5 Tips for Keeping Your Mobile Workforce in Sync

Most businesses accept that there are trade-offs to having a dispersed, mobile workforce. But with the right operational structures and technology in place, collaboration and communication don’t have to suffer just because you and your team are away from your desks.

With the rise of smartphones, unified communications (UC) platforms have emerged to bridge the gap between office-based and mobile team members. What began as a way to sync up desk phone and mobile phone numbers now encompasses a swath of powerful features to help boost collaboration and customer service.

One such platform is Verizon One Talk, a subscription-based service to help business teams stay connected on the go. Here are five key tips for keeping your team operating in sync leveraging powerful UC platforms like One Talk.

1. Hunt Groups

If you’re a business with mobile sales or service people, the Hunt Groups capability can play a vital role in customer service. With this One Talk feature, you can set and apply rules for passing incoming calls to the first available person — whether they are on a smartphone or at their desk.

For example, you can set your rules so that incoming calls ring every person in your Hunt Group simultaneously. The call will be connected to the first team member who answers.

Or, you can specify that calls should be routed in a particular order so that if Team Member A doesn’t answer, the call tries ringing Team Member B, followed by Team Member C and so on until someone answers. You can also send incoming calls to the team member who has been idle the longest. Up to 20 individuals can be added within a group.

Using this feature means you no longer have to send all calls to a single team member or wait until you’re back in the office to receive and return calls. Of course, if you want to designate a single team member as the on-call point of contact during certain hours, you can do that as well.

However you choose to use it, One Talk’s Hunt Group functionality can end the cycle of unanswered customer calls and make the customer experience more reliable and efficient.

2. Calling Line ID Delivery

Your service technicians and contractors may need to contact customers directly to let them know they’re on their way for a service appointment. But this can create a couple of issues.

For starters, many customers don’t answer the phone when they don’t recognize the number that’s calling. In the best case scenario, this forces the technician to leave a message and receive a call back. In the worst case, the needed communication doesn’t happen and the appointment has to be rescheduled.

The second issue is that, depending on your policies and communications workflow, you may not want customers to have their service tech’s personal cell number.

One Talk Calling Line ID Delivery enables you to designate a company phone number to appear on caller ID for all outbound calls. This protects not only your service people, but your customer experience by ensuring customers receive calls from a number they recognize, and surfacing the most appropriate number to call for future questions.

3. Extension Dialing

One of the first office-centric conveniences remote workers miss is extension dialing. Punching in three numbers to reach a coworker is more streamlined than going through the same centralized gatekeepers as the general public.

Verizon One Talk enables users to set up two- to six-digit extensions that other One Talk users can use in lieu of the standard 10-digit phone number, even when they are on their mobile phone in the field. It’s a simple way to reclaim the casual convenience of in-office extension dialing.

4. Six-Way Conference

Anyone who’s worked on a large team knows that a simple phone call can often resolve a question much faster than an email thread. But getting several people on the phone spontaneously when you’re all working remotely is a bit of a challenge.

One Talk offers the ability to conference in up to six people so you can collaborate easily and efficiently, even when you’re not in the office. It’s a simple feature that can be powerful in practice — getting the right people together on the phone is often the difference between getting the job done or facing delays.

5. One Talk Enhanced Dialer for Galaxy S9 and S9+

One Talk is a powerful collaboration engine on any compatible smartphone, but it only gets better with the One Talk Enhanced Dialer on the Samsung Galaxy S9.

Galaxy S9 and S9+ users with One Talk can perform call transfers and place people on hold as easily as they would from a desk phone. For customer service and sales reps, this functionality is invaluable.

Let’s say a representative who’s working from their mobile device is talking to a customer and determines the customer would be better served by a different department. Typically, that means the rep either has to give the customer that department’s phone number, give the department the customer’s phone number or conference the two parties together and silently remain on the call. Obviously, none of those options is ideal. With the One Talk Enhanced Dialer for the Galaxy S9, mobile reps can simply transfer the customer call to the correct department with an easy-to-access button, as they would from a desk phone.

Call move functionality on One Talk offers even more flexibility for your employees. Workers can easily move calls from their Galaxy S9 to another One Talk device, such as their desk phone. If they enter the office and need to continue the call or if they are on a call on the desk phone and need to head out of the office they won’t miss a beat. Moreover, they gain other advanced capabilities, including hold functionality, simple call forwarding management, and the ability to barge in on calls, a helpful feature for assistants and managers alike.

The Right Phone for Your Mobile Workforce

Of course, those aren’t the only reasons workers are turning to the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+. These smartphones are purpose-built for business productivity, especially when paired with Samsung DeX.

Workers who access sensitive company information on their devices will benefit from Samsung Knox, which delivers defense-grade security at both the hardware and software level. Workers can multitask using features like Multi-Window and App Pair, which enable side-by-side use of two apps. And when they do want to work on a larger screen, they can connect their device to a monitor, keyboard and mouse using Samsung DeX to power a desktop-like experience from their phone.

Dive Deeper Into One Talk’s Full Feature Set

One Talk affords you the ability to be as mobile as you need today and in the future, while cutting out the costs of a desk phone when it’s not needed. You can add those savings to the incremental daily efficiencies your workers gain by connecting with customers and each other more quickly and consistently. It amounts to a massive, positive shift in worker productivity and customer experience over time.

Download our free guide for more help choosing the best phone for your growing business.