A Better Virtual – USA Virtual Offices

If you are a Virtual PBX customer, the hosted business phone services provider is giving you something new to smile about. The company just expanded its Open VoIP Peering service to include support of any SIP-compliant phones.

If you are not a Virtual PBX customer, this might be reason enough to give the company a look, especially if SIP-compliant softphone capabilities were an issue holding you back.

And if you don’t know what the heck an Open VoIP Peering service is, let me explain. Open VoIP Peering is a service that lets you leverage the features of a traditional hosted PBX services with the cost-effectiveness of VoIP technology.

“Small business users want to take advantage of the cost-savings potential of VoIP technology, but many pure VoIP solutions don’t provide the reliability and functionality needed for a professional business environment,” says Paul Hammond, CEO of Virtual PBX. “Virtual PBX’s Open VoIP Peering service addresses these shortcomings, giving our customers a broad range of features and the necessary reliability – for a fraction of the cost of typical IP-PBX solutions.”

In essence, Virtual PBX is giving customers more choice by supporting open standards. You don’t have to choose a single softphone vendor anymore. You can pick the softphones that offer the best collection of features and functions for your company. Some virtual PBX providers offer openness, but at a price. Virtual PBX doesn’t charge any extra fees for working with various vendors, like Truphone, Callcentric, Ekiga and Gizmo5.

Finally, in case you aren’t familiar with the benefits of a hosted IP-PBX service, let me give you a quick education. These services let you tap into a phone system without the expense of installing and maintaining PBX equipment. You can get into this set up from between $25 and $60 per user per month. But Virtual PBX’s VoIP Peering product, iVPBX, cuts that cost to just $10 a month and offers features like a virtual receptionist, ACD queuing, voicemail, conferencing and follow-me forwarding.

Jen Rai, AKA The Virtual Guru, is following the advice of a “very wise business coach” as she sets out on the latest virtual assistants promotion for her company, Today’s Admin. I thought this promotion might benefit our readers at A Better Virtual, so read on to learn more.

Rai is of the notion that if she offers a free trial, 100 percent of the people who try her services will become life long clients. That’s a bold thought, and one she is willing to put to the test. She’s so confident that customers will be thrilled with Today’s Admin virtual assistants that she is willing to offer a seven-day free trial to prove it.

“You will be partnered with one of our assistants who will provide you with up to five hours of free support during the seven-day free trial. If you are satisfied after the first week (and we know you will be!) you will be charged the monthly retainer fee and we will continue to assist you,” Rai explains. “If you are not 100 percent satisfied with our service, then you are free to walk away at no cost to you. You will not be charged until you have had a chance to try our services for a full week!”

If you do decide to continue on as a client, you’ll choose from one of several retainer packages for your virtual assistant. You can choose a Bronze package, which includes 10 hours of virtual assistant work, for $460 a month. The most popular package is the Silver, which offers 20 hours a week for $880 a month.

The plans run all the way up to an Executive level package with 120 hours a month for $4,560. I can’t possibly see how that could be cost effective. You could hire a full-time assistant for much less than that. But Rai is convinced that if you try her virtual assistants, you’ll never go back. So if you are in the market for a virtual assistant, check out Today’s Admin and its free seven-day trial. Just be sure to cancel at the end of the seven days if you aren’t going to move forward so you don’t get charged.

What do you get when you cross RingCentral with Alibaba.com?

Apparently, a new global communication service for Chinese suppliers that use Alibaba.com. (Keep reading, even if you aren’t a Chinese supplier. There’s something here for you, too. We’ll get to that after we explore the latest news.)

Here’s how the new service works. Alibaba.com suppliers who are based in China can set up a U.S. toll-free phone and fax number from the convenience of their PC and connect them with their offices in China.

The deal exposes RingCentral to more than 50 million registered users on Alibaba.com, but it also gives Chinese suppliers an opportunity to get something they may have been missing: a local U.S. point of contact that makes it easier for buyers to connect with them. A buyer on Alibaba.com can now dial the U.S. phone number on a member’s site and place an order. The U.S. toll-free phone and fax numbers will automatically appear in the “Contact Us” section on the supplier’s profile page.

