Yes, a simple 3CX WordPress Chat Plugin did indeed help! Nearly one year ago, once the government activated the Emergency Response, there was a clear panic in the business world, around how we would be able to communicate with our customers and prospects. Many businesses scrambled to update their websites, setting notifications and announcements about how they were able to accommodate customer communications via video links or chat, etc. They went about learning new software tools, or how to use old tools like Skype to fill the void… it was crazy.
Not for our customers. There was no panic, no scrambling.
At Beltone, we’ve been promoting, recommending and deploying a VoIP business system called 3CX Phone System since around 2008 – more than 12 years ago – and it proved to be an essential advantage for all our customers in those troubled first weeks of lockdowns and fear for tomorrow.
Why? Simply because 3CX has had for years provided some very cool features amongst the many others it offers for small to medium (and even very large) businesses.
3CX WordPress Chat Plugin features
- Built-in video meeting/webinar/chat support
- Seamless WordPress (and other website systems) integration
- Easy setup of internal flows
- Live presence update
- Chat notifications for the employees
All these features come out-of-the-box and easy to configure and use, and offer all the basics for seamless communication, almost with no extra configuration required.
Consequently, last year when the COVID-19 crisis hit, for all our customers the only problem arising from it was how fast we could train the users to stop using the VoIP desk phones but instead use either the smartphone apps or the web portal, and start working from home.
The transition was fast, easy and completely painless, and all customers were back to almost normal operations – from home – in less than a week.
We even had a chance to clearly see the huge difference between a truly awsome modern VoIP Phone System (3CX) and a classic old style system: one of our customers who decided two years ago to continue using legacy-style solutions coped a hefty invoice (over $3K) to have the phone system reconfigured and enabled for using the softphone app (available ONLY on PCs) and the whole reconfiguration took more than a week.
3CX Features are now standard
Needless to say, for all our customers, having the features enabled is now standard. This is our take on the new COVID-19 reality. Voices around the world are saying we can expect more similar situations as the global warming and population increase make more likely that new viruses will jump from domestic and wild animals, with the potential to cause epidemics and pandemics. It’s the new world, and we must be prepared.
Evidently, part of the preparation is becoming capable to communicate and interract with prospects and customers, as well as partners. This means, our websites are becoming more iportant than ever, not only as “easy-to-find-online-brochures” but as our business portal to communicate with the world.
3CX WordPress Chat Plugin to the rescue
One of the most interesting aspects was when we enabled the 3CX WordPress website integration and allowed our customers to enhance their inbound marketing activities as well as customer service by embedding the Chat plugin and giving website visitors ways to call from their mobiles – from the website – with options to Chat, Voice or Video Call – whilst the employees could pick up the calls irrespective if they were in the office, working from home or on the road.
There was a case where the business development manager was in New Zealand, got caught in the lock-down and had to work from the hotel for a while – without any of the customers even realising there was something of a special situation…
Long story short, not only we’re big fans of VoIP telephony here at Belltone – but we love and recommend solutions such as 3CX – because they are truly helping small and large businesses survive and thrive in this new era of Internet communications and crazy pandemics.
Did we mention the extremely affordable price 3CX comes at?
Stay safe and prosper.
Team Belltone