Hosted PBX Terms, Part 1

People hear Hosted PBX acronyms and phrases littering today’s business conversations. If a business is interested in digesting these complicated abbreviations and learning the simple, yet money-saving technology behind these features, this article will serve as an excellent introduction into the realm of Hosted PBX.

This article is the first portion of a two-part article. Important VoIP hosted terminology includes:

• Access by Phone – VoIP business services allow companies’ employees to access their accounts by phone, in addition to providing easy web access.
• ACD Queuing – Automatic Call Distribution Queuing routes calls to select departments and staff personnel. These systems can easily be customized to prioritize select staff members, select which staff are part of certain call queues, route calls to available staff members, offer staff management, provide custom information or tips while on hold, shuffle calls into an overflow queue, provide call limits and the ability to monitor and record calls for quality assurance or legal issues.
• Auto Attendant – Some companies use this feature during business hours and others only outside of business hours. This feature offers a professional greeting and directs callers to press numbers for immediate routing to certain departments or employees.
• Call Announce – This feature allows a call to be announced once it is forwarded to an extension. This provides employees with several options, including answering calls, sending them directly to voicemail or forwarding them.
• Call Block – This is a great feature for companies that receive threatening or derogatory calls from people that harass employees.
• Call Forwarding – This is an excellent option for employees that need to transfer a call to a manager or another professional within their team. For example, if a customer has completed their customer service related issues, he/she may desire to speak to a sales representative. The call can simply be put on hold and then forwarded to the correct department.
• Call Hold – This allows employees to look up information, consult with a manager or check the details of an order while placing a customer on hold.
• Call Reports – These types of reports are vital for production statistics and include incoming and outgoing call volumes.
• Conference Calling – This allows three different telephone lines to conference directly, for example a customer, technical service representative and a manager.
• Custom Hold – This feature is great for companies that want to announce sales, promote special products, provide website information, give store hours or simply provide soothing music while customers are waiting in the call queues.
• Dial by Extension – This is the general “if you know your party’s extension, you may dial it at any time …” routine that is commonly heard on many businesses’ auto attendants.