Part of the mega-giant corporation’s platform of online service, it instills trust because of the almighty Google brand. But is Google Voice for Business really an entrepreneur-centered product? Is it really free, and is it a competitive and secure option for small businesses?

Below, we’ll explore the features, pricing, and value for users that the system brings, as well as its limitations and alternatives.

Navigate:

• What is Google Voice?
• How does Google Voice work?
• Google Voice pricing and plans for business
• Google Voice for business features
• Pros and cons of Google Voice for business needs
• Google phone system limitations
• Switch from Google Voice to MightyCall
• Google Voice for business use cases
• How to set up Google phone service for business
• Similar calling solutions for SMBs
• Google Voice – good starter VoIP for solopreneurs

What is Google Voice?

In 2009, Google entered the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) market with a VoIP phone solution that uses an internet connection or Wi-Fi to send and receive calls right from the cellphone. As a handy means that allowed anyone to get a second phone line, Google Voice initially turned many heads in the small business world. Eventually, the company developed a subscription-based phone system for business. Voice is now part of Google Workspace, the corporation’s metaverse of cloud tools.

How does Google Voice work?

The Google business phone service is available on any mobile device with internet or a Wi-Fi connection. Just like with any VoIP provider, you get a separate phone number that’s attached to your main mobile number. But instead of using a landline or buying another SIM card, the technology uses the internet to make and receive calls. Additionally, you have the option to manage calls over Wi-Fi or mobile data.

The benefits of Google phone service for business are primarily the flexibility to make and receive calls on any mobile device, low costs as compared to landlines or a separate SIM card, and the small business call features it provides. Teaming these up with Workspace provides more options for managing professional communications, such as sync with Calendar and Meet.

However, note that Voice isn’t included in a standard Workspace subscription. It comes as an add-on at a separate price.

Google Voice plans & pricing for business users

Google Voice for Business pricing varies based on the provided features. Regardless of the chosen plan, keep in mind that the service comes as a Google Voice for Google Workspace add-on. In other words, you can’t just buy a subscription to Voice without a Workspace subscription.

The service has 3 plans:

• Starter ($10/mo),
• Standard ($20/mo)
• Premier ($30/mo).

Workspace has 4 plans:

• Starter ($6/user/mo),
• Business Standard ($12/user/mo)
• Business Plus ($18/user/mo)
• Enterprise (custom).

This means that a minimal subscription package to Google Voice for Business for just one user starts at $16/month.

Feature	Starter plan	Standard plan	Premier plan
Number of users	Up to 10	Up to 50 + additional licenses	Up to 50+additional licenses
Domestic locations	Up to 10	Unlimited	Unlimited
International locations			Unlimited
Call forwarding	︎	︎	︎
Auto-attendant		︎	︎
Ring groups		︎	︎
Deskphone compatibility		︎	︎
Export voice activity to BigQuery (analytics)			︎

Note: all prices and conditions are valid at the time of publication of the article

Google Voice for Business: features

Features of the Google Business phone system include standard VoIP phone system functionality:

• Auto-attendant – When the caller dials the number, they access a voice menu that prompts them to press certain digits to access information, or reach a specific employee or department.
• Ring groups – This feature connects employees to a single number for better call management.  The call rings to a succession of employees until someone picks up.  This option is available only in the beta program.
• Call transfer – Users can connect multiple devices to their number. This way, if you miss a call on one device, you can always take it on another. You’ll also know that it’s your professional number calling since all connected devices ring at the same time.
• Integrations – Google Voice Business only connects with native apps like Calendar and Meet. For example, if you’re out of the office or on vacation, you can sync your calendar and phone so all calls go to voicemail for these dates.
• Voicemail transcription – Google Voice transcribes your voicemails to text and sends them to email. This standard telephony feature comes in handy when you have a lot of voicemails coming in and prefer to quickly read through them instead of listening to each message.
• Texting – Users can send SMS from their company number through the native Google app. This is useful for short professional communications like appointment notifications,  and promotions.
• Conferencing calls – Invites several people into an audio or video call. Useful when you need to hold team meetings, client interviews, or meetings with stakeholders.
• Spam identification – Screens caller ID and redirects suspicious calls to the spam folder.

MightyCall solution

MightyCall is a business phone system that builds on the standard set of features provided by services like Google Voice and provides many more opportunities for distributing calling tasks for teams of any size. In addition to regular VoIP provider features, you also receive unique professional features with MightyCall:

• Several business phone numbers – For one subscription price, you can get more than one number. This is useful when your company needs both a toll-free and local number for a single price.

