Google Voice – Do I Need it For my Business?

So you’re a new entrepreneur, or maybe a grizzled veteran of owning your own business. No matter where you are in your entrepreneurial career there is one thing that you
need all the time in order to be successful. That’s “communication”. You have to communicate with your customers, your colleagues, your family (there is life outside of work)
and etc etc etc. In this digital age we have all ways to reach out to those that we want to connect with. Facebook, Twitter, Four Square, Gmail…the list goes on. But we do
have to remember the original form of business communication. The trustworthy phone. Here in lies the difficulty of being that nomadic entrepreneur that so many of us are.

That’s where Google Voice comes in. Imagine not missing those important calls wherever you are? Mom calling on the house phone (assuming you still have one of those) or a client calling at the office, you end up with Voice Mails everywhere….Office, Home, Cell Phone. Well with Google Voice you can have ONE number that will ring to all of your phones as you see fit.

Pros:

• Google voicemail: voicemail like email
• Voicemail transcription: read what your voicemail says
• Custom greetings: vary voicemail greetings by caller
• International calling: low cost calls to the world
• Notifications: read voicemail messages via email or SMS
• Share voicemails: forward, embed, or download voicemails

Google Number

• One number: a single phone number that rings all your phones
• Free SMS: send, receive & store text messages online
• Block calls: send unwanted callers straight to voicemail
• Record calls: record phone calls and store them online
• Conference calls: join several people into a single call
• Screen callers: hear who is calling before you pick up

Cons:

• I’ve had some issues with my connection on a number of occasions when making a call and trying to send a SMS. But it is hardly a deterent.
• A few extra steps to be able to make a call or send a SMS. This is mainly driven by finding your contact first and then initiating a call or text. But you do have to remember that this is based on an App and not a set integration with your device. (This is on a Blackberry). Integration with Android phones are probably better.

Overall, being a cost conscious Entrepreneur (which we should all be) you can’t beat the features that you get from Google Voice. You’ll appreciate the ease of use and being able to get those important calls whenever they come in. If the time for the call isn’t appropriate you can always just send it to voice mail. No harm done