Integrating Off-Site Personnel
Into Your Phone System
When you employ Work-at-Home Personnel, it is important to tie them into your phone system for easy access.
Many PBX phone systems allow programming an extension that routes calls to remote locations. If you have that feature, create extensions for all remote personnel who need to be tied into your phone system. Consider how the transfer should be done. If they have a home answering machine with a greeting that does not make sense for business calls, then it is best to use a call screening feature so that the caller does not hear the personal greeting on the home machine. Call Screening lets the recipient of the call listen to an announcement of who's calling and then they can select an option to connect or to send the caller to voice mail.
If your remote personnel are in the field and not at a specific fixed location, then they probably are using cell phones. You can do the same thing as above, program extensions to route calls to their cell phones. In this case, you may want to consider the fact that missed calls left in voice mail may not be picked up and returned in a timely manner. A solution is to bypass call screening and let all calls drop into their cell phone's voice mail if there is no answer. The benefit is that they will not have to check for messages in two places. They just need to check the cell phone, which probably has a message waiting signal to indicate a missed call.
In the latter case, keep in mind that the caller WILL hear the personal greeting of the cell phone if there is no answer. So the greeting has to be correct for the business use of the phone if this method is used.
Another thing to consider is how your remote personnel pick up their messages. If they spend most of their time in front of a computer, they may prefer having messages routed to their email as an attached WAV file.
A well designed system will use the best method for each case. Proper planning is required before haphazardly assigning extensions. The final result will make a great impression on your callers when they find it easy to get in touch with the appropriate personnel to achieve what they have intended. This benefits both you and your clients in a positive way.
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