8 Easy & Powerful PBX Phone System Tips for Your Business

A PBX phone system is known as a technology that allows you to make and receive calls. That, of course, is just the tip of the iceberg.

Once you start learning the capabilities of your PBX phone system, you’ll see that you can customize your communications strategy to get the most value from your PBX phone system.

These tips can work for any company, big or small.

Track Marketing Campaigns

Typically, companies allocate their marketing and advertising dollars in more than one place at a time, both offline and online. Having a set of phone numbers for each channel of possible leads will help you identify which campaign generates more inbound calls.

Predetermined prefixes will help agents identify which campaign the caller is calling from to better assist them without agents having to probe for more information.

Use your PBX phone system’s call analytics to see which phone number is generating the most activity and decide where to focus your revenue for future campaigns. This works great for business cards, too!

Use Prefixes and Ring Groups

As we just saw, prefixes are great for identifying incoming calls from existing campaigns, but they’re also good for identifying what the incoming caller is looking for.

If a caller goes through your prompt menu (press 1 for sales, 2 for support, etc.) and chooses an option, the call will ring to the predetermined destination and as it rings, it will show a custom prefix.

Think of it as a caller ID for the intention of the call. The prefix can say “Sales,” or an abbreviation of your campaigns, followed by the phone number of the caller.

Ring groups allow you to direct phone numbers to specific extensions or departments so only those who need to worry about that call are notified.

Improve Your Training Methods

Seminars and conferences are a great way to keep your team updated on the latest emerging trends. It’s also expensive. Many small businesses don’t have the means to provide this level of continued training to their team; luckily, your PBX phone system can help.

With extension monitoring, you can join your agent while they’re on a call and the third party won’t know you’re there.

You can coach your agent as the conversation is happening and listen to recorded calls for even more feedback and significant improvements.

Customize Your Voicemail to Email

We’ve got some great ways you can use voicemail and email with your PBX phone system to save time and energy.

Set Up Time Conditions

Using time conditions can help business owners and office managers during times of the day that they won’t be available or in the office.

If you’re taking an impromptu company lunch leaving the office empty, set up a time condition on your PBX system to either forward calls to a mobile phone or let callers know when you will resume operations.

Time conditions are especially useful for holidays when regular hours of operation can be affected.

Call Forwarding

Call forwarding is an underestimated feature that can help you stay on top of your calls in and out of the office. If you choose to set up an automated attendant, you can forward calls to your mobile phone, another recording, or to a voicemail.

Since smartphones are becoming the primary device for business communications, many business owners and entrepreneurs are using call forwarding to use a PBX phone system without having to purchase additional hardware. Even with an office phone, you can forward your calls that ring to your desk right to your mobile.

It’s safe to say that with call forwarding, you’ll never miss a call.

Use Accessories

One of many PBX phone system accessories, the Cisco SPA500ds is a digital expansion module that works with any 5-series Cisco small business IP phone to make transferring calls as easy as one touch.

It shows you which extensions are offline, idle, or in use and you can add up to 30 agents on the module to monitor extension availability and make communication simple.

It’s a small addition that can make a huge impact.

Enable DND

When you need to meet a deadline and can’t be bothered, Do Not Disturb is your go-to feature.

With the press of a button on your desk phone, you’re given the luxury of peace and quiet to help you stay on task until further notice. Just don’t forget to disable it once you’re done!

Start Using a PBX System

You might not need all the bells and whistles that a PBX system can provide; with these simple tricks, you can have just a few essential features and make them work for you.

Next time you’re wondering, “can my PBX system do that?” ask a FastPBX cloud specialist.

We’ll take care of your PBX system customizations and all of your business communication needs.

What did you think of these tips and tricks? Let us know in the comments below!