Virtual Phone System - Your Feedback for a Beta Account

BlueSteele

BlueSteele

New member
Mar 29, 2010
1,016
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Vancouver, BC
Hey Guys -

Recently been building a Virtual Phone System with another guy on the forum, and are getting pretty close to an 'official launch.'

Was hoping some of you might be able to answer a few questions for me:

If you use a Virtual Phone System or Virtual Numbers, what do you use them for? How many do you have, and with what provider? What features and/or pricing would you like to see from your provider? AND, what don't you like about your provider?

In return for your help I would love to extend some beta test accounts. Help me out and I will PM you with a Free Account and some free credits.

Thanks in advance.

Adam
 


Features that are important to me:

-Good analytics

I have a few different relationships where I provide leads to companies or actually sell their product through a modified drop shipping relationship and it's important to me to be able to get credit for the calls that are getting placed as well as knowing about it so that they can't shave.

-Choice of local and national numbers

You do local, you know the importance of local phone numbers. Not going to go into this.

-Ability to have extensions and automated system when a user calls

Representing myself as an agency means I want to instill confidence in any clients, so having an automated system with extensions is a must, and the ability to know what department or extension the user chose when getting the call transferred to me (because it doesn't matter what they choose, they are getting forwarded to me anyway)

Just a few of my thoughts.
 
Don't know much about Virtual PBX's and stuff, but I use Google Voice for my business number.

I have a 424 area code from them, and that comes up as COMPTON. Many friends here who get new local numbers get 424 and hate it.

I can imagine that if you have some premium numbers in "more studly" area codes like 310, a premium would be paid by serious businesses. Couldn't say how much though.

Don't believe that it matters? See this scene from Swingers then:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j96Zp5qtvKY]818?... 310... Nice! (Swingers Scene) - YouTube[/ame]
 
Kaedus said:
Features that are important to me:

-Good analytics

I have a few different relationships where I provide leads to companies or actually sell their product through a modified drop shipping relationship and it's important to me to be able to get credit for the calls that are getting placed as well as knowing about it so that they can't shave.

-Choice of local and national numbers

You do local, you know the importance of local phone numbers. Not going to go into this.

-Ability to have extensions and automated system when a user calls

Representing myself as an agency means I want to instill confidence in any clients, so having an automated system with extensions is a must, and the ability to know what department or extension the user chose when getting the call transferred to me (because it doesn't matter what they choose, they are getting forwarded to me anyway)

Just a few of my thoughts.
Click to expand...

Great suggestions. Analytics and good selection of local numbers is what sparked us to get into this in the first place. Doing local seo, we used lots of these numbers from various providers and they all seemed to lack in that area. Our number selection is the tits, but I know our analytics (from a aesthetics standpoint) could certainly use some sprucing up.

I have PMd you with your beta account. Hope you like it and and feel free to let me know what you like and dislike as you go through it. Thanks.
 
Berto said:
Don't know much about Virtual PBX's and stuff, but I use Google Voice for my business number.

I have a 424 area code from them, and that comes up as COMPTON. Many friends here who get new local numbers get 424 and hate it.

I can imagine that if you have some premium numbers in "more studly" area codes like 310, a premium would be paid by serious businesses. Couldn't say how much though.

Don't believe that it matters? See this scene from Swingers then:
818?... 310... Nice! (Swingers Scene) - YouTube
Click to expand...

SUPER common issue. Area codes are no issue for us, but where we have run into some issues just recently is the next 3 digits. In some bigger cities, you can call two different numbers with the same area code and one might be local and the other long distance. Pain in the ass if you are using it for local business and potential leads are coming in and dropping off because they realise its long distance. Thanks!
 
Adam - I normally use virtual numbers for G* accts

Features/Pricing - I would like to be able to pay a fee, and own the number for a period of time. What I don't want is for a customer to miss a payment and have the number get reassigned to someone else.
 
Hey Adam,

I use RingCentral and I like them but would be interested in trying out your service. Here's some things that I like about their service:

*High paying aff program
*Professional Recordings
*Lots of control over settings (ring options etc.)
*Great customer service (their CS is in the Phillipines and it's 24/7 and their very helpful)
 
shawnhag said:
Adam - I normally use virtual numbers for G* accts

Features/Pricing - I would like to be able to pay a fee, and own the number for a period of time. What I don't want is for a customer to miss a payment and have the number get reassigned to someone else.
Click to expand...

