In case you don’t quite understand the terminology of various terms on this web site, please search below.
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| Access by Phone | Almost every auto-attendant service provider permits you to access your account by phone in addition to online internet web access. All of the most important call features should be accessible via phone. Watch out! Most of the access calls to your account are charged against your available free usage minutes monthly. |
| ACD Queuing | Automatic Call Distribution or ACD Queuing allows businesses to route all calls to the appropriate departments and employees. ACD systems will allow for variables, prioritization of employees, on-the-fly such as priority-based ranking connects callers to the agent with the highest priority first, and only goes to agents with a lower priority when all of the higher priority agents are busy. |
| Auto Attendant | When calling your business number, callers will hear the main message recording greeting – this is called auto attendant. This is the first thing people hear when they call your toll free number. It is usually recorded by you or many of the plans have professional voice recording services. This initial message greets callers and connects them to the right extension by providing callers options to select such as: Select 1 for Support, 2 for Sales, 3 for finance, etc. |
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| Call Announce | When a call is forwarded to you, a message will announce the call for you and ask what you would like to do with it... Answer it, Send it to voice mail, forwarded it to someone else, etc. |
| Call Block | Plans with call block allow you to prevent someone from a particular number to reach you. |
| Call Forward | Allows you to forward the call to someone else. Great for businesses with more than one employee. This is often referenced as call forwarding. |
| Call Hold | Most service providers will play music for your callers while on hold. |
| Call Reports | A detailed list of incoming and outgoing calls accessible through your online account |
| Call Screening | This feature requires the caller to speak their name before they are transferred to the appropriate extension. This enables the person answering the call to know who is calling before deciding to answer the call. |
| Call Transfer Destination | When receiving incoming calls, you can easily choose to transfer callers to another phone number, or extension anywhere, anytime. |
| Conference Calling | The ability to have a telephone conversation between at least three parties, speaking on three different telephones, with three different telephone numbers. Not all service providers offer this feature. |
| Virtual Calling Card | Use your virtual calling card by dialing your virtual pbx service provider number to access the voicemail menu, and then you can place calls as if you were in the office, saving you long distance charges if traveling. |
| Hold Music | Some service providers allow you to play custom hold music recordings that play while customers are waiting to speak with someone. |
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| Dial By Extension | All plans offer this - "if you know your party's extension, you may dial it at any time...." |
| Dial by Name | Provides your callers the ability to type in the name of the person they are calling and be transferred automatically to their extension. |
| Dedicated Toll Free | Your business 800 or toll free number. You will not share it with any other business. Basically it’s your business number. |
| Dedicated Fax | In addition to your toll free number, some companies will provide you a dedicated fax number that is different than the main toll free number. |
| Fax On Demand | Callers are able to request a faxed document from you automatically. Callers will be routed through options, ultimately selecting a document and entering their fax number. Once complete the document is automatically faxed from your system to the caller. |
| Follow Me | Calls can be routed to multiple numbers to make sure you never miss a call. Most often, users will also set a "call order" of the numbers you will most frequently be at, i.e. Office, Cell Phone, Home, etc. The telephone numbers and the order can be preset via the website or on the fly using your phone and calling into your voicemail center. |
| Forward | Allows you to forward the call to someone else. Great for businesses with more than one employee. Also know as "call forward" |
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| Dial by Name | Gives your customers to type in part of the name of the person they are calling and be transferred to their extension. |
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| Hold | You guessed it - just a simple hold. Callers are placed in a "standby" mode while the receiver prepares to speak to the caller. Most systems play music for your customers while on hold. Also known as "call hold" |
| Hold Music | Simply means that your callers will hear music while they are on hold. |
| Hunt Groups | Hunt groups are primarily used for call centers, either real or virtual. Calls are routed to an appropriate group of employees in either, random or a predetermined order. The system will "hunt" out the next available agent so that the call is answered in a timely fashion. If one agent is busy, the call will go to the next in line until the call is answered. |
| Queue | "You are now third in line." If you never want to miss a call, make sure that your package includes message queuing. When receiving multiple calls at the same time, your callers will be placed in a queue until the next available agent can answer the call. |
| Schedule | For some, this will be a very important feature. Schedule enabled allows you to set the times of day that you wish to receive your phone calls, all other times calls are directed to voicemail. This is great for offices or people that have "operating" hours and want to be left alone all other times of the day/week. |
| Setup Fee | You guessed it! Some companies will charge you a 1 time setup fee for 1 or all of the features. There are even some that will charge you to setup your initial account. |
| SMS Notification | If you have a cell phone with SMS enabled, you will be able to route calls on "the fly" from your cell phone without actually answering the call. |
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| Transfer | The ability to send your caller to a different telephone number. Most only allow transfers to a number within your organization. Also known as "call transfer". |
| Transfer Fee | Have a toll free number already, but want to move it to your new toll free provider? Most companies will charge you a one time fee to transfer your number from one service provider to another. |
| True 800 | Not all toll free companies offer the original 800 toll free numbers. Most will be issuing you 888, 877, 866, etc. numbers. However, for a fee, many of the toll free providers will give you a true 800 number. |
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| Vanity Numbers | Vanity numbers incorporate a name, word or phrase into the toll free number design. Used to help customers remember your toll free number. Requests for vanity numbers usually come with a fee associated with it. |
| Voice Mail | A virtual answering machine for your phone line. Messages are taken "virtually" and stored in digital format. They can then be emailed directly to you or stored for later retrieval |
| Voice Mail Email | Voice mail that can be delivered to your email. |
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| Web Interface, Web Central, Online Access | Access all of your account features via the web. Check messages, view call history, balance, change your billing information, set and change your calling features. Make sure your plan allows you to check voice mail online as you will incur charges to check messages through your phone. |
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Glossary