“International e-commerce is thriving and has become an important factor in the worldwide economy,” said Brandon Dupsky, director of eCommerce Merchants Trade Association. “With this new service, Alibaba.com brings one of the most direct and convenient business tools – the business phone system– to global Internet commerce.”

So what’s in it for you? Well, flip the script and you’ll find out. You can get a local number in China so you don’t have to expand your business there. Well, you can’t do it with RingCentral. But you can set up a virtual office with companies like Regus or Davinci Virtual and accomplish the same thing. In fact, with the larger virtual office providers you can get a phone number in just about any major city in the world. So what are you waiting for?

I wrote yesterday about Virtual PBX and how one of its customers, Genoa Business Forms, is lowering costs and increasing productivity by using the service.

Now, Virtual PBX is working to make cost savings even greater with its latest offering: free conferencing on all its service plans. With Virtual PBX’s audio conferencing service you can launch a conference call at any time—at no extra cost.

“We’re pleased to offer our customers this feature at no cost,” said Greg Brashier, COO of Virtual PBX. “In today’s economy, free services can be a big help and, together with the low cost of our service plans, all our clients get a lot of PBX power for a very low price.”

Here’s what’s cool: When you sign up for Virtual PBX, each extension in the system has its own private conference room that employees can use any time they need. That does away with the annoyance of shared conference lines where calls run over and the next group of meeting attendance interrupts the last group.

With Virtual PBX’s free conference call rooms, you don’t have to log into an online service to book a time to hold your conference call. You don’t have to send out PIN numbers to people you have invited to attend your conference either. However, you can decide to put password protection on your conference if you feel the need to secure the line. You can even monitor the activity of each conference so you can see how many people are on the call, who they are by caller ID, when they called in and if they dropped out.

Even if you only hold conference calls occasionally, being able to host the call can make a good impression on your clients. Since it doesn’t cost you anything, you can have that tool on hand as part of your Virtual PBX account for as little as $10 month.

“Virtual PBX gives my clients that ‘big company feel’ even though all extensions ring to a handful of employees at home in their pajamas!” says Andy Potter, founder of Hand it to Mom. “The conference call bridge further extends the mirage that our company is huge and has an IT department—we even have a conference bridge!”

Virtual PBX is bragging on the results it’s getting for Genoa Business Forms. The hosted business phone services company said Genoa is seeing lower overall costs with its virtual PBX product.

Genoa is a manufacturer of printed products. The company started using Virtual PBX last September to pave the way for better customer service. Genoa chose Virtual PBX because it offered services traditional phone systems couldn’t offer—and the company didn’t have to invest in additional hardware.

“After using Virtual PBX for just a few weeks, we knew that we made the right choice for our business, as it did everything we expected and more,” says Philip Paulson, president of Genoa Business Forms. “The main benefits included saving over $10,000 in installation costs, plus $2,000 a year in a maintenance agreement. Beyond that, it enabled our workforce to take business calls anywhere, anytime, resulting in much greater availability to our most important asset—our customers.”

Genoa not only saved money by not having to invest in a system or spend on maintenance, the printing products company also saved 10 percent on its phone bills by cutting out landlines and long distance charges. On top of that, Genoa watched its employee productivity rise because the staff no longer had to sit behind a desk in order not to miss a call. They could leave the office and have Virtual PBX forward the calls to their cell phones.

“Virtual PBX offers an ideal solution for companies looking for that winning edge needed to succeed in today’s difficult business climate. It is essential for companies to stay agile and look for ways to not only save money, but to improve the way they do business,” says Paul Hammond, president and CEO of Virtual PBX. “Genoa Business Forms is that kind of company, as they have reduced their day-to-day expenses while providing even better customer service. It is these very things that we strive to bring all of our customers.”

Are you a virtual assistant? Then you don’t want to miss the Online International Virtual Assistants Convention (OIVAC) on May 20-22, 2010.

In fact, if you are thinking about becoming a virtual assistant, you may also want to consider attending to learn more about the opportunity and make some strategic connections. And if your company offers virtual assistant services as part of your virtual office amenities packages, then think about sending your star employees to this annual conference because it could help them learn new skills that will benefit your company.