MightyCall’s toll-free numbers selection

• Team communication platform – Connect your whole team to the company number(s). Our comprehensive dashboard includes call history, call recordings, voicemail to text, analytics, and more.
• Free number porting – If you already have a number that you want to take with you, Google charges you $20 to port a number. MightyCall does this for free.
• Call analytics – Monitor customer behavior patterns, improve call agent service, and grow your company.
• Customer support – Live support staff that is ready to solve any problem doesn’t compare to a self-help forum.

Try MightyCall
for free

with a 7-day trial

Free Trial

Google Voice pros and cons for business needs

Google Voice for Business has a standard set of features that make it an accessible small business phone system. However, the service also lacks calling functionality for growing companies To understand whether the service is right for your hustle,  let’s sum up the pros and cons.

Pros	Cons
Simplicity – Easy to connect an extra phone line if you already have a Workplace account	Limited functionality – Key features of business telephone services such as toll-free numbers, vanity numbers, extensions, and visual call flows are lacking.
Good for a starter hustle – SMBs with 2 or fewer employees can start out with the basic functions provided by the service	Few upgrades – Compared to constantly developing business phone services, the product isn’t upgraded as often to adapt to the growing market
Multi-device use – The web version and mobile app are available on all internet-powered devices.	Integrates only with Workplace apps – The lack of other integrations is a con for companies that need to integrate their contact base with customer relationship management platforms and other sales/team tools.
Good fit for remote workers and freelancers – Calls can be placed from any location with internet or Wi-Fi through the app	No analytics – Doesn’t provide advanced analytics, except the option for its premier users to export voice data to BigQuery
Fitting for teams with little tech knowledge – Using the system is as simple as using WhatsApp or Skype, so anyone who knows how to use a smartphone can use it.	Limited support – The mobile app is simple to use, but so are the mobile apps of most competitors. Administrators will still need to set up the system online, including tasks like routing, answering rules, call flows, etc. And in case you need help with that, the online Help Forum will be your only point of reference.
Part of the Workspace ecosystem – Convenient for users already subscribed to Workspace	Hidden fees – Since the service is an add-on, you’ll need a Workspace subscription on top of the VoIP call subscription.

Google Phone system: limitations

In addition to the capabilities mentioned above, the service also comes with certain limitations. Evaluate the following if your small business is actively growing, if you provide national online services such as e-com,  or use external management tools like CRM platforms.

• Available in select countries – Google’s phone service is available in the following countries: United States, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom
• Number porting limits – If you’ll ever want to switch providers but keep your number, the address in the port request must match the primary location you entered in the Admin console.
• No toll-free and vanity numbers – No toll-free calling that allows callers to reach a company without extra fees, or vanity numbers that make a company number memorable.
• No external integrations – The Google phone system for business only integrates with other Workspace apps like Meet and Calendar, but doesn’t provide the integrations of a professional telephone system.
• No extensions and call flows – Lacks call flows and extensions which are useful if your company involves more than two people.
• Minimum user support – If you have trouble with the product, the company’s online help forum is the only help resource you’ll have access to. Aside from googling, of course.
• Insecure Caller ID – Calls and texts sent from your phone touchpad will use your personal ID. Only calls from the Voice app will show up as your Google Voice number.
• Lack of analytics – Call analytics provide insights into caller behavior, user patterns, and agent service. This tool essential for growing companies isn’t provided.
• Privacy flaws – Stores all your confidential communication information on the corporation’s servers, side by side with the rest of the info gathered about you by the corporate giant.
• Automation restrictions – The only automation provided is the standard auto attendant. Over that, there is no multi-level IVR and no automation tools like web calling widgets, click-to-call buttons, etc.

MightyCall solution

MightyCall is an SMB-focused phone system that ensures a professional company image with constantly upgraded features. Here are just a few GVoice limitations you can solve with MightyCall:

• International numbers – Expand your entrepreneurial vision with global local numbers in a growing list of countries.
• Extensions and call flows – Allows teams to stay together under the umbrella of a single number with multiple extensions.

MightyCall Call Routing

• Inbound and Outbound Caller ID – With a service called CNAM, you have the option to display your company name as the outbound caller ID.
• CRM integrations – A constantly growing number of integrations, such as MightyCall for HubSpot, and many more integration options via Zapier.
• Privacy and security – Infrastructure is distributed in different data centers. All connections are secured using SSL Certificates with 256-bit encryption.

MightyCall features are designed for organizations of all sizes. Check our 3 versatile pricing plans to get started with a new professional number or port your existing number for free. Our live support team will answer any questions you have.

