorded the calls, you will be able to save them on to the hard disk of your laptop or PC or even cloud storage. The files are stored in the form of media files that follow popular audio formats like mp3, wav etc. Once the calls are stored as audio files, you will be able to share them, archive them, podcast them and do many other things that you desire. Companies often record calls because it is very important for businesses to save information that can be used for managerial or other purposes. People often might not quite like the idea of recording calls as they find it to be a breach of privacy; however, there are real good reasons behind recording phone conversations in an organization.
Companies have several pertinent reasons behind recording a few or all the phone calls. One common reason behind call recording is to improve customer handling and quality management. Often managers want to keep a tab on how the executives in different departments handle customer calls. There is always scope for improvement but it cannot be done until and unless top level managers have access to the voice records. Once they are able to access the audio files of the recorded calls, they will be able to analyze the performance of each executive and offer suggestions on improvements as well.
Quality control in customer call handling is imperative tasks for managers and recorded phone conversations can be a great database for making effective case studies. These case studies can later be used during training sessions to point out the exact mistakes being committed. Thus, agents and executives who handle customer calls on a regular basis will be able to avoid committing the same mistakes and improve their quality.
Another big advantage of call recording is that it provides an opportunity to the executives to later replay the conversation and find out if they have missed out on any important point mentioned by the customer, vendors, colleagues and even seniors. Thus, they can take note anything they missed and provide better and appropriate service to customers.
Call Recording Tools
It is not a very efficient method to put your phone on loudspeaker and record the calls. There are several gadgets and tools to facilitate recording of phone calls that are available either directly with the phone set or uses an external sound card. There are numerous call recording tools offered by VoIP and you can take advantage of these smart yet convenient tools, which are not only limited to call recording. The popular call recording tools are broadly classified into:
- Tools for personal use
- Tools for business use
If you are using a PBX at office then there are several business call recording tools integrated with the VoIP telephone system and you can keep the recorded file in your company’s secured server or use the cloud storage facility offered by major VoIP service providers.
Record a live phone conversation to your voicemail– keep it for future reference or forward it to others.
Call Manager – a PC Application
This powerful feature provides call control from your PC without ever picking up the telephone system – simply by using your mouse.
- Customize: Each user has the ability to customize their control buttons for quick dialing (i.e. – speed dial numbers, one-touch extensions keys).
- Outbound Calling: Copy and paste the telephone number from other programs into the Call Manager dial window. You can also include letters in the telephone number; Call Manager will automatically convert the letters to the matching numbers on the telephone keypad (i.e. 1-555-2-CALL-US).
- Drag and Drop Feature: Makes call transfer, speed dialing, and other functions faster and easier.
- Instant Messaging: The Chat feature allows text communication capabilities between users, broadcast message to multiple users, and simultaneous Chat sessions.
- Extension Keys: Dial other extensions with the touch of a button, and see user availability from your computer screen with lamp indication.
- Docking: Dock the Call Manager program to any edge of your computer screen to optimize your screen space. You can work in other programs without hiding the docked toolbar.
- Personal Settings: Can enable settings to receive automatic screen pops with caller information on incoming calls.
- Call History: A log of incoming and outgoing calls is automatically saved, and can be used to search, sort, print, or redial with just one click.
- Call Notes: Type notes during a phone conversation. The notes will remain with the call wherever it is transferred, so callers do not have to repeat themselves or re-answer questions.
- Voicemail: A flashing notification will appear on your computer screen when you have a new voice message.
