Virtual PBX phone system

A hosted PBX phone system is variously referred to as a virtual PBX, virtual receptionist, auto attendant, or virtual phone system. PBX stands for private branch exchange, an old fashioned on-premise hardware based phone system. Now you can get all the most sophisticated features of an expensive PBX phone system without the expensive hardware. Tie your virtual workforce together with a virtual PBX phone system.

Small business owners want to present a large, professional image—no matter how many employees they have. We will assist you in writing and recording a customized greeting, and we have many templates to choose from. The virtual PBX recording makes it sound like you are all sitting together in an office tower (even if it is just you, wearing many hats).

With a virtual PBX phone system you can have the sophisticated features of a Fortune 500 company, without expensive equipment. A virtual PBX comes loaded with features such as voicemail, fax mail, auto attendant and find-me/follow-me call forwarding. We provide toll free numbers and local phone numbers with area codes available in major cities, as well as many smaller or rural areas. You can also use your existing phone numbers.

A Virtual PBX system allows your callers to hear an initial outgoing greeting, choose an extension, and transfer directly to a staff member.

Read more...

Virtual Phone System Features

A virtual phone system brings incredible telecommunication capability and features to your existing office, home, or mobile phone lines. By using a virtual phone number, which forwards to any existing phone line anywhere in the world, you can be reached no matter where you are located. Your incoming phone calls will literally follow your every step.

Virtual phone systems have some very powerful communication features that bring a whole new level of telecommunication capability to your existing phone lines. These include virtual auto attendant, call forwarding services, call screening, call queuing, voicemail and Internet fax capability.

Read more...

Small Business PBX Virtual Phone System - Virtual Phone Number

Grasshopper was founded in 2003 by two undergraduate business students who wanted a better way for small businesses to communicate with their customers. The result is a powerful virtual phone system designed for today’s small businesses.

While Grasshopper offers some great features, it comes up short in several areas when compared to the competing virtual phone system. More about this later in the review.

Hosted PBX Phone System

Grasshopper virtual phone system is an Internet-based, hosted PBX phone system that allows your small business to sound more professional and streamlines your communication with customers. Grasshopper does this by creating a hosted PBX phone system that allows callers to dial one main number to reach any employee, regardless of where in the world they are, or what kind of a phone they have access to.

By combining a unique toll-free or local number with many advanced features, Grasshopper virtual phone system allows your small business to sound its best.

No extra hardware or software is required to take advantage of Grasshopper’s features. In fact, all you need is your existing telephone lines and you are on your way to making your small business phone system perform like a much larger corporation.

Virtual Phone Number System

The virtual auto attendant answers incoming phone calls to your Grasshopper virtual phone system, thus functioning as a receptionist. Callers hear a custom greeting of your choice and are given options to be transferred to any employee or department.

Once the caller chooses who they want to talk to, Grasshopper forwards the call to the appropriate extension. You are able to designate extensions for virtually any purpose – employees, departments, or company information such as store hours, location, or a marketing promotion.

You can choose to have callers listen to hold music or a marketing message as the Grasshopper virtual phone number service transfers their call to any phone number in the world. You have complete control of the extension’s ultimate destination and you can change the outbound phone numbers at anytime.

Customizable Virtual Phone System

Grasshopper is a customizable virtual phone system for one or more employees and works with any phone, anywhere in the world. You can have calls forwarded to office phones, home phones, mobile phones, or Internet phones. The choice is up to you.

If it is after business hours, or the particular extension is not currently available, Grasshopper SOHO PBX virtual phone system has a fully functioning, customizable, voice mail systems. And once you receive a voicemail, you can access it via any phone, the Grasshopper virtual phone system online interface, or have it delivered to your email as an audio attachment. The delivery and notification methods for each extension are individually customizable.
This Virtual Office Phone System is Missing Many Key Features

Grasshopper does not offer the same full service Internet faxing capability that RingCentral does, which is our top rated virtual small business telephone systems. Grasshopper only accepts inbound faxes and has extremely limited outbound faxing capability. For example, if you need to fax a document to a client, you cannot do so with Grasshopper. You will need to use a stand-alone faxing service.

There are several other key features missing from the Grasshopper virtual small office phone service which are available with RingCentral. These include rollover minutes, answering rules, and an online call controller.

Grasshopper does offer more included minutes, in all but their least expensive plan, but does charges a higher per minute charge for additional minutes, in all but their least expensive plan.

Grasshopper also does not offer a free trial. They do have a 30-day money back guarantee, but you have to pay for the service upfront, unlike the competition. Also, Grasshopper requires a $25 activation fee, where the competing virtual PBX phone system has no activation or setup fee.

Grasshopper Virtual Phone Systems - Final Thoughts

While the Grasshopper virtual small business phone service has some great features that give you the ability to effectively and efficiently run your small business, it comes up short when compared to other virtual phone systems. You may be better served with RingCentral, which offers several key, advanced features not found in Grasshopper. Grasshopper does offer more included minutes than RingCentral in all but their least expensive plan, so if this is the most important feature for you, Grasshopper is your choice. Otherwise, take a hard look at the RingCentral hosted PBX phone system.

Read more...