Virtual Phone Systems

DorianWar

DorianWar

New member
Jun 3, 2007
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Seattle, WA
I'm looking at signing up for a virtual phone system. Do all the VoIP phone systems pickup/answer right away with no rings?

  • RingCentral - they have every feature I need... but the auto-attendant answers right away. I want it to ring a couple times before pickup.
  • Grasshopper - they said the you get 1/2 of a ring and then it picks up. I would be using outbound caller ID... so minutes might get expensive.
  • Phone.com - No clue if number of rings is configurable. I sent them an email.
I like that RingCentral will record all calls. That way I check how the VA is handling customer calls. Phone.com offers this as well (waiting on price).

Anyone have reviews, suggestions, or tips on which virtual phone system is best?
 


RingCentral is the shit. It can get pretty complicated setting it up, but when it's finally all set up, it works like a charm. You can record a longer auto-receptionist instead of having it ring a couple times. Also, there is an option that when it rings and you pick up, you have to press 1 to accept the call. That might be something you're looking for.

Also, the RingCentral App is awesome. It's like having your office phone with you whenever you want it.

Good Luck finding something that suits you
 
skank said:
RingCentral is the shit. It can get pretty complicated setting it up, but when it's finally all set up, it works like a charm. You can record a longer auto-receptionist instead of having it ring a couple times. Also, there is an option that when it rings and you pick up, you have to press 1 to accept the call. That might be something you're looking for.
Click to expand...

I'll probably stay with Ringcentral. I don't know why the "no-ring" thing bothers me. I think it makes it obvious it's a VoIP solution... or maybe less professional sounding.

secretagentdad said:
Twilio + a decent developer.

Get exactly what you need with out all the mark up.
Click to expand...

Zendesk is offering Twilio integration as well... was also looking into that.
 
Phone.com got back to me. They also pickup right away. No rings.

This just screams cheap VoIP phone system to me. I want it to seem like I have an office.
 
We use voip.ms for our office phones... works great and it's a lot less expensive than RingCentral. If you just want to setup a VOIP phone system for an office type environment, this is great.

We are currently using Twilio for some project stuff. It's a bit more complicated for doing things like recording calls, etc... If you just want to redirect and count/record calls, it's a bit of a hassle as you have to have a web server that can push and pull from Twilio.
 
Twilio will do most of what you want but if there are some features that you need then you can run your own PBX. Most of these products run off of some form of Asterisk. My problem with Asterisk is that it is programed via CLI which I am not able to operate it myself so I've installed a GUI addon called Elastix to Asterisk to run my PBX. It works great, I hired a guy on oDesk from the Philippines to configure it for me. Cost me $200 and it does everything that I need it to and I can add additional features as I need them.

I like calling a place where a live person answers the phone so I have mine set up where if it rings 5 times and if no one picks up then it goes to a phone tree and gets directed to someone or they can choose to leave a VM.

There is an addon to Elastix that might be good to monitor your VA and help them with some of the callers. PaloSanto Online Store - Kommunicator - Addons

Through the AddOn you can IM with your VA(s), they can generate an email to you, you can spy on the calls, record calls and share Desktops, etc... There are other addons available to Elastix that may be useful for your setup. Elastix Addons

There is an App for smartphones so you can answer phone calls while you are out of the office if you want. CounterPath Corporation | Smartphone Clients

There are hosting companies that specialize in hosting PBXs like https://www.rentpbx.com/ for about $20 a month and then you'd need to gets some SIP trunks through a provider like Vitelity or Flowroute.
 
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