7 Zoom Phone (VoIP) Tips to Skyrocket Productivity

You’re feverishly tapping your fingers on your thigh.

Looking down at your smartwatch. Notifications and reminders keep alerting you to the next meeting, email, missed calls…

You’ve been waiting what seems a lifetime in the brightly lit food court.

The bloke in front is ordering black bean beef, honey chicken, and rice. The server heaps spoonfuls onto the plastic plate, buckling under the weight.

Time is ticking away.

It’s 1.28 pm.

Your next Zoom meeting starts in just 2 minutes. So you know there is little chance of dashing upstairs for it. 

Finally, the bloke is done, and you order some Singapore noodles. Now juggling a plate of steaming (who are we kidding)…lukewarm…noodles, you find the quietest place to dial in.

It isn’t ideal, but you’re thankful you can make the call and turn off the video so you can woof down your lunch.

The pandemic has shown the need for companies and businesses to be able to operate anywhere. Staying connected with employees and clients is critical in today’s digital workplace. 

Fortunately, various collaborative tools like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 have powered local businesses over the last few years. And coupled with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone systems, these platforms and apps have become essential to running a modern digital office. 

Zoom Phone (VoIP) allows companies to remain in touch with customers and prospects no matter where employees are located. By using Zoom Phone (VoIP), your business can guarantee a seamless customer experience no matter where your team is working. 

Imagine discussing a proposal with a traditional landline phone. You have Gary ringing in from Brunswick, Nadia, who is in Hawthorn and the client calling from Melbourne CBD. Not only was it inefficient, but it was also costly to use a teleconference service. 

82% of companies have reported significant cost savings by implementing Zoom Phone (VoIP), according to a study by Microsoft.

And while the pandemic has accelerated the use of Zoom Phone (VoIP), your business must optimise it to be efficient and provide an exceptional customer experience. You need to know how to minimise call dropouts, deal with low bandwidth, and leverage all the features Zoom Phone offers. 

Here are our top 7 tips to ensure you get the most from Zoom Phone (VoIP):

1. Check your network capabilities

You must check that your network can handle the additional bandwidth to use the Zoom Phone (VoIP) system. It may need adjustment to deal with increased demand which your IT administrator or managed service provider can assist with. 

Things to keep in mind include the jitter and packet loss. Additionally, review router settings to ensure they can handle peak traffic times. One way to know if you are having issues is if your team experiences dropped calls or choppy audio. Both can be resolved by adjusting network hardware and/or increasing your ISP bandwidth.

2. Prioritise Zoom Phone (VoIP) using rules

Quality of Service (QoS) is a router settings area that you determine which traffic is most important. When you don’t have QoS, it can lead to resource issues. Such as, a large cloud backup could kick in and interrupt your calls because it’s using bandwidth.

QoS establishes “traffic lanes” that give priority to specific functions. So, for example, you’ll want to prioritise your Zoom Phone (VoIP) software to ensure it receives the bandwidth it needs. And this will avoid issues with less critical processes using bandwidth. 

By using QoS, you can offer a smooth, reliable call experience for your team and customers. 

3. Invest in quality headsets for better audio  

Hands down, poor audio quality ruins a customer’s experience during a call. You know we’ve all been there, and getting frustrated is easy when you can’t hear the other person speaking. Asides from the frustration with an interrupted call, it looks unprofessional. 

Ensuring your business invests in high-quality headsets to offer customers a positive experience when in-call. 

4. You can set up departments and ring groups

With Zoom Phone (VoIP), you can set up ring groups which mean when a customer calls, all phones in that department or area ring. So, for example, you set up department groups (e.g. for accounting, customer support or marketing). And then you include employee extensions.

So if a customer is trying to contact your accounts team and the person’s extension they dialled is busy, the entire department group rings, ensuring the call does not go unanswered. 

Zoom Phone (VoIP) provides a better call experience and helps reduce wait time as the first available employee answers the call. In addition, it removes the need for the customer to leave a voicemail for someone to return their call.

5. Create a company directory

Auto assistants are beneficial, and nearly all VoIP systems have them. To get started, you need to set up your company directory and record messages to prompt the caller.

For example, you can record a message that prompts them to input the last name of the person they are calling. Then, the call can be routed to a specific department if they aren’t calling a particular person.

Although setting up a company directory may take some time, it’s beneficial over the long run. You will no longer need to have someone routing every call at reception. And your customers will be in contact with the person or department they are calling quicker. 

By spending time setting up the company directory, your business will save money and improve productivity and customer satisfaction.

6. Use the employee’s voicemail and transcribe it to email

For many employees, when a long meeting ends, checking their voicemail is the last thing they want to do. So imagine how productive and happy your team will be with an automatic transcript of their voicemails sent directly to their email.

With Zoom Phone (VoIP), you can automatically transcribe voicemails into emails. Once transcribed, the voicemail is emailed to the recipient. You are removing the need to listen to endless voicemails and decide who to call back first. 

For some VoIP systems, you can also have the voicemails transcribed and sent to your employees via SMS. 

7. Invest in training your employees

Crucially, take the time to train your employees on effectively using a VoIP system. It’s a mistake not to invest in training and demonstrate all the features and best practices for using Zoom Phone. You leave your business exposed to poor customer experience and limit productivity gains by not training your teams. 

Improve your customer and employee experience

Do you need help revamping your business’s phone system? How can you ensure Zoom Phone or VoIP is working for you? Schedule a call for a no-obligation discussion.