However, these apps keep getting better, as does customer support.

According to a 2022 mobile application survey by Top Design Firms, mobile apps are expected to earn a massive $935 billion in revenue by 2023, with 48% of small businesses currently owning a mobile app, and 27% planning to build one to support future business growth.

Below, we asked small businesses nationwide to share their favorite mobile customer service apps.

What is customer service software?

Customer service software is a digital solution that helps businesses manage, organize, and streamline their customer support processes. It can be a fully developed customer support call center, or have some or all of the following features: IVR, live chat, help desk tools, knowledge bases, and social media integrations. By providing organized channels for communication, customer service software enables companies to handle customer inquiries and issues more effectively, ultimately improving customer satisfaction and fostering loyalty.

Mobile apps for phone communications

In contrast to quick questions that can be answered via chat or email, according to a study fielded by American Express, 45% of U.S. customers prefer settling more complicated issues via phone.

When choosing a voice communication provider, go for a service that’s mobile, cost-effective, and integrates well with other tools. Today, Cloud Telephony (or VoIP) offers some of the most reliable features for a business to stay connected both in and beyond the office.

MightyCall

MightyCall is a multi-platform Cloud Telephony solution for small business that offers local, toll-free, and vanity numbers plus over three dozen features like auto-attendant, call flows, IVR, spam protection, integrations,  and more.

The MightyCall mobile app offers functionality such as calls, SMS, voicemail, call recordings, missed activities from all connected devices and mobile/web platforms, task delegation, and a built-in mobile CRM app for managing client information.

MightyCall has mobile customer service features to help entrepreneurs keep their precious work/life balance. Sandra Balzola of Red Sand Studios, LLC, says of MightyCall, “I love that I can set up my business hours and receive calls only during those hours. I like that I’ve been able to keep business and personal [communication] separate.”

Pricing: The MightyCall mobile app with mobile CRM is free for MightyCall users ( iOS/Android).  MightyCall plans start at $20 per month for unlimited users. You can also get a free trial on all plans.

Mobile apps for efficiency

According to a study by Software Advice, 81% of business owners access their customer service software from multiple devices. This echoes mobile application productivity research showing that 65% of sales representatives who adopted mobile customer service apps successfully achieved their sales quotas last year. In contrast, only 22% of reps using non-mobile CRM apps nailed the same targets.

CRM tools with wide mobile functionality are sure winners for all kinds of business goals. They will support your team’s work in any environment and circumstances.

Stripe

Stripe is a solution for managing online transactions and online payments. Second only to PayPal in popularity, the newer service challenges PayPal with a focus on data portability, transparent pricing, and a wider-than-ever range of accepted payment types. Stripe can be used both with online customers and for out-of-office employee payouts.

“We use Stripe to distribute payments to our tow truck drivers without them having to come into the office,” Sean Pour, co-founder of SellMax says. “[It’s] very easy to send payments, and easy to set up.” Though Pour adds that “transactions can get expensive with the 2.9% process fee,” Stripe fees are in fact the same as PayPal’s and in some cases, lower.

Pricing: Stripe Dashboard for iOS/Android is free for Stripe users. Stripe pricing is commission-based, per-transaction.

DropBox

Everyone knows that DropBox is great for storing and sharing documents in the Cloud. But did you know it’s got some time-saving mobile app features bundled? “We use the Dropbox mobile app to keep and scan relevant documents that we may need later,” Pour says. “This allows everyone at the company to easily search through it and find the documents they need.”

The ability to scan documents with a phone is a very powerful feature for small business. Pour notes, “[DropBox is] easy to set up on all computers, [and we] can scan documents with the app instead of using a printer.” As with all Cloud storage, Pour recommends to “focus on organizing the stored data from the start” to avoid storage “become cluttered”.

Pricing: DropBox and the DropBox app for iOS/Android are free.

Gist

If you’re using lots of channels to connect to your team, customers, and manage your business, Gist is a solution not to be missed. Gist offers over 25 integrations with apps you’re using every day. It offers similar functionality to Intercom, but with attractive pricing for small business.

“As social networks become larger and businesses need to operate in more places,” says Bret Carmichael of LEAP WORKS, “it will take more work to manage communication channels independently… We use Gist to centralize all our customer communications…Onsite chats go through Gist, Facebook Messenger chats are routed to Gist, as are Twitter direct messages. [It] saves us from [the task of] monitoring independent channels.”