Tips to Measure Your Data Security
Small and medium size businesses often suffer huge losses due to data pilferage, unethical hacks and unanticipated destruction of data. Every business holds their data dear and any loss has a direct impact on the business. Thus, data security should be of primary concern for business owners, especially when they store data virtually. Data breaches can be extremely damaging for any company and for this reason, small and medium business owners should consider these tips. Here is a list of some important data security tips that may just save the day:
Stronger Passwords
It is imperative to have strong passwords for every device or virtual service your company uses. This is probably the most basic tip to your secure data in the cloud or any other devices in your company. Try to set a combination of letters, numbers and special characters when creating a strong password. You will also have to keep in mind that passwords are tough to break when they are longer – so try setting passwords that contain at least 8 to 12 characters. It is also extremely important to keep changing your passwords from time to time as that will always keep the hackers or unauthorized users guessing. Never, ever write down your passwords anywhere!
Decent Firewall
Using a decent firewall will help protect your network and keep hackers or illegitimate users from accessing the office network. Firewalls protect the network by controlling the incoming and outgoing traffic on the network. You can choose any firewall suite because the majority of these are extremely effective.
Install Antivirus
Anti-malware and antivirus software are the best tools to keep your data protected during online transactions. These will protect your system even if a virus or malware manage to dodge the firewall.
Update Programs and Applications
You must get your computers properly patched and updated. This is an extremely important step towards data security. If you are not able to maintain the resident programs or software properly by not updating them regularly, then it becomes easier for the hackers.
Secure Your Laptops
It is important that you secure the laptops by providing data encryption software that locks the drives or folders. Laptops are portable in nature; hence, they are vulnerable to unauthorized access. However, if you use data encryption software, then all your data is secure even if the laptops are stolen.
Secure Mobile Phones
With the growing use of smartphones for banking and other official data transactions, it is imperative to secure them as well. There are many people who use their smartphone to store sensitive business data, and anyone who steals the phone can unearth all the personal and professional data. Use data encryption to secure your mobile phones.
Regular Backups
You need to schedule regular backups for all the PCs, laptops and smartphones by regularly downloading data to an external drive or cloud storage. You should also secure these hard drives and/or the cloud storage location by using encrypting software.
Unified Communications Trends
Unified Communications, or UCC, has finally gained momentum and got the industry acceptance that it has been looking for all these years. The universal platform that integrates everything from an email to videoconferencing is here to stay because customers can’t get enough of this latest technology. The fact is that UC has been in the market for quite a long time and it really deserves the limelight. Here are some of the latest Unified Communications trends that is ruling the telecommunication world like never before:
Video Conferencing
This has been long due and customers have been waiting for long to find a UC system that incorporates even the video feature. It is quite a wise decision to use Netflix, Skype or Youtube in the offices because they have not only been successfully tested but are also preferred over travels. Companies are cutting down their travel budget, which has indirectly helped the UC bandwagon to be pushed further.
IP Mobility
Mobility broke into the UC scene as IT managers found it really difficult to coordinate with their AV counterparts. The companies are fast adopting BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and CYOD (Choose Your Own Device) that are bound to change everything that we perceived about UC and mobility. The users are now able to work on a variety of devices, which either belong to them or they choose from a range of mobile devices offered by their organizations. Employees are able to work with their smartphones or tablets and that too while staying connected to their UC platform.
WebRTC
Google gave away the source code for the development of WebRTC in the year 2011 and by the start of 2013 we were flooded with various WebRTC applications. This technology allows the users to carry out video conferencing over the internet by using their browsers. Neither do you require any application nor do you need any kind of a dedicated hardware. It is one feature that can directly use the UC resources and make video conferencing look like a walk in the park.
Cloud Computing and Cloud Communication
Hosting UC on the cloud can make things extremely easy for the users as they are able to avail all the latest features of UC without having to worry about any hardware or software infrastructure. All that a user will need to do is have an internet connection and they are set to avail all the latest features being offered by UC.
Pro AV
Pro AV is being adopted by the organizations along with their UC package because it offers high-definition video delivered around the world. With the growth in the UC systems, Pro AV will be integrated and offered in an integrated manner while being accessed from the cloud.
About Universal ComOne
Universal ComOne offers award winning business telephone systems that are right for any business. We can design a solution to fit your needs.
Call 337-205-9364 for all your communication needs.