Group Twinning is a surprisingly unknown but powerful feature that enables all Group Calls to be twinned with mobiles (or other third party numbers). Each group member sets the number they want their calls twinned with. Most of the time this is a mobile, but it could be any number, for example a landline home number.
When activated, any incoming group call will not only ring the logged in desk phone or soft phone of group members, but also their twinned target. This allows for group members to be mobile (i.e. not in office, or away from their desk) and still receive group calls.
The applications are plentiful. Here are a few common ones:
1. Support & Sales Desk Group Twinning allows out-of-hours or non-office based support teams to take group calls on mobiles. Because you are also able to set the group-behaviour, you could have it so that Group 1 rings four twinned mobiles. If there no answer, the all will then go to Group 2 which might have several more overflow members.
Benefit: For sales or support staff that are at client's sites, or spend lots of time travelling, their 'down' time out of the office is made into productive time as they are able to receive their team's calls. This not only allows company's to do more with less resource, but also means that the sales and support desk don't suffer when senior members are out, as they can be reached.
2. Record Keeping All calls are logged (and recorded if you have Call Recording) in the VTSL cloud, even twinned ones. So if a support engineer or sales rep answers a group twinned call on his mobile, this will show up in the call logs.
Benefit: You can quantify the conversations that are had outside the office. Calls taken on mobiles are not off-the-grid, they show up in call statistics and VTSL's Analytics application.
3. Flexible Working Most phone systems only allow an inbound number to be directed or diverted to a single external number. Because Group Twinning allows for inbound numbers to be directed to multiple external phone numbers simultaneously, employees can work from home and use their mobiles to receive office calls - both to their DDI and their Business Group.
Benefit: As an employers you can cost-effectively comply with Flexible Working Regulations without having a loss in productivity.
4. Business Continuity What happens if there is a snow storm and no one can get into the office? Or your office building floods and staff aren't allowed in? With Group Twinning, an administrator could go online (anywhere), activate the feature, and everyone could work outside the office that day in other locations, seamlessly.
Benefit: Your business is adaptable, and can provide excellent customer service and sales support no matter what the disaster.
In addition to everything above, one of the best things about Group Twinning is that it can be used instead of a soft client for inbound calls. Because soft clients rely on having a good WiFi or 3G signal, they can be unreliable, particularly when travelling. Twinning enables users to receive calls just as if they were in the office. You don't need to have a WiFi connection, and the connection is as good as any other call on your mobile. So if you are having problems with soft clients, you may want to use mobile twinning instead for a more reliable solution.
For more information on Group Twinning, or other efficiency promoting applications, call our Customer Success Team today:
About VTSL
VTSL is a leading cloud communications provider in the UK & Ireland, specialising in cloud telephony, LAN & WAN, fibre connectivity and unified communications. VTSL offers solutions ranging from contact-centres-as-a-service, to flexible working solutions, to integrated productivity management. VTSL has over 10 years of experience providing the leading IP telephony platform to businesses and over 15,000 users across the UK and Ireland. To speak to one of our experts today, please call 020 7078 3200 or email info@vtsl.net.