Pricing: The Gist mobile app for iOS/Android is free for Gist users. Gist has a free starter plan; business pricing starts at $9/user per month with a free 21-day trial.

Mobile apps for social outreach

Bigger doesn’t always mean better. To run and manage successful marketing campaigns from the office and outside of it, you don’t have to opt for expensive services. Mobile social platforms can provide deep insights and analytics into your audience, especially with the current development of analytics features.

The ancient wisdom of “quality over quantity” works equally well with modern social media. To get to the heart of your market, understand the outlets that work for your industry and take steps to serve that unique audience.

Google My Business

For brick-and-mortar stores, Google My Business is a must. Not only does it display the main information about your business in a single window on Google search, but it allows customers to call and message you instantly.

Learn more: No storefront? Here’s why you still need Google My Business.

“You can communicate with your company using Google’s My Business app. This is awesome for small businesses,” Carmichael says. Though the app is “still relatively new” and you “need to post regularly”, Carmichael adds, “that’s just fine, because the results are featured prominently in [Google] search.” And as all business owners know, there’s no such thing as ‘too much’ Google presence.

Pricing: Google My Business mobile app for iOS/Android is free

Twitter DM

Twitter is no secret to marketers, especially online businesses and stores that want to reach out to bigger audiences online. However, the platform does have its intricacies.

“Companies who can answer customer outreach on the channels customers prefer are best positioned to succeed,” says Carmichael. “If you count your customers among your Twitter followers … there’s no sense sending them somewhere else.”

Carmichael also advises business owners to be extra cautious when handling unfair complaints: “More than any other social network, mistakes made on Twitter can go viral with devastating results…Your comments can be misinterpreted by an audience. Always take the high road…If you don’t have the temperament to respectfully manage sometimes unfair sentiment, do not use Twitter.”

Pricing: The Twitter mobile app for iOS/Android is free

LinkedIn

If you’re in the B2B industry and haven’t been active on LinkedIn, consider these facts: 51% of companies acquired a B2B customer through LinkedIn and 93% of B2B marketers consider LinkedIn the most effective platform for lead generation. Surprising? Not to B2B marketers!

Shakun Bansal, Head of Marketing at Mercer | Mettl says, “For us, surveys through email and posts on LinkedIn are the best sources to get customer feedback…The more insightful and in-depth information that these platforms are able to give with accelerated AI and ML use, the more exact targeting could become which will drastically increase the marketing RoI.

Don’t count yourself among the crowd of B2B marketers on LinkedIn? Why not join right now!

Pricing: The LinkedIn mobile app for iOS/Android is free

Mobile apps for marketing, sales, and more

If you think all-inclusive customer relationship management systems are for big business, think again! Small business owners reap tons of benefits from insights and growth provided by dedicated CRM platforms.

When choosing mobile apps for your small business, keep in mind that even the most user-friendly customer relationship management tool will involve a learning curve. To avoid unnecessary frustration, understand just how much time and effort you’re willing to invest in a specific product.

HubSpot

Hubspot works equally well as a free customer relationship management solution for small business and as a CRM suite for enterprise-level sales, marketing, and customer support tasks. Business owners particularly note HubSpot as a brilliant marketing tool for lead management.

Explaining his company’s choice of HubSpot over other mobile CRM apps, Bansal says: “HubSpot offers a step-by-step guide to track and get an in-depth analytical progression of leads throughout the buyer journey. It helps in analyzing which marketing efforts seem to be working and which are not in churning a greater number of customers in the sales funnel.”

As a lead nurturing tool, Bansal notes that HubSpot “helps push each lead a little further in the buyer journey through high-quality content – be it emails, blogs, articles, reports, and so on.”

HubSpot integrates with services like Salesforce, SurveyMonkey, Zapier, WordPress, EventBrite, Shopify, and others. If you’re new to mobile CRM apps and want an understandable tool that’s possible to upgrade as you grow into it, HubSpot is a natural choice.

Pricing: The HubSpot mobile CRM app for iOS/Android is free for HubSpot users. HubSpot business plans start at $50/month, but you can get a starter package of HubSpot CRM tools absolutely free.

