Gone are the days when landline phones were the main source for many businesses and households to communicate virtually. With the increasing popularity of business phone systems, people have inclined towards VoIP services and solutions to have seamless communication. Hence, we have covered the top VoIP features that help businesses improve their communication.
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is turning into an indispensable asset for enterprises. As analog phone systems take a back seat in the world of communication, business VoIP solutions are powering ahead, riding on the flexibility, portability, cost-effectiveness, and variety of collaboration tools they offer.
VoIP software solutions refer to a communication technology that uses the internet to make and receive calls. However, most cutting-edge VoIP systems today do much more than facilitate voice calls. VoIP phone systems come packed with a laundry list of features that no other communication solution can match. While features like call hold, transfers, and forwarding have become common offerings among VoIP systems, advanced systems even provide predictive dialers, analytics, call management features, and more.
VoIP has turned into such a feature-rich unified communication and collaboration system that businesses now enjoy the option of picking and choosing what fits their requirements the most. In this blog, we will walk you through an exhaustive list of VoIP business solution features, so that you can take an informed decision on what to incorporate into your enterprise VoIP system.
Let’s talk about the top 30 VoIP Features to choose from.
1. Auto Dialers
Using this service, users can automatically dial phone numbers that are saved on their pre-set phone list. Auto dialers come as a standard, must-have feature with every VoIP business phone system.
2. Automatic Call Distribution
This tool is most suited for businesses like contact centers that have a high volume of incoming calls and need to distribute them to specified agents or customer service employees. This feature also comes as a default add-on with most VoIP telephony solutions.
3. Text Messaging
This feature enables enterprises to send text messages using their provider application to any number on their customer database. This comes as a default feature with most VoIP phone systems. However, some VoIP service providers can put a limit on the number of text messages that a business can send out. Alternatively, some service providers offer text messaging as a paid feature.
4. Anonymous Call Rejection
Using this feature, users can block all calls from numbers that come with anonymous or unlisted caller ID information. While this feature is available by default on most VoIP phone solutions, it has to be manually activated before it can be put to use.
5. Busy Call Forwarding
The busy call forwarding feature empowers enterprises to automatically forward calls to an alternative agent if the first number is busy. This feature comes with a nominal charge on most VoIP phones and is especially useful for contact centers and other businesses with customer service profiles.
6. Call Analytics
This is an advanced feature offered by premium VoIP application development services that enable the collection, analysis, and reporting of incoming and outgoing call data. Using these analytics, organizations can measure their performance as well as customer experiences. Call analytics uses several key performance indicators (KPIs) to track, measure, and visualize the important metrics for enterprises and this is usually done in real-time. While a few VoIP phones may offer this as a default feature, it usually comes as an add-on paid service with most solutions.
7. Auto Attendant
It takes a lot of attentiveness and effectiveness for customer service executives to handle calls seamlessly all day. VoIP phone systems lend a helping hand by providing an auto-attendant service that helps answer, escalate, and route all incoming calls with poise and élan. With this feature, organizations like contact centers don’t need an always-on-call and highly vigilant human switchboard operator. Instead, the VoIP phone provides them with an equally efficient virtual receptionist, helping them save costs, save their agents’ efforts, and keep their customers happy.
8. Call Notify
Enterprises must respond to important calls promptly and efficiently. Call Notify makes this task easier by sending an email notification to an employee receiving a call. Businesses can optimize this feature by defining a specific set of criteria about important calls that need to be notified. For instance, if a high-value customer calls a bank, then the account manager will be notified immediately.
9. Call Parking
With call parking, an incoming customer call can be placed on hold till the concerned or right person is available to answer the call. This feature is highly beneficial as it allows customer service teams to answer or make priority calls, while the others are parked to be answered later. A phone conversation can be continued without interruption even if phone lines are switched.
10. Call Presence
It is easy to annoy your customers. And one of the topmost things that put customers off is when they call a business number and are transferred to a busy line. This irritant can be done away with if your VoIP software is powered by Call Presence. This feature gives businesses visibility into the phone status of everyone in their organization. With just one quick look, they get a clear idea of which agent is busy handling a call and who is free to take up a call.
11. Call Queuing
This feature is critical for businesses like contact centers that receive calls in huge volumes, as it enables them to automate the distribution of incoming calls. Using this feature, they can organize their staff and their departments into groups to effectively handle all inbound calls. It is beneficial for customers as well as call queuing drastically reduces waiting time and allows customer service executives to handle more calls.
12. Call Pulling
This feature provides organizations the power to move a phone conversation from one device to another without a glitch. Customer service executives can switch devices and carry their conversations even when they are on the move. For instance, a customer service agent may receive a call on a laptop which they can move to their smartphone without the customer even noticing.
13. Busy Lamp Field
This is an extremely handy feature that enables organizations to determine which of their customer service agents are available to take a call. Using the power of SIP, the VoIP phone system can determine whether a certain phone line is busy. If so, light is displayed on your VoIP phone for that particular line. While most service providers offer BLF as a default feature, it may have to be manually set up to use.
