The niftiest features and benefits of Microsoft Teams Phone

Microsoft wants you to do everything on their software platforms — and this now includes making and taking phone calls, thanks to Microsoft Teams Phone. This is a powerhouse of a telecommunications solution, so let’s take a look at some of its niftiest features and benefits.

Use auto attendants, call queues, and call escalation

Let’s begin this list with features you’ve come to expect from top-notch Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solutions:

• Auto attendant – Routes callers directly to the person or department they want to reach without having to go through a receptionist or an operator first.
• Call queues – Treat callers to custom greetings and play pre-recorded messages or music while they’re on hold.
• Call escalation – Easily turn a one-on-one call into a group call with video, screen sharing, and other features.

More of the usual (and not-so-usual) VoIP features can be found in this Microsoft document.

Do away with desk phones — or use feature-rich ones

Why spend extra on a fleet of desk phones when you can simply enroll internet-connected devices, such as desktop computers, laptops, and mobile phones, to Microsoft Teams Phone? If you’re just setting up your telecommunications with Microsoft Teams, you won’t necessarily need desk phones, which means savings from the get-go.

However, if for some reason your team needs to use desk phones and conference room audio devices, there are plenty that are certified to work with Microsoft Teams. Teams-certified desk phones and devices have plenty of innovative features, such as:

• Authentication – For the sake of security, don’t let just anybody use your phones. Have phone agents sign in by entering their access credentials on the desk phone or other devices such as their mobile phone or PC.
• Hot desking – When a user signs in to a Teams-certified phone, they gain access to their list of contacts and meetings, and their preferences would be applied on that device. Once they’re done using the phone, they can sign out so that the device would be ready for the next user.
• One-touch join – This allows users to view their schedules and easily join meetings by just pressing a button.

Did you know? To enroll your telephony device to Microsoft Teams Phone, just sign in to your Microsoft Teams account on that device. It’s that easy!

Microsoft is partnering with more and more device manufacturers so that you can equip your staff with the phone they need to efficiently do their jobs, while enabling your managers to easily oversee them.

Easily monitor and enhance call quality

When problematic calls are reported, Teams’ call analytics enables admins and help desk agents to look into those specific calls to diagnose connection and call quality issues. Admins can also check the call quality dashboard to get a network-wide view of the performance of your Microsoft Teams Phone system.

Teams also has a feature called Quality of Service (QoS), which keeps calls from breaking up and video chats from freezing. This works by prioritizing the delivery of delay-sensitive network traffic such as voice calls and video conferencing streams. That is, QoS allows data packets from delay-sensitive network traffic to cut in line ahead of other data packets that can afford to be delayed, such as those from app downloads.

Easily port existing phone numbers or obtain and assign new numbers for users

If you have existing phone numbers from another service provider, simply send a letter of authorization (LOA) to Microsoft and they will handle transferring your numbers for you.

If you need new numbers for users in Utah, then using the Microsoft Teams admin center ought to be sufficient. In fact, you can pretty much rely on the admin center to get phone numbers for different countries and regions and comply with their rules and regulations.

However, for cases when you can’t get new numbers by using the admin center, or when you need to apply specific area codes or want to use vanity numbers, just send an LOA to Microsoft. They’ll take care of your request from there.

Have someone receive a call for you when you’re busy

There are times when you can’t take or make a call personally, but you don’t want to miss responding to people either, especially when they are important clients. Thankfully, Microsoft Teams Phone has the Delegate feature, which is a way for you to have a Teams member receive and make calls on your behalf.

Let NetWize help you leverage the Microsoft services that will best benefit your business. Leave us a message or call us at 801-747-3200 today.