Salesforce

In the world of mobile CRM apps, Salesforce is a titan. This all-inclusive solution for business tasks of all shapes and sizes offers solutions for every need a growing business may have. Salesforce products are divided into several suites and include sales, service, marketing, commerce, engagement, analytics solutions, and so much more.

“Our public adjusters are always on the go, moving from one client to another,” explains Aaron Singer, CEO at Bulldog Adjusters. “It’s important to us that they be able to get and stay in touch with the clients as well as with the office team. We use Salesforce… to manage and monitor customer service… view customer feedback, keep track of appointments for home inspections, and get in contact with customers while on the road.”

The Salesforce mobile app is a pro-level solution for managing various CRM channels when out of the office. It integrates with products like Hubspot, Slack, Google Cloud, LinkedIn, and DocuSign. Salesforce works best for rapidly growing businesses with some prior experience in using digital CRMs.

Pricing: The Salesforce mobile CRM app for iOS/Android is free for Salesforce users. Salesforce Small Business Essentials plans start at $25/user per month.

By implementing a customer service software solution, companies can manage customer inquiries, address issues promptly, and foster meaningful relationships with their clients. The right customer service software empowers businesses to streamline their support processes, improve response times, and ensure customer satisfaction, ultimately driving brand loyalty and long-term success. As businesses continue to grow and adapt to ever-changing customer needs, investing in robust customer service software becomes increasingly crucial to staying competitive in the market.

Next steps after reviewing the customer service software

The next steps involve narrowing down the choices among customer service software solutions, evaluating customer support software alternatives, and examining different customer service applications. Testing potential customer service management software through free trials or demos, as well as considering scalability and integration capabilities, is also crucial. By carefully assessing each option, small businesses can make well-informed decisions that lead to increased productivity and long-term success.

The post Best Customer Service Software for Better Management & Support first appeared on MightyCall.

In April 2020, Apple and Google announced plans to team up for the creation of a COVID-19 contact tracing app for smartphone users that won’t depend on national contact tracing apps. While this topic has raised a lot of privacy controversy leading Apple and Google to do a full-blown explainer on the privacy of its COVID contact tracing app, the dangerous spread of the pandemic across the globe (16 million diagnosed cases as of September 3, 2020) has pushed forward safety concerns.

Here’s what you need to know about Apple’s COVID-19 ‘Exposure Notification Express’ as part of its iOS 13.7 update.

What is iOS 13.7 ‘Exposure Notifications Express’ contact tracing?

COVID-19 tracing functionality has been on both Apple and Android phones since Apple’s iOS 13.5 update and Google’s Android update, both in July 2020.

Despite privacy debates over a “contact-tracing app” automatically downloading to users’ phones, July’s functionality was not yet a real app, it was API. In other words, functionality that worked only when coupled with an official COVID-19 contact tracing app from a government health agency. By itself, it was pretty useless.

Apple’s new update, iOS 13.7 changed that. iOS 13.7 comes with Exposure Notifications Express, which is contact tracing integrated deeper into the OS. While it still works in partnership with your local public health authority, the system makes it simple for health authorities to add exposure information into the Apple|Google solution with no need to build their own apps.

Since it receives data from the local health department, the Exposure Notifications Express is not equally available in all countries/states.

Is Apple’s COVID-19 contact tracing app safe to use?

Apple’s Exposure Notifications Express API uses Bluetooth technology to send out and receive Bluetooth beacons. These beacons are random sets of numbers (Bluetooth identifiers) which are randomly changed every 20 minutes for extra privacy. Phones that have the ‘Exposure Notifications Express’ feature enabled will record and securely store each other’s beacons.

If any of those beacons is later identified as coming from a COVID-19-positive anonymous user, devices that have come into contact with that phone (6 feet or less contact for longer than 15 minutes, or according to your local health departments specifications) will be notified.

It’s important to note that people who test positive for COVID-19 must give consent on whether they want to share their data with the health department, which then sends the data over to Apple and Google. This means that only a limited percentage of diagnosed cases in your area will make it into the contact tracing app and may give a sense of false security regarding virus exposure.

