No matter where you’ve set up your home office… we’ve got you.
By Taylor Cates, Director of Sales at Avid Communications.
The sales team at Avid was prepared for the transition to working from home. As salespeople, we not only use our own products and services, we consult and train our customers on how to use them as well. These products and services range from desk phones and internet connectivity to more complex products like softphones, video conferencing and network security.
Many of our clients are already using Avid’s hosted phones. One of the great features of these VoIP business phones is that they can be taken to a home office by simply unplugging them at work and plugging them in at home. And if they don’t want to deal with the physical phone, they can simply add a license for a softphone to use on their cell phone or laptop. This really helps make the transition to working from home even easier.
Quick Solution for Premise-Based Phone Systems
Over the last few weeks, we’ve received so many calls from clients that are using our voice services, but they’re still running on legacy, premise-based phone systems. Names like NEC, Avaya and even the old Nortel phone systems come to mind. These clients were essentially stuck – stuck at the office if they wanted to receive calls. The phones at their desks were directly connected to the “brain” at their office, so taking those phones home just doesn’t work.
We could have forwarded calls to their cell phones, but this wouldn’t allow for important phone system functionality. The simple ability to transfer a call to another phone is lost in that scenario. And that’s not good for their customer’s experience. And now more than ever, communication matters… nobody wants to be fighting their technology while trying to talk to customers.
Thankfully, we have a solution. We quickly converted these clients to our hosted voice platform. And then we helped them install softphones on their computers and cell phones. This left us with the challenge of training. Normally, when we turn up this kind of service, we go to their office and do a few training sessions in person. Over the past few weeks, we’ve trained hundreds of new users virtually.
It’s been fun to get a front row seat to so many home offices (and the occasional makeshift dining room/office and even unfinished basements.) The common theme is that everyone appreciates how we’re making it work in spite of all the new challenges. An interesting side benefit is that we’re building even better relationships with so many clients. There’s something unique about the dynamics of video conversations… people are willing to share and “let their hair down” even more than usual. More laughter. More stories. And visible relief that something important is working again.
We’re still “here” and working.
In spite of the order to stay at home, we’re still “here” and working. (Even though most of the time it’s with a phone call or video conference call.) Many of our products and services are cloud based. So we’re able to help companies quickly transition to working at home. If you or someone you know is struggling with their business phone system now that much of the staff is at home, we can help. Give us a call!
