As a cellphone repair business, you strive to be accessible to your customers all the time. However, you end up missing calls and quote requests. Sometimes you even forget to reach out to customers whose calls you’ve missed.
The reason: a lack of synchronization between your POS and your phone system.
The solution: centralized communications with an integrated phone system.
That’s not all. With a traditional phone system, you have to open up your POS to view a customer’s repair ticket details. This time-consuming process frustrates your existing customers who expect swift responses.
In contrast, an integrated phone system displays everything you need to know about your customer within your POS screen. It saves you time and enhances the customer experience.
It would be impractical for you to try out every business phone system out there. So this article helps you make an informed decision.
What is a Phone System and How does it Work
Growing your repair store in the cellphone repair industry requires high efficiency. Whether it’s repair operations, inventory management, or customer communications, you always need to be at the top of your game.
When it comes to streamlining customer communications, you need a centralized system that lets you handle all incoming calls and texts within your POS. Modern phone systems leverage internet-based calling – more commonly known as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol).
Contrary to traditional office phone systems, cloud-based phone systems:
- Are more scalable
- Save your calling costs
- Provide add-on features at a minimal cost
- Are more accessible and portable
- Enable remote work
All these advantages are just the tip of the iceberg. Wait till you discover the additional productivity features that come with an integrated phone system.
A Quick Overview of the Best Phone Systems
- PhonePro (powered by 3CX): the only phone system that integrates with your RepairDesk POS to unify customer communications, which means:
- You get notifications for calls and texts within your POS.
- You get customer ticket details within your POS whenever you receive a call.
- You can leverage SMS automation to share your shop location, operational hours, and more with a custom message.
- Calls get associated with tickets
- You can listen to call recordings and identify customer pain points to improve your support services.
- You can add notes against each ticket.
- Ooma: a cloud-hosted phone system that supports landline desk phones, analog fax machines, and overhead paging systems.
- Ring Central: a complete communications platform that allows businesses to receive calls across multiple devices.
- Vonage: a scalable voice, messaging, and video-based communication platform that offers a lot of add-on features.
- OpenPhone: a mini CRM that allows businesses to manage customer contacts, send auto-replies, and schedule messages.
- Verizon: a unified collaboration and communication platform that offers video, audio, web conferencing, and event capabilities
Why Your Repair Business Needs a Phone System
One of the common mistakes cell phone repair business owners make is investing in multiple solutions for individual tasks.
Typically, cellphone repair businesses use a landline system to take phone calls while their POS system operates independently. This kind of setup works if only one customer calls at a time. However, that’s not always the case. You often receive multiple calls simultaneously, and end up answering only one.
Here’s an example:
Integration with POS
To ensure you don’t miss out on any calls or repair quote requests, your phone system must integrate with your POS system. Modern business phone systems offer calling, text messaging, and display customer details all in one place. The aim is to ensure that your business is reachable by customers and can answer their queries most efficiently.
Customer Ticket Details and Call Notes
Moreover, a traditional phone system does not display any information except the caller’s phone number. You don’t get ticket details or information about any previous orders.
During a call, you often have to jot down specific details that the customer wants your technicians to address. You can take notes with your existing phone system, but the notes can’t be saved into your CRM. To be able to do that, you need an integrated phone system.
Multiple Numbers for Calls and Texts
Another hassle that repair shop owners have to deal with is having multiple numbers for calls and text messages. This makes it difficult to keep track of customer inquiries and you even end up losing potential customers. With an integrated phone system like PhonePro, you can use a single mobile number for calls and texts, and receive pop-up notifications within your POS.
VOIP is Better than Traditional Phone Systems
A cloud-based VOIP system goes far beyond a PBX phone system. You get the opportunity to leverage more features and improve communications. It helps you meet your customers’ expectations with swift responses and more oversight of call records.
VOIP systems are also easier to set up. With a traditional phone system, you would require additional hardware. But with a VOIP solution, setting up your phone system is a matter of a few clicks. Like any other software, PhonePro is updated regularly in the backend without causing any delays in your workflow.
Below is a detailed comparison demonstrating how PhonePro stands out from the other business phone systems in the market.
PhonePro (powered by 3CX)
Tailored to work for cellphone repair businesses, PhonePro checks all the boxes for you. It seamlessly integrates with RepairDesk through an easy setup and lets you handle multiple customers like never before. The innovative feature to capture callers’ information and enable direct appointment bookings is a game-changer for repair businesses.
A Single Number for Calls and Texts
No other tool unifies communications and brings all your customers in one place like PhonePro. With a single number for all your calls and text messages, you can never miss another potential customer. PhonePro takes away the hassle of requiring ticket details from existing customers.
- It displays their ticket information right in your POS screen the moment they call you.
- You can see who is calling from both the RepairDesk web app and the 3CX mobile app.
- You can quickly view and open tickets for ongoing repairs and even see when they last visited your repair shop.
- You can port your existing phone number to PhonePro. It works with your existing hardware supported by 3CX.
Popup Notifications and More
There’s only so much you can do with pop-ups, right?
But with PhonePro, you can do a lot.
When you receive a call from a new customer, a popup appears in your POS.
The popup displays the caller’s number, and you can edit and add the customer details right then and there. What’s more?
- You can take notes within the popup during the call. This helps collect customer information effortlessly.
- You can also turn the call into a lead from within the popup
- You can send quotes, repair information, and your store address while you’re still on call.
This is why merchants switch from other phone systems to RepairDesk PhonePro
SMS Automation
We understand the challenges of running a repair business. So here’s a new feature that allows you to address unattended customers with a custom text message. Even if you’ve just attended their call, you can send some extra bit of information for better customer service.
