In case of snow, other potentially hazardous weather, or emergencies, you may decide to close for the day or allow your employees to work from home. Here are some tips on quickly changing phone systems and preparing for these situations.
Forwarding Numbers
If you or one of your employees is stuck at home, you can easily update their phone number so that it rings their cell phone instead. First, you need to temporarily reroute your phone number. You can do this in the control panel or email support@press8.com.
Changing Your Voicemail Greeting
If you or your employee wants to tell callers they are not in the office, you can easily change their voicemail greeting by following these steps: How to Change Your Voicemail Greeting.
Making a New Temporary Auto Attendant Greeting
If you want to use a temporary inclement weather greeting to tell callers that you will be closed, you can easily make a recording by following these steps: How to Make a Voice Recording. Then, you can submit a support ticket (email: support@press8.com) specifying that you want your new recording to be your greeting for now. Be sure to let us know when you want it changed back.
Using Call Reports to Verify Calls Are Being Answered
All Press8 customers with Admin access can review call reports. Call Reports are a great way to see where your calls are going, whether they are being answered, and by whom. Admins can download call report data and import it into an Excel spreadsheet for further analysis. To do so, they log in to the Press8 Control Panel and click on Reports.
Bringing a VoIP Phone Home
If your employee has a reliable broadband network at home (not WIFI), they can usually plug their VoIP phone into their router. However, this should be tested BEFORE inclement weather prohibits them from coming into work since not all networks can accommodate VoIP without some router configuration changes.
Using a Smartphone or Softphone in Place of an Office Phone
You can use a Smartphone App on your iPhone or Android or a Softphone that runs on your computer. But, once again, you should install these and test them beforehand to ensure they work. At Press8, we do not charge you anything extra for additional devices per user.
Conference Bridge Connects Employees & Customers
Without a Press8 Telecom Conference Bridge, you will be limited to 3 conference call attendees at one time. If you want a conference call with unlimited callers, you should get a Press8 Conference Bridge. For just $14.99/mo. You get a dedicated phone number and software that professionally introduces your attendees, asks for PINs, plays hold music, etc. This is a great way to be prepared for any situation and to be able to set up a professional-sounding conference call with employees or customers ‘on the fly’ anytime – anywhere.
For more information, please visit our blog article on Conference Bridges.
For more information on staying connected during a Natural Disaster, visit our blog article on Keeping Your Business Connected During a Natural Disaster.
Tamara graduated from Southern Methodist University with a degree in Computer Science and Old Dominion University with an MBA. She started Apollo Hosting, Inc. in 1999 and sold it to Endurance International 10 years later. She also started and sold two other companies before starting Press8 Telecom in 2006. She lives with her husband and two children in Austin, TX.
