How Telephone On-Hold Messaging Can Help Your Business

Most people calling in to your business have done business with you before, and they are showing an active interest in your organization. These are people you want to be talking to.

When callers are on hold, even for just 30 seconds, it is a perfect opportunity to make an impression, create interest, cross sell higher margin products or services, answer frequently asked questions, and strengthen your brand image.

The IMS Telephone On Hold Player is an easy way to create and manage an on hold messaging system, which can have a significant positive effect on your business. For example look at the following statistics from MOH productions about the use of on-hold messages:

• A Message On Hold system can reduce caller hang-ups by almost 79%
  
• Callers will wait up to 25% longer when listening to Messages On Hold
  
• Of the callers who hang up when on-hold, 34% will not call back
  
• In one study, 88% of callers preferred Messages On Hold to other options
  
• 16-20% of callers have made a purchase based on an offer they heard while on-hold
  

“Callers presented with On Hold Messaging versus silence or radio commercials are more likely exhibit interest in the product advertised, more likely to retain information and be less agitated.” - Jefferson Denneandrus Research Firm Statistics from A&T and the On-Hold Messaging Association show that callers stay on the line up to 25% longer when provided with On Hold Messaging versus "dead air" or "background music," and up to 17% longer than radio. The IMS On Hold Messages and Music Player gives you complete control over the scheduling of your messages from specifying active date ranges to the times of day a message should be active. IMS Telephone On Hold Player runs on Mac or Windows PCs and can be connected to either Virtual VoIP PBX systems or traditional analog PBX units from your computer's audio output with out any extra hardware, making IMS the perfect solution for small businesses.

iPhone VoIP Applications

Since its inception last year, Apple's App store has evaluate over 200,000 applications and updates. It has been reported that they receive 8,500 new apps a week!

But it still seems their guidelines are a bit unclear. Reviewers check for a variety of things such as: buggy software, crashing apps, use of unauthorized API, privacy violations, inappropriate content for children, and anything that "degrades the core experience of the iPhone."

Recently Vonage announced that their mobile application for iPhone made it through Apple's approval board. How is this possible? Vonage is a VoIP provider after all.

Through Apple's exclusive contract with AT&T they are obligated to follow AT&T's terms of service. This means iPhone apps cannot use AT&T's 3G signal to place calls. It does however leave room for apps to use the iPhone's WiFi signal.

This is exactly what the new Vonage app does. Although it has not been reported what exact capabilities the Vonage app will have, it will only be using the iPhone's WiFi to connect.

As the iPhone's exclusivity may be drawing to a close with AT&T, will the VoIP app approval process be altered?

Would you be interested in a VoIP application like our Express Talk on your phone?

Because of some of the unclear guidelines when we announced plans to start developing for the iPhone Express Talk want' originally on the list, but users of the Express Talk Pocket PC already enjoy the extra flexibility of being able to take their VoIP phone number with them wherever they go, and with the extra business features like transferring calls, call recording and a push to talk intercom.

The jury is still out, but perhaps there will be NCH VoIP iPhone apps on the horizon as well as Express Dictate and WavePad Audio Editor which are already being planned.

Convert Any Media File to any Audio File with Switch Audio Converter

Our Switch Audio File Converter is one of our more popular applications, allowing you to convert audio files between a wide range of audio file formats including: mp3, wav, wma, acc, dvf, midi and more. If you have audio files on your computer that you want to put on your mp3 player that aren't mp3s you need an application like Switch for mp3 conversion first. With the batch audio converter feature you can convert thousands of files from multiple formats all in one go.



As proof of its popularity, Switch Audio Converter was rated number one from Top Ten Reviews. Read their review or watch the video spotlight.
Have a Mac? Read the Mac Review from BrightHub.

Did you know that you can extract audio from video too?
With Switch, not only can you convert audio files, but you can use it for extracting audio files and sound bites from DVDs and other video file formats as well. It is as easy as adding the video file to your list of files to convert, pick your format and destination and click convert. The process is the same if you are converting wma to mp3 or mov to wav.

Best of all, Switch is free. We make the standard version of Switch free because we know you will love it so much you will want to upgrade to Switch Plus which supports additional encode-to formats for serious audio professionals. Whichever one you decide to use, we hope that you will agree that if you need to convert and audio file, Switch Audio Converter from NCH Software is the best choice.

Improving Express Accounts Accounting Software from First Hand Experience

What better way to illustrate the usability of our products than using them ourselves within our own business operations? Here at NCH Software, we use Express Accounts to manage our accounting and billing needs which include: tracking sales, receipts, payments and purchases, reporting (e.g. Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, etc.) and more.

Express Accounts was created with the user in mind so that entering and tracking journal records is quick and accurate. Convenient menu choices allow for efficient reporting and location of data, and reports may be sent automatically via facsimile or email.

Each month our accounting personnel easily enters all the necessary information for each account into the Express Accounts Journal and our operations staff receives monthly reports.

The accounting staff has been feeding all their comments back to the development team on ways to make the program even more user friendly. This internal first hand user knowledge combined with additional user feedback from our customers has helped us develop the basic accounting features to include everything that is need while maintaining an intuitive interface.

And there is more on the way. Keep your eyes open for the next release which will include check creation and credit card processing. This will be an exciting new release, but in the meantime you can get all of the great easy to use accounting features Express Accounts already has completely free. Learn more and download free from the Express Accounts product page.

Whether you have a small business with limited accounting to manage or a larger company with multiple entities, Express Accounts is suited to meet your fiduciary needs. See for yourself download and try our easy accounting software today.

FTC bans robocalls and unsolicited automated telemarketing phone calls

Have you heard that starting today the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has put a ban on robocalls made by telemarketers? Telemarketers will now need written permission from the customer in order to practice this type of phone solicitation. Any telemarketer in violation of this new policy will face up to $16,000 in penalty charges per phone call.

NCH is excited at the thought of not having our day interrupted by robocalls. In fact, the chairman of the FTC, Jon Leibowitz, said, "American consumers have made it crystal clear that few things annoy them more than the billions of commercial telemarketing robocalls they receive every year."

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. Calls that deliver information, as opposed to selling something, will not be affected by this ban. So things like automatic reminders about appointments or something like a bad weather delay or cancellation can still be made with an automated system.

As a company that offers a software product that can perform robocalls, we worried at first about our sales. What would be the impact the ban on robocalls would have on our IVM Answering Attendant? While we realize some sales may be lost, we have a great deal of confidence in IVM as more than a just robocall-software product. The list of features and benefits IVM provides extends way beyond automated outbound calling, including:

• Call attendant - use as a automated attendant to facilitate directing and transferring incoming calls.
• Connect to telephone line(s) using a professional telephony board, voice modem, directly to a VoIP service, or to a PBX like Axon Virtual PBX.
• Corporate voice mail solution for anywhere from a single line answering message to hundreds of voice mailboxes. Recorded messages can be played at any time, forwarded to an email address, or accessed remotely.
• Interactive Voice Response system design your own advanced IVR system for anything from an information line to a phone-in customer survey. The possibilities are endless.
• Call Logging - all calls are logged with the date, time and caller ID information.

So no more, “Congratulations, you’ve just won a free vacation,” or “Would you be interested in trying new car insurance.” We could not be happier that these pesky messages we did not sign up for will no longer be interrupting our daily life, but why not explore the other possibilities IVM Auto Attendant software can offer your business?