Apr 10, 2018 | Business SIP Trunking, Online Fax, SIP TRUNKING, SMS
Hangup Active Calls from Asterisk CLI
Your office phone is not just a medium to send and receive phone calls. You can now use it for phone calls, SMS and Fax!
With the fast changing market trends and extremely competitive environment it has now become evident to businesses that communication is the key. While communication has always been an integral part of the business strategy its now when communication needs to be fast, efficient, and moreover transparent. To achieve all of this businesses rely on technology and their first question is How much is it going to cost? Will these tools give me the much needed control? And often the confusion is what to pick and what to leave. But not anymore!
How does DIDforSale simplify communication channels for businesses?
At DIDforSale we listened to our clients and came up with a solution that combines all of their communication channels. Your business phone number be it the Vanity Phone Number, Toll Free Number or Local Phone Number can now be used for inbound and outbound phone calls, send and receive SMS and send and receive Fax. That is true one primary channel that can take care of three most important communication mediums.
How can business phone number be used for phone calls, SMS and Fax?
Its simple, All of the phone numbers from DIDforSale are SMS enabled and can be configured for online fax service. Once you have an account with us you can log into your portal and manage how you want to use your office phone number. To use SMS service by default all of the phone numbers from DIDforSale are SMS enabled but you can choose to disable it if you do not wish to use it or if you decide to use it only on certain phone numbers. In the similar way you can follow instruction on how to set up your business phone for fax service and can configure only the phone numbers you choose.
What are the benefits of using business phone number for phone calls, SMS and Fax?
While Telephone’s have been serving the prime purpose of communication for years and years, in the recent years with VoIP Telephones have have taken a new status. They are now not just a medium to make or receive phone calls.
Having multiple resources can result into complicated management of resources. Have one source requires less management, transparency into communication channels, easy access and can be cost effective.
Since there is no need of additional hardware, You can access your system from anywhere anytime. You can login and without any interruptions send/receive calls, SMS or Fax when you are out of office.
Traditionally to be able to send or receive fax businesses had to invest into bulky expensive fax machines. With Online fax service there is no need for physical machines or hardwired fax connections.
Having single login doesn’t just makes it easy but more than that gives you control over your communication mediums. You can now easily access your past call logs, fax logs or SMS logs .
Learn more about our Products
Mar 20, 2018 | Call Tracking
Realtors Shifting to Call Tracking for Effective Marketing
Like other private sectors Real Estate has also noticed some recent shift in marketing trends. Digital marketing has taken over the majority of the market share. Per the recent survey data released by the National Association of Realtors more than half of the home buyers find their property via internet. Which means there is a shift in how buyers traditionally primarily relied on realtors to find homes.
With the increased access to internet/web home buyers are now turning to web first. So what does this mean to the Real Estate industry? Does it matter whether you are independent realtor or a big firm?
Well what really matters is how effectively you have planned your marketing strategy for the digital marketing age. And how do you determine which marketing strategy is most beneficial for you and are you getting the best return on your investment?
The answer to all of your questions is —–
Call Tracking
Let us start off by defining what call tracking is? Well call tracking is a method that allows you to track the source of your call.
This is how is works:-
Say you have put together a marketing plan for your next listing. And here is a list of all the places where you are going to advertise your listing.
- Newspaper (local newspaper)
- Flyer (door to door distribution)
- Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)
- Yard Sign (put around the neighborhood)
- Broadcast (radio or local channel)
- Internet listings (landing page, web listings like redfinn/trulia/zillow, local listings)
- email marketing
- SMS marketing
Now that you have advertised at every possible place your phone is sure going to start ringing and you are getting your much desired clients. Well every single form of marketing comes with some cost. So with what you have can you tell which of these source has been most beneficial for you? And how can you market even more efficiently by getting the best ROI? Call Tracking will help answer all these questions. This is how it works.
Attach a unique phone number to each of your marketing media and when you get call you can tell where most of your callers are calling from.
How to implement Call Tracking:-
Step 1 :
Get unique local phone number, tollfree number or vanity number for each of your marketing campaign.
Step 2
With all your campaigns out there your phone is going to get busy. Route your calls by ad source, time of the day and listing.
Step 3
Record data (number dialed, caller phone#, etc) for each of your inbound call. With unique phone number it will be easy to track campaigns.
Step 4
Analyze recorded data to evaluate successful campaign source and plan your future marketing investments.
Learn more about our Products
Aug 5, 2015 | All About VoIP
With the internet becoming one of the most used facets of business today, VoIP has gained a huge foothold in the world of Internet. While there are always improvements to be made in all systems, and we see this with the evolution of Windows products, and Apples iTunes, voice is not to be left behind.
While the protocol for voice will not change much, it has become more secure, and with each passing day there are more and more applications written to enable extra functionality out of your VoIP systems.
