VoIP means being able to work at home during bad weather

 
Last Tuesday, the Northeast prepared itself for, what was expected to be, a huge blizzard. Okay, so it turned out not to be as bad as we had anticipated (at least in New York City). Nonetheless, many businesses closed their offices on Tuesday, but they didn’t close their business. You read right. Businesses equipped with VoIP can have their employees be productive –right from their own homes!

Before VoIP

It used to be that if your business was going to be closed, you had to set a different outgoing message ahead of time. There was no way to remotely change your message to inform customers that you would be closed because of bad weather. With VoIP, yes, you can change your outgoing message (greeting) remotely.
 

Call forwarding

Closed unexpectedly? No problem, with VoIP, your calls can be set to forward to your cell phone or house phone. This change can also be made remotely. No worries about missing an important call.
 

Don’t lose business!

Just because it’s snowing here, doesn’t mean that your customers in other states, won’t be trying to call you. If you’re a healthcare professional, then you know that patients need to be able to get ahold of you at any point. If you can’t get into your office and you can’t answer your phones, then what happens if a hospital calls you for your patient’s records? What if a patient needs you to call in a refill of their medication?
 

Speaking of healthcare professionals…

It’s actually very common for medical professionals to have a VoIP phone at home, which links up to their office’s phones. They can reach their staff easily; staff and patients can reach them easily; if you need to call patients, they’ll see your office number on their caller ID –not your private home or cell number! That makes it easier to maintain patient-doctor boundaries.
 

Your office is now where ever you are

Work at home! At Steadfast, our customers expect us to be available for them, even if there’s a foot of ice on the ground; we happily oblige. If you placed a call to us, during the storm, you got through without problem. The weather was still rather messy on Tuesday; not even the USPS could deliver the mail! What’s the secret? VoIP! With VoIP you’re able to work from home, stay warm and be productive. For example, when the snow hit, I sat at my own desk, worked and watched the snow come down outside. Meanwhile, I could place and receive calls easily. I didn’t have to travel into the office, nor did I have to freeze in the cold. I also had my normal 212 office number, at home! Pretty awesome!
 

Reliability

Remember hurricane Sandy? A lot of businesses in NYC, Long Island, NJ and other parts of the Northeast, were without power. However, many people still had power and internet in their homes. Because of this, many of Steadfast’s customers were able to take their office phones home and continue working.
 

Safety first

Does your company have a phone tree? Those of us who have used one know the big problem with them. If just one person “breaks” the tree, then a bunch of people may not get the important message that you’re closed for the day. If your employees don’t know that you’re closed, they may risk their safety, to try and make it into the office.

Get VoIP and get prepared. Winter isn’t over, which means it isn’t too late to think about VoIP.