In terms of cybersecurity and ongoing fears of identity tracking, Apple and Google have been so far specific about Exposure Notifications Express API privacy specifications and maintain that no personal data or location information is collected. Both companies hold that data is completely anonymous, and Apple’s privacy policies and reputation make them a more credible source than Google.  However, in a world that’s still poorly cybersecurity-proofed, there is no definite answer to whether the functionality will not store any of your data in the future.

Can contact tracing work for business?

Contact tracing has been picking up speed as the choice for larger teams that work together to track and isolate sick employees. However, contact tracing apps for business are different than the Apple|Google and government contact tracing apps.

Business contact tracing is done through apps or wearables. It logs contacts between people carrying those devices within an organization. Unlike the Apple|Google solution, it does not send any data outside of the business organization. However, if available in your area, a solution like Apple’s technically can be used for teams without the need for corporate contact tracing apps.

While business contact tracing is still in its early days, experts argue that it could become the new normal of office life as about 50% of U.S. companies plan on using contact tracing for staff.

How do you activate iOS 13.7 ‘Exposure Notifications Express’?

By default, the contact tracing functionality known as Apple’s “Exposure Notifications Express” is turned off after you update your iPhone to iOS 13.7.

To turn the feature on, go to Settings in iOS 13.7 and find the “Exposure Notifications” icon. Tap “Turn on exposure notifications” and follow instructions from there. If the service is currently unavailable in your area,  toggle the “Availablity Alerts” bar to be notified if the feature becomes available in your region.

How do you turn off iOS 13.7 ’Exposure Notifications Express?

If you’ve just updated your iPhone to ios 13.7, there’s nothing you need to do. By default, the contact tracing functionality known as Apple’s “Exposure Notifications Express” is turned off after you update your iPhone to iOS 13.7.

If you had “Exposure Notifications Express” turned on for some time but would like to disable it, go to Settings in 13.7 and find the “Exposure Notifications” icon. From there, go to “Turn off exposure notifications”.

Final word

Whether to enable or disable the “Exposure Notifications Express” on iOS 13.7, is your call. While the Apple|Google contact tracing app can provide helpful information, it depends on large-scale adoption by users, local health departments, and widespread consent from COVID-19 positive patients to really work. In the meantime, washing or sanitizing your hands regularly, keeping a social distance of at least 6 feet in public spaces, wearing face masks, and avoiding crowds is your safest bet both health and cybersecurity-wise.

More trending iOS news: How to stop robocalls on iPhone: This new feature will help

The post COVID-19 Contact Tracing is Now on Your iPhone: Here’s What It Means for Personal and Business Use first appeared on MightyCall.

Porting your number is significantly easier than you think it’ll be. In fact, MightyCall is going to do most of the work for you. To get started, all you’ll need is your most recent phone bill and what’s called a Customer Service Report, or CSR. This has all sorts of information on it about your phone/account which you most likely aren’t aware of, but you’ll need the information for the porting process.

If you don’t read your phone contracts for fun and don’t know the information offhand (you probably don’t), just ask your current provider for a copy of your CSR.

Then, it’s off to the races!

How to port your number from T-Mobile to MightyCall in 4 easy steps

1. Create a MightyCall Account

So we assume you’ve already done this, as you have already decided you want to switch. Great! In case you haven’t, head on over to mightycall.com. The process of setting up an account is seamless and straightforward.

2. Fill Out the Port Forms

Now is everyone’s favorite part of anything- filling out the forms! Fortunately this is very easy. MightyCall has set up a page (which you can find here) on which you’ll find the requisite forms, depending on the kind of MightyCall account you’ll have. The information is pretty basic, and – especially if you have your CSR – you should be just fine.

Make sure to download, sign, and re-upload the Letter of Authorization! We need it in order to complete the process.

3. Get Your PIN

T-Mobile will have a special PIN number for your account. We’ll need it to be able to port your specific number over, so make sure to ask T-Mobile for it (their customer service reps should be able to get it for you).

4. Nearly there!

Now it’s time to play the waiting game. Usually it doesn’t take a long time- maybe you’ll have to wait up to 10 days. If you have a more unique number it can take longer. Once we port it successfully, you’ll receive an email notifying you of the successful port. Should it be unsuccessful, you’ll have to take it up with T-Mobile; they’ll give us a reason, but they are often short on details.