​Switch from Google Voice to MightyCall

The great thing about a professional VoIP platform like MightyCall is that however much your company expands, you’ll never grow out of its features. If you already own a number with any other VoIP service and want to switch over, MightyCall offers free number porting. This allows you to keep your existing number that clients know, but gain all the advantages of a more competitive business phone.

How to port your number to MightyCall:

1. Submit your porting request – Provide the authorized person’s name as stated in the account with the carrier you’re switching from, your email under the MightyCall account, and the LOA – Letter of Authorization.
2. Wait for the port to go through – We contact your current provider as soon as we receive your filled-out porting form. MightyCall receives a date from your current provider for when they will allow for your number to be ported. This usually takes around a week, but depends on your provider and may take up to 15 days.
3. Start using MightyCall –mVoila! Everything’s ready for you to use your existing number with all the extra features of MightyCall.

MightyCall Call Center Call Log

Google Voice for Business: Use cases

Just like with any tech solution, the perks of choosing one service or another depend on your use case. Let’s explore what type of companies will benefit from Google Voice and for whom it’s better to find another alternative. And when you’re done, be sure to check out this real customer use case.

When the Google Business phone service is a good choice

If you match at least two of these points, using Google Voice for Business looks like a good fit:

• Freelancers and solopreneurs –If you’re riding solo or have a few private clients and are in need of a second phone line to avoid mingling these calls with personal ones.
• Remote workers and frequent travelers – Just like other
• Local businesses – the service provides only numbers with local area codes, which makes it unacceptable for national companies.
• Active Workspace subscribers – If you’re already using the platform and have an active subscription, integrating your phone system into it will demand only a small extra fee compared to new Workspace users.
• “Lite” phone users – If your SMB doesn’t plan to manage a lot of calls through the service, the company can provide a useful extra phone line
• Very small businesses with no CRM management – since Google phone service for business doesn’t integrate with CRM platforms, it will be best for entrepreneurs that keep it small and don’t use external contact management tools.

When it is better to consider other solutions than Google phone service for your business

• Teams of 2+ people or 2+ departments – Teams need a comprehensive dashboard, extensions, analytics, call flows, and other telephone features that the company doesn’t provide
• National businesses – Since no toll-free numbers are provided, a national company with only a local phone number will miss out on many clients
• Entrepreneurs exploring growth potential – The Google phone system doesn’t offer call insights and professional features with integrations. This doesn’t make it a good fit for growing companies in need of communications analytics.
• Companies using several different platforms – If you’re using different tools outside of Workspace, you’ll be happier with an alternative that integrates with CRM platforms and other apps
• “Trial” users – If you just plan to “try out” in your company Google Voice and switch to another provider if you don’t like it later, you may need to leave your existing number since the service often has trouble with number porting.

How to set up Google Phone service for your business

If a Google Voice number sounds like the optimal solution to your communication needs, here’s how to use a new business number with the service or port your existing number over.

1. Buy a Workspace subscription. If you already have a subscription, skip this step. Otherwise, buy a Workspace account. Voice is only available as an add-on for Workspace subscribers (from $6-$18 per user/mo).
2. Go to Google Voice and click “Get started”. You’ll need to log in to Workspace at this point, and then you’ll be prompted to “Add or upgrade a subscription”.
3. Choose a Google Voice plan (from $10-$30).
4. Set up your locations.
5. Assign licenses to team members.
6. At this point, you can choose local numbers for yourself and your team (national numbers and extensions aren’t available).
7. If you prefer to port the current number you’re using for professional purposes, the company charges a $20 port fee.
8. Set up features such as voicemail, auto-attendant, and ring groups (if available on your plan).

You’re ready to go!

Other solutions like Google Voice for business

If you’re still hesitant about whether Google Voice is a good fit for your team or you prefer to keep your data away from the internet giant, there are a lot of small business VoIP services that provide the same calling functionality and simplicity, but are more customer-centric and protect your privacy better. As smart people say, “different strokes for different folks” – so scroll down for business phone number solutions that can make more sense for your particular needs.

MightyCall

MightyCall is leading the way in VoIP technology by combining high-quality calls, security, rapid customer service, and a litany of features. They are a solid choice for lots of different companies. A solopreneur flower shop or a small-sized pizza chain restaurant would both find homes with MightyCall.

