WHAT'S A SOFTPHONE?
An application that can run on your computer or mobile device that acts just like a physical office telephone.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF VOIP?
Cost savings: First things first – stop paying the phone company. With a hosted system, your phone calls are delivered through your existing internet connection. There’s no major phone equipment to purchase, except maybe new desk phones. And you’ll have fewer expenses in the form of repairs and downtime since everything is located in the cloud.
Scalability: It’s easy to add and remove extensions as your business needs change. You can even connect with mobile devices for those that don’t need to be in the office. So you’re only paying per-user per-month.
Outsourced maintenance: All of the upkeep and maintenance is managed by the VoIP provider off-site. Which means you can free up any in-house staff from maintaining your phone system – saving you time and money. And the best part, the hosted phone system doesn’t need to be taken offline for maintenance, updates or repair during business hours.
Reliability: With a traditional phone system, if a line is down the call can’t go through. With an internet-based phone system, multiple routes can be established for digital data to travel, keeping your phones up and running.
Disaster recovery: Your phone system’s infrastructure is protected in a hosted environment, so no matter what happens at the office, communication flow can continue even in an emergency. And if your internet or network goes down, calls can still be placed and answered through the mobile app, which works just like a desk phone.
Extra features and increased productivity: With the mobile app you hold the power of your desk phone in your hand, giving you the freedom to work wherever. You can answer, hold, conference, transfer, and more. Other cool features of switching to a hosted system can include caller dashboards, call reporting, advanced caller ID, automatic upgrades, and voicemail/faxes being sent directly to your email.
DO YOU SUPPORT FAX MACHINES?
Yes. We do have a 15 page max on outgoing faxes, but no limit on inbound faxes. If you need to send more than 15 pages at a time, let us know and we can talk through other options.
WHAT IS VOICEMAIL TO EMAIL?
A convenient feature that allows you to store and forward VMs using your email client. The VMs will be automatically sent to your inbox via an audio attachment.
WHAT KIND OF INTERNET CONNECTION DO I NEED?
Any reliable carrier will work. We will test your network by deploying a small device that mimics typical voice traffic, to let us know if your current internet will get you the results you want. If not, we’ll work with you and your carrier to reach a solution.
WHAT HAPPENS IF WE LOSE POWER?
You have a couple of choices:
1. Use your hellospoke mobile app for all calls
2. Call us and we can forward your calls to any number
HOW MUCH BANDWIDTH DO I NEED TO HAVE FOR A VOIP CONNECTION?
Depends on the amount of concurrent calls you expect to have. Example of a carrier service that provides bandwidth of 10Mbps x 1Mbps (10×1); which is typical for a broadband ISP to provide slower upload. 1 call requires approximately 90Kbps download/upload which equates to .09Mbps. You could have 11 (1 Mbps upload x .09 Mbps = 11 Calls) concurrent calls total based on the upload limit.
CAN WE CALL INTERNATIONAL NUMBERS?
Yes. International calls do have an additional charge. To see the per-minute charge for each country, go here.
DO YOU HAVE A MOBILE APP?
Yes. You can download the iOS app here. Or the Android app here. For more information, check out our mobile app page.
WHAT HAPPENS IF OUR INTERNET GOES DOWN?
You have a couple of choices:
1. Use your hellospoke mobile app for all calls
2. Call us and we can forward your calls to any number
WHAT'S WITH ALL THE ACRONYMS?
We’re sorry about all the acronyms. It’s what happens in the tech world. If you want to geek out with us, check out our VoIP technology page where we break it all down.
HOW ARE ALARMS, ELEVATOR PHONES AND POSTAGE MACHINES HANDLED?
We suggest keeping “analog” lines for these types of services. But we’ll walk through all of your needs when we do a site survey.
CAN I RECORD A CALL?
Yes. But, you need to ask first. This article does a good job of explaining how call recording works.
Here it shows the rules state by state, so please review before you decide to use our call recording feature.
IS THERE A FEE FOR EXTRA FEATURES?
Each user account comes with the hellospoke mobile app, call recording, call reports, voicemail, auto attendant, 24/7 support, and more. No extra fees. For a complete list, visit our features page.
WHAT IF I NEED TO ADD A USER?
No problem! Give us a call at 888 / 955 / 5155 and let us know if you need to add or remove users. Easy as that!
CAN I TURN OFF SERVICE AT ANY TIME?
Yes. We’ll be sad to see you go, but if for any reason you need to stop service, just let us know and we’ll get it taken care of.
HAVE A DIFFERENT QUESTION?
Do you have a question we haven’t addressed? Give us a call at 888 / 955 / 5155 or fill out an FAQ form below and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
FOUND A GLITCH?
Have you found something that’s not quite working right? Click the link below and let us know what it is and we’ll get to fixing the problem.