The post How to Port Your Number from T-Mobile to MightyCall first appeared on MightyCall.

The reason behind the hype is simple: robocalls are easily the plague of modern communications. To say they’re annoying and distracting is to say nothing. At their worst, robocalls intrude on privacy, steal sensitive information and pry into the user’s identity.

Robocalls are being fought on a federal level with Fed programs like “The National Do Not Call Registry” and FTC’s “Operation Call It Quits”. Meanwhile, tech giants like Apple are investing in AI-powered anti-robocall features to protect consumers from intrusions into their privacy.

In its September 2019 update, iOS 13, Apple now offers a unique built-in feature to help stop robocalls on iPhone.

The offer surely sounds enticing, but is it right for you?

How to stop robocalls on iPhone with “Silence Unknown Callers” in iOS 13

At the end of September, Apple released its latest iPhone update — iOS 13. This software update is compatible with iPhone models from 6s and up, which means if you have an older iPhone model, you can still go ahead and get this feature.

The setup process is really simple:

• To update to iOS 13 on an older iPhone,  just click “Choose Software Update” in the Settings —> General tab.
• After the update is complete, go to Settings —> Phone and toggle the  “Silence Unknown Callers” button to “On”.

The “Silence Unknown Callers” feature will then fight spam and robocalls by silencing unidentified calls and sending them directly to voicemail.

Note: Please read important information below before activating the setting.

iOS 13 “Silence Unknown Callers” feature: is it right for you?

Having your iPhone identify potential scammers on its own sounds great. But how exactly does the anti-robocall feature on iPhone work? And why should you think twice before turning it on?

The AI-powered technology behind it is fairly simple. If you’re getting a call from any number that you haven’t previously interacted with and have “Silence Unknown Callers” on, you won’t hear so much as a single ring. The call will simply go straight to your voicemail.

“Interacting” with a number means one of several things:

• Having the number stored in your Contacts
• Having the number in messenger/calling apps downloaded to your phone
• Previously contacting the number (even if it’s not in your Contacts or apps)

Obviously, the “Silence Unknown Callers” feature can be really helpful or really disturbing, depending on your personal communications needs and habits.

✓ Silence Unknown Callers is great for you if:

• You don’t own a business/are not a freelancer
• Your phone is for personal use only
• You have a separate business phone/office line and never forward business calls to your iPhone
• You interact via mobile phone with known contacts

Silence Unknown Callers isn’t for you if:

• You use your mobile phone for business/freelancing
• You have lots of legitimate unknown calls coming in
• You communicate with a large number of colleagues via phone

If you decide to turn on the “Silence Unknown Callers” feature in iOS 13 remember to add all the important numbers (distant relatives, colleagues, medical and doctor’s offices, etc.) to your Contacts beforehand.

For business users, “Silence Unknown Callers” will prevent ALL new clients from reaching you. It doesn’t matter whether clients are dialing your cell number or VoIP number. We strongly advise against activating this feature on VoIP business phone numbers.

Business alternatives to stop robocalls on iPhone

As we’ve seen, with a personal phone line things are pretty straightforward. But what if you’re using your phone for business purposes and need a selective spam filter that won’t interfere with your client calls?

If you want to stop robocalls on iPhone but blocking all unknown callers isn’t an option for you, there are several alternatives to the “Silence Unknown Callers” feature in iOS 13:

• Manually select numbers to block on your phone —  If you get an annoying robocall, you may block all future calls from the same number by adding it to your phone’s spam list. This is good enough if you don’t have a ton of calls coming in and use your phone mostly for personal communication.
• Register your number with the “National Do Not Call Registry” —Register here to eliminate your number from commercial companies’ calling lists. Keep in mind this will only stop legit commercial calls and not scammers.
• Use third-party apps  — Apps offer custom protection from robocalls. While there are free options available for your iPhone, opt for a premium provider if you want real protection.
• Use a virtual phone system for business  — VoIP offers some of the best protection against robocalls for business purposes. The technology is extremely effective: since robocalls aren’t ‘real calls’ but automated messages meant to sound like humans, they need a straightforward path to get to you. With a VoIP phone system, you can set up free features like auto-attendant and call menus (fully iOS compatible). Since your non-human callers can’t “press a number” to reach a person in your company, they’ll automatically drop the call.  Not only will this stop robocalls, but it will also give your business an effective credibility boost.

