Time to Expand!

After successfully establishing my business in my area, it was time to expand. The next step for my pastry shop was setting up branches. I knew that this would take a lot more than what I had already been doing. This was a big step, and I had to prepare very well for it. First and foremost, I had to allocate funds, and I had to find ways on how to save without sacrificing the quality and excellence of my business operations.

With RingCentral Online, I did not have to worry about expensive communication tools that I would need for my branches. I knew that I would be able to achieve a strong communication and phone system at a very affordable price.

This helped me sustain my new branches right from the start until the time that they were already functioning and performing well. My confidence in my products had to be coupled with my confidence in my communications system. I knew that as RingCentral helped me from the start.

As I established new branches, I was able to maximize all the features of RingCentral Online. I saw how it is able to adjust and expand according to my needs.

I needed to strengthen my website.

The website I set up needed to be improved as I set up additional branches. Aside from the content and design, I also wanted to enhance its functions and be able to use it to attract as many customers as possible.

The Internet is the best place to be seen. I myself spend a lot of my time online, so I knew that my business’s website would be an integral factor to the success of my additional branches. The website has the capacity to reach the widest market area. I tapped this tool and integrated my phone system to make it stronger. True enough, as soon as I got a team to set up the website and place RingCentral features in it, my new branches got calls and were able to attract new customers. Customers came in and said that they saw my website as they searched for pastry shops in the Internet.

Click-to-Call RingMe is a feature that comes with my RingCentral Online account. By embedding a clickable button or text that instantly connects to my RingCentral number, customers can easily reach the pastry shop. This has provided a lot of help in getting new customers and attending to their concerns. More customer calls easily translates to more sales. There had been a significant increase in sales since we set up the website and used Click-to-Call RingMe.

Another great advantage of the website and Click-to-Call is that it is accessible in any area without having to spend so much. The website has greatly worked for all my three branches. The Click-to-Call button automatically connects to my toll free number, which connects out to any branch. The call coming from the website is directed to the nearest branch of the caller, based on the area code.

RingCentral has definitely helped me maximize the Internet, as well as my phone system, to give good customer service and to increase sales.

I needed stronger communication tools.

When I set up my branches, I knew that I was going to need a communication system that has a wider reach but was even more unified. Since I would be communicating with employees and staff in different locations, I needed to streamline our communication lines and fine tune our connections to make everything as simple as possible.

I was able to get the phone system I needed for my business without unsubscribing to RingCentral. Instead, I just upgraded my existing RingCentral phone system and added extensions and phone numbers. As I hired new people to help me run the new branches, I also got extensions in each of the branches for me to be able to reach them without having to pay long distance. This also means that all three branches could be reached by dialing the same number. Customers calling are routed to the branch nearest to them based on the area code of the phone number they are using.

Another important advantage of RingCentral is that the teams in the different branches can reach each other. This is very important, especially when the new branches were just starting out. I needed to make sure that we were always on the same page in all the operations in the business. I can just imagine how hard it would have been if we used traditional phone lines and cell phones.

RingCentral gives a streamlined communications system that is very easy to manage, has all the features you need, and is also very affordable. Through a single RingCentral number, I am able to connect to each and every one of my teammates in all my branches. We do not need to memorize different telephone numbers to find each other. We just dial our RingCentral number, and have the call sent to the person we want to talk to.

I needed a user-friendly but high-performance system.

During the planning stage of the additional branches, I made sure that communications would not be neglected. I knew that the current Ringcentral phone system set up in the main branch would not be ideal for three branches, so I contacted them and asked for help. They gave me recommendations, after which I chose the best for the kind of set up my business would need. What I liked about the new set up is that it fit my requirements best. There were no features or telephone lines that I did not need, so I also did not need to pay for unnecessary and unused costs.

I decided to get an additional toll free number that would be dedicated to answering calls from customers. With this, we would be able to clearly separate business calls from customer service calls. There are a lot of advantages to this move. First, the two numbers had different call forwarding settings and answering rules. For example, for the customer service toll free number, all incoming calls to it are routed to the nearest branch to the caller, based on the area code used. The answering rules to this number is set in such a way that calls made on weekends and after shop hours are automatically sent to voicemail. For the other number used exclusively for business calls, we can set the answering rules to route calls to our cell phone number or home phone numbers. This is because there may be important calls that we would miss if we are out of the office. With RingCentral Caller ID, we still have the discretion to answer or reject a call, or send it to voicemail if we do not want to attend to it at the moment.

I needed an organized call management system.

With the new phone number and a lot of other new business contacts, I definitely needed a communications system that was easy to manage. RingCentral Online allowed me to manage all my communications easy through the Call Controller. This is an application that can easily be installed to your computer, and is free with your RingCetral Online account.

Through the Call Controller, I was able to set up an efficient customer line that would always be available to customer concerns and queries. This helped a lot in the way I manage my calls, faxes and voicemail messages. I can easily change the call forwarding settings and answering rules.