One of the effects COVID-19 is having on the business community is the reduction, and in many cases, complete elimination of in-store customer visits. It’s certainly not that customers don’t want to come, but the ever-changing stay home / stay safe guidelines along with our combined commitment to flattening the curve means they can’t come. There is a lifeline, though…and lots of businesses are grabbing hold of it tighter than they have in recent history. What is it? It’s the telephone…and it’s ringing off the hook. From restaurants using it for their to-go and curbside orders to airlines helping with changes and cancellations, the number of customers calling in is way, WAY up and callers are on hold way, WAY longer. How do we know? Well, some businesses have taken to putting “high call volume” notices like the ones above. A quick review of one of our customers’ accounts shows 3X the amount of calls they got pre-COVID along with significantly longer hold times. So, how do you make the phone work for you? Have relevant and engaging On Hold Messages for your callers. This will not only keep them on the line, but it will also keep them interested. Sharing important business updates, timely specials, and additional product details will inform your callers…and plant the seeds for additional sales. Let an Auto Attendant do some of the work. Commonly thought of in terms of “press 1 for this, press 2 for that”, we help some of our clients use theirs to offer quick updates to business hours or ways to do business. And since it answers every call, it frees staff up from answering the most common questions. Especially helpful if you’re operating with a lighter than usual staff. One day this will pass and we’ll settle into the “new normal”, but until then grab ahold the lifeline and stay connected with your customers. At Hear Here, we specialize in amazing experiences for your customers on the phone through custom Message On Hold recordings and Auto Attendant greetings. We’re all in this together, so let us know if we can help . 1-800-613-3197 or vince@hearhere.net Serving clients across the nation from our headquarters in New Braunfels, TX. Austin, San Antonio

Music plays a vital role in your business. It not only keeps your employees happy, but study after study shows that the right music will endear a customer to your brand and also keep them shopping longer. However, there are a lot of businesses that just don't see the need to pay for a licensed music service. They may be willing to endure ads on their free streaming service or even create playlists from their own collection. Using music in a business for background music constitutes public performance and requires licensing fees. After all, that's how artists earn a living to keep making the music we love. Here are a couple examples of businesses that tried to save some money on music licensing. Here's the headline from Billboard.com on March 19, 2019: NMPA Publishers File $150M Lawsuit Against Peloton Over Unlicensed Music by Drake, Ariana Grande & More You can click the headline to read the entire article, but the short version is this...Peloton, who sells high-end excercise bikes and provides streaming training videos for customers, was using music in those videos that they hadn't secured licensing for. In essence, they were getting the benefit of having tracks by Drake, Ariana Grande, and more in those videos without paying any lincencing fees. Here's another one. New Jersey Restaurant Ordered to Pay $56,100 in Unlicensed Music Suit The short version: A restaurant declined to pay music licensing fees for the music they played. A music lincensing agency researcher visited the restaurant and took notes on the tracks they heard. They ended up with a huge bill! It's a scenario that is taking place in businesses all over the country as licensing agencies work to ensure artists are fairly compensated for their work. That's the problem, but what's the solution? Well, you could dedicate countless hours to curating playlists for your business and then securing rights for each of those tracks...hoping you did it right. Or you could subscribe to a music service that covers all of the music licensing for you. Hear Here's background music service provides you with a great selection of channels and genres along with the ability to blend multiple channels together for a unique sound. Plus, we handle all of the music licensing, so you can sound great and rest easy. Ready to talk about music for your business? Click here and we'll be glad to tell you more .

ROCHESTER, N.Y., (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Allworx Corp., a Windstream (Nasdaq:WIN) company, has announced the results of a new survey that explores the perception and usage of business phone systems among Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs). The study revealed that the majority of SMBs have low awareness of the technology trends in business phone systems and most are not utilizing advanced phone features that are widely available today. The survey, conducted by Hanover Research, was fielded among 427 capital equipment purchase decision makers or influencers at businesses with 5-499 employees in the U.S. across 22 vertical industries. The survey identified a number of key insights regarding the usage and perception of business phone systems among SMBs: The vast majority of SMBs are unfamiliar with telecommunications terminology such as IP telephony, hosted PBX, IP PBX, virtual PBX, SIP trunks or Unified Communications. Despite the rise of email, video, and social media, 74 percent said that voice communication remains extremely or very important to their business operations. The top five phone features used most by SMBs are: 3-way calling (60 percent), intercom (42 percent), conference call bridges (41 percent), music on hold (40 percent) and calling other locations using extensions (37 percent). The top five most desired phone features by SMBs are: voicemail as email attachments (38 percent), remote desk phones (25 percent), music on hold (25 percent), 3-way calling (24 percent), and mobile client for the desk phone (24 percent). Nearly one in two SMBs plan to evaluate a new business phone system in the near future – with 86 percent of them planning to do so within the next three years. Sixty-four percent of them cited old or outdated voice equipment as the primary reason. “Twenty years into the advent of the VoIP technology, business phone systems have become more intelligent and capable than ever before. These results tell us that there is a real opportunity to help educate SMBs on how they can optimize their business phone systems to increase efficiency, boost productivity, and do more with less,” said Chris Hasenauer, vice president and general manager of Allworx.