We know it’s going to be a busy time, with BlackFriday and the month of gifts, when any help is welcome. We’re here to help you with the most cute and useful aid, the latest generation IVR robot from Optivoice. Meet the robot and learn more about the Optivoice intelligent assistant
It is very important for us to always provide you with practical and useful information about the cloud communications market and all related services.
This is why we have created the “White paper” section on the website.
We are waiting for you with various and documented materials, which we hope will help you in choosing the most suitable options for your business.
The first white paper released, which we invite you to read, is about the “Mobile Office”. More to come, so don’t forget to visit us regularly. As with the Youtube channel, we welcome your opinions and suggestions.
In our desire to broaden the range of tools used for a complete communication with our customers, we are pleased to announce the launch of the Optivoice Youtube channel. On the channel you can currently watch three tutorials: call queuing, call recording and Optivoice Monitor. We hope you find it helpful and we would like to hear your suggestions on what other tours would be of interest to you.
If you are a MiniCRM client, we are happy to announce that you can now extend the benefits of your system by integrating the Optivoice phone system directly into your CRM; all phone activity will be recorded directly in your database, you will be able to call customers directly from there, and when you are called, you will have a pop-up with the customer’s file.
Learn more about Optivoice services.
Romanians have different feelings when it comes to the American “holiday” imported a few years ago to our country. Some reject from the outset any participation in the manifestations of “excessive consumption”, others are indifferent, but there are Romanians who have adopted with open hearts this opportunity to find bargains and beyond the evidence of discounts mimicked only by some traders through artifice applied on prices, there are real offers and substantial discounts that you can benefit from this period.
Are Romanian retailers ready for Black-Friday?
Of course all retailers want spectacular sales and even substantial increases are reported by many, but they don’t come without headaches. As well as designing offers that will attract real interest and make the sale possible, there is a lot of other preparation, “behind the scenes”, needed to face this period successfully.
Past experience has shown that insufficient preparation can lead to missed sales opportunities.
First of all, website traffic increases significantly and it is vital that the hosting is of high quality in order to avoid the risk of the website crashing completely (which has happened to many retailers in the past); the online order processing system has to cope with the volume that can be multiplied by tens of times compared to a normal period of the year.
Whether orders can be taken over the phone or phone numbers are available for information only, it’s vital to make sure it can handle the days of fire with flying colours. Of course it’s not viable to hire people just for a week or to make 2-3 phone subscriptions. But there is a simple and handy solution to surprise your customers in a pleasant way, with a perfect professionalism and with minimal investment: a cloud switchboard.
How cloud central can help you during this period:
– It is scalable on demand: the number of extensions, the number of simultaneous calls and any other resources can be supplemented for a limited period, scaling can be done in a few minutes and you make sure that you do not pay for the additional resources until you need them.
– The queue allows you not to reject any calls and even more, if you don’t manage to take all the calls (some customers may give up waiting) you have available the numbers that called you and you can call them later.
– You can record all calls, so that any kind of order-related mess can be cleared up and resolved happily for customers
– Detailed reports can provide you with valuable information on load levels, differences between operators in the way they interact with customers, busier times of day, and more.
– Set up correctly, the system can even identify the offers or advertisements that have aroused more interest and those that you should drop, thus proving to be a good marketing analysis tool.
– Repetitive calls requesting the same information can be sent directly to a recorded message that provides that information without burdening the human resource (e.g. calls regarding payment methods and/or delivery times); thus the telephone system can be a tool to streamline customer service.
– Promotional messages that all callers can hear make known the offers you want to push and this can translate into increased sales.
Optivoice and Optihost can help you with providing the optimal infrastructure to successfully cope with busy periods such as Black Friday.
Contact us early to get ready for the winter holidays that are knocking at the door or send on to partners who are trying to improve their customer relationships!
If you want to get started in the business world and you are looking for ideas on the net, it seems that the best thing to do is to start an online business; you can find information about an area in full avant-garde e-commerce, you can find articles like “x tips to take into account” and all sorts of “must-haves” to guarantee your success. Is it really so?
The truth is that 95% of businesses fail, and online businesses are no exception to this statistic that discourages many potential entrepreneurs. The reasons are multiple, some external, which have to do with the economic situation, legislative changes, the tax burden and unpredictability, the movements of competition, others internal, which have to do with: the character of the entrepreneur, training, vision, adaptability.
Of course this does not invalidate the claim that opening an e-commerce business can be, compared to many other types of business, much more affordable in terms of initial investment. Modern solutions can considerably reduce both the amount you have to start with and the possible losses if you don’t get it right the first time.
