Nicky Smith, Author at Hosted VoIP Phone System for Business

Business Messaging: 5 Powerful Reasons Why it’s Essential vs. Optional

Business messaging through text, MMS, and SMS is no longer an optional nice-to-have option. It is now an essential requirement. Here are 5 powerful reasons why: 1. Customers Are VERY Open to Receiving Business Messaging A whopping 97% of Americans own at least one smartphone, and on average they check their device 96 times a day. What’s more, 91% of customers said they have or are interested in signing up for text messages from a business, and text message open rates are nearly 100%. On the other end of the spectrum, 90% of customers won’t answer their phone when a business calls them. And while email is still a somewhat effective outreach channel, 62% of customers said that they don’t…

15 Nov 21 Nicky Smith

Hosted Phone System: Features, Benefits, Pros & Cons

When a business grows, so too will its requirements for infrastructure like telephone line systems. The traditional way to provide phone services in an office environment, for example, is with a traditional PBX (private branch exchange) setup. Such setups are usually very expensive, inflexible, and complicated to install and administer. These days, a better solution is to use a hosted phone system (sometimes known as a virtual PBX). If you’re new to hosted phone systems, the following will explain more about them and how your organization could benefit: What Is a Hosted Phone System? A hosted phone system is a virtual PBX that operates through a permanent Internet connection. The most common is a cloud-based hosted phone system where all…

7 Nov 21 Nicky Smith

10 Key Benefits of Digital Faxing

Digital faxing (a.k.a. e-faxing and cloud faxing) is not just alive and well, but it is growing in popularity — particularly in the healthcare, legal, government, telecommunication, and education fields where hand-written initials and signatures are still the norms. What is behind the surge in digital faxing? There are 10 benefits: Affordability: Digital faxing is much more affordable than conventional faxing. Getting rid of an old copper line reduces costs by $20-$30 a month (and in some cases more). Plus, purchasing a business-grade fax machine can easily cost around $300, and on top of this, there are ongoing toner/inkjet, maintenance, and repair expenses. Convenience: Digital faxing is remarkably convenient. Employees can send/receive faxes from anywhere at any time — which…

26 Oct 21 Nicky Smith

Text Marketing Benefits

If your business is not taking full advantage of text marketing — also known as SMS and MMS marketing — then you are missing out on a massive opportunity to drive customer engagement, acquisition, and sales. Consider these eye-opening statistics: 69% of customers want the ability to contact a business through text messaging. Customers are 4.5x more likely to reply to text messages than emails. 12.9% of customers are more likely to support businesses that offer text-back capabilities. And just in case you think that “texting is obsolete” — think again: 50% of people sent more texts during the pandemic, and due to COVID-19 34% of businesses added text as a digital channel to connect with customers. The takeaway from…

12 Oct 21 Nicky Smith

Want Easy Video Conferencing in Your Business? Then Get a Browser-Based Solution!

Video conferencing has been steadily growing in popularity for years, but the pandemic massively accelerated adoption across all sectors and industries. Consider these statistics: The size of the video conferencing market surged 500% in the first two months of the pandemic. (Source: TrustRadius) The global video conferencing market is projected to grow from $6.28 billion in 2021 to $12.99 billion in 2028 — which is a CAGR of 10.9% during the forecast period. (Source: Fortune Business Insights) 79% of workers believe that video conferencing is at the same level, or is more productive, than in-person meetings. (Source: Owl Labs) Difficult vs. Easy Video Conferencing While video conferencing has shifted from an optional nice-to-have into an essential must-have, not all solutions…

26 Sep 21 Nicky Smith

Video Conferencing Solution: 7 Undeniable Reasons Why Your Business Needs One

Before the term “COVID-19” entered the vocabulary, a video conferencing solution was largely viewed as a nice-to-have. But now, as we shift into the post-pandemic world that is dominated by remote working, a video conferencing solution is no longer optional. It is essential for ALL businesses, including mid-sized firms and SMBs that aim to thrive in the new normal. Indeed, the video conferencing market increased by 500% in the first two months of the pandemic, and the overall size of the video conferencing market is expected to surpass a whopping $50 billion by 2026. Below, we highlight 7 undeniable reasons why your business needs a video conferencing solution: #1: A Video Conferencing Solution Improves Productivity Nearly 4 in 5 workers…

23 Sep 21 Nicky Smith

5 Best Practices that Lead to Dramatic Improvements with Workplace Communication

Saying that effective workplace communication is important is like saying water is wet, fire is hot, or that people with small children will repeatedly, and painfully, step on Legos many, many times. These are all blatantly self-evident (especially the Lego one). However, just because everyone knows that effective workplace communication is important, does NOT mean that it’s happening everywhere. Consider these statistics: 28% of employees cite ineffective communications as the number one reason why they cannot deliver work on time. 86% of employees and executives believe that ineffective communication is the core reason for workplace failures. Ineffective communication costs large enterprises an average of $62.4 million per year in reduced productivity, re-work, lost sales, lack of innovation, and missed opportunities.…

16 Sep 21 Nicky Smith

3 Essential Rules to Get Hybrid Work Right

Across the country, organizations from small businesses to large enterprises are experiencing hybrid work for the first time. And just like experiments in a laboratory, sometimes the results are amazing — while other times they are disappointing (and occasionally, they are flat-out disasters). The first thing we should note is that hybrid work — which is when workers spend part of the week in their home office, and part of the week in the corporate office — is here to stay. Now that workers have shown that it is not just viable but a positive change for many, a survey has found that 4 out of 10 workers would quit if forced to return to the corporate office full-time. And…

1 Sep 21 Nicky Smith

Is Your Office Phone System Prepared for Another Lockdown?

The latest dispatch from the pandemic front brings some good news and some bad news. The good news is that despite yet another surge of cases and hospitalizations — this time is driven by the Delta variant — there is no official plan to enter into another lockdown. But the bad news is that the White House recently stated that “in all probability” there will be guidelines and restrictions issued in the weeks and months ahead. Unfortunately, we all know from experience that “in all probability” is political-speak for “it’s going to happen.” This begs a vital question for business owners and leaders across the country: is your office phone system prepared for another lockdown? If you have an all-in-one…

21 Aug 21 Nicky Smith

VoIP Features that ROCK for Small Businesses

One of the biggest advantages of an all-in-one small business VoIP phone system vs. a landline phone system is features, features, and yet more features. You know the saying “it’s like being a kid in a candy store?” Well, employees who use a small business VoIP phone system for the very first time have the same experience. Within minutes, they go from “what does this feature do?” to “how on earth did we ever survive without this feature?” Here are five small business VoIP phone features that create plenty of enthusiasm and excitement — in other words: THEY ROCK! 1. Small Business VoIP Phone System Feature: Auto Attendant Auto Attendant is an automated, customizable, and extremely easy-to-use virtual receptionist. This…