How virtual PBX works and what advantages it delivers

Any company starts its work by providing an office with the Internet. The number of opportunities and quality of virtual PBX determine the level of customer service and, therefore, profit for the business. In this article, you are going to discover what criteria to consider while choosing the feature.

What is virtual PBX

Virtual PBX is a phone system that uses Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP technology for making calls via the Internet. A user may activate it with gateways and specialized hardware or software. The connection happens through the local network or 3G/4G on the smartphones of employees.

To find out more information on the topic, we recommend you to read the article “Simple things you want to know about the SIP phone system”.

This feature doesn’t require specific high-cost equipment and complex technical equipment. It allows creating an office or call center in any part of the world without a link to a certain physical address. Moreover, it can ensure a company with a phone connection very fast. For example, Ringostat virtual PBX does it per working day.

Here’s one more great advantage of virtual PBX: users have access to detailed statistics on calls. After every inbound call, you can see the time of the call, its duration, and even waiting time that are displayed in the interface. It is also easy to view the phone number of the caller and a sales rep who answered the call.

If you need to get detailed data on the ad source, you have to use a call tracking service. Call tracking not only collects the statistics about requests made by phone but even identifies marketing channels, which made customers call the company.

How virtual PBX works

The scheme of work is quite simple: the customer calls you, the call is transferred to the virtual PBX, then it is processed and sent to one of your numbers, according to the call forwarding scheme you set.

First of all, the caller hears the voice menu, for sure, if it is configured. An audio recording invites him to select the desired department or enter the sales rep’s inner number. The customer makes a choice and the call is forwarded to the first available device in the configured chain. Check the diagram below to better understand what is virtual PBX:

Lots of these systems have a “smart” call queue feature, which is indicated in the diagram above. It allows you to quickly process all customer requests, according to the chosen strategy. Discover how it works from the article “Call queue — Don’t Lose Your Customers”.

The most important part of a virtual PBX is the call forwarding scheme. It sets the procedure for receiving and processing calls, as well as numbers that will accept them. There can be any amount of such schemes depending on the needs of your business. For example, we always recommend using at least two, as shown in the picture above: both for business and off-hours.

That’s how these schemes look like in the Ringostat interface:

We also recommend you to check the article “Virtual PBX. How to make a choice?”

Let’s set an example of the call forwarding scheme work. Suppose you have three sales reps in your company — James, Robert, and Drake. You can configure the scheme the way that James is the first one who receives the call. If 15 seconds after he does not accept the request, the call is forwarded to Robert, and after the same time to Drake. If the last one is too busy, then the customer will be sent to voicemail. At the same time, system notification about a missed request will be sent to the email.

Steps to connect and set up a virtual PBX

1. Choose the service.
2. Install software.
3. Select the numbers to connect — landline or mobile, your own, or rented from the provider, depending on the capabilities of the cloud PBX.
4. Connect them to virtual PBX with the help of technical support.
5. Set up a call forwarding scheme.

Advantages and opportunities on the example of Ringostat virtual PBX 2.0

Most virtual PBX obtain almost similar basic opportunities. However, it is better to choose a tool that will give more additional options. Thus, you will receive not only a connection but a multifunctional assistant of a sales rep. Let’s discover developed features on the example of Ringostat virtual PBX 2.0. It contains three main features that we will describe in detail below. The first one is the multifunctional telephony that offers the following advantages:

• flexible inbound and outbound call distribution — you can set up the numbers/operators from which outbound calls will be made, as well as configure a multi-level voice menu to help your customers reach the department they need;
• reduce missed call rates — use call queues so you don’t lose any buyers during high traffic periods, and receive SMS messages and/or email notifications about missed calls to perform quick callbacks;
• store all sales and calls data in one system — sync calls with CRM, so deals and tasks will be created automatically;
• receive reports for specific business needs — see data on how effectively sales reps are working, as well as you can receive commonly used reports by email with a specified frequency.

Sales departments might face the following issues that are rather common. Especially it concerns sales reps who are using virtual PBX with the basic set of features only.