Starting a business in the cloud is the optimal solution for start-ups; even large or long-established companies are starting to migrate to the cloud, where they find financial and support advantages, but they have to amortize investments already made, both in equipment and people/departments. Being at the beginning of the road, instead of blocking money in equipment and software that bring with them other costs for maintenance, repairs, configurations and that depreciate morally very quickly, it is better to invest in marketing and advertising that brings you sales.
We have prepared a list of cloud solutions that you can adopt and then pay for as a monthly subscription:
You can find cloud solutions with no contract period, so they can adapt perfectly to your business volume at any time and grow with you; and if you ever want to quit, you don’t end up with unnecessary completed investments for which you may still have to pay instalments to the bank. An important advantage of cloud solutions is also that the support offered is often 24/7 and free of charge and that they can be tested before you decide to use them.
If 10 years ago many of us were barely aware of bank cards, now online payments have come to occupy an important place in our lives. They save us unnecessary trips and wasted time paying bills and taxes and can bring almost any product or service to our door.
With the introduction of online payments, however, the theft of information and money has also made its appearance and fear still holds many people back from using these tools to make their lives easier.
But there are ways we can protect ourselves and check for ourselves how safe the website we want to buy from is. Before making the payment it is mandatory to check that the website address starts with https:// and not with http:// and has a lock or a key in front. If you click on this symbol you can even find out details about the security certificate used by that online shop. It should be taken into account that it is possible that while browsing the site the address will appear as http://, and that https:// will appear only on the page where the bank card data must be entered.
An additional security measure is to register your card in 3D secure through a request to the issuing bank which will provide you with an additional code to use for online payments.
Obviously, keeping the card and associated information (especially codes) safe is absolutely necessary; the PIN or 3Dsecure code will not be disclosed by messages, emails or phone calls to anyone.
But what are they and how do these security certificates (SSL) protect us?
SSL (secure sockets layer) is a protocol for encrypting (encoding) information so that it can only be decrypted by the server to which the information is sent. These certificates are mainly used by banking and online commerce websites, but they can be used by any website to protect your information; for example, if you are asked to log in with your username and password, it is desirable to be protected against hackers or computer viruses that can enter your account and gain access to important information. SSL certificates can also be used to protect emails, where each of us has confidential and potentially vital information, and where viruses can be spread through email and the accounts of those we correspond with can be attacked. The SSL certificate protects information in transit from being modified or copied.
These certificates are issued by a Certification Authority and differ according to the degree of identification they provide. They are purchased for a minimum of 1 year. See the types of certificates offered by Optihost.
Since the launch of Optihost is a celebration for us and marks the expansion of our range of services, we have a special offer for you:
Until the end of the year, existing Optivoice customers or those who purchase an Optivoice subscription benefit from one year free hosting for the website-their subscription (on the START version) or the equivalent discount when purchasing another Optihost subscription (the discount is applied on the first Optihost invoice and in order to benefit from the full amount, the value of this invoice must exceed the amount of the discount).
SSL, SQL, VDS, Domain, Server, Cloud, etc? Are you familiar with these terms? If you are not an IT-ist you probably don’t but whether you know it or not they are part of our daily life, along with the more “friendly” website, email, apps.
Online presence is no longer a luxury or a plus for a company’s image, it is a necessity; along with the phone number and physical address, the website and email address define the identity of any company, no matter how small. The trends are towards moving commerce online and we are not far from the statement “If you are not online you don’t exist”. But this does not mean that in order to start or run a business we all have to become IT specialists or include a dedicated department in the company’s budget, especially since the trend even in large companies is to outsource these services.
We are trying to come to your support and take the responsibility off your shoulders for some of the mandatory steps to be taken:
– Registering a domain;
– Hosting the company’s website, optimizing access by customers and monitoring it;
– Securing the website to protect customer data and payments made to you;
– Setting up, configuring, monitoring and optimizing a server.
Optihost is neither the first nor the only provider of dedicated solutions on the market, but we rely on two important aspects to convince you that we can be the best choice for you:
– We have incorporated into our offerings the newest and most efficient solutions and technologies on the market;
– We are committed to providing the same quality that our Optivoice customers have come to appreciate:
“We are particularly pleased with our partnership with Optivoice. It’s nice to get quick feedback and a solution perfectly tailored to your business, without having to insist endlessly. Throughout our collaboration, we have constantly upgraded the options we use, based on Optivoice’s recommendations. We feel like a respected customer.”
