Do we need a reception soft console for our Business Phone System?

Does your reception desk need a sidecar or a reception soft console?

Your company is looking into a new phone system, but your confused on which reception desk technology is best. I explain the 3 technologies available and how to know which one is best for your organization.

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About Me

Mike Smith has been helping companies select the best telecom, WAN, security, and cloud services since 1999. He founded AeroCom in 2003, and has been the recipient of numerous business telecommunications industry awards, including being recognized as one of the top 40 business people in tech-heavy Orange County, CA. Follow Mike on YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit and SpiceWorks.

Transcript

Your company is in the market for a new phone system. Will something that you want to think about is the reception desk. What kind of setup should you get for the reception desk? There’s a few options out there and I wanted to make a video to kind of describe what those options are and give you some tips on how to pick the best option for your company.

Reach out and contact me

But before I get too far down the road, really quick, if you’d like my recommendation, which you should on the best phone system service providers for your company, reach out to me. Give me a call (714.593.0011). Send me an email. I’m a broker for all the major cloud phone system service providers out there, and I will help you make a lot better decision in a fraction of the time. So don’t hesitate. Reach out and contact me. More information on that at the end of the video.

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1. Sidecar Attachments

your company is in the market for a new phone system. And one of the things I mentioned earlier is that you should think about what your options are for the reception desk. first option is the old school sidecar, what we call them. So it’s a desk phone with all these sidecar attachments where you can see all the different extensions and lights showing you if that person is on the phone, if they’re not on the phone, things like that. That’s kind of the old school way of doing it.

2. See everyone

Now, with cloud phone systems, something that’s come out is called presence, which is kind of what that sidecar does. It tells everybody in the company if a person is on the phone or what they’re doing. So with the advent of presence, everyone in the company can see each other’s presence if they’re on the phone or not, without a sidecar. So all you have to do is in your your phone system softphone application, which is downloaded onto your desktop computer or off your mobile app. You can search for any person in the company. And when they’re when their profile comes up, it shows like a little green light, like they’re not on the phone or a red light, like they’re unavailable or yellow or things like that. It shows if they’re on the phone or if they’re in a meeting and all that type of stuff. So you can see that through your cell phone. And so so right there, it kind of gave you some of the reception capability. So that’s a second option.

3. Admin Soft Console

Then the third option is called a reception desk or admin soft console. So a soft console with that is is that a special soft phone that you can download onto a desktop that’s built for the reception desk? And what it does is it gives the person working at the reception desk a lot bigger view. So instead of having to search people and see their presence, they can see a lot of people automatically on the screen right away. So that every time a call comes in, they’re not having to search for that person’s name. The people who get the most calls, they can see right away if they’re on the phone or if they’re not stuff like that, they can maybe drag and drop a call within one click. They can transfer a call. It gives them some additional functionality so they can quickly work the reception desk. But not all service providers off offer that soft console for the reception desk.

What type of technology is the best fit?

So one thing you need to determine as one of the decision makers for the new phone system is what type of technology is the best fit for our reception desk? Should we get just a side car? Should we get should we make our reception desk just do what everybody else says and search everybody as a call comes in for somebody search by that user’s name and have them pop up and then look at their presence. Or should we really look into a reception soft console so that our reception desk can do things a lot easier and a lot faster and transfer calls within one click and all that good stuff? Well, those are some good questions you need to make sure you ask. Obviously, you’re going to want to consult your reception desk,

right away, I wanted to give you a quick tip so you know whether or not to use a side sidecar, that’s something you want to talk to. Reception desk about. Do they prefer to have the hardware right there in front of them? That’s something you obviously want to ask them. But should you use the regular cell phone or a special soft phone built for the reception desk? Really, to me, in my experience, I’ve worked with a lot of companies quoting this stuff. Me It comes down to a couple of questions.

Is your reception desk answering calls constantly?

You want to ask yourself. So number one is your reception desk answering calls constantly, meaning that they might answer the phone and B, tell people, can you hold one second and then answering another call, answering another call, putting calls on hold while they’re answering calls, because so many calls are coming in at once that they’re having to kind of triage the calls as they come in. So is it to that level and are they looking at people all the time? And do they want to see more than, say, you know, five people at once, like ten people, 20 people, 50 employees, all at the same time see their presence at once. So if your reception desk is very, very busy and they’re constantly transferring calls, I would say that a reception, soft console might be a must have for your organization.

Reception desk is not getting constant calls

Now, if that’s not the case, if you reset, if the reception desk only answers the call on occasion, like an auto attendant is screening most of the calls until someone zeros out, then I would say our normal soft phone is totally fine because if they’re only answering the phone once in a while, they can easily type in the beginning of a person’s name. That person pops up, they can decide to transfer that call, warm transfer, you know, just straight transfer to them, transfer to voicemail. All that stuff’s capable just on the cell phone itself. It’s pretty easy to navigate. So that might be all they need. And it will broaden your options when it comes to service providers. So that’s something you want to ask. Is the reception desk taking calls all the time, every second of the day in where they’re almost like triaging calls? And if so, then you want to look into a reception soft console as opposed to just the side cars or a normal cell phone.

Still confused? Reach out contact me for my recommendation

So I hope that helped. If you’d like again, if you’d like my recommendation on the best cloud phone system service providers for your company to quote, don’t Google it and try to search all this stuff on your own. You’ll be online for hours. This is my job. I’m a broker for all the major service providers, and I’ve been doing this for over 20 years. I know every major service provider in the marketplace. I know their niche, I know who is good, who has a very good reputation, and who doesn’t have a very good reputation. And if you reach out and ask me my opinion, I will help you make a lot better decision and a lot faster time. So reach out and contact me. The nice thing is there is no fee to you guys. The service providers pay me my broker fee so you won’t pay a dime to me. So there’s absolutely no excuse not to at least see what I have to say, Right? That’s the reason why I do these videos. I really want to help you guys, so reach out give me call (714.593.0011) or email me and contact me for help.

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Also, don’t forget about our promo. Get yourself one of these Aerocom newer hats for free. I’m going to send it to the person I like to comment the most, so leave a good comment down below. Maybe ask a question about the video, ask for my help, that type of thing. Or tell me what you like, what you didn’t like, what kind of videos you want to see, what type of other topics you’d like to see me talk on and I’m going to pick within a month after I post this video, I’m going to pick somebody to send a free new era arrow com hat to great hat. I wear it all the time. Make sure you get yourself one. All right. Thanks for watching. I will catch you on the next one.