Pros & cons:

Pros	Cons
Dozens of useful and critical features	Lowest price plan has 1000 minutes and 1000 texts
Multiple price tiers available
All plans have a 7-day-trial

Price per month:

• Core: $15 per user
• Pro: $20 per user
• Enterprise: custom

Best for: Small- and mid-sized businesses

Try MightyCall
for free

with a 7-day trial

Free Trial

RingCentral

RingCentral

As a cloud-based VoIP provider, RingCentral has 20 years of experience. They have as of late focused particularly on video communications and video conferencing. This would be a solid choice for a company which helps universities to organize travel abroad groups. Video in a case like this is key, but you’re also probably spread out – which is where the internet phone number comes in.

Pros & cons:

Pros	Cons
Texting can be used on the lowest price point	Linux is not supported
Video calling available from highest price points	Users have reported assigned tasks getting lost
Built around having a team- the lowest tier offers up to 20 users

Price (all per month annually):

• Core: $20
• Advanced: $25
• Ultra: $35

Best for: Team-based work from home offices

Ooma

Ooma

Ooma is available for both SMBs and residential settings, and has ample plans and settings for both. They’d fit the profile both for a family of four living in a normal suburban house and a business which is spread out throughout a small town.

Pros & cons:

Pros	Cons
They offer a lot of different options for folks in different financial positions	By offering a lot, they specialize in a little
Offer internet service	Fees complicate pricing

Price (All Ooma Office and month/per user):

• Ooma Office Essentials: $19.95
• Ooma Office Pro: $24.95
• Ooma Office Pro Plus: $29.95

Best for: People who work from home

Google Voice – Good Starter VoIP for Solopreneurs

Coming as part of the internet giant’s wider ecosystem, Google Voice has both its pros and cons. All things said, Google Voice for small business is convenient lite software that’s a good fit for freelancers and solopreneurs. As to teams and growing businesses, since porting a number to/from the Google phone system for business is a costly and not always available option, these types of small businesses may want to go with a more scalable solution without the tie to extra subscription costs.

If your hustle is on the growing side of small, be sure to explore and compare the leading VoIP solutions before sticking with a subscription. You can also get a 7-day trial of MightyCall’s cost-effective business phone solution with powerful CRM integrations and dozens of features  developed for growing companies. All starting at lower than the Google Workspace bundle – at just $12 per user/mo.

The post Google Voice for Business Overview: Pricing, Features, Pros & Cons first appeared on MightyCall.

One of the most well-known is Google Voice, a free telephony service offered by the eponymous search-engine. Recently however, another company, OpenPhone, has come up as a young challenger to Google Voice. Is this a David and Goliath situation? Or is the story not so simple?

Here, we’ll go over OpenPhone vs. Google Voice features, important information for both Google Voice and OpenPhone, and then we’ll break it down further into the nitty-gritty.

In this post:

• Google Voice features
• OpenPhone features
• Google Voice vs. OpenPhone: Organizing your business and team
• Google Voice vs. OpenPhone: Communicating with clients
• MightyCall: a better alternative to Google Voice and OpenPhone

Google Voice features

Let’s start with what you probably already know about Google Voice. It’s the biggest thing that the product has going for it, and it’s what draws the most eyeballs: it’s free. While there are times in which you’ll have to pay—like a twenty-dollar charge for porting your old number in or out—generally speaking, money is not something you’ll have to worry about spending. It’s also possible that due to confusion, the big telephone companies may charge you for incoming texts, which Google doesn’t make inherently obvious at first glance.

What you need to know about Google is that, while it can be used as a VoIP phone system, it’s extremely stripped down. You can use it for texts and calls, some voicemail features (we’ll get to miscellaneous features later on), but the key is that there just isn’t much *there* there. Google Voice provides users with a single user number which you then must associate with an already existing phone number. Some folks have gotten around this by using other digital phone number services to then get more Google Voice numbers, but that’s a bit of a roundabout and rather annoying.

The central thing to remember though is that it’s Google Voice- emphasis on Google. You log in through your Google account, which can be useful if you use Google a lot. But Google is a gigantic company- which means their customer support is essentially non-existent. And it also means you are relying on Google—a company which does a lot more than just Google Voice—to not decide one day to just dump a service which they’ve barely updated over ten years. Basing your entire business communication strategy around an unanswerable giant non-phone specific corporation in exchange for a free product is understandable on its surface- but is it worth it?

OpenPhone features

Well, the people at OpenPhone thought it wasn’t. OpenPhone decided to go after Google Voice’s market share, and they only recently have started off (they’re only around three years old as of this writing). A visit to their website demonstrates this- they have a banner displaying how much money they’ve raised for the company at the top, indicating that they’re still relatively new on the scene.

