Telephone System: Line with Extension
September 2nd, 2010
I recently replaced the phone system to accommodate business in my own company to the needs of my staff. I wish I could say that they meet the needs of our customers, but unfortunately it did not happen. You see, our old phone system is much more than a line extension for us. Based on the assumption that inter-office communication can be used for more than one incoming and outgoing calls. Since my company is primarily concerned with internet business and not much to do in the form of transactions over the phone, I have put this system in force in the late 90’s have also served until recently. Lately, I have a traditional provider that send me through my by phone to e-mail. They complain that it is often impossible to get past me. I looked into this issue, and that is what I found … Most of my staff spent many hours talking on the phone. They did not speak with the seller, service provider, customers or other business entity. Instead, they use cell phones for personal reasons.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not the type of boss who thinks it’s never acceptable to talk on the phone. I understand that during the workday, things are inevitably bound to come up which require an employees’ attention. We’ve all been there. Perhaps a child is sick or the car is in the shop needing repairs. I understand that these things often require time spent on the phone. Judging from the traffic on my lines and the astronomical phone bills I was receiving, however, this was way beyond what I think any employer would consider acceptable.
So, I decided to replace the old phone system. The new system has a line for every extension, including mine, so that vendors or anyone else will be able to reach me at any time. Since the new phone system also offers increased functionality, I had an additional feature programmed in.
Now, whenever someone makes an outgoing call, they must dial in their own code so that both the number they call and the times spent are recorded. These records are matched to the phone bill and all employees are required to mark the non-business related calls they make each month. Since the calls bear their code, they cannot say it wasn’t them who made the call. Of course, they must pay for these calls. I have noticed that phone times (and my phone bills) have decreased substantially.
There is much to know whether you plan to fix computers for a living.