7 Ways Small Businesses are Scaling Up with Cloud Telephony [with examples]

Professionalism is the key that can inflate your sales as well as reduce them. It requires a lot of effort and undeniable dedication towards customer service but in the end, it is all worth it when you gain faithful customers. One of the cloud telephony benefits is the professionalism that it provides your business with. 

Suppose, you call two business phone numbers. On one, you hear custom greetings followed by relevant questions and then you connect with the customer case executive accordingly. While the other line is directly picked up by the customer care executive, who is then manually routing your calls to different departments as per your needs while you are kept on hold. 

Which business would you like to get involved with? 

My choice would be the former one and I am hoping yours too. No one likes being kept on hold while chaos is being sorted at the customer care department of a business. The statistics show that 70% of the buying experience of a customer is based on how they are treated. Thus professionalism is very important for even a local business as:

• Establishes appropriate boundaries between the business and its customers
• Encourages improvement for your brand
• Promotes and maintains accountability 
• Establishes respect and reputation for your business
• It boosts customer loyalty by minimizing conflicts in customer interaction. 

One way to ensure professionalism to your customers is by using cloud telephony for your business. 

What is cloud telephony? 

In layman language, cloud telephony is a phone system that runs through the internet. Cloud calling is provided by a third party and they only take care of the customizations you need with your telephony system. 

Cloud Telephony Benefits

• You do not need a physical setup or any kind of infrastructure for it. 
• It is highly scalable. 
• It is a portable telephony system. You can shift your business from one end to another without any worries. 
• It is affordable and cost-effective. 
• It is highly customizable, so you can include all the features like IVR system, toll-free number, and much more within one setup itself. 
• You can set up remote teams and thus hire talent without geographical boundaries. 

The flow of cloud calling

1. Your customers dial your cloud telephony number. (Virtual number/ toll-free number/ local number) 
2. The call is then sent to the Primary Rate interface line of the cloud telephony server. 
3. Cloud telephony server will handle the call as per your customizations- play IVR, forward call to a specific department, etc. 
4. The call will then be transferred to the customer service agents as per the customer’s input (if IVR number is used) or according to your configurations. 
5. Once the call is answered the cloud telephony server connects the customer to the agent. 

Now that we know everything about cloud telephony let’s see how small businesses are scaling up using it: 

Increased geographical boundaries 

The first step of scaling up your business is to take it beyond just your local area. To get new customers you also need to be able to reach new places. For example, you have a business of authentic tea leaves in Mizoram. Then how will you cater to the needs and queries of a customer in Rajasthan? Yes, social media platforms, emails, and texts are a few ways to get in touch with them, but what if your customer needs to resolve an instant query? Then only calling and WhatsApp API are the option. When you will provide a solution to your customers to be able to reach out to you 24*7 only then you will be able to increase your customer base. 

Cloud telephony helps you in reducing the geographical boundaries for your business. Your business can build its customer base in other locations as well, without actually shifting your business. Cloud telephony makes you available to your customers at all times without fail. It ensures that you never miss any customer call. Furthermore, it also enables your customers to reach you out for free if you have a toll-free business number. You can now take your business to a different state in no time. 

Cost-effective 

We understand that small businesses are usually on tight budgets. They have to invest time, capital, and labor wisely to yield fruitful results. Marketing and sales, employee salaries, infrastructural cost, and whatnot. Now you also need a system to address customer grievances and feedback, which will also require time and capital. But cloud telephony has changed the dynamics. Now, by utilizing call center software alongside cloud telephony,you can save cost as well as deliver excellent customer service with the help of cloud telephony. 

Cloud telephony does not require any physical setup, infrastructure, or physical space for that matter. The services run through the internet and your crucial data is also saved on the cloud itself. Thus, it will help you cut costs on the infrastructural front while delivering impeccable customer service. 

Cloud telephony is an affordable solution and helps startups in cutting initial costs up to 90%. So utilize cloud telephony benefits, save money, and invest it in your other business essentials.

Improved Customer service 

“Focusing on the customer makes a company more resilient.”

No, we aren’t saying this but Jeff Bezos certainly is, and if you want to learn something then learn it from the best. Customer service should be your first priority under every circumstance. You out to be there for your customers around the clock. Cloud telephony makes it possible for you and ‘Kebab Xpress’ is the perfect example of that. 

Kebab Xpress used to be a small food chain in Delhi and the NCR region but now it is one of the most popular food outlets among north-Indian cuisine lovers. They have 13 outlets in Delhi and NCR and they needed a solution that would cope up with the rising demand without having to compromise with the customer. Because of the huge call volume, they were losing a few customers every day as either their numbers were busy or the customers were on hold. Then They opted for a cloud call center solution and installed virtual numbers and an IVR system for all their outlets. Today they are flourishing and fetching new customers on an everyday basis. 

The following statistics will further prove our point better: 

• They witnessed a 90% decline in their churn rate. 
• They witnessed a 50% upliftment in their on-call order retention.

Increased productivity 

Cutting to the chase, the productivity of your employees is the only way that will eventually result in the growth of your business. Thus you need your employee’s productivity as its peak. But it can be difficult to be productive when you have several tedious and distracting tasks at hand. Statistics have shown that multitasking tends to hurt productivity by 40%. 

Now try to imagine being in your employee’s shoe. They have to handle the customers as well as the tasks of manually transferring and dialing calls. It will be a task for the employees to maximize their productivity eventually affecting your business. 

Brand building 

Congratulations! You have established your small business, the one you have always dreamt of. But I am guessing you do not want it to always stay ‘small’. Growth becomes a necessity when you have been putting your heart and soul into your work. You can definitely make your business a brand with your blood and sweat but only hard work is not enough during these times of advanced technology. One of the most important cloud telephony benefits is that it helps in building your business into a brand. 

Professional calling services showcase that your business is credible and customers can put their faith in you. Who wouldn’t want to earn customers’ loyalty? 

Portability and flexibility

As aforementioned, cloud telephony does not require a physical setup for it to function. That means you can shift your business from one place to another without having to worry about thousands of wires of your telephony system and the money invested into it. Wherever your business goes, cloud telephony goes with you. 

You can be shifting from extreme north to south and still your business number wouldn’t have to change and you won’t have to lose any customers. Even during the chaos of shifting, your phone lines will be always available for all your customers. 

Flexibility is one of the cloud telephony benefits that let you experiment with your business locations. You can also try remote working with the help of it especially when 83% of employees believe that they do not have to be in an office to be productive. Most of all you will be able to acquire talent from anywhere without any boundaries. 

Analytics at hand

Do you want to know how many customers abandoned the call while they were on hold? Or what was the on-call time of a particular agent? Or simply want to analyze your agent’s performance? In all these situations, cloud telephony is your answer. 

Another one of cloud telephony benefits is that you can anytime look at the analytics within no time. You have all the data in one place at the dashboard which updates itself in real-time. Get extensive reports and then utilize the data to improve your numbers. 

If you want to analyze your agents’ performance then call recording software can come in handy. Using the call recording software you can analyze the pattern of customer demands, know about their needs better, and serve them better too. 

So why wait any longer? Get your cloud telephony solution within 1 business day right away from MyOperator.