On the surface, there’s a lot going for them. While they aren’t free like Google Voice, they’re only ten dollars a month per user. Not exactly breaking the bank. They also clearly have more features than Google Voice, including global calling (Google Voice is generally designed for American/Canadian numbers), what they call a “lightweight CRM” functionality, and stuff like Keyboard shortcuts. Which is useful! But not exactly the most important thing you’re looking for in a telephony company.

Basically, again, you get what you pay for. While they are a much smaller company—their website lists the entirety of their barely two-digit main staff, whereas Google would probably need to use an entire server to display all of their staffers—and can therefore pay more attention to customer service, they also are clearly shooting for customers who are not working with a lot of people.

Let’s dive in deeper. How do Google Voice and OpenPhone stack up when it comes to the most important aspect of owning a business- that is, running it?

Google Voice vs. OpenPhone: Organizing Your Business

Even if you are a business of only three people—or even if you’re a company of one!—organization is still absolutely key if you do not want to drive yourself insane. So how do the two compare in this department?

Well, Google Voice sort of…just doesn’t play in this department. At all. Again, it’s free. They basically provide you with a digital phone number and allow you to do basic phone number stuff with it. If you want to use Google Voice to run your business, you’re going to come away empty-handed. As it’s a Google Product, you can use the other services Google provides to keep yourself organized, such as Google Docs that…your other employees can also edit? But even Voice doesn’t have a perfect track record of syncing with other Google services and is not really a main component of G-Suite (it’s an optional addition- for a price). Plus, relying on a bunch of different group-edited Google Docs to run things is basically like having a bunch of pieces of paper on a central table that everyone scribbles on. Not exactly the premium way to organize your business.

As for your employees- forget about it. Remember, your Google Voice number is linked to your already existing phone number. If you want to have a single number for your company used by lots of people, it’s not inherently easy- but normally you could solve that by getting extensions. Except, oops, you can’t- but Google doesn’t make it thaaaat obvious (seriously- folks have had to turn to reddit to figure it out; remember what we said about Voice lacking customer service?). As said by one of Google’s “Platinum Product Experts,” “Google Voice is meant to be used by one person….I do not recommend business use of Google Voice.” Oof.

With OpenPhone, you’re at least a bit better off. OpenPhone has shared team phone numbers, and you can add extensions to your number- for $15 bucks a pop, that is, which can obviously be frustrating for teams which need to expand quickly. Their two priced plans only come with a single phone number though, with the potential to add more- for, like extensions, a price, this time being $5 a month. Which again, starts to really add up over time.

All of their plans also integrate with Slack, which is obviously better for internal team communication. Speaking of communication though, they unfortunately don’t offer conference or group calling, nor can they offer you desk phone support if you get situated enough to want to establish yourself and your employees in a physical office.

Google Voice vs. OpenPhone: Communicating with Clients

You probably can guess by now, but Google Voice is not exactly filled-to-the-brim with capabilities here either. Because it’s a phone service they offer the basic phone service features, like voicemail transcripts and call forwarding. But if you’ve signed up under a personal account, that’s basically it. If you go through Workspace, which not as many folks do (as it’s not free), you get more features, like auto attendant, which helps you answer customer questions without having to answer all the actual calls (as the auto attendant can answer them for you). But that’s not exactly a lot when it comes to talking to customers- which is a pretty important part of running a business!!

Plus, it was recently announced that Google Voice’s “message forwarding”—which essentially allows multiple devices to receive the same message—is disappearing, making it so you can only view messages on Google Voice’s actual app, which will make it difficult to be alerted to urgent messages from customers.

OpenPhone is, again, a bit better off, but they’re missing some pretty big parts too. They don’t have things like call transfer, call queue, and the aforementioned lack of group calling- all of which can be pretty important when trying to talk to multiple customers at once, or for handling large loads of incoming calls at a given time. They have the basic stuff, for sure, but let’s say you get the $10 monthly plan, but you get two extra phone numbers and, who knows, 2 extensions. That $10 plan has suddenly become a lot pricier- and your list of available features has not exactly commensurately increased.

MightyCall: the better alternative to Google Voice and OpenPhone

While OpenPhone seems to have a tad of an edge over Google Voice, both are clearly lacking when it comes to the features budding entrepreneurs need to really take advantage of their own potential. So in the battle of Google Voice vs. OpenPhone, who wins?

