Consignworks-a four-person Massachusetts company that handles estate sales and antiques, operates several online marketplaces, and acts as a broker between antique buyers and sellers-is one of those companies that needed its staff to be reachable at all times."We have a sales nexus west of Boston in Wellesley, warehouse and sales offices in different locales in the central part of the state, and an antiques mall, " says Tana Scouras, president, Consignworks. "So at any given moment, we really could be anywhere-with clients, buyers or sellers. In short, if folks need to reach us, we're not in our office. We needed a phone system that could reach us anytime, anywhere."This is a common problem faced by today's increasingly mobile small and midsize businesses, where relatively few employees perform a multitude of tasks in a variety of locations. Even real estate professionals, who have long relied on cell phones to remain in touch with clients while showing properties, are looking for ways to streamline communications with customers and prospects without having to publish their personal cell or home phone numbers.Staying in touch while projecting a professional telephone image is also crucial when competing with larger companies. One option for small businesses that cannot afford in-house private branch exchange ( PBX ) systems is virtual phone services that offer such functionality as customizable main greeting auto-attendants, multiple extensions, dial-by-name directories and "follow me" call-forwarding capability.Scouras brought a telecommunications background to Consignworks, and prior to coming on board as president in 2006, she had consulted with the company to establish its e-commerce infrastructure. In doing so, she sought out a reliable and cost-effective communications solution.She chose a hosted phone service from GotVMail that is customizable for one or 20 employees, works with any phone-including office phones, cell phones, home office phones, even voice-over-IP phones and PDAs-from anywhere, yet requires no additional equipment or software."With a virtual phone service, everything feeds into one system, " Scouras says. "So we have our local numbers in Wellesley, local numbers in Webster, Mass., and an 800 number for our nationwide clients. And all the calls go through one system. Because we don't need all those land lines, we actually save quite a bit of money."
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