Surviving Disasters with VoIP

For residents of the United Kingdom, poor weather is nothing new. And yet the rain that lashed the nation a few days ago is bound to leave a lasting impression. Blamed on the humid air from the remnants of Hurricane Humberto, the heavy rain brought business on many English streets to a halt.

Even the houses of parliament were not exempted from the flooding. While sports fanatics were undoubtedly offended by the disruption the rain brought to the cricket country championship and the UCI Road World Championship, small and medium-sized companies in Birmingham, London and Liverpool had a lot more cause to weep.

Weather phenomena of this sort are not kind to conventional communication systems. You wouldn’t be wrong in assuming that the heavy downpour in England crippled many businesses. Obviously, if the rain prevented your employees from opening your business premises, you can also assume that it kept customers from knocking on your door.

But that won’t stop them from calling. After all, we live in the information age, and a larger percentage of transactions than you realise are actually executed over the phone. So what do you think happened to those businesses in London, Liverpool and Birmingham during the heavy downpour?

When those customers called only to find that the phone lines were either down or no one was around to answer, do you think they called back? Customers are not necessarily callous human beings. But it isn’t their job to worry about the inconveniences that keep businesses like yours from picking their calls and solving their problems.

To the average consumer, your business is just a tool that exists to satisfy their needs. And if it cannot do that, it serves no purpose, in which case they will happily run to your competitor.

Now, some of you are going to argue that it is unfair for consumers to expect your business to keep operating even in light of the heavy rain. But anyone who is making that argument doesn’t realise that heavy rain can only cripple your business if you are still bound to the traditional forms of communication.

Why do you think we exist? We know that a significant portion of the population is still married to the traditional phone system. But we keep pushing VoIP technology because it is the most versatile communication system in the world.

Turn your attention back to these thunderstorms. If you had the misfortune of encountering floods in and around your business premises, here are all the ways VoIP would have transformed your situation:

1. If your main phone lines are down but you have a backup communication system, a VoIP Phone System will enable you to redirect every incoming call towards your backup lines. This solution is perfect for companies that have multiple offices in different locations.

If one branch is crippled, with VoIP, you can direct all your calls to the nearest convenient branch.

2. Even if you are not fortunate enough to possess multiple branches for your business, a disaster recovery call routing plan  can still work for you. Just route all the calls to your mobile phone, tablet, or any other internet-enabled device within your reach. VoIP phone systems are flexible. Numbers are not fixed to any one device. As such, you can receive your phone calls from any location.

The fact that you cannot get to your office won’t keep you from engaging the customers who call your business line.

3. But is it enough to route all your customer calls to your personal mobile phone? If you manage a sizable firm with a decent number of call agents, how are you expected to field so many customers’ calls on your own from your personal mobile phone?

Well, you don’t have to. That is the added beauty of VoIP. If routing calls to your personal number has overwhelmed you, you have the option of routing your customer calls to various other destinations. Just turn your employees into remote workers.

If they can’t get to the office to answer your phones, redirect all the customer calls to their personal numbers. VoIP is that simple. It can be that effective communication tool.

4. Don’t forget about the call queue. Even if your other employees have been so thoroughly inconvenienced by the rain that they cannot field customer calls from home, our VoIP systems will enable you to automatically add customers to a queue.

This will give you the breathing room you need to personally ensure that all your callers’ needs are met even if you’re alone. If that isn’t enough, you have voicemail to fall back on.

VoIP is like no other communication system in the world. While so many businesses have seen their operations grind to a halt because of the rain, others continue to serve their customers because they had the foresight to install VoIP.

At VoIPer, you have no excuse during flooding. Get yourself a VoIP service today and enjoy the benefits that comes after. Simply call our agents who are ready to help on 0345 900 0181 or request a call back.