MightyCall. On top of all of the features we have discussed above, MightyCall’s business phone system also offers IVR settings, call recording, voicemail-to-text, a fantastic Mobile App for iOS/Android, and a team panel where you can actually keep track of your client communications and share information with your employees in a seamless and easy way. And that’s just some of the 30+ business communications features we’ve got!

While insanely cheap or “free” services like Google Voice and OpenPhone are understandably attractive and alluring for businesses just starting off, trying to pinch whatever pennies they can. But you know what else is alluring? Bait. Don’t be a fish who just grabs what looks like the simplest choice- that’s a good way to get your business yanked right out of the pond.

With MightyCall, you know you’re going with a company that actually understands the needs and growth of small businesses- and supplies the features to fill those needs.

Need help deciding? How about trying MightyCall?  Book a live demo.

The post OpenPhone vs Google Voice: Which One Speaks for Your Small Business? first appeared on MightyCall.

Though the basics — such as polite language, smiles, and a calm attitude — are the raw part of telephone etiquette in customer service, there’s a lot more to a positive calling experience. Today, we’ll be exploring some game-changing aspects like the impression your business makes before you even pick up the phone to answer a call, methods for active listening, the technology that ensures your business gets the best reputation in town, and more.

Looking at proper telephone etiquette from several angles will help your team navigate the world of business communication with deeper peace of mind, greater resilience, and a growing bunch of smiling clients.

Navigate:

• Phone etiquette before you pick up the telephone
• Preparing your mobile phone for talking business from home
• Phone scripts: dos and don’ts
• Taking notes during important calls
• Being kind is your responsibility
• Delegating follow up tasks with digital tools

1. Telephone etiquette starts before you pick up the phone

Everyone who’s on the business end of the phone deals with a fair amount of incoming calls: callers ask about hours, services, pricing, stock, issues, you name it. And to make handling those calls easier, you’ve probably got a business phone system in place with auto greetings or a voice menu.

Unfortunately, all-purpose voice greetings do little to improve on phone etiquette. If your automated messages are generic (“Hi, and thanks for calling”) or long-winded (“Press 10 for order information or stay on the line”), you’ve got a problem with phone etiquette even though you haven’t said a word yet. And that problem is costing your business thousands of lost leads per year.

How personal are your automated greetings?

Step outside your shoes for a moment and imagine you’re a customer. Now, have a detailed listen of your current greetings, voicemail, and voice menu (if applicable). As you listen, ask yourself these questions:

• Do these messages reflect my company, or can they be just as well applied to X down the street?
• Do I have a voice menu? Is it professional, informative, and brief?
• How many seconds does it take to speak to a human?
• If I could make one guess about this company just from its voice greetings, what adjective would I use? (e.g. fun, creative, intelligent, professional, etc.) If the answer is an adjective that’s definitely “not you” or plain “none”, something’s got to change.

Given some personalized attention to, voicemail, greetings, and auto-attendants can transform into a powerful lead-generating tool for your business. Need help? Here’s how to create business voice greetings for impeccable phone etiquette.

2. Prepare your mobile phone for talking business from home

With so many businesses unexpectedly working from home in the midst of the pandemic and its aftermath, routing business calls to mobile phones has become essential. Many phone companies, like MightyCall, allow you to port in an existing business number, so you can keep your number but make and receive business calls on any mobile device like a smartphone, iPad, tablet, or laptop.

In the absence of office phones, this is super convenient, but it also means it’s also vital to differentiate between business calls and regular calls on personal devices. Sure, you’ve got your clients’ contacts saved, but what about new contacts and leads? How do you know if it’s a potential client calling, a new friend or date, or perhaps, an annoying robocall?

Caller ID

A simple way to be prepared for every call is having a business phone system with Caller ID in place. Nope, this isn’t the regular caller ID you’re used to seeing. This is a very special feature that makes it plain whether that caller is dialing your business phone number that routes to your cell phone, or your cell number (the one on your SIM card). This information lets you respond to the call accordingly (e.g. official tone, down to earth, or just skip the call altogether)

This is how Caller ID from MightyCall looks like:

3. Personalized phone scripts: dos and don’ts

Calling a lead/customer or answering an incoming business call, you should sound confident, polite, and respectful of the other person’s time. To facilitate this, many customer service phone scripts are readily available online, promising a novice to become a customer service pro in no time. Problematically though, these scripts are filled with standardized phrases bound to act as a hang-up trigger to real customers.

That said, we’ve got nothing against personalized phone call scripts, especially if you’re new to making customer calls or are feeling nervous otherwise. It’s absolutely OK to jot down a custom call script before making that important call, as long as each one is made for the person and occasion — not copied from the internet!