“The convention brings together VAs from around the globe and provides low-cost training and extensive networking opportunities that are second to none,” promises Sharon Williams, founder of OIVAC. “Today’s economic landscape is having a global effect and this online, interactive convention provides communication and technology training, workshops and networking opportunities that increase business growth at relatively low costs.”

What’s Driving the VA Trend?
OIVAC convention organizers point to changes in the economy and ongoing corporate and government unemployment as drivers of the blockbuster growth of the virtual assistant industry.

With the drivers in mind, this year’s convention highlights how vital it is to stay current with technology, as well as business and marketing strategies for running a highly profitable VA business.

It’s only fitting that the convention is online, considering the virtual nature of the industry. What this means is that you can attend the convention from your home office. And that means no travel costs. It also means lower registration costs because OIVAC doesn’t have to rent facilities at which to hold the meeting.

Attend the Convention from Home
And, of course, it means virtual assistants don’t have to be away from their business or their family to take advantage of the opportunity to tap into communication and technology training and networking with peers in the virtual assistant industry. Virtual assistants can visit online exhibitor halls and interact with both virtual assistant and non-virtual assistant industry vendors in VoIP and chat meeting rooms.

Virtual assistant Denise Marron is one of the thousands of administrative professionals around the world that has become a successful virtual assistant. Her take: “The industry has exploded.” Marron specializes in administrative support and social media assistance. She is one of many who are planning to attend this year’s virtual assistant conference.

You can attend three virtual assistant seminars of your choice for $79 or enroll in one of the premium packages, which include a Technology track and a Business/Marketing track. If you don’t want to miss a minute, you can pay $499 for access to the entire convention. Visit OIVAC.com for more information on this year’s convention.

OK, now it’s an official trend. Virtual receptionist and virtual PBX companies are spending their marketing dollars to target specific niches.

I already wrote about my1voice targeting building consultants and FreedomVoice targeting real estate agents. Now, AnswerFirst Communications, a company that offers telephone answering and messaging services, virtual receptionist and call center solutions, is going after businesses in the heating and cooling industry.

“We are currently offering special promotions for businesses in the heating and cooling industry because the change of season results in a huge upturn in call volume for these businesses,” explains Jim Smith, director of Sales & Marketing at AnswerFirst.

Choosing a Marketing Partner
AnswerFirst chose Modern Inserting & Mailing Service to advertise special promotional rates to businesses in this niche. The virtual receptionist company spreading its direct mail campaign over a nine-week period.

AnswerFirst is targeting companies in Florida, which makes good sense since it’s one of the hottest states in the country. I’m not sure why they aren’t also targeting the likes of Arizona and Texas. Perhaps they are testing the success of this campaign before investing more broadly.

Businesses on the mailing list will get a series of three mailers promoting:

• a $5 per week base rate
• free set-up (a $100 value)
• automatic discounts for high volume

Switching Marketing Gears
Apparently, this is the first time AnswerFirst has taken its marketing into the direct mail realm. The virtual receptionist company has traditionally focused on Internet marketing, including SEO and social networking campaigns. Smith says the company has had a lot of success with those outlets and will continue to use them, but felt direct mail was appropriate to get the word out about the special rates.

“We realize that there are still a lot of businesses that don’t use the Internet to shop for support services,” Smith says, noting that Modern Inserting & Mailing produces high-quality full-color mailers and industry-specific mailing lists that let the company specifically target the heating and cooling industry. “We’ll still direct potential clients to our website for more information but we’re hoping to reach a new audience with this mailer campaign.”

I’ll be really interested to see how this pans out. I think it’s a great idea. With all the focus on social media, and Internet marketing, I think sometimes we forget that old fashioned direct mail can reach folks who might not go online, as Smith mentioned. If this works, prepare for this virtual receptionist company to continue this newfound strategy.

While FreedomVoice is targeting real estate brokers, my1voice is targeting a different, but related audience: construction consultants. my1voice is getting rave reviews from KBCm Group, which offers consulting services for building owners that want to build, expand or redevelop properties.

As the story goes, KBCm owner Ken Blankenfeld was facing some communications challenges. Since each of his consultants had a separate phone line, there was no one easy way for a customer to call in to get answers or order consulting services. Blankenfeld tapped into my1voice’s virtual phone service to streamline client communications.

