Introducing the Google Voice. Whether you've heard of Google Voice before or not, it May be time to take another look. Stop using your mobile phone or a personal home phone number as your business line. It is not professional and is not necessary. In addition, Google offers Voice TON of other awesome features that once you try them, you may not be able to live without.
Google Voice is a service that sits on top of your existing telephone service. This means that you do not have to buy anything to get a new business phone number. Once you sign up for the free service, you will be assigned a phone number to start using. This is your new business phone number. Set up your voicemail and call forwarding options (which phones you want to ring) and you can immediately start providing this phone number to people as their business line.
When people call their new Google Voice number, they are immediately redirected to whatever phone or phone that you have selected. For this example, lets say you setup Google Voice on the path to your cell phone and home phone. When people dial the phone number to your cell phone and home phone will ring simultaneously. call is routed to whatever phone you first. You can setup the service so the caller ID says the call is coming from Google Voice number. In this way you will always know that you're getting a business or personal call.
Speaking at their home phone, but want to talk on a cell phone instead? Just hit the "*" button and call transfer. You can also record calls if you wish, or opt to send the caller directly to voicemail.
So, right off the bat you can see why a number of Google Voice can make your business life a little easier and definitely more professional. If this is not enough to get you excited, check out these other awesome features that you can not get anywhere else:
Online Voicemail & Voicemail transcription - Google Voice keeps all your voice mail in your online account. Sign up via web browser or use the App on your Android phone. All your voice messages are stored on the e-mail as a form and allow you to play messages, add notes in an e-mail or download voicemail as an attachment or even incorporated as a multimedia message components on a website or blog. If you do not want to hear from the caller again, just block the caller to the right of voice mail and the phone never rings again, if they try to contact you. Comes in handy for the psycho ex-girlfriend or a lawyer.
Set the clock & Do Not Disturb - One of the best features for your business hands down. If you want to set the hours you have available, now your phone can help you. Easy to set schedules for when the phone rings and when not to. If you just want to be available from 8:00 to 5:00 then your phone rings only between these hours. If you just want to be available on weekends, it's easy to do as well. In addition, you have the option to set "Do Not Disturb". This will temporarily (for whatever period you specify) routes all incoming calls to voicemail. Very handy when you have a deadline and need to focus without interruption. This is by far one of the best things for your small business, because it allows you to separate business life from personal life and never will meet two (unless of course you want them ).
Text Messages - In addition to phone calls and voice mail, Google's voice also lets you send and receive SMS messages from your account. If you have integrated Google Voice account with Android phone, you can send and receive text messages directly from your phone as well. All SMS messages are stored online to view and review later. I love this feature because I can text message my wife directly from your computer without having to divert my attention to my phone.
integrated with your contacts - If you already have a Google account regularly, all your contacts will show up in Google Voice account as well. This means that if your friend Jim calls his new number (and Jim have a number saved) his name will appear on your caller ID. Also, all the voice mails and text messages sent and received from Jim will be attached to his contact record for future reference. This comes in handy when you want to look up the phone number is left to you a few months back on my voicemail. I got a call from someone new? Simply add the name of your phone number and all historical and future calls will now have the person's name attached.
Unlimited Custom Voicemail Greetings - This feature is both useful and fun! Create custom voice mail greetings for a particular person, or persons who assign group. This means that if your best friend Joe calls you, you can have a fully customized greetings to him and him only. Similarly, if a group of all their suppliers to "suppliers" group, whenever anyone from that group calls, they will receive a personalized message to you created just for those kinds of contacts. As you can imagine, this can lead to all sorts of interesting things you can do with your voicemail has never been possible. Go ahead and have fun with it!
There are certainly a few other cool features that I've intentionally left off this quick guide. After all, what would it be fun if you did not get to do a little research on her eh?
There are certainly a few other cool features that I've intentionally left off this quick guide. After all, what would it be fun if you did not get to do a little research on her eh?
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