Effective VOIP Communications Tools For Your Virtual Assistant

When you have virtual staff, communication is crucial to your success and the platform you use is essential to clear communication. Hiring a virtual assistant can be most beneficial for your business, but let’s be honest, in order for this to work, you need to have systems and processes in place to foster the arrangement. These systems and processes also need to be optimized. there are many great systems out there ranging from free services to affordable and more high-end with more functions. All you need is to narrow down what fits your business.

The best part of having a VoIP system is that it can integrate into your other operations aside from communication with your Virtual Assistant. Over the years, we have gathered data from our clients and virtual assistants about the systems they use for communication and we are sharing them with you.

VoIP transforms outgoing or incoming calls into a digital signal and sends it through the internet, converting it to a standard telephone signal to reach a non-VoIP number. Through VoIP, you can place outgoing calls or receive incoming calls directly from a computer, a VoIP phone, or a regular phone that’s hooked up to a VoIP adapter, as well as wirelessly through mobile hotspots.

Here are some of the VoIP providers we love:

Paid

1. RingCentral–  When your business communications are bundled, you don’t have to try and make separate products work together and you’re not paying several vendors for a series of different services. Their easy-to-use cloud-based solution is much less expensive to operate than typical on-premises phone systems. RingCentral’s features are great for any team and it makes collaboration streamlined and convenient.

2. Grasshopper– Grasshopper’s VoIP service is great for more mobile businesses. They give you the flexibility a small business needs - call and text from anywhere with an internet connection! Get a business phone number plus all of the features of a robust phone system without the expense of additional devices. That way, your personal number stays private and you always know when business is calling.

3. Nextiva– Nextiva offers affordable VoIP services, great for communication with your Virtual Assistant. The Nextiva App gives you the power to collaborate and manage with the same versatility as your desk phone. Nextiva also offers a single powerful platform with phone, email, chat, and SMS that captures and analyzes all data for every interaction.

Free (with subscription options for more features.)

1. Skype– Skype is a telecommunications application that specializes in providing video chat and voice calls between computers, tablets, mobile devices, the Xbox One console, and smartwatches via the Internet. Skype also provides instant messaging services. Users may transmit text, video, audio, and images. For the most part, Skype is a free service but has subscription plans that give way for more features that can be useful for team collaboration.

2. Google Voice–  Google Voice is a telephone service that provides call forwarding and voicemail services, voice and text messaging, as well as the U.S. and international call termination for Google Account customers. Google Voice provides a U.S. telephone number, chosen by the user from available numbers in selected area codes, free of charge to each user account. Calls to this number are forwarded to telephone numbers that each user must configure in the account web portal. Multiple destinations may be specified that ring simultaneously for incoming calls. Google also has chat features and coupled with google voice can be a handy place to communicate easily with your team.

3. Zoom – Zoom is more than just a VoIP but its free services, can be used as a meeting and chat platform for your team. With awesome features such as breakout rooms, text chat, etc. Zoom can be great for managing communication with your team and if explored further, offers many other great features that might be useful to you and your business.

Mobile/Desktop compatible Apps

1. Messenger– Many of our clients who are active on their social media use Facebook’s Messenger app. its seamless use amongst different devices makes it convenient and easy to access.

2. WhatsApp–  Whatsapp is a free to download app that built with the small business owner in mind. Create a catalog to showcase your products and services. Connect with your customers easily by using tools to automate, sort, and quickly respond to messages. WhatsApp can also help medium and large businesses provide customer support and deliver important notifications to customers.

3. Viber– Viber is a calling and messaging app that connects people - no matter who they are, or where they’re from. With a free and secure connection, over 1 billion users worldwide communicate with their loved ones through high-quality audio and video calls, messaging, and much more. All Viber calls and chats are protected by built-in end-to-end encryption, so you can be sure that your conversations are always secure.

Aside from using these VoIP options, you should consider other supplemental platforms such as project management systems like Monday, Trello, Zoho or Basecamp, in order to keep tabs of who is in charge of each project and what specific tasks they are in charge of, you will also be able to see progress on each part of a project and communicate details specific to them. you may also want to look into online file databases such as google docs or dropbox in order to ensure that all your documentation, files, images, etc. are easily accessible for your entire team.

These days, communication does not have to be difficult. With all the communication software and constant innovations, its all a matter of doing your research and figuring out what will work best for your business and your Virtual Assistant. When it comes to systems and everything you need for a seamless relationship with your Virtual Assistant, MyOutDesk provides support, every step of the way.