Creating a virtual office using VoIP

If you want to impress existing or potential customers, sometimes it can help to look like a larger operation. There are many things you can do to create this illusion. One is to create a dynamic virtual office environment using VoIP.

Voice over internet protocol (VoIP), also known as internet telephony, has given many companies new ways to promote themselves and manage their operations. It lets your business make and receive phone calls over the internet and divert calls at will, freeing you from the restraints of fixed phone lines in a bricks and mortar office.

As a result, VoIP enables even the smallest, home-based businesses to create a virtual office environment, helping them compete with larger organisations.

Virtual reality

Many successful businesses and sole traders base their operations out of a virtual office. Callers are greeted by a professional telephone menu. There's hold music plus recorded messages, a call back option and flexible voicemail for when calls can't be answered.

With a system like this, your company's customers need never know that you work from your dining room table. And even though it sounds expensive, actually most VoIP packages include these features as standard. Your IT supplier may be able to help you get started.

Communication skills

A good VoIP system will offer an online control panel, so you can log in and change your call settings from anywhere. You should be able to create, edit and arrange your voicemail prompts or change your answer phone message no matter where you are in the world. You can also have all calls conveniently routed to one number.

Of course, one of the main advantages of using VoIP to create a virtual office is cost. Instead of having to meet the capital cost of moving into a real office, covering rent and overheads, a virtual office provides many of the same services with greater flexibility and freedom at a significantly lower price.

More information relating to VoIP:

• What is internet telephony?
• How VoIP works
• Get the right business phone system