Small Business New Year’s Resolutions

On January 4, 2021
6:17 pm
Filed under Learning, Live Receptionist, Tips and Tricks

The end of the year is traditionally the perfect time to make plans for the coming year. The most popular New Year’s resolutions are health and fitness related, such as working out more, quitting smoking, eating healthier meals, taking up meditation, etc. Then there are some who have a different approach to New Year’s resolutions, making them not only about improving themselves, but their families (“being a better father”), their communities (“volunteering once a month”), or their work (“being a better manager”). Deciding to improve your performance at work can actually help you with all your other resolutions because any

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was created in 1996 to modernize the flow of healthcare information. It stipulates how all personal data maintained by the healthcare and healthcare insurance industries should be protected from fraud and theft. It also addresses limitations on healthcare insurance coverage. All healthcare and healthcare insurance industries are required to comply with HIPAA guidelines and can expect to be audited by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), an organization within the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). HIPAA compliance should be taken very seriously, as violations can carry civil or even

Is Your Business Prepared for a Remote Workforce? Today’s workforce looks vastly different from that of just a decade ago. More companies are not only allowing employees to work from home, but they are encouraging it. In a recent report by FlexJobs and Global Workplace Analytics, remote work was found to have increased by 44 percent over the last five years and 91 percent in the past decade. Today, 4.7 million people, 3.4 percent of the U.S. population, now work from home. A FlexJob survey discovered that 74 percent of respondents believe flexible working has “become the new normal.”

The world of business today is heavily driven by customer feedback – they have the ability to leave reviews, write blog posts, and share stories through social media. So connecting with these customers and supporting their needs has a huge effect on client satisfaction and business success. Customer service has also been growing and evolving with new technology. But talking to customers on the phone remains one of the most important practices for a customer support team. So how can customer support teams improve their phone interactions to ensure client happiness? Keep reading for our customer support best practices for answering the

Having reliable communication is a very important part of running a business. Customers and business partners need to be able to contact you. So what’s the best type of phone to get to make sure you’re always reachable? This will depend on the specific needs of your business. Keep reading to check out the pros and cons of the best small business phone systems. Types of Phone Systems There are several phone systems to choose from, depending on the needs of your business. We will discuss all the advantages and drawbacks of a few different options to find out what

Only one third of businesses use some form of texting to communicate with their customers today. This is a hugely untapped business advantage. Here are ten tips on how Phone.com helps you use text messaging (SMS) in your business: 1. Text messaging is included for free with all Phone.com plans. 2. All Phone.com phone numbers (toll free and local) are textable and can start sending and receiving text messages today. 3. Try my.phone.com – this new web-based user interface allows you and your staff to easily send and

To menu or not to menu? That is the question. But not really. If you’re a business with a business phone number, you’ll want to make sure your VoIP menu is set up for success. What’s great about the phone menu is it’s completely customizable, so you control how much or how little options you give customers when they call into your company. It all depends on your customer base or potential new business, so do your due diligence and get that research done prior. In the

The holidays are here. And so is the stress. As a small business owner, you shouldn’t have to worry about a phone that’s ringing off the hook. So what’s an easy solution to reduce the business cortisol levels? A call handling feature from your VoIP phone service. Just remember: you’re not the only one stressed. Customers calling into companies are sometimes frustrated before they even pick up the phone. And if they’re experiencing long wait times, poor call quality, or complex menus that lead to

We’re all distracted. I’m distracted even writing this. With Slack messages and email, baby pictures, Instagram, laundry, and the unending news cycle. Plus a whole lot more. A CareerBuilder survey back in 2016 found that after questioning just over 3,000 employees, 66% said they check or use their phone several times a day at work and 65% said they spend at work time for non-work personal messaging. The point is: it’s hard to carve out productivity on some days as opposed to others, especially for those of us who primarily work on our phones or absolutely need to

