VA’s need all the help they can get when trying to save money while they contact their clients. There are many pc-to-pc or voip services available, some with many cool features and allow the VA to call someone on a landline, or their client can call the voip service from a landline. Don’t need a 2nd phone line for your business and calls can either be free or very very cheap. For example, I’ve been training a lady in the UK. We’ve spent many hours on the phone cumulative, and it was completely free. We both used GoogleTalk.
The beauty of it is, you don’t have to decide on one or the other, but you can use any one of them depending on what your clients use. Personally, I have Skype, GoogleTalk, Gizmo, and Windows Live Messenger all installed on my pc. I use whichever one my client uses so the call is absolutely free. If they don’t have any one of these, then I can still call them on their landline or mobile from most any of these solutions and pay 1 to 2 cents a minute.
Some have enhanced service plans for greater functionality, but still for very cheap (up to $7.95 a month for one that comes with your own fax number) Some have conference calling, call recording, voicemail, send voicemails to your email, file transfer, calls can come through on a pc and on a landline (or mobile phone) at the same time, a fax number, chat and instant messenger feature, video calls, and many other features. Here’s some to look at:
-
Skype www.skype.com
-
Gizmo Project www.gizmoproject.com
-
Windows Live Messenger http://get.live.com/messenger/overview
-
GoogleTalk http://www.google.com/talk/
-
Yahoo Messenger: http://messenger.yahoo.com/
Most savings impact will be: no more extra phone lines and long distance phone bills. Boost your profits by cutting your costs.
What do you need to use VoIP?
You need five things before you can start using VoIP. Remember that the quality of the phone call will depend on the quality of the software (like Skype) and the hardware (pc, internet connection) you are using.
- A computer, minimum requirements; 300 MHz processor, 128MB RAM and a soundcard
- An Internet connection, preferably a broadband connection
- A headphone or speakers
- A microphone
- Another possibility is to buy a headset where a microphone is integrated into the headset.
- A VoIP software program
Don’t be afraid to take advantage of this technology…it’s not as complicated as you might think. Let me re-phrase that, it’s not complicated AT ALL!
Warmly,
Andrea Kalli
Andrea Kalli
Andrea Kalli Virtual Trainer and Assistant, LLC
Your resource for Outlook training and SharePoint training
