I never want to take a call without Vocalocity Desktop so I’ve further automated it to launch whenever I start up my computer.  Click here for instructions on how to automatically launch this (or any) application.

For more information on Vocalocity Desktop, check out these blog posts:
Vocalocity Desktop and Telecommuting
Make Your VoIP Phone Work Smarter, Not Harder

About Chris Rabbu

Chris Rabbu is the Vice President of Marketing, Lead Generation at Vocalocity, the fastest growing provider of cloud-hosted VoIP phone systems for business. He resides in Atlanta, GA and is working on his tennis serve when not dreaming up ridiculously effective marketing campaigns.

Over the past several years, we’ve rolled out several innovative products for our customers including the Vocalocity Mobile apps for iPhone and Android, Company Call Recording and – most recently – Call Monitoring which won the INTERNET TELEPHONY Product of the Year award for 2012.

Call Monitoring is a service that allows authorized account holders to monitor (listen in on), whisper (only the employee can hear them) or barge (both callers can hear a supervisor, in the event that they need to facilitate a conversation) into a phone call.

This business-class phone service feature is invaluable for sales or support organizations who need to maintain a high standard of quality. This add-on service allows only authorized account holders to support – in real time – their team, ensuring that each and every call is handled professionally and within a set of standards / guidelines. Nathaniel diligently worked with our team of technologists to ensure that the product met customers’ demands, passed a rigorous QA process and was made available on time.

And although the Rookie award went to a Product Manager with fewer than three years of dedicated product management experience, Nathaniel is no freshman to Vocalocity’s features or customer experience. He’s been with the company for over five years, and his unique blend of experiences with customer satisfaction, support, product development and production gives him an unparalleled advantage with the successful deployment of our products.

Based on the work Nathaniel has done with Vocalocity’s Product team, these releases have helped our customers work smarter, faster and more flexibly from their desks or smartphones to stay in touch and be competitive in their field. Congratulations, Nathaniel!

About Amalia Kallen Gonzales

Kallen is the Manager of Strategic Content at Vocalocity and works with the Product and Marketing team to help promote all of Vocalocity's great new VoIP features.

As you may recall from our post during Hurricane Sandy, there are a number of features and options you can modify to keep your phone system up and running – even if your Internet goes down.

We used these settings to keep our entire office operational during the Atlanta snow and ice storm of 2011, and our customers have used these included features to keep their offices running during storms, illness or travel. Whatever’s keeping you away from the office, we have a way to keep you connected.

Top 6 Features to Stay Connected When Out of the Office for an Emergency

Plug and Play Phones: It’s easy to take your phones home with you. Just unplug your phone from your desk and plug it back in to an Internet jack and power source at home.

Call Continuity: What if your Internet is down? In this case, VoIP calls won’t work but you can configure your system to forward all business calls to your cell phone. Just remember, you must set up Call Continuity from your Admin Portal for it to work – be sure to do this while you still have power and access to the Internet.

Vocalocity Mobile: Current customers can download the free Vocalocity Mobile app from iTunes or the App Store for iPhone and Android. It acts as a softphone, enabling you to make outbound calls that look like they’re coming from your deskphone so you can maintain an office appearance. You can also access Never Miss a Call Settings, view your entire employee directory, access voicemails and record custom Out of Office messages.

Virtual Receptionist Greetings: You can change your Virtual Receptionist greetings from the Admin Portal to notify callers of office closures, delays or any other important news. Just log in to the Admin Portal and follow the directions on how to record or upload a greeting from our Support page.

Never Miss a Call: If you’re at the hardware store buying salt to keep your office stairs and walkway safe, but don’t want to miss an important sales call, consider enabling the Never Miss a Call settings. You can configure your desk phone to forward calls to your cell phone, designate a simultaneous ring, and customize a Find Me / Follow me setting to ring several phones.

E911: Link your physical phone to an address so that emergency responders can better find you in the event of an emergency. Learn how to set up E911 with our Support article.