Here are several phone etiquette rules to remember when jotting down a script.

Dos of phone etiquette

• State purpose of call — to avoid being taken for spam, state the purpose of your call within the first few seconds, right after the greeting and business name.
• Ask questions — whether you’re calling to notify about service changes, gathering feedback, or taking to an incoming call, questions create rapport and a human connection between you and the caller.
• Get confirmation — always confirm important details of the call by restating them and asking if that is correct, or if the information has been understood.
• Explain follow-up plans — if applicable, let your caller know when you’ll be following up or what you’ll do to take care of the problem. Just like in the dentist’s chair, knowing what comes next brings peace of mind.

Don’ts of phone etiquette

• Talk in long monologues and corporate phrasing — just think of the last time you got a call like that. How did it make you feel?
• Use generic words and phrases — replace generic customer service words like “good”, “glad”, “apologies” etc. with emotionally positive synonyms. I don’t know about you, but to my ears, “have an awesome day” generates sunny vibes, while “have a nice day” just feels … grey.
• Season the conversation with inappropriate humor — salt and pepper are vital (as mentioned above), but moderation and politeness are still key
• Go on hold without notification — always notify the person on the other end of the line how long they should stay on the line and the reason for the wait.

4. Taking notes during important calls ensures best phone etiquette

Proper phone etiquette involves active listening and making customers feel that you’re hearing them.

69% of consumers want sales and other customer service representives to “listen to my needs”, a HubSpot survey reveals.

As we said above, being a good listener, asking questions, and confirming your caller’s words are important in bringing across your care and concern for the person and matter at hand. Yet anyone who’s conducted a business conversation knows how often we forget the questions that come into mind while the other person is busy explaining something. When that happens, it doesn’t mean you’re forgetful, it just means you weren’t prepared for the conversation.

A simple and effective solution is taking notes. While you don’t need this for regular calls, manual note-taking is essential for any important calls you plan to follow up on. A regular notepad and pen are your best helpers during the call while right after, you may use digital tools (read on just below) to delegate tasks.

A note on call recording

Call recording is an effective practice for managers and employees. It allows to monitor customer service, take note of problems, remember information without keeping (or losing) it in writing, and even resolve disputes.

To legally record phone calls, you will need to know the laws in your particular state/country and usually gain legal consent from the other party, for example, through an automated message. Find the answers to all your questions about call recording apps and laws here.

5. Being extra kind and patient is your responsibility, not your option

As customer service memes all over the internet stand witness to, a cool head may the toughest part of the phone etiquette conversation. Even if you’re not in sales though, a business gets all sorts of callers– frustrated, annoyed, angry, and the worst kinds, those who don’t know what they want. And while we can’t influence the circumstances influencing the people on the other end of the phone (or set their minds straight), proper phone etiquette does imply being at the steering wheel of the conversation.

The problem with emotional customers is that emotions make people stray from the point and lose the thread of the conversation. If your customers are getting emotional (either positive or negative) and straying far from the point, politely but firmly bring them back to the main topic of the conversation. Remember that customer service etiquette isn’t about tolerating rude behavior, but about steering the conversation towards the best resolution for both parties.

6. Delegate follow up tasks with digital tools

With so many things to do around your business, it’s easy to forget a follow-up call or task in the midst of a full schedule. To keep yourself up to date, it’s best to use the notes taken during the call and transfer those onto digital tools shared with your team, as soon as possible.

Phone etiquette is simple with MightyCall’s Business Contact Book which comes with mini-CRM features. This basically means that you can save each new lead or contact to the contact book and add notes about the contact.

The notes can be anything to help you remember this contact, any information you’ve jotted down during the conversation, or a reminder for your team.

As soon as one team member adds a new contact and note, this info instantly pops up in the MightyCall contact books of all team members, visible in the MightyCall app on their mobile devices.

Another piece of cool technology to help with follow-up phone etiquette is Journal. Teams can use this unique feature to assign calling tasks to each other and view the task status in their MightyCall profile. It’s best to assign tasks right after each important call, since later you may forget or miss essential information. Use both Contact Book and Journal for maximum effectiveness.

Discover more

Have you picked your favorite phone etiquette strategy yet?

If that’s a yes, save and complement this guide with these phone call routing features to make your small business look bigger.

And check out our out-of-this-world fast, mobile, and budget-friendly phone system for small business. We’ll help your team talk anytime, anywhere, and about anything, at a stunning price.

The post Telephone Etiquette for Customer Service: 6 Golden Rules first appeared on MightyCall.