Laura Tanase, Managing Partner,www.mamica.ro
“I have nothing but praise for the Optivoice team and services.”
Tudor Gorcia, CEO, www.tntcomputers.
“We chose to work with Optivoice because of the much friendlier platform first and foremost, and then because of the prompt support. We are happy with how it works. On technical support we were not disappointed so we have a plus here too.”
Bogdan Kochesch, CEO, www.edmundo.ro
See
here
the full range of Optihost services.
Choosing a new phone system or changing your existing one can seem like a daunting task if you’re not an expert; but giving it the right attention can bring major benefits in the long run. A good manager looks not only at the current situation, but also at the development prospects of the company, so as to consider a solution that can effectively meet the requirements of the company at any time of its existence.
Choosing the right system for your business and configuring it optimally can be the differentiator you need.
In many areas competitiveness is increased and with small differences between the products/services offered and their price; to differentiate yourself in the market you need to work on the image and the quality of the interaction with customers; a good tool in this respect can be the telephone system.
Technology has come a long way from the time when all telephony could give you was a number to call and be called. Modern phone systems come with a number of features that bring communication to a new level: IVR, call queuing, simultaneous calls, time setting, conferencing, transfer, whisper&barge-in, mobile interiors, etc.
Properly configured, the telephone system can bring significant savings to a company’s budget.
A more accurate assessment of communication needs and right sizing of the system (phone numbers, extensions, national/international/roaming minutes, simultaneous calls, etc.) can reduce telephone costs. Considering that contracts are generally signed for 1 or 2 years without the possibility to reduce the subscription during that period, it is vital to size the phone system correctly from the beginning or to look for companies that offer flexible contracts (without a contract period); if you have seasonal activities, contract flexibility can be a vital point in choosing the system/operator you work with.
If chosen and set up correctly, the phone system can help you reduce other expenses:
-travel expenses (transport, per diems, accommodation)
-expenditure on purchases, maintenance, upkeep and repair of equipment
-marketing expenses, etc.
The correct evaluation of the cost of the telephone system must take into account:
-The initial cost of purchasing equipment and commissioning the solution
-Maintenance/repair/maintenance/reconfiguration costs for the equipment/system, their average lifetime and the rate of technical depreciation
-Costs of changing the system if it is technically depreciated or if it no longer meets business requirements
Spending the right amount of time at the beginning to evaluate several solutions and choosing the right one saves you important lost time later.
If you make the wrong choice in the beginning, it can cost you a lot to change the system later (both in time and money). In addition, the system must also be evaluated according to:
-time needed to learn the system
-the time needed to access the reports and the information contained in them
-the time needed to bring the system back into operation in the event of a move
-time needed to resize the solution
-time needed for reconfiguration
The first thing to decide is the type of system you want: simple phone line or PBX and if PBX is chosen, which one: classic, IP or cloud. In this regard read our article PBX-IPPBX-HOSTEDPBX to understand the differences between the three types of PBX.
If you have chosen the classic or IP telephone switchboard to install at your company’s premises, you must choose between different models, taking into account not only the needs of the moment, but also the possibility of scaling the switchboard according to the expected developments at the lowest possible cost. Then you have to choose the telephone operator: classic or VoIP and a company with which to contract for maintenance/repairs/configuration so that you are not taken by surprise by a possible breakdown. Check the response times assumed in the contract to minimise possible downtime.
If you have chosen the hosted PB X you only have to decide which operator you work with. Although in Romania the cloud telephony market is not as widespread as abroad, there are still several providers to consider. We advise you to take into account some important aspects when considering different operators:
1. First make a list of mandatory features/functions you need and a list of desirable features.
Check whether the operators you are comparing can offer you all the mandatory features and as many of the optional ones as possible. Check if the packages offered automatically include features you don’t need and if you can waive them to reduce the total cost.
2. Compare the real cost of the offers taking into account not only the package price but also other categories of costs/fees that may influence the final decision
Check what equipment and/or software is needed and how much it costs, check if there are costs for changing the contracted package either up or down, how much it costs to add or drop certain features later.
3. Check company policies on important issues:
o Contract termination or flexibility for package changes (what contract periods are available and whether you are allowed to change your package during the contract period)
o Support provided for package selection, solution understanding, access to reports and/or configurations (how much you are allowed to customize the system yourself, access to reports, IVR message logging, etc…)
o References from other users
o Possibility to test the service before buying
Optivoice offers free evaluation of your current system and advice on choosing the optimal configuration. Contact our sales team