Other Reminders:

• Our Support Portal is your 24/7 resource for help articles about system settings or configurations
• If you have a question, our Support team is ready to help you at 1-866-901-0242
• Follow us on Twitter for service updates, and remember that status.vocalocity.com is updated with major system news
• It’s always a good idea to have a phone list of employees’ personal cell phone numbers and emails so you can communicate office closures or late openings
• Make your Admin Portal changes while you still have Internet access, in case you lose power
• While you CAN access the Admin Portal and User Portal from your smartphone or tablet, conserve battery power in case you need to use your cell phone for emergencies

About Amalia Kallen Gonzales

Kallen is the Manager of Strategic Content at Vocalocity and works with the Product and Marketing team to help promote all of Vocalocity's great new VoIP features.

There’s no need to hire a separate long distance provider because we offer that as part of our no-contract VoIP service plan! That’s right – our calling plans cover all calls made within the contiguous United States and Canada.*

So for example, if you have an unlimited extension, you can call your mother in Portland, Oregon and then call a colleague in Miami, Florida for the exact same price. If your employee is on a metered extension, his or her call to a vendor in Los Angeles, California will cost exactly the same as a call to a freelancer in Buffalo, New York.

We provide our nationwide coverage as part of Vocalocity’s regular service plan, and we’ll never make any changes to who provides your coverage without letting you know. We’ll also never send you an extra bill for long distance charges (though, if you make any international calls then you will see those additional charges as part of your regular Vocalocity bill).

Do you have any questions on using our cloud VoIP service for regional, local or long-distance calls? Ask away!

*Calls to Alaska, Hawaii and non-Canadian international calls are subject to additional charges.

About Amalia Kallen Gonzales

Kallen is the Manager of Strategic Content at Vocalocity and works with the Product and Marketing team to help promote all of Vocalocity's great new VoIP features.

Does this sound a little familiar? Do you feel like your day-to-day at work is sometimes spent doing the same thing over and over again, and you wish you could break the cycle and have more time to spend on projects or new accounts? Well, we’ve got some tips on how to use Vocalocity’s small business VoIP phone service to free up some time and help you become a little happier – weatherman or not.

CRM Integrations

One of the reasons we created the MethodCRM, Microsoft Dynamics and Sugar CRM plugins is because we feel your pain – we know it’s no fun having to wake up at 6:00 AM just to spend the day constantly opening a piece of software and struggling to find your caller’s information each time you need to make a note about a conversation.

With each of our CRM plugins, your preferred CRM will actually launch with each and every phone call. It’ll automatically bring up your caller’s information within your preferred CRM system so you can quickly take notes about the call, look up billing history or do whatever else you need to do in order to have a more productive and personalized phone call. For example, when Nancy Taylor calls in, an automatic screen pop can show your “notes” section of the account, reminding you that you sat next to her in Mrs. Walsh’s high school English class and that she signed on as a client after your last reunion.

Call Announce

Our latest included feature, Call Announce, will actually announce the path of your inbound call once you’ve configured your settings. If you run a music school, you can configure your Virtual Receptionist to have an option dedicated to “New Students” or “Piano Lessons” so your phone can notify you that an incoming caller is hoping to talk about lessons, pricing and availability.

7-Digit Dialing

Tired of typing in the same area code, sales call after sales call? With Vocalocity’s 7-Digit Dialing feature, you can actually configure your phone to call out when you enter only the last seven digits of a phone number. It’s perfect for offices that deal exclusively with local business. If you’re a local insurance agent like Ned Ryerson, it’s a great way to quickly and routinely stay connected with local clients without having to follow them down the street. Current customer? Learn how to set up 7-Digit Dialing today.

