Lars Nordhild Rønning is General Manager of RingCentral in the UK and EMEA. As General Manager for RingCentral's activities in EMEA, it is Lars' responsibility to build and expand RingCentral's business via a comprehensive multi-channel sales and marketing strategy, involving Value Added Resellers, strategic carrier partners and direct sales.

In a perfect world, customers would always ring back if they didn't get through the first time. They would call only at times that suited your availability. They would wait patiently for you to respond before seeking out your competitors. The harsh reality is, unanswered calls may very well be costing you business.

Many small businesses would testify, constantly manning the phones is not always easy or indeed possible. Meetings, jobs on location, events, breaks, family matters - there are all manner of occasions where the phone will ring off, with no knowing if the customer will ever return.

Then there's a question of the right person answering the call. Customers ideally want to get straight through to a person that can effectively deal with their enquiry rather than a secretary, the wrong department, or perhaps even a young family member! Traditional phone set-ups do not offer the flexibility to ensure the right person is on the receiving end.

However, the advent of cloud telephony changes everything for businesses. Instead of calls going directly to the end receiver, they are delivered through an online infrastructure. This provides a whole new level of control and management, allowing calls to be entirely manipulated to ensure they reach the right destination.

What are the biggest benefits to your business?

Whether you're a SME business or a startup, being highly contactable is very important. Most small businesses use their home phone or a small office with a traditional land line, paying a monthly line rental and metered costs for calls.
Small business Safesip, however, didn't consider a traditional PBX because the cost and resources to buy, manage and maintain it were too prohibitive. Instead, founder Melissa Edmunds, chose a cloud-based communications solution which routes all calls through one centralised number.
Melissa explained "I run my business through a single RingCentral phone number, and I decide where to route and take the calls. It means that I never miss a call. A year ago I realised how crucial this is for the business. I was away from the office when I received a call from a NHS Trust who wanted to undertake some trials of the product. Getting hold of the right person at the right time in organisations as diverse and big as the NHS is extremely difficult so being contactable when the call came in meant, we were able to set up the trial pretty quickly".
Before switching to RingCentral, the biggest challenge Optimum Healthcare Solutions faced was the complexity of its existing IPEC phone system, which required external engineers to administrate and maintain it. As a result, the company researched alternative solutions that would be easy to use and programme for the senior management team.

With 32 staff distributed across 23 clinics in seven counties across the UK, Optimum Healthcare Solutions workforce is very dispersed, so and needed strong internal communication at an all-time high.

"Some of our physicians run our clinics on-their-own. But information-sharing across all our clinics is vital especially in our line of work, where communicating a customer's medical history is necessary if they visit physicians in a number of our clinics. So I think it's essential all my staff still feel they are a part of a wider team," said Dean Payne, Founder and Managing Director, Optimum. 
"We use cloud technology to connect all our staff and share information easily. Our phone system means staff can contact colleagues in different locations through an allocated extension number, and we also use a cloud-based clinical system to securely share notes."

So if you're stepping out of the office for a meeting, simply redirect calls to your mobile or laptop. If you're busy working on a job, ensure calls are re-routed to a suitable colleague. Even if a customer does leave a message, you can deliver a speedy response with voicemail always at your fingertips. With cloud, even the smallest business can deliver a world-class response to calls. It may not be a perfect world, but at least you will never miss a customer again.

Lars Nordhild Rønning,General Manager of RingCentral in the UK and EMEA

 

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