Dig Deep with CDR:- From CDR (call detail recording) which can be as simple as utilizing the existing database the server uses, to creating and using an entirely different database, and importing data. Adding graphics, and a sleek interface to the data, this can be a simple tool to deploy with powerful data that can show the times of your highest call volume all the way down to what countries called you, or who is calling which country and when.
Extension Managers:- Extension managers give you more flexibility and ease in managing user extensions and can even allow you to associate specific users with specific extensions, and allow them levels of access to all or specific extensions.
IVR Trees :- IVR Trees have been in use since before VoIP, but with VoIP, we are able to do so much more with IVR Trees, as well as music on hold, or even a simple message or advertisement for callers sitting on hold, or in a queue waiting on their call to be answered. Now, while we can do all these things to an IVR, the power is not actually behind your VoIP system, but the server it runs on, and as we progress the market for applications to interface with VoIP systems increases, and your choices grow.
Just as when Apple decidedly changed the music industry with the release of the ipod, and expanded with the iphone, the movement within the VoIP industry, while not as high profile as Apple or Windows events, is always changing and evolving, and the room to create your own custom system from what we like to describe as modules is almost never ending
As more and more companies choose to utilize VoIP, the demand for utilizing aspects of the system like Voicemail to email, and faxes to PDF, will increase the demand for more robust software and reporting tools for business to track the ways in which the system is utilized, and I can foresee the future where portions may even be monetized into salable ad space to help generate revenue for the companies that use the system.
While SIP trunk providers are limited due to the finite numbers available, service providers and the offerings will continue to grow, offering companies who do not want to install, run and manage their own voice servers, all the services wrapped into a bundle right along with the DID’s for the company. The vast amount of data that can be gathered via VoIP, will be of great value to all companies in making marketing or financial decisions, and due to that the growth in how that data is gathered and displayed is going to provide a huge growth in the IT field as a whole, from programmers and developers to hosted solution providers and techs at all levels.
Aug 4, 2015 | All About VoIP
VoIP is much discussed technology around. We hear everyone talk about benefits and opportunities with VoIP. But one thing which is not much discussed is :-
Does VoIP have any limitations? If yes then What kind of limitations?
There really are few limitations, VOIP is one of the most flexible phone systems out there. Your only going to limit yourself based on the money you want to spend, and how deep you want to dive into configuring your own system.
Probably the biggest obstacle you will run into is your internet connection, and if you utilize it for data and your SIP trunk, you can run into latency issues, however this is not something directly related to VOIP. This would be more of a 3rd party type issue, and if you are aware of what you will need when it comes to the connectivity side, you should not have any issues.
On the VOIP side, there are so many flavors and distributions as well as providers, the possibilities are almost endless. While choosing a hosted solution, you will have limits on how many conference rooms you might be able to have, you may not have the option to forward voicemail to email, your IVR tree may be limited, but again, for more money, you can always remove those limitations.
When configuring your own VOIP system, and simply outsourcing the internet connection and SIP trunk, you can remove just about every limitation. Again, not all of them, but the ones that are left again, relate to hardware and money, as well as office footprint. Current systems can handle 100+ calls simultaneously, are you willing to spend the money on the switches and handsets to handle 100+ handsets? Can you have your ISP provide the needed bandwidth? Is there room in the office for all the equipment?
Typically we see between 40-50 handsets in a typical mid-size business. I currently have a customer with just shy of 50 handsets, spread throughout the United States, and 1 single server located in Chicago. The system is extremely flexible and proven solid and reliable. Not only will your own system handle the calls, IVR trees, and ring groups, voicemails, it can, and when configured, alert you to updates, provide reports on calls, times of calls, inbound/outbound calls, to what countries etc. You don’t have to wait on a invoice from a provider or request the information, all of that is contained within the system itself.
The other limitations you may actually have are more than likely software dependent. While I utilize open source PBX systems, running over a Linux operating system, there are proprietary systems out there, such as Cisco, and Microsoft. The fact is you will more than likely be utilizing support when using those types of systems, and not running or installing on your own, but, again, you will hit limitations imposed by the company your dealing with. And it is not that these are deal breaking limitations, but having spent the last year and a half administering phone systems, the limitations are in place to ensure quality service, and reliability, not to hinder use of the system. I should also point out, that when paying for this service, while you may have extra charges to increase conference rooms, or increase and IVR tree, or alert to voicemails via email, most will supply a far more user friendly detail records available in a web interface.
Choosing to use a provider, or to do it yourself, understand and realize, that this is not, as with anything going to have 100% up time. While your side, or the provider can remain up, there are so many other places for issues to arise as well. Switch’s, core routers in major data centers, the receiver of the calls you make, while these remain very scant in occurrence, they can happen, and it does not, and should not reflect negatively on VOIP systems. Today we are heavily reliant on the internet and network connectivity, and will always face challenges to keep the information flowing, but in the world of phone systems, VOIP and SIP trunks are flexible and reliable for all of today’s business!
Local Phone Numbers for your Business
Get the SIP Trunking for your business, we guarantee best price, best coverage and Free Technical Support for your PBX.
Try it for Free Now!