14. IVR
The Interactive Voice Response (IVR) feature allows customers to listen and interact with a company’s real-time voice menu. The caller can pick from several options by either pressing certain digits on their dial pad or by interacting verbally with the service.
15. Mobile App
VoIP business solutions are powered more by software than hardware. This means enterprises can install their voice app on any internet-enabled device – be it a desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. VoIP on mobile apps has revolutionized business communication as employees can connect and collaborate with their teammates remotely as well as on the go.
16. Number Porting
Do you have a phone number from your pre-VoIP days that your customers know backward and you don’t want to forego? Custom VoIP solutions have you covered. They are all businesses to retain old numbers which could belong to any service provider. These numbers can be easily ported to the new VoIP systems and thus rid organizations of the trouble of alerting their existing customers about a number change.
17. SIP Trunking
Session Initiation Protocol or SIP trunking provisions VoIP connectivity between an on-premise and a PSTN (public switched telephone network) system. SIP has become one of the most common protocols to be used in VoIP technology, as this application layer protocol works in conjunction with other such protocols to control multimedia communication sessions over the internet.
18. Softphone
With softphones, business communication has gone completely virtual. A softphone is not a physical phone. It’s a software program or app that uses VoIP to make and receive calls over the Internet. It’s designed to have a user interface that mimics traditional phones. The software program can be installed on any communication device, and it works as a virtual phone that allows you to call any telephone number without needing a physical telephone. All you need is an internet connection, a laptop, or a mobile device.
19. Three-way Calling or Conference Bridge
Imagine your business runs into a problem that cannot be resolved by two people collaborating. You need that third key person to come on board to resolve the issue. In such a scenario, VoIP’s three-way calling is just what the doctor ordered for you. This feature allows three parties to come on a call together to resolve business glitches in a faster, and more productive manner.
20. Priority Alerts
This is an advanced VoIP feature that gives users key intelligence and insights into every incoming call. For instance, a user can configure the phone to ring with a specific tone when a specific, high-priority or valued customer is calling. This way your customer service executives are well prepared for important incoming calls and can bring up all the relevant information needed to stay on top of the conversation.
21. Push-to-Talk
This VoIP feature essentially works like a traditional intercom system. All a user does is push a button to connect with colleagues and get instant and important updates from them. This avoids the hassle of dialing long-drawn numbers and therefore, boosts organizational productivity.
22. Speed Dial
If there is a number that you call several times a day for your business-related tasks then you can simply put it on speed dial. This way, you have to dial a shorter number sequence to reach the person almost instantly, without hunting out the number from your contact list.
23. Voicemail
There may be many instances when you are unable to answer a call. Fret not, as you will never miss out on an important customer call with VoIP’s voicemail feature. It provides callers with the facility to leave a message for you on voicemail. This also makes callers feel important and allows you to respond to a customer even though you missed their call. VoIP’s voicemail allows callers to leave short audio messages, after which the agent is notified about the message.
24. Voicemail Forwarding
At times a voicemail could be received on a certain device while the customer service executive was using another device. Alternatively, a voicemail message might have to be sent to an entire group of people. Both these options can be enabled using voicemail forwarding.
25. Voicemail to Email
In today’s cut-throat business environment, it is not advisable to leave voicemail messages unattended for very long. This is where VoIP’s voicemail to email comes in handy for enterprises, as it automatically sends voicemail messages to the inbox of agents so that they can take swift action on it.
26. Voicemail to Text
When you are listening to a voicemail message, it is easy to miss out on key details like names, numbers, addresses, and other relevant information. VoIP resolves this issue with its voicemail to text transcription feature. This way you have your voicemail message in the form of a text, making it easier for you to take appropriate action on the call.
27. E911
This is VoIP’s version of the emergency 911 service. Since traditional PSTN landlines are registered to a single location, they are synced to emergency call services by default. However, this service is not available for internet phones. However, with Enhanced 911, location accuracy is provided to internet phones using VoIP location registration and other technologies. E911 efficiency is comparable to that provided by landline phones. VoIP service providers usually charge a minimal fee to provide this service.
28. Hot Desking
Enterprises that avail of this feature don’t have to keep their contact center agents tied to one workstation. They could be seated anywhere and all their saved recordings and notes will move them to the location from where they sign in from. This is usually a default feature that comes free with VoIP services.
29. Video Conferencing
When people work out of remote locations as they did during the pandemic, video conferencing can be a vital tool in helping them communicate and collaborate effectively. They can conduct face-to-face online meetings to work seamlessly. Product demos and contract negotiations can become smooth sailing events when you are on a video conference platform.
30. VoIP Switchboard
This is a control panel that is used to receive, send, and transfer calls via the internet. Using this feature, your workforce can keep communication and collaboration going even when they are working from a remote location or are on the go.
We are still not done with listing the exhaustive features that power VoIP phone systems. Here are 90 more exciting VoIP software development features to look out for.
