Hosted VoIP Feature Series – Ring Groups

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This is an additional post in a series of hosted VoIP feature spotlights.  Utilizing ring group features of a hosted VoIP phone system can help the communication flow and efficiency of your business.  Whether you set these groups up as an answering group for your primary number or for departmental routing, either will provide you with a customer service edge.  Even a small business can take advantage of this advanced feature offered by good hosted VoIP providers.

A good hosted VoIP provider will work with you to set up the ring groups to match the call flow in your office.  There are several ways to deploy ring groups:

1. Via an auto attendant – many companies will elect to utilize an auto attendant to route callers to the departments of their choice.   For example, you would select certain individuals to received calls bound for “customer service”, “sales”, “accounting”, etc.  Individuals can be members of multiple ring groups. 
2. Via extension transfer – calls may be answered by a receptionist or a ring group designated to handle main incoming calls.  Your hosted VoIP provider can create extensions that will ring a group of phones associated with the functions to which you would route a call, so transferring to an extension will ring certain phones.
3. Ring group patterns – you can also create ring groups that will ring a certain group first, and then route to another group of phones if the first group doesn’t answer.  With the case with all ring groups, you should have an end to the process, whether it falls to a certain individual’s voicemail or pulls back and delivers a recorded message with an opportunity to route a message to an individual or group.
4. Another example of the power of the hosted phone service is that these individuals do not need to be under the same roof.  You can include individuals in a ring group that office in different locations.  This allows the business to make efficient utilization of all resources, but it is transparent to the caller.

About the author:  Mark Greim is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at sipVine, a provider of a variety of digital phone solutions and services. Mark has extensive experience working for start-up or entrepreneurial organizations and a passion for affordable, reliable, and purposeful technology solutions in those environments.