Click to Dial

Or, if you’re the type of person who has to make dozens or maybe even hundreds of calls a day, save yourself the effort of pressing that dialpad at all by using the helpful Click to Dial feature. Let’s say you run a bed and breakfast and you’re calling your list of upcoming bookings to confirm their reservation. Instead of dialing each of the 200 numbers on your spreadsheet, you can actually just click their number from your computer and your Vocalocity phone will automatically connect your call. You can download Click to Dial from the product page.

If you’re not using these great features you’ve got to charge the opportunity like a bull! Do you have questions about other ways you can use Vocalocity’s small business VoIP phone service to work more effectively? Just leave us a comment below, and we’ll comment back. We got you, babe. *

*There are seven hidden Groundhog Day references in this post. If it seems a little confusing, check out the movie!

About Amalia Kallen Gonzales

Kallen is the Manager of Strategic Content at Vocalocity and works with the Product and Marketing team to help promote all of Vocalocity's great new VoIP features.

• 1-4 extensions = $200
• 5-9 extensions = $500
• 10-24 extensions = $1000
• 25+ extensions = $2500

From now until Thursday, February 28th, you’ll have the opportunity to earn up to $2500 when you refer an account that becomes an active and paying customer for at least three months (90 days). After your referral has been an active customer for that long, we’ll deliver your payout in the form of an account credit or check!

To get started, just visit our referral page and fill out the form to submit your customer information. Not a customer? You can still refer a business and earn money by calling one of our helpful VoIP reps at 1-855-236-0106.

About Amalia Kallen Gonzales

Kallen is the Manager of Strategic Content at Vocalocity and works with the Product and Marketing team to help promote all of Vocalocity's great new VoIP features.

The Call Park feature allows you to take a call on one extension, and then “park” the call so that it can be picked up by another extension on your account.

How Do I Park a Call?

1. While on a call, press your phone’s attended transfer button, followed by *103 (asterisk-one-zero-three).
2. You will hear an automated voice say, “Your call is parked in spot <#>, please complete the transfer now.”
3. Note the parking spot number, and press the transfer button again to complete the transfer to the parking spot.

How Do I Retrieve a Call?

1. To retrieve a parked call, dial *104 (asterisk-one-zero-four).
2. An automated voice will say, “Please enter the parking spot number to retrieve your call.”
3. Enter the parking spot number that was communicated to you by the person who parked the call. The call will be automatically connected.

How Do I Re-Park a Call?

Let’s say you retrieve a parked call, but it’s the wrong call. To re-park that call, simply follow the steps above on “How to Park a Call”. The call will be re-parked in its original spot.

Worried You’ll Forget About a Call?

If a call is not retrieved after 45 seconds, you (the person who parked the call) will receive an automated call stating, “Your call is still waiting in spot <#>.” You will receive a reminder call every 45 seconds for six minutes, after which time the call will go to your voicemail box.

We love giving tips on our great features like Call Park! For more information on this Vocalocity feature, or to print off a PDF guide, visit the Call Park support page.

About Katie Farnan

Katie is a Product Specialist at Vocalocity and works to develop helpful content for customers about making the most of their phone system.

Well, here at Vocalocity, we have the pleasure of  speaking to hundreds of prospective customers every month who tell us the various reasons why they’re not sure that the move is right for them. They might have reservations about relying on a hosted service provider, or they may have concerns about security and privacy. Based on some FAQs from real customers that we’ve won over, here are the top five reasons that VoIP is a great choice for your office.

Already a customer? Send this list to someone you know as part of our lucrative referral program!