The way I work it for my local clients is I pay for the #, and as long as they remain my client, their monthly fees covers the cost of the #. Would you be opposed to paying monthly per #? Plus whatever credits for the minutes you use?

TylerDurden said:
Hey Adam,

I use RingCentral and I like them but would be interested in trying out your service. Here's some things that I like about their service:

*High paying aff program
*Professional Recordings
*Lots of control over settings (ring options etc.)
*Great customer service (their CS is in the Phillipines and it's 24/7 and their very helpful)
Click to expand...

I like the idea of having professional recording - and more, hooking up with some providers who will prepare them for my subscribers at a cost.

CS will be a huge thing - there are too many assholes our there (namely hosts, namely 1and1) who just offer the shitiest CS.

I am going to look into the aff program as I want to reach out to some of my offline guru contacts to promote via their list. First step will be finding a good aff program and can get setup on my site. Thanks a bunch!
 
HiGhPeR said:
Do you guys handle something as simple as toll free forwarding? Right now I have a 1-800 # that just forwards to my skype number. Can you guys do that?
Click to expand...

Yes - you can port in 1800 #'s and like a local #, fwd it wherever you want. Does it matter do you that it may not always be a "800" number that you port in, but possibly 877, 866, 888?
 
makethatgreen said:
If your numbers work for CL pva's, I'm sure you'll have a flock of new customers heading your way.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I have never tried. I'd be happy to hook you up with an account so you can try...PM me.

LotsOfZeros said:
Twilio

/thread
Click to expand...

Twilio is boss, no fighting you there. However, not everyone wants to go through the hoops (simple to many) of setting up open vbx. We actually took twilio open vbx and customized it to cater to our audience.
 
Hey Adam

First off congrats on the new venture. Secondly, I use My1voice(recently got bought out or something by eVoice) for a few lines.

We used to have expensive PBX equipment but no longer need it, the features we use most as local businesses:

1. Auto attendant + extensions
2. Ability to schedule what extensions forward to what numbers and do that by day and time
3. Ability to call out using our number so that the number my client calls is the number that shows up on their call id
4. Ability to have toll free/local/fax connect into one account

Probably some more stuff but I can't log into my account right now cause these guys decided to port my numbers yesterday in the middle of the business day (none of them were working) since they were dealing with the buy out and I am pissed, ready to jump ship.
 
guesswho said:
1. Auto attendant + extensions
2. Ability to schedule what extensions forward to what numbers and do that by day and time
3. Ability to call out using our number so that the number my client calls is the number that shows up on their call id
4. Ability to have toll free/local/fax connect into one account
Click to expand...

We have already worked in functionality for the majority of those features. Right now, you can call out from within the web app, but not (yet) through a physical phone.

We don't have fax yet either, but if that's a crucial feature to people, it'll certainly go on the list of things to add.
 
I use ifbyphone and kall8 for clients/my own separate companies/dba. Sometimes for GP, which you've already seen. ;)

If by phone is great, but overkill on featureset/pricing for most clients except upper end. Kall8 is ok, good value, decent interface, number selection kinda sucks depending on city.

Critical features are email notifications, or some variation thereof issuing a constant reminder to clients that their getting results. A block list is a must, but are sometimes limited... godamn call centers or marketers buy kall8's number list all the time and hammer the fucking piss out of my clients every once in a while. It's annoying because it takes up my time, so a bomb feature would be to track network wide what <insert favorite yellow pages variation here> is calling more than 3 vendors and ear roll them.
 
Funny - Alex and I talked about email notifications last night. Certainly something worth considering. As for a block list, Brilliant idea. How we would implement it, no fucking clue. Appreciate your feedback and PM me if I can hook you up with an account.
 
Regarding a block list, that is a good point and while we don't have a straight-up block list, we have a couple ways to deal with that situation.

First of all, we will never sell our clients' phone numbers to marketers. I hadn't even thought of the possibility of doing that. It seems pretty evil. That must be very frustrating for you.

Secondly, we do have functionality for Called ID Routing. Which means that you can specify an incoming phone number to which you want to give special treatment. So if you have a caller who you don't want to receive calls from, you just drop his number into the Caller ID Routing and choose the "Hang Up" action whenever a call from that number is received. It never gets forwarded to your client.
 
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