Few businesses can afford extended downtime. And even fewer business owners can predict catastrophic events that lead to office closings or employees simply not being able to make it into the office. It’s an all-too-familiar story for Barry Madel, president of the Atlanta-based manufacturing company Craft Art.
Many remember the major winter storm that hit most of the eastern United States in early 2014, causing havoc for thousands of businesses and loss of revenue. Unfortunately, Atlanta was no exception, and when a major ice storm debilitated the city, Madel worried about the loss of productivity and the frustrating inability to serve customers.
After the major winter storm, Madel decided it was time to look for a new solution for his company’s phone system. He realized that the benefits of moving to a VoIP solution would actually extend beyond simply handling unforeseen emergencies, and could help to empower his team to greater productivity and mobility. “It was frustrating to constantly have to dial into our old system’s voicemail and find out who left a message for what,” Madel admits. “So with the new system, we’re really enjoying the immediacy of accessing call information.”
Additionally, the company is now better able to provide a seamless service for their employees on the go or working from home. For example, the Craft Art inside sales team is now approved to work from home two days a week – which is proving to be both productive for business and a nice perk for employees. According to research conducted by Stanford University, employees who have the ability to work from home are at least 13% more efficient. Craft Art employees who telecommute now have the option of using mobile apps or taking their IP desk phones home to plug into the Internet.
Either way, employees are fully tied to the phone system, as if they were back at the office. And since Madel takes advantage of the system’s Call Reporting features, he can easily access the data that shows that his employees are actively working from their home office setting.
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