It’s been about six weeks since Google Cloud Next 2018, the company’s annual tech conference where they roll out new designs and plans for the coming year. Enough time has passed to let the announcements and the dust they kicked up settle, so now it’s time for some analysis.

As big and influential as Google is, many of the headlines the conference made this year (and typically makes) are notable for the public, but one piece to come out of the San Francisco-based event of note to VoIP is the release of an enterprise version of Google Voice for G Suite.

Despite the splash, tech-industry insiders have been anticipating this move for quite some time.

Google Voice first launched in 2009, and while the service garnered over a million downloads that year, it didn’t make the impression that Google clearly was hoping for. After a few years maintenance, Google Voice essentially went ignored from 2011 until early 2017, when the company released improvements and additions to the product.

Google Cloud Next 2018 may have been the culmination of that track, as Google Voice is now included in the popular G Suite software that is the 2^nd most popular business toolkit in America (behind Microsoft).

Google Voice as a standalone is still free, which means that its inclusion in G Suite will be a large-scale PSA about its existence. Even though many people will be exposed to the VoIP market through Google Voice, and even though the service is both adding additional machine learning-based features and remains free, the new iteration will not snap up all of the people being exposed to VoIP.

For as powerful and capable Google is, the company’s reach has exceeded its grasp on multiple occasions in the past half-decade. G Suite is powered by just a few of its features like Google Drive, Google Docs, and Gmail, while the others are dragged along for the ride despite little fanfare or usage. Google+, Google Sites, and Google Hangouts have all been mercilessly swallowed by the cultural abyss.

The $15-billion market for business productivity tools has been equally unkind to Google: they hold just $1.3 billion of the market (despite several years of calculated development) compared to Microsoft’s $13.8-billion control. Google has continued to sink resources into this competition however, and July’s announcements indicate there is no end in sight.

Workplace productivity is a complex, shifting market with data to support multiple narratives. For example, there are 3 million American businesses paying for G Suite, and that number is growing significantly with each passing year (in a small sample size). However, there are stats to indicate that despite Google’s growth, Microsoft’s dominance is secure; the Reuters article linked above notes this by saying,
«Among companies listed on the broader S&P 1500 index, 11.5 percent moved to Office 365 in the last two years, according to an email records review by investment firm Winton Group Ltd. That outpaced G Suite, which saw 6.8 percent of those firms come its way, including technology, industrial, entertainment and retail companies.»

Perhaps both are growing because the overall pool of customers is growing, due to increased awareness, more need for these products, or any plethora of reasons. What is clear is that G Suite is cheaper than Microsoft’s options, but it’s still lagging far behind despite that seeming advantage.

The same could very well turn out to be true for the VoIP market. If Google Voice remains free, it will no doubt snatch up many new customers hearing about VoIP for the first time, but the historical VoIP companies will get their share of new customers too.

Google is the tech-savvy new entrant into the market, but many customers and businesses, upon seeing the capability of virtual phone systems, will seek out the experts and the places that have been cultivating and improving the technology for decades the same way businesses are migrating to and sticking with Microsoft.

One thing is for sure, VoIP and telecommunications are about to get quite the infusion of new eyeballs in the coming year, and even though the eyeballs come on Google’s prompting, that means opportunity for dozens of companies.

The post The Latest on Google Voice and VoIP first appeared on MightyCall.

When is free not free? When it gets in the way of growing one’s business, that’s when.

That was the experience of the founders of the Opeus Group, a WeWork member that provides professional services in the design and construction industry in the greater Washington D.C. area.

The “free is limited” inconvenient truth resulted in Benoit Haber, Partner at Opeus, picking MightyCall as an alternative to Google Voice.

«Said Haber: “I liked the added level of professionalism that MightyCall brings to our company, the way we can greet our callers with a professional virtual receptionist. It really complements our professional WeWork office space.”»

«I also like that MightyCall can have all our cellphones ring at the same time so we don’t miss calls, and when I call out using the free mobile app, it looks like I am calling from our office number.»

With revenues hitting one million dollars and continuing to grow, the ability to project professionalism was an important factor for Opeus’ success. So, the combination of WeWork as an Office-as-a-Service, Wix with its Website-as-a-Service, and MightyCall as a Contact Center-as-a-Service was a powerful one.

«Said Haber: “The credibility and flexibility that these three providers bring Opeus allows us to focus on our core business and builds on the professionalism that each of us already bring to the table.»

The post WeWork Members Pick MightyCall as Alternative to Google Voice first appeared on MightyCall.