Voicemails can feel a bit archaic. We hardly spend time on the phone as is these days, but there’s something especially clunky and old fashioned about listening from start to finish to a voice message. Without voicemail transcription, you’re stuck in a certain format and unable to scan through the message like you would a text or Slack message, or even email. Sometimes, even, your caller’s connection isn’t so great, so you’re stuck listening to a garbled indecipherable message. That leads to you listening over and over to a voice message with a pen and paper like you’re

Work is busy. And as a small business owner, work is everything. But is your business phone system working for you? Your work phone may not be something you stop to think about often. But if you’re using a voice-only legacy phone system, chances are you’re not only losing money, you’re losing out on a slew of features that could make your life, and the life of your employees, a whole lot easier. You’ve probably heard of VoIP—voice over internet protocol (phone service over the internet)—but you may not be familiar with what it is and how it

For a small business, figuring out your marketing strategy early on is imperative to success. While it’s can be great visibility to get your ads into print magazines or on the subway, not everyone has that kind of budget. In this mobile day and age, it’s an easy and generally low cost option to widen your reach with video marketing. It’s become almost an inexplicably essential tool for mobile-oriented businesses, or any businesses for that matter, to use video. So here are five reasons why you should be using video in your marketing strategy. Reach far and wide Just

Maybe it’s the awkward acronym. Maybe it’s because it sounds super technical and people aren’t exactly sure what it means. Whatever it is, VoIP has been around for decades, yet, like your neighbor’s sweet dog that barks wildly every time you walk by (OMG), is misunderstood. We thought we’d take a few minutes to pull back the curtain and debunk some common VoIP myths. Because a myth shouldn’t hold you back from one of the best, easiest, most affordable things you can do to boost your small business, right? Right! Before we get started, what’s VoIP anyway?

Some days are just plain harder to get up the gusto for work. It’s like every day is a Monday and you’re sloshing through the mud trying to get any sort of momentum. This happens to sales people too, whether you’re a veteran or newbie. But, after all, you have to pick up the phone. So here are some tips to get over your Monday (or any day) sales call blues. Don’t be “Sales Voice-y”, be natural Here’s an easy one. Just be yourself. If you feel like you’re putting it on, other people are going to pick

two people looking at collaboration tools in the office

In a startup or small business, people sometimes have to wear many hats. That means an increase in responsibilities and bigger workloads and, a lot of times, more stress. The work day can seem to go by at break-neck pace week in and week out. Emails fly around like mosquitoes, vendors and employees are spread out throughout the country and the world, and you need an answer on something now. How do you keep everything together? Easy! A collaboration tool, like Slack, Hive, Google Hangouts, and a whole bunch more. These tools, a mixture of free and paid software,

So you’re finally ready for VoIP because its mind-blowing features are going to supercharge your small business. (Not to mention let you say goodbye to fax machines forever. And, if you so choose, never actually listen to another voicemail again.) When you’re this excited, it’s easy to get hasty and opt for whatever’s cheapest, especially when you’re on a tight budget. But before you choose a service provider, you need to make sure it’s the best fit for you and your business. We know it’s not always easy to ask the right questions when you’re new to

If you work in the medical field—or your clients are in the medical field—you already know the importance of HIPAA compliance. But do you know your VoIP provider needs to be HIPAA compliant as well? Business phone systems don’t always come to mind when it comes to safeguarding Protected Health Information (commonly known as PHI). But if you’re using a VoIP communication system, or planning to, the digital technology that powers it also puts electronic PHI (ePHI) at risk. That’s why it’s absolutely essential your VoIP provider is HIPAA compliant. What’s at risk with a non-HIPAA compliant VoIP provider? When

small business owner using smartphone for work

So you’re an entrepreneur. Maybe you own a small business. And your smartphone’s become…your work phone. The line between your personal life and career is so blurred you can barely even see it. But how do you know when it’s too much? And what can you do about it? The answer is surprisingly simple. (And doesn’t require sending your phone to the International Space Station. Or, you know, running it over with your car.) It’s a little something called VoIP: voice over internet protocol, or, in layman’s terms, phone service over the internet. We’re here to identify common problems