Top 5 Reasons to Move Your Business Phone to the Cloud

1. Savings: On average, Vocalocity customers save 50-80% on their phone service just by switching to us. Not only are we less expensive than an analog provider, we also include more business-class features with every extension AND we never require a contract. Even if you’re in a contract with another provider and have to pay a fee to break it, the long-term savings are worth it when you consider how much you’ll be saving month over month.
2. Reliability: We understand that having a big, bulky phone network in your office can be reassuring. For many people, seeing is believing, but because we thoroughly vet all of our technology and data centers, we ensure that we provide a secure and reliable phone system. This means that you get a redundant service with over 99% uptime, protection against security fraud, and an in-house engineering team that’s constantly monitoring for potential service interruptions.
3. Versatility: As your office changes its communication needs, we change with you. Adding or removing extensions is incredibly easy, and you can even make most of your system configurations by yourself through a 24/7 online portal. And because we’re a no-contract provider, we won’t trap you into a longer term or tack on extra fees just because you need to  make a modification.
4. Features: You not only get the same business-class features that you’re used to with your analog system, we give you more. For free. We have dozens of included features, and we also offer premium add-on features. Not sure if you need or want an add-on after you sign up? That’s the beauty of no-contract service – just call us up and we’ll remove the feature from your next bill.
5. Ease of Use: We have an in-house team of engineers and usability professionals who have developed user-friendly online portals. Owners / account holders can access the full Admin Portal to make system-wide changes online at any time, and employees can access a customized online website of their own to easily record messages, manage Never Miss a Call Settings and more.

Still not convinced it’s right for your business? Check out what Julie Clark, COO of Reef and Rainforest had to say about switching to Vocalocity from a traditional provider.

If you still have questions, give our team of VoIP experts a call at 1-877-862-2562 and they’ll be happy to tell you all about how we help over 123,000 users stay connected each and every day with an affordable, reliable hosted phone system.

About Amalia Kallen Gonzales

Kallen is the Manager of Strategic Content at Vocalocity and works with the Product and Marketing team to help promote all of Vocalocity's great new VoIP features.

Changing Voicemail Greetings with Vocalocity Mobile

• Log into the Vocalocity Mobile app
• Tap “Settings”
• Tap “Voicemail”
• Scroll to the section under “Voicemail Greetings” and select the type of recording you want to change. For example, “Busy”
• Tap on “Busy” and press “Record”
• The phone will prompt you to enter a phone number from which to record your message. You can also use your cell phone.
• Press “Dial”
• When your phone rings, you’ll hear a prompt to record your message and press # when you’re done
• To save your message, press “1″ or press “2″ to delete it and start again
• Repeat the process for all the different types of greetings you want to customize
• When you’re all done, remember to press “Save”

Changing Voicemail Greetings from Your Desk Phone

• Press the message or voicemail button on your desk phone
• The system will prompt you to enter your password and press #
• Press “4″ to access your mailbox options
  • Press 1 to change your Unavaliable message
  • Press 2 to change your Busy / Do Not Disturb message
  • Press 3 to change your Name
  • Press 4 to change your Temporary / Vacation message
  • Press 5 to change your PIN number
• Once you’ve chosen the type of message you want to change, start recording at the beep and press # when you’re done speaking
• To save your message, press “1″ or to delete the message press “2″

It’s that simple! Now, when people call you, they’ll hear a different message based on the options you’ve set up.

About Amalia Kallen Gonzales

Kallen is the Manager of Strategic Content at Vocalocity and works with the Product and Marketing team to help promote all of Vocalocity's great new VoIP features.

Call Announce is a great way to manage customer expectations by knowing how the customer was routed into your phone system.

For example, let’s say you field both the sales and marketing calls for your office. When a call comes in to your extension, you have to spend time talking with the caller to figure out whether he or she needs to talk about buying your product, or helping you market your product. It takes up time and doesn’t allow you to operate with top efficiency.

Now, with Call Announce, you can configure your phone to actually announce which extension was selected. If a caller selects “Sales” from your Virtual Receptionist, you’ll actually hear “Incoming call for Sales” when you pick up your handset.

It’s a great way to surprise your customers by addressing their concerns immediately, and it’s a great way for you to prepare to impress prospects.

To learn more about how to use Call Announce as an announcement or screening tool, visit the support page!

About Amalia Kallen Gonzales

Kallen is the Manager of Strategic Content at Vocalocity and works with the Product and Marketing team to help promote all of Vocalocity's great new VoIP features.