Gone are the days when business communications are only done over a phone call. If you are running a business in the modern world, you know that this just doesn’t cut it. You need a phone system that communicates the way you do, goes where you go, and organizes your business communications so you can focus on what matters. VoIP phone features allow you flexibility you didn’t even know existed.

Albeit, the rotary phone is a timeless classic, at FluentStream we want to challenge your idea of what a phone can do.Here you have it: The top 5 features you probably never knew existed (and really, really wanted).

1.) Hot Desking 

This feature, like many of ours, was requested by a customer and built for a customer. We liked it so much we decided to offer it to everybody.

How It Works: Instead of assigning phones to each employee, Hot Desking gives employees logins and passwords to use at any phone in the office. When an employee enters their login information, the phone will reboot itself with that employee’s specific settings, allowing them to work on any phone in the office.

Who Should Use: Companies who have more employees than phones OR companies with employees who work at more than one office. Increase call efficiency while saving the money you would have spent on extra phones. To learn how to add this extension, check out our how-to article, here.

2.) Voicemail to Email 

Running a business can take you places. Some of these places, though, may not be appropriate settings to check your voicemails. Don’t worry, we’ve figured this one out. Now you can listen to, and/or read, your voicemails from any device you have access to email – keeping you in the loop, no matter where you are.

How it Works: Voicemail to Email gives employees the opportunity to listen to voicemail directly from their email inbox. Additionally, you can choose the specific type of audio file that works for your cell phone and opt to have the voicemail transcribed into your email, if you would rather read it.

Who Should Use: Whether you are just beginning your own startup or running a mid-size company, this feature is useful to anyone! Learn how to attach Voicemail to Email, here.

3.) Softphone

Maybe you don’t want to invest in phones right now. Maybe your business is so mobile that it’s not practical to just have desk phones. Well, now you can turn any smart device into a business phone.

How it Works: All you need is our VoIP phone service and the smart device of your choice, and you can make and take business calls as normal. Pretty nifty, huh? Read more about softphones on our website and try our WebPhone free for 2 weeks. 

Who Should Use: Companies that don’t want to invest in more physical phones and/or that have people on the go more often than not.

4.) Call Flip 

When schedules are tight, you need the tools that keep you on track, without skipping a beat.  Call Flip allows you to transfer a phone call from your desk phone to your mobile phone, seamlessly. When you add your cell phone as one of your forwarding extensions, you can seamlessly transfer your conversation from your desk to cell without the person on the other line knowing.  

How it works: When on the call, press #3.  This will silently dial your cell phone behind the scenes, while you continue your conversation.  When you answer the cell call, your desk phone will magically hang up and your cell phone will be on the call.

Who Should Use: This another cool feature that will come in handy for anyone working on the move. Check out Call Flip and the rest of our mobile features, here.

5.) Detailed Reporting 

Detailed Reporting allows you to track your employees’ efficiency and work metrics. For those of you who are starting your own business or managing a larger company, this feature is an amazing tool to stay in the know with your team.

How it Works: With FluentCloud Dashboard extensive reporting capabilities, administrators can take a closer look at their company’s use of the FluentCloud system. Call Detail Records give you the total number of calls, total call time, and average call time for each extension and allows you to build your own report and schedule them at a frequency of your choosing. 

Who Should Use: From businesses needing call details for marketing to call centers who want to use the metrics to manage their sales team, the utility of this feature is limitless.

At FluentStream we go above and beyond the competition, offering a phone solution that gives you the features you never knew you needed. Really though, once you make the switch to FluentStream Technologies, you’ll rue the day you decided to do anything else. Repeat after me: “Out with the old and in with the new!”

Are there features that you think we should develop?  Let us know! Let us know what features you’d use the most and/or features that you would like to see in the future.