Streamlining Your Communication Setup: Holiday Edition

by Jacob Acker | Jun 15, 2023 | Email, VoIP

Mastering Holiday Communication: Simple Steps for Seamless Connections

As professional workers, maintaining effective communication during holiday weekends or holidays is crucial. To ensure a smooth workflow and uninterrupted communication, it’s essential to set up email forwards, auto responders, temporary voicemail greetings, and call forwarding. Let’s explore how to do this efficiently.

1. Email Forwards: a. Redirect incoming emails to colleagues or designated team members. b. Keep recipients informed about your forwarding arrangement in your autoresponder. c. Set clear expectations for response times during the holiday period.

2. Auto Responders: a. Craft a concise autoresponder message informing senders about your unavailability. b. Mention the specific dates of your absence and provide an alternative contact if necessary. c. Express gratitude for their understanding and patience.

3. Temporary Voicemail Greetings: a. Record a temporary voicemail greeting reflecting your absence. b. Clearly state the duration of your absence and an alternative contact method if needed. c. Inform callers that their messages will be attended to promptly upon your return.

4. Call Forwarding: a. Divert incoming calls to a trusted colleague or an answering service. b. Ensure the forwarding setup is seamless, avoiding disruptions in customer service. c. Notify clients or customers about the temporary call forwarding arrangement in advance.

By appropriately setting up email forwards, auto responders, temporary voicemail greetings, and call forwarding, professional workers can ensure smooth communication during holiday weekends or holidays. Implementing these strategies enables you to maintain professional connections while enjoying your well-deserved time off. Remember to communicate your availability and provide alternative contacts to keep everyone informed.

WE CAN HELP

The Top 6 Reasons Why You Should Update Your Office Phones

by Jacob Acker | May 18, 2022 | Phones, VoIP

Has it been a while since you’ve taken a hard look at your office phones? We understand, it’s not an everday thing…

We expect so much out of our communication tools… and when they don’t work, it’s a hassle.

If you’ve been in a situation where it’s hard to reach a customer or coworker – don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Here are the top 6 reasons why you should update your office phones with us:

1. USE FIND ME / FOLLOW ME

It’s a feature that’s extremely beneficial to you when you’re away from your desk. Essentially, you use one phone to answer your personal and work calls. The best part? When you call a client, they see your work number.

2. AUTO ATTENDANT

Route calls to different departments or voicemail boxes via interactive menus. While this seems common, it’s actually quite not. The feature itself screams modern day small business because we’re all limited on time, so why not help everyone communicate a little easier?

3. VOICEMAIL TO EMAIL

Again, it seems like a common concept, but most small-to-medium sized businesses don’t have this feature.

If you miss an important call from a client, you don’t want your work phone voicemail to not accept because your inbox is full (trust us, it happens more than you think).

Get a copy of the voicemail directly to your email and ensure you connect back. Seems too good to be true.

4. RING GROUPS

Do you want someone always answering your office phones? With ring groups, you can. Some of our clients use this feature because they have multiple locations that need to assist a regional area, and they want to ensure the best customer experience.

5. SOFTPHONE

Use your computer (i.e. VOIP) to make calls. No need to grab your cell phone out of your pocket when you’re in the office working productively… Use your computer!

6. TEXT VIA A WORK NUMBER

Use your personal cell phone as an “all-in-one” solution for customer service. Text your clients as requested/needed.

NEXT STEPS

Contact us about new office phones for your business – we’ll take care of you!

(Case Study) West Michigan Dental Company Leverages Technology

by Jacob Acker | Jun 16, 2021 | Cloud Services, IT Services, Testimonial, VoIP

“[ICS Data], and working with Blake and the whole team has allowed us to hit the easy button. We needed a company that allowed us to do everything comprehensively, and leverage technology, from A to Z, and also make it very simple.”

– Jared Van Ittersum, Infinity Dental Co-Owner

SEE HOW WE CAN HELP YOU

Dr. Jared Van Ittersum & Dr. Elias Achey are business partners at Infinity Dental, a privately-held, West Michigan-based Dental company with four locations.

Being innovative, they’ve known that their goal has always been to provide the ultimate patient experience, and they wanted to innovate in a new way for their latest location, Spring Lake.

They needed a way to leverage technology, and also needed a company to help bring these ideas to life. Queue in, ICS Data.

WHY THEY REACHED OUT

We take pride in our 30+ years of experience, knowledge, and quality service to deliver solutions that tailor to our client’s needs. We understand that IT can be difficult, but we strive to make it as easy as possible so that conversations are smooth.

Whether we’re running cable, setting up networks, or managing your businesses IT, we’re in it because we value the relationships we have with our clients, and we believe that’s most important.

When Infinity reached out about mounting TVs on the ceiling so that their patients could have a better experience, we put on our thinking caps and got the job done.

HOW WE SOLVED THEIR ISSUE

By understanding that individuals aren’t naturally excited to go to the dentist, we [ICS] were able to quickly find technological solutions that worked to help meet Infinity’s patients needs.

So, what’d we do?

We took a holistic approach, like we would with any of our clients. First, we knew that they needed a number of computers and systems with a great network so that we were able to support their idea of patients experiencing the dentist in the utmost positive way.

WHERE THEY WERE LOOKING FOR SUPPORT