“I had six or eight teams with varying numbers of people on them,” Blankenfeld says. “My goal was to allow building owners to call one number — my number — and then reach key members of a specific team.”

Blankenfeld’s requirements for a phone system:  user-friendliness, flexibility and scalability. He needed unlimited extensions, call routing and smart call forwarding. What’s more, he didn’t want to deal with any technical configuration, maintenance or software updates.

Here’s how it works for KBCm: If the team lead doesn’t pick up the phone, the call is forwarded to another team member’s mobile phone. The calls can be forwarded to up to five different team members so clients almost always get a live person unless all five people are on the phone at the same time. Every call from the my1voice line is identified on the caller ID so the team member who is answering the phone knows it’s a client call.

“When clients call my main number they are prompted to enter a code, which is the last three digits of their KBCm job number,” Blankenfeld says. “The code automatically routes the call to the cell phone of the team lead at the time. I can login to the Web portal to change the team lead in a minute or two as-needed. And since it’s web-based, I administer it anywhere I get an Internet connection.”

If you are in the real estate business, FreedomVoice has an interesting proposition for you. The company launched a service called AdTrakker last October that’s gaining some traction.

AdTrakker is an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) call capture lead generation and real estate agents are liking it. Even Baylor University is giving IVR technology the nod as the second most important lead generation system for real estate agents behind word of mouth referrals.

“Interactive Voice Response technology is a powerful tool for real estate agents,” says Eric Thomas, CEO of FreedomVoice. “Agents use the AdTrakker IVR system to maximize their advertising. Those who are not utilizing this technology are at a disadvantage.”

Anatomy of AdTrakker
Here’s how AdTrakker virtual receptionist works: Real estate agents get a toll free number and 100 individual extensions that they can use to serve up recorded information about real estate listings. When a prospect sees a real estate ad and calls the toll free number, AdTrakker captures their number, the listing for which they called, and many times can also capture their name and address.

After listening to the recorded information, the system can forward the call to a live real estate agent. Prospects can also leave a voice mail or request a fax with more information. The AdTrakker system also notifies real estate agents of the call immediately so they can get back in touch with prospects quickly.

Also important, the AdTrakker system offers analytics that show real estate agents which ads are driving leads so they can put more emphasis there and cut back on non-performing ads.

Real Estate Agent Speaks
“Monitoring our AdTrakker calls is like watching life happen. We see sellers calling our 888 number getting the real estate itch long before they would ever admit it to an agent,” says Bruce E. Garber, broker and owner at CENTURY 21 BHJ Realty, Inc.

“Phone number identification allows us to not only know who calls but the price range of the neighborhood they are calling from so we start thinking about the sale of the home they are calling on as well as the home they need to sell early on in the process. We now only advertise if we can measure the results. AdTrakker has allowed me to evaluate all advertising activities and make wise advertising decisions.”

There’s a good article over at Inside Tucson Business about virtual offices. It’s called “5 important guidelines to make your firm’s virtual office work.”

Let’s face it, virtual offices can cut costs, but if you don’t know how to make the most of a virtual office environment you may not see productivity you expected.

Written by consultant Sharon Youngblood, principal of Youngblood Consulting, the article outlines these five steps for making the most of a virtual office:

1. Don’t jump too fast
2. Establish and monitor performance
3. Trial period
4. Be clear about expectations
5. Use technology

Let’s focus on the technology aspects of making a virtual office work. It’s more than just a computer and a telephone. Savvy companies are turning to virtual office providers like Davinci Virtual or Phone.com for technology support.

Youngblood puts it this way: “Every remote worker needs technology to be able to stay connected. That includes laptops, mobile and/or smart phones and Internet access. Skype and other like technologies can provide a reasonable amount of face-time between workers and the home office as well as with clients.”

Staying connected may mean having an 800 number. When clients call they are greeted by an automated answering system where they can enter an extension to reach various departments or people at your company. You can also opt for a virtual receptionist who will offer live call answering and call forwarding.

The goal with your virtual office, then, extends beyond the mere productivity you might expect from telecommuting. It should offer a convenient meeting room service where your virtual staff can meet as needed in person. Overall, a virtual office should enhance the communications systems and the professionalism of your company.