Final word

While iOS 13 has lots of terrific features that you’ll have fun unraveling all by yourself, “Silence Unknown Callers” isn’t a one-size-fits-all kind of deal.

If you’re a freelancer or entrepreneur, look into these better ways to stop robocalls on iPhone, developed with care for your business needs.

The post How to Stop Robocalls on iPhone: This New iOS 13 Feature Can Help first appeared on MightyCall.

Of course, you can’t answer every call, especially if you’re a sole proprietor and it’s after hours. Even so, it’s important to make the effort, as studies show 80 percent of callers hang up without leaving a voicemail.

Here are eight things that can happen when you don’t answer a call — and how call forwarding and other virtual phone system features can help increase your chances of answering calls.

1. You lose a prospect. When someone calls your company today, it’s a big deal. Think about it: Most likely, you’ve posted a lot of information about what you offer online, whether it’s a website, Facebook page, Twitter stream, or all of the above. Potential customers tend to research a product or service online before they take the next step: placing a call. So if the caller goes to voicemail, you may lose a motivated buyer.
2. You waste money. If you’re spending marketing money to get prospects to call you, and 15 percent of those calls go to voicemail, guess what? You’re potentially wasting thousands of dollars every year.
3. You aggravate an already aggravated customer. Imagine a customer who’s experienced a problem with your product or service and calls for support, to get a refund, or complain. Now imagine that caller goes to voicemail. The upshot: You’re likely to further irritate an already unhappy — and now former — customer. Plus, the caller may complain about you on Yelp or other sites. On the other hand, answering that call gives you an opportunity to turn a dissatisfied customer into a fan.
4. You can’t answer a prospect’s questions. Some callers want to ask questions, so they can judge if your offerings are right for them. When you don’t answer, you miss the chance to better inform your callers and potentially convert them into customers.
5. You can’t learn from customers and prospects. When you don’t pick up the phone, you can’t find out more about the caller. But if you answer, you’ve suddenly got an ideal opportunity to find out how prospects discovered you, if they have considered your competitors, what they’re looking for, and who they are. All of this can help you improve your marketing, sales and advertising initiatives.
6. You can’t bond with your caller. Personal interaction with callers can help you build a rapport with them. Aside from asking/answering questions, you can make “small talk” or bond over similar interests, whether it’s sports, travel, or something else. Personal touches like this turn a prospect into a customer and a customer into a fan.
7. Your customer may feel unimportant. Sending customers or prospects to voicemail, or making them navigate complicated phone menus and trees, can make them feel like you don’t want to talk to them. But when you personally answer their calls right away, they feel important — a much more positive customer experience.
8. You make impatient callers wait. Consumers today expect expediency. They want their emails answered within an hour or two, text messages even sooner, and phone calls right away. They don’t want to wait on hold, either. So the more time you can save callers, by answering right away, the more likely they’ll want to do business with you.

How call forwarding and a virtual phone system can help

• Call forwarding automatically directs inbound calls to any device, including a smartphone, landline or VoIP phone, based on rules you determine. With a virtual phone system’s Find Me/Follow Me feature, which is a form of call forwarding, you could opt to ring one phone first, then another, then another. Or all phones could ring simultaneously — which can dramatically decrease the chances of missing a call.
• You can give callers an easy option for receiving a call back. Instead of making callers leave a voicemail, your virtual phone system can give them the option to press “one” (or another number) to request a callback. If you call them back, say, within an hour, you’re less likely to alienate them. You might also consider offering a discount or other perk to make up for being unavailable when they called.
• You can analyze call logs to improve the odds of answering. A virtual phone system typically offers a detailed log of inbound and outbound calls and provides data such as average wait times and percentage of missed calls. With this information, you can make improvements, such as adding more call center agents during specific hours to reduce average wait times and decrease the missed call percentage. You’ll also have a baseline, to which you can compare later results to see if you’ve hit your goals.

MightyCall’s virtual phone system offers these and other features to help you answer incoming calls right away and more effectively manage missed calls.

The post Eight Things That Can Happen If You Don’t Answer Your Phone first appeared on MightyCall.