- You can send store directions and repair quotes while on a call
- You can share social media links to boost engagement
- You can set up different custom messages for missed calls and follow-up texts.
Call Logs, and Call Routing
Any time you receive a call, PhonePro notifies you within RepairDesk and via email. If something still goes unnoticed, don’t worry. All your calls are saved for future review.
- You can analyze call recordings to improve your customer service and ring back the numbers you’ve missed.
- You can route incoming calls to a different number if you’re too busy
- New leads are automatically created in RepairDesk for each call received in PhonePro
- You can link call recordings with tickets to let technicians understand exactly what a customer wants.
IVR and Advanced Digital Receptionist
With custom IVR options in PhonePro, you can set up different actions for each dialer key. For instance, when your customer dials ‘1’, it can be interpreted as “talk to a technician and get a quote”, or they can dial ‘2’ to talk to a customer support representative and get repair updates.
Going beyond the IVR functionality, PhonePro allows you to create your own digital receptionist.
- You can create actions based on given prompts.
- You can route calls to different departments, to the right persons, or extensions.
The best part: While other phone system providers charge per extension, PhonePro comes at a flat rate and allows you to create as many extensions as you want.
Ooma Office
If setup and installation times get you worried, Ooma would be a great choice for you. The business phone service can be installed within minutes and supports analog devices like paging systems and fax machines.
You can add users and configure the virtual receptionist easily using Ooma’s Express Setup Assistant. You just need to input the information for up to 20 phones, and the software does the rest. Ooma is also big on features and add-ons, as the website shows over 50 VoIP features for each subscription.
Although the virtual receptionist of Ooma offers fewer options than its competitors, the configuration is a hassle-free process. Your employees can monitor multiple lines such as sales and customer service.
Ooma offers Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace integrations to improve in-app functionality. The feature called “Caller Info Match” is a particularly useful one, as it displays customer information on your phone system screen. The system gathers this information from CRMs and social media channels.
Online bookings, meeting scheduling, and sending text messages to multiple recipients are some of the newly introduced features of Ooma.
RingCentral
Widely known as the ideal phone system for collaboration, RingCentral brings hundreds of integrations to the table. You get built-in video conferencing and real-time meeting transcriptions, making remote work a lot easier. For cell phone repair businesses, RingCentral’s in-office system provides task management tools and an interactive team calendar.
You can keep your tasks organized, and even turn saved messages into tasks for better tracking. The cloud phone system for retail improves customer experience by reducing wait times. Regardless of the channel in use, each time a customer drops a message, you can get the conversation going right away.
It helps maximize productivity by allowing you to take calls without having to shut down Salesforce, HubSpot, or any other CRM. You can even route customer calls based on the service they require, and inform technicians at the same time.
Vonage
Vonage is a business phone system known for its add-on features. It offers 17 features and pay-as-you-go APIs. Unlike its competitors, Vonage allows add-ons to extend functionality instead of subscribing to different tools for each task.
You can get an AI virtual assistant and avail of metered or unlimited extensions for your app. This helps you get the most out of your customers during peak seasons. Conversely, you don’t have to keep paying for the add-ons when you are receiving a low volume of customers.
The conversational AI assistant from Vonage is a customized solution to help your customers with special inquiries. For instance, someone might want to change their appointment or change their mind about a given repair order.
Within the Vonage app, you can add and remove ring groups, call queues, and integrations by accessing the admin portal. Vonage offers more than 50 standard features with all business plans, including team messaging and SMS.
OpenPhone
Looking for virtual phone numbers or a second line for your cell phone repair business? OpenPhone allows you to add a second line and unique features to your business phone. With a quick actions menu, you can set up auto-replies and voice commands.
This phone system is designed to support solopreneurs in addressing customer calls while running their business. OpenPhone’s tool works even when you’re offline to ensure that no customer goes unattended.
You can never go wrong with unlimited calling and messaging, an auto attendant, call recording, and one new local or toll-free phone number. The messaging tools in OpenPhone allow you to schedule messages for different dates and times.
Its auto-reply tool responds to voicemails, texts, and missed calls, which means you can virtually work around the clock. In addition, you can use saved message templates to remind customers to submit a review after their repair order is complete.
That said, your efficiency goals can be best achieved with one number for all texts and calls. OpenPhone provides you with a second line but doesn’t necessarily help take more calls.
Verizon Webex
Verizon offers a unified communication and collaboration platform called Webex. It is designed for retail and repair businesses of all sizes. If you’re struggling with a large volume of VoIP calls at the same time, Webex is the phone system for you.
The unified communications platform is enabled on the Verizon network and is enough to modernize your communications. With cloud-based business calling, you can replace your PBX system and also reduce IT complexity.
You can be more productive by incorporating this tool’s advanced features, like noise removal, studio-quality audio and video, gesture recognition, and automated meeting tasks. An always-on collaboration platform allows you to stay connected with your employees. You can share files, video meetings, and more to improve teamwork.
However, in the context of repair businesses, Webex wouldn’t make much of a difference as it does not integrate with your POS. Even when you’re reducing the IT burden, this phone system does not help you avoid missing customer calls.
Feature Comparison
Leaving No Customer Unattended
Whether you are a single repair shop or a multi-franchise business, staying ahead of the curve is always important. PhonePro addresses the single most important entity for your repair business, i.e., your customers.
Being able to do so much during a single phone call with a few clicks significantly elevates the customer experience. And that’s what makes it the best phone system for your repair shop.
Just like every other feature of RepairDesk, PhonePro is built to address the challenges faced by cellphone repair businesses like yours.