1. A sales rep has to switch between different systems such as CRM, dialer, and documents.
2. The employee is making the “blindfold” conversation with the customer as he doesn’t know what a buyer is interested in.
3. Without the CRM data, the conversation history with the customer is inaccessible for a sales rep. However, there is no time to open it during the conversation itself. 

Using features described below, Ringostat virtual PBX 2.0 solves three problems at once. Let’s find out how exactly it works.

Ringostat Smart Phone — intelligent in-browser phone

This extension for Google Chrome takes less than a minute to be installed but it saves lots of time for sales reps. The icon will appear at the browser right upper corner after the installation. Click on it, log in, so the working space is shown at once. When there is an inbound call, the customer data and accept/decline buttons are displayed there.

 You can click-to-call from any webpage including cloud CRM. It saves an average of 4 hours and 20 minutes per sales rep per month. There is also no more need to switch back and forth between different systems as the employee works in one window.

There are also several opportunities that make calls processing even easier:

• hold or turn off the microphone — just click the “Pause” icon or turn off the microphone and the customer will not hear unnecessary sounds;
• blind call transfer — simply transfer calls to other employees using either their webphone or a mobile phone;
• attended call transfer — allows you to call your colleague before making the call transfer.

 
Everything is intuitive and easy as making calls using a smartphone. That’s why you also save time on training your employees. Ringostat Smart Phone allows making calls using a cloud CRM interface. You only need to be in the deal or contact section in CRM where the needed number is mentioned.

Read the article “Ringostat virtual PBX 2.0. Both the sales reps assistant and phone in your browser” for more advantages of Ringostat Smart Phone.

Ringostat Insider — analytical assistant of a sales rep

This feature is the part of Ringostat Smart Phone that shows insights on customers and allows you to be one step ahead of your competitors. Quickly evaluate who is calling you and how often the user visits your website. All sessions for a certain time are shown in the distinct section. The period is 14 days by default, but you can change it.

Ringostat Insider interface shows the information on the advertisement that led the customer to your website. You can also see where your buyer is located, with accuracy to the city, as well as track the page where the user is now.

 
With Ringostat Insider you can call the most interested customers — the ones who are right now on the website and have already called you before. Offer them what they need exactly in time — this will cause the wow-effect and will increase the probability of a purchase. Here’s the example of Ringostat Insider usage:

Imagine the online store that sells sports equipment and receives some calls in the mornings. What are the actions of a sales rep who uses Ringostat Insider? 

1. He sees that a user who has called before is online.
2. A sales rep opens the history of this customer and discovers that he has called for two times already. And during 3 sessions, he has viewed 15 pages that are devoted to accessories for swimmers.
3. An employee understands that the customer is choosing a product right now and he is able to push him to make a purchase by making an advantageous offer. 

As a result, the sales rep makes a call exactly at the moment when a user is on the website. Thus, it causes a wow-effect. He also offers a discount for a purchase of several products that the customer was interested in. All in all, he closes the deal 🙂

We also recommend you to read the article “Ringostat Insider 2.0: even more information on a customer and a higher probability of the closed deal” to discover more details about the tool.

To sum up

1. Virtual PBX is a phone system that uses Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP technology for making calls via the Internet. It may be activated with gateways and specialized hardware or software. The connection is provided via the local network or 3G/4G on the smartphones of employees.
2. How virtual PBX works. The customer calls you, the call is transferred to the virtual PBX platform, then it is processed and sent to one of your numbers, according to the call forwarding scheme you set.
3. Steps to connect and set up a virtual PBX. Choose the service — install the software — choose the numbers to connect, depending on the capabilities of the cloud PBX — connect them to virtual PBX — set up a call forwarding scheme.
4. Advantages and opportunities on the example of Ringostat virtual PBX 2.0. Discover flexible inbound and outbound call distribution, the simplicity of usage, and valuable insights for sales reps, offered by a single tool.
5. What to choose between traditional and virtual PBX. Choose the type of PBX based on your needs, opportunities, and ambitions. virtual PBX is accessible, flexible, simple, and fast to set up. Maybe it would be better for you to go with traditional PBX if you’re ready to release a considerable amount of money for powerful equipment. Make the right choice and get a good phone connection.