As we have learned to work remotely, many people expect a choice of working between home and the office. Such flexibility is not only expected from the leadership, people also expect it from the devices and applications they use every day.
Microsoft Teams Phone is one platform that delivers this flexibility to your business. It includes robust calling capabilities that allow you to switch between chat, voice calls and video meetings on various devices. Some features, such as call transfers, would remind you of the capabilities of traditional phone systems and remain essential features in Microsoft Teams Phone. The platform also delivers cloud-based features that provide extra capability over legacy systems.
Route calls with the cloud auto attendant
The cloud auto attendant in Microsoft Teams Phone answers and routes calls. Individual users can set up the cloud auto attendant, or you can enable it to route calls for your organisation when people first place a call to your business number.
The cloud auto attendant answers the phone and asks people what they need. Depending on the caller’s query or request, the cloud auto attendant will route them to a specific person or department.
The cloud auto attendant offers callers a menu of choices. If you have called a large company, such as a bank, you would be familiar with the automated menu choices you hear when you first call. Cloud auto attendants perform a similar function.
You can build the cloud auto attendants to suit the options relevant to your business and whether people use their voice or press a number on the keypad to move through the menu options.
Manage call queues
Similarly to traditional phone systems, Microsoft Teams Phone supports call queues for managing and routing calls when a person or department receives more calls than they can handle.
Call queues are a great way to manage incoming calls in Microsoft Teams, and you can customise them to fit your specific needs. You can create call queues for individual users or groups of users and specify an order for routing calls.
Of course, waiting on hold is frustrating for many people if they need to wait for a long time. So, you can configure call queues to reroute to voicemail, another person, or a cloud auto attendant if the caller has remained in the queue longer than your set amount of time. You can also configure Microsoft Teams Phone to route to a cloud auto attendant if the line is busy.
Call sharing and group pickup
Where more than one person can take and address specific enquires or calls on behalf of another person, call sharing and group calls enable more than one person to take calls for a particular department or query in case others are busy.
You can select up to twenty-five colleagues to take your calls when you are busy or choose simultaneous ringing, which means that more than one person receives the call, and anyone can answer it when it comes through. However, this can be a disruptive option due to the way it alerts many people at once.
Group calls are a less disruptive feature than call forwarding or simultaneous ringing. Call recipients in the group can decide how they receive notifications about incoming calls and whether they receive audio or visual alerts.
Transferring calls
Like traditional phone systems, call transfer is a key feature in Microsoft Teams Phone.
You can initiate a blind transfer, which reroutes it to the recipient without you chatting with them first. This feature becomes particularly useful if you need to transfer a call quickly. Or, you can do a consultative transfer for contacting and briefing the recipient before you transfer the call.
The park and retrieve feature is another method for passing on calls. It works quite differently from the call transfer method. When you pick up a call but you need someone else to take the call, you place the caller on hold and park it for retrieval in the Microsoft Teams cloud. It generates a unique code for that call, and you or someone else can pick it up with the calling code on another device.
Switch between devices for ultimate convenience
Microsoft Teams Phone makes it easy to manage calls from one platform, even when you are on the go.
Device switching is quick and easy. With just a few taps, you can switch between your desk phone, mobile phone, tablet or laptop. For example, you can take a call while walking into the office and switch it to your PC or handset when you arrive at your desk.
You can manage calls and contacts from within one app, on any of your devices, to easily keep track of conversations or missed calls. Your contact list is accessible on one platform, and speed dial lists make it easy to find and get in touch with people you often contact.
Call recordings and transcriptions
You probably understand the frustration of forgetting an important detail from a call or realising that a note you made does not quite make sense after a few days and the context has become forgotten, amongst other information.
Microsoft Teams Phone includes call recording and transcription features to help ensure you do not overlook critical details from important calls. The transcription feature is great for interviews, meetings, and other situations where you need to review what was said.
You can record audio from a call and have it transcribed by Artificial Intelligence (AI). You can then share recordings and transcripts with colleagues as necessary. It is pertinent to note that it is best practice to ask the other person’s permission before recording, but they will also receive a notification when the recording starts.
How soma supports your Microsoft Teams Phone journey
Our experts do more than deploy Microsoft Teams Phone. We analyse your communication needs and design a platform that aligns with your business requirements. We align expectations by discussing preferences, going through call flows and designing the solution. Our team maintains collaboration and productivity after the project’s completion to ensure the solutions continue serving your business. Please visit our Microsoft Teams Calling page for more.
