How many times have you called a business only to be forced to listen to hold music and transferred from one department to another before finally getting to speak to the person you needed to speak to? Didn't you wish you knew your party's extension so you could dial it directly? This system of transferring calls from one person to the next combined with lengthy hold times is not considered good customer service – just ask your customers what they think if they're used to dealing with a similar situation when they call you! It's frustrating and may even discourage people from calling all together if they begin to realize it happens every time they call your business. A Virtual PBX phone system allows callers to reach the person they intend to contact quickly and easily with the use of a dial-by-name directory feature that you can set up in a matter of minutes.



A dial-by-name directory improves the quality of your customer service and creates a much more professional appearance in the eyes of customers who call you. Everyone with an extension on your toll free number can be linked to their extension number by their name, which allows callers who know who they are calling for to bypass the automated attendant, skip any lengthy hold times, and directly dial the person they want.

If the customer doesn't know the name of the person they're calling, they can access a complete staff directory with a single button or a voice command request and listen to their available options. You can set up your dial-by-name directory to list each department and individual staff member's extension, making it possible for a caller who knows the person's name but not their numerical extension to find them in the system by entering the first few letters of the staff member's name into their phone's keypad. This definitely beats asking the customer to wait on hold while the call is transferred to an operator or staff member who spends his or her day transferring incoming calls.

Why not reduce the need for this extra staff member and set up the Virtual PBX phone system to direct calls automatically? Not only does it help you provide better customer service, but it will help you keep your staff costs down as you no longer need a dedicated staff member to handle incoming calls. If you don't have a dedicated operator on staff, chances are your employees are getting interrupted throughout the day with incoming calls from customers asking to be transferred to the person they're trying to reach. An automated attendant with a Virtual PBX phone system eliminates this break in productivity by routing the calls automatically to their intended staff member.

Using a dial-by-name directory offers an affordable and easy way to set up a professional office. Not only are you able to keep customer hold times to a minimum and avoid transferring their calls from one department to another while you try to locate the staff member they're calling – but you can help keep your staff productive as they won't be interrupted with incoming calls that aren't intended for them.