Handling Inbound Calls

Ways to handle calls from different sites in different ways

[pdivi]

I have taken on a few different ecommerce sites, and as a result, I have an odd tangle of incoming call handling. I have 5 lines -- 3 go into an answering service and two come into our office.

I want to find the most affordable way to fully manage the lines, routing and re-routing the calls according to the number dialed -- i.e. calls to number X go to a certain voice prompt, calls to number Y go straight to a rep, calls to Z go to voice mail, etc. Does anyone use an inexpensive service that offers this type of handling without a PBX? Maybe a call handling center or a VoIP provider with some good software?

[powerchuter]

you get get seperate numbers

we have purchased toll free #s for each site -
it is pretty cheap at $2 per month plus time

then we can send each number where we want it (and even break it down by time of day) 8-5 weekdays goes to one operator and afterwork/weekends goes to a late night call center or its own voice mail system

[powerchuter]

sorry, I reread your post

sounds like you already have different #s

/backs away from computer and goes to bed

[jollymcfats]

We handle this with a hosted VOIP PBX. We've got a bunch of different DID numbers, call routing and auto attendants. The particular provider (VSP?) we use has a Cisco CallManager network, and they're super small business friendly- no problems providing service to our micro-enterprise, very affordable and customized. Using a bigger provider (say, a baby Bell or one of those heavily advertised VOIP firms) might be quite a bit pricier. It seems like lots of smaller players are in the fray though, mostly due to the popularity of the Asterisk open source PBX package.

Anyhow, the VOIP solution works really well for us, and is especially convenient for multiple offices & telecommuters. We've been managing our calls this way for about a year and a half now.

[pdivi]

jollymcfats -- you just described what I need. Can you post or PM the name of your provider?

[UltraCartJohn]

If you have some IT support, you might want to consider using Asterisk [asterisk.org], an open-source VoIP PBX.

We use it here, and it does everything you need. Since we have two offices, it allows us to connect them together using our existing internet connections. You can get inbound DIDs from a provider like NuFone [nufone.net], and have asterisk automatically process the inbound call based on the number dialed, or in the case of an 800 number, the ANI.

Compared to traditional phone systems, the hardware is really cheap. You can look at some pricing from a company called Digium [digium.com].

Hope this helps,

John

[HughMungus]

Have you considered running call answering software on a spare PC?