Andisa previously used traditional desk phones but it meant that employees felt tied to their desks and office. Just before the start of lock down we added softphones and gave people headsets for their laptops / PCs. Its one of the strongest things we have done!
Now the desk is where the laptop is. Switching was one of the things that allowed us to stay open throughout the lock down.
3CX is a VoIP phone system that lets you mix / match what sort of phone you want. It can be a traditional desk phone, a soft phone app on your PC or an app for Android or Apple phones.
This all means that you can easily switch between devices for the same extension with your desk extension also ringing the app on your mobile.
There are so many benefits and because its the same phone system there are no disadvantages.
- Flexible working – the user chooses which device to pick up.
- Always available – it doesn’t matter if you are in the office or not, calls can still be picked up or transferred.
- Team working – when somebody is busy you can jump in and help even if your not in the same building.
- Easy setup – click a link to get the app, scan a QR code to configure.
- Reduced cost – new extensions cost nothing – ZERO
- Visibility – the receptionist view lets you see when to step in and help, even if you are away from the office.
However we took this a step further. 3CX has a central address book and you can use it to control inbound call routing. Too techy? it means that you can set the system up to transfer important customers directly to the right team. Say you have a current project with a dedicated team. You can filter the calls from that customer and pass them through to the team directly without the frustration of hitting reception. Turn this on during a project and then pass through to support or sales after the project is completed. We use it to pass customers straight to an engineer if they have a contract.
It puts you in control because it filters the customers number and doesn’t need a special number to be called.
For Andisa the switch to using the app has meant that we could stay operating throughout the lock down
