BUSINESS TELEPHONE SYSTEMS (RINGCENTRAL) TIPS AND TRICKS
One of the most powerful tools of business telephone systems is its ability to create business rules: during business hours, after hours and just about any time / day that you specify.
TIP #1 ANSWER CALL BY A LIVE ATTENDANT
Unfortunately, this is not so intuitive within some of the business telephone systems like Ringcentral’s documentation. The default is set for the automated introductory greeting to answer the call. In order to change the default setting:
1) Select Answering Mode to “Full Call Control”
2) Screen my calls to Play Introductory Greeting – “No – Play Music on Hold Only
3) Fill in the rest of the options based on your specific next steps.
Note: This rule basically says, “When a call is received, play music on hold until someone picks up. The music on hold is a custom song by “Eric Daniels – Enter the Action.” Interrupt the music every 15 seconds with “Thank you. Stay on the line.” Wait 15 second before forwarding the call to the next receptionist’s phone #. If he/she does not pick up, then send messages to voice mail
TIP #2 CREATE ANY CUSTOM GREETING
Any greeting can be customized with your own voice and / or music. However, what’s not so clear is how to do it. Follow these instructions:
1) Click on the My Settings Tab.
2) Select Settings from the left side tab.
3) Choose “New” from the Greetings Rule selection.”
4) On the next page, choose “Import / Record with Microphone.”
TIP: It’s easy to record directly into your PC microphone or a dedicated headset. However, you can also record a greeting and save it as a .WAV file and then import it into the greetings selection that you want to customize.
This works extremely well if you know someone who has that special voice that will make all the difference to your company’s persona.
We, in fact, had a colleague who also happened to be a voice over professional, record all of our greetings. We then converted them to .WAV files with Audacity and uploaded them to our service.
TIP #3 THE SOFT PHONE
The soft phone is one of the most unique components of business telephone systems . Essentially it allows you to make or receive phone calls. Bear in mind, though, if you select the 1 line system, only one soft phone user can dial out at a time.
Also, the Macintosh version of the soft phone is slightly less functional than the PC version.
Witness these two versions of the soft phone. On the Mac, you’re limited to this version. But, on the PC, under menu, options, you can make your call controller look like this, which is much cooler.
In the Mac version the “menu” button is simply an icon. But, in the PC version, “menu” actually an item that you can select.
TIP #4 TRANSFERRING A CALL TO AN EXTENSION
Each setup is given a certain number of extensions. These extensions can be customized
any way that you want. And, in fact, each extension can have their own business rules,
hours of “operations” and much more.
The “operator” has the ability to transfer calls to any extension in your particular setup. If
you do not have a live operator, then the automated greeting can be recorded to give the
caller the option to dial an extension for a company directory.
To transfer a call from a live operator or even from whomever picks up the phone:
1) Put the caller on hold by pressing (# #)
2) Press (*) for “more options”
3) Press 1 to “transfer this call”
4) Enter the destination extension or telephone # and press #
EXAMPLE to transfer to Extension 105: ##, *, 1, 105#
Note: This feature really makes you look like a BIG company. The caller does not know that
the call can be forwarded within your physical boundaries or clear across the world. It’s all
virtual!
TIP #5 HUNTING FOR SOMEONE TO ANSWER
This feature is really cool and it’s set up just like the big dedicated PBX systems. Essentially
the idea is to keep searching for someone who will answer the caller. This is called the
hunting feature.
It’s found under “My Settings” from the main business telephone systems menu. This is a simple example
that says to forward my calls to Marina’s MJ and ring 4 times before going to the next
option.
In this example, you can actually have as many “active” phone numbers to ring in sequence
or simultaneously as you want. This is a great option, if you have multiple people that you
want to give the ability to “answer” the call before it goes into voice mail.
TIP #6 CONTROLLING SOFT PHONE OUTBOUND CALLS
A slightly confusing option that was not easy to find is “who controls the soft phone
outbound calls?” In this example, the “PC MacBook5-1” is the person who has the controls
of the soft phone for outbound calls. However, you can reassign controls to anyone who has
downloaded the soft phone within you company, by clicking the “reassign” button.
This feature can be found from the My Settings tab in the main menu and selecting “Show
All Digital Lines.”
TIP #7 MUSIC ON HOLD OR ADVERTISING?
Music on hold is a little misleading. The “on hold” music doesn’t have to be music at all. In
fact, it could easily be a voice message. You can use each “hold” music as a advertising for a
product or to remind someone to take some sort of action.
The way to change the “on hold” message or music is to select new and either record via
your computers mic or to import a .WAV file as seen before in greetings. In the above
example, we have celebrity music as the “on hold” music.
NOTE: The business telephone systems require that the .WAV files be in a certain format, kHz, etc. Check the
actual documentation before uploading your files.
