Cloud PBX Checklist for Large Companies: Call Flow

Your company’s “Call Flow” is very important for you to document include on your cloud PBX shopping list. Especially if you work for a large company.

In the video below, Mike details a handful of “call flow” items that you should document, prior to contacting potential cloud PBX solutions. His list will save you a ton of time and prevent some costly missteps.

Want Mike’s recommendations on the best cloud PBX vendors to quote, for your large business? Click the button and ask him today.

About Mike

Mike Smith is the Founder and President of AeroCom and has been helping companies with telecom and cloud services since 1999. He has been the recipient of numerous business telecommunications industry awards, including being recognized as one of the top 40 business people in Orange County, CA., under 40 years old. You can also hear him as the host of the popular Information Technology podcast, ITsmiths with Mike Smith. Follow Mike on YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit and SpiceWorks.

Transcript

So your large company is looking for a new phone system, and you’re really smart, and you’re saying, “Hey, what’s the checklist that I should make as far as must-haves for our new phone system?” Great question. And that checklist will definitely help you pick the right vendors if you make it really good. And so what I wanted to do is make a video on this topic, because every time a large company contacts me, and asks me for my recommendations on the best vendors to quote for their new phone system, I go through a list of questions, and that discovery question list is what I’m making this video series on.

So today’s topic is Call Flow. What things should you be kind of documenting and writing down about how calls are flowing through your organization? What things should you be looking into? That’s what the video today is going to talk about.

Who should you quote?

But before I get too deep into it, just a quick plug. If you like the video, don’t forget to hit the like button down below and please subscribe to the channel. That will really help me out a lot. And if you want my recommendations for the best cloud PBX companies your large organizations should be quoting based on your requirements, you can watch this video, that’s great. But if you want a shortcut, just contact me, via email or by phone (714.593.0011). It won’t cost you a thing, and I’ll give you some great recommendations. More information on that at the end of the video.

What is Call Flow?

All right. So when it comes to shopping your phone system, one of the things you want to consider is call flow. I’ve thrown that question out. And I know that word is a little bit confusing.

Usually I’ll say, “Hey, can you tell me a little bit about your call flow?” And a customer will say, “What do you mean by that?” What I mean by that is trying to really understand how calls come and go out of your organization. What are some of the things that you need to think about?

For instance

Call Center?

When a call comes into your organization, do you have a call center that’s answering certain types of calls, like customer service or tech support, or maybe, internally, they’re starting tickets for IT or things like that. What are some of the different types of calls that are coming in? Do you have a sales department? Do you do a lot of marketing, and a lot of marketing calls are coming into the sales department? Is it an 800 number that a lot of people are calling?

Live Person or Auto Attendant?

And when the calls come in, is it a live person answering the phone, or does everything go to an auto attendant?

Hunt/Ring/Call Groups?

From the auto attendant, are there different call groups, or ring groups, or hunt groups set up? Those are all the same thing, the different terms for the same thing, but there an ACD, automatic call distribution, where, for sales, it rings five different people at the same time, or maybe people sit in queue, on hold while calls are assigned to different people within the organization and calls are answered? So those are all kind of call flow things.

Call Volume?

More stuff to think about is the call volume. Are we taking a lot of calls? Is it something where we have a lot of inbound calls or are we making a lot of outbound calls? Think about the different departments within your organization and how they might make and receive calls.

That’s kind of the easiest way to do it, is kind of by department, because every department’s a little bit different, right? Some departments are making only internal calls. Some departments are making only external calls.

Main Number or DID’s?

When calls come into your organization, is it all on a main number or do people call everyone’s DID or direct number a lot of times?

Where are people at?

And are people out and about in the field? Are calls coming in and being transferred to people on their cell phones? Is that really important to you guys?

So things like that. Walk through it, think about it, document it. That’s really important, because once you understand that, when you come to somebody like me, and you really understand your call flow, it’s much easier for me to give you some great recommendations, as opposed to, if we go through some demos, and I make some recommendations to you, and all of a sudden you start involving other departments, and then they start saying, “Well, hey, that’s not going to work for us because I do this all the time. Or I do that all the time.”

Better to ask a few of those questions up front. You don’t have to be too detailed. Some of the stuff is going to be the same options with every single provider, but it’s good for you to know upfront because I found a lot of times, the IT department are the folks that are shopping for this stuff. And if they don’t branch out and start talking to the other departments, sometimes they start looking at things and start missing some things down the road. So I hope that was helpful.

If so, don’t forget to hit the like button down below and subscribe to the channel, please. That would be a great help to me.

Ask me for help

And if you’d like my recommendations, just reach out and contact me, via email or by phone (714.593.0011). Within a few questions, I’ll give you the right vendors that your company should be quoting for your specific requirements for a new phone system for a large organization.

I’m happy to help you. And the nice thing is I’ve been doing this for 18 years. I know all the players out there. I know all the vendors you should be looking at. I also know the ones you should probably be staying away from, who have a really bad reputation. And the nice thing is, is those vendors pay me my broker fee. So you don’t have to pay me anything. Your company does not have to pay me for my recommendations. So there’s no excuse not to at least reach out and call me. Hope that was helpful. If so, again, don’t forget to hit the like button and subscribe to the channel. And I’ll catch you on the next one.