5 Tips to Make your Business Look More Professional

When dealing with a business we’ve never used before, most of us are looking for a bit of reassurance that the business is professional and will do the right thing by us.

The larger and more professional the business appears to be, the more comfortable we are about handing over our hard-earned cash. And even though it may be unfair, we’ll often hesitate if the only contact details provided are a mobile phone number or free email address (e.g. Yahoo, Gmail).

The good news is that with today’s cloud-based and “virtual” services, it’s never been easier (or more affordable) for even the smallest business to present a professional image. Even if you’re a sole trader working from the comfort of your home office, you can present an image to the world of a larger business with multiple departments and employees.

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Voice2Email Can do a Lot More than Regular Voicemail

Voicemail is a super-convenient tool for capturing caller details at times when you’re not able to take a call (for example, when you’re away from your desk, already on the phone, or outside of normal office hours).

One of the main problems with traditional voicemail systems is that you don’t always realise when someone has left a message. On some phone systems, you don’t know there’s a message until the next time you pick up the phone to make a call and you hear a strange whirring noise in the background. On other systems, a light flashes on the phone (but if you’re like me, you might not see it for several hours if you’re focussed on other things or if your phone is not in your direct line of sight).

When someone leaves an urgent message for you, you need a system that notifies you immediately. That’s where Voice2Email comes in.

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1300 Numbers & 1800 Numbers: The ACMA Decides that “Free Means Free”

Hooray! Alltel is still celebrating after yesterday’s announcement by the ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) that it plans to update the country’s telephone numbering plan so that calls to 1800 and 13/1300 numbers will cost the same, regardless of whether the caller is dialling from a fixed landline or mobile phone.

This result is thanks largely to the Fair Calls for All campaign lead by the ACCAN (Australian Communications Consumer Network). Alltel has been actively involved as a supporter of this campaign: giving a voice to our customers and explaining the impact on businesses caused by carriers charging unfair rates for mobile calls to 1300 numbers and 1800 numbers.

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1300 Number and 1800 Number Postcode Prompting

Let your customers decide where their calls go

One of the most popular routing options for 1300 numbers and 1800 numbers allows large businesses to automatically direct incoming calls to the caller’s closest office/outlet. (The caller’s location is determined based on their landline number.)

Unfortunately, this doesn’t work for everyone:

• The network can’t determine the location of callers using mobile phones.
• The caller may be dialling from a number that is in a different location from the service they require (e.g. calling from work when looking for a business close to home).

Postcode prompting fixes both of these problems.

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