When we tell our customers they should consider a softphone they often say: What’s a softphone? It’s amazing how such a valuable technology has flown so low under the radar. A softphone is an app that extends the use of your business line to laptops, desktops and smartphones. It essentially lets you receive and place calls using your business line from any device.
Receiving and placing calls is just the beginning of what you can do with a softphone. Softphones can do almost anything your business phone does, but on other devices. Here’s some of the highlights of why you should consider a softphone:
What’s a softphone? No longer give personal numbers out for business
When you leave the office how do people reach you? In the past, the only way was to give a select group of trusted co-workers your personal number. Customers and other business associates needed to either find you through that group or leave a message.
With a softphone your business line goes wherever you go, so there is no need to ever give out your personal number for business purposes. Have one number for work and another for friends and family and use them both on the same phone.
Best of all it works on iOS, Android and Windows so all your devices are covered.
What’s a softphone? A richness of features
Get all the standard features of your business line on any device! Think about it you can transfer calls to another line, caller ID, voicemail, call forwarding, corporate directory, call hold/resume, call recording, call waiting, Do Not Disturb (DND), ring groups, and queues; all that stuff you do with your office phones.
Your business phone system will also log calls, so you have accurate records.
What’s a softphone? Conferencing
As workforces have become more distributed, businesses have become more reliant on conference calls. With softphones you can do both voice and video conference calls right from the app. The app can become a cost-effective alternative to third-party audio/video conferencing solutions.
What’s a Softphone? The secure line
Softphones use the Internet to connect to your business phone system, and this enables your ability to secure calls. You can encrypt the data moving between a softphone and your business phone system. This is substantially more secure than unencrypted cellular calls.
You can set the softphone app to only receive secure calls or take a more casual approach and try to secure calls only where possible. There are many options for how security is setup between apps and your business phone system.
Greatly reduce the threat of eavesdropping, wiretapping and other security threats and ensure privacy.
What’s a Softphone? Easy & efficient
With an intuitive touch interface, a softphone is an easy and efficient way to communicate. You’ll have many easy to use features at your fingertips, for example:
Call Notifications: With a softphone you’ll get pop-up notifications, Caller ID, and you can even set different ring tones for various co-workers.
Drag-and-Drop: You don’t need to enter extensions to transfer calls, just drag and drop them to co-workers.
Visual Voicemail: View your voicemail messages in a visual format: play, delete and control your setting all from one easy interface.
What’s a Softphone? A cost-effective business line
Today, businesses are going with softphones to save money. They only require software licenses and the addition of lines and completely eliminate large hardware investments.
Most employees will already have a smartphone and computer, so it’s easy to add a softphone to these devices. According to SearchUnifiedCommunications.com, “A desk phone is a relatively pricy piece of hardware that requires a company to pull additional cables to cubicles, and desk phones come with a certain amount of operational overhead for support and maintenance.” Softphones are simply a more affordable choice for those that are mobile or don’t live on their phones all day.
