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Once upon a time, a thing called voicemail arrived on the scene — and it was great. Callers and recipients loved the convenience, the efficiency, and the results. Voicemail could do no wrong. Well, things have changed since then. These days, voicemail is generally regarded as a necessary evil; or by some people (especially millennials) as an outright evil. Instead of feeling glad that they’re being asked to leave a message, they feel frustrated, offended and insulted. What went wrong? How did voicemail go from being loved to loathed? Basically, it’s because businesses stopped using voicemail as a way to

Can you trust big companies to meet your telephony needs as a small business owner?  Probably not!  Most large companies offer generic, cookie-cutter products that do not meet the specific needs of your business. Their goal is to churn out as many services as possible and charge high rates to cover their capital costs, not provide solutions that fit their clients. Most will put you in a box, giving you what they want instead of cloud-based services that you actually need. The Popularity Of Cloud-Based Communications And The Importance Of Local Support The popularity of cloud-based telephone services is growing

As a new year approaches, it’s time to relax, unwind, spend time with family and friends — and of course, make some New Year’s Resolutions that inspire us to make some positive changes in the year ahead. However, New Year’s Resolutions aren’t just for personal aspirations. They’re also for business goals. With this in mind, here are four New Year’s Resolutions for your business in 2020:   #1: In 2020, resolve to significantly lower overhead costs.   Cutting costs in your business — but without compromising quality assurance, diminishing customer experience or reducing sales — is even better than winning the lottery

As we get ready to say goodbye to 2019, let’s gaze into our crystal ball and look at 5 VoIP predictions for the year ahead: Prediction #1: A record number of SMBs will cut the cord and switch to a hosted VoIP phone system. Over the last several years, SMBs have been switching in droves from an on-premise phone system to a hosted VoIP phone system. In 2020, we expect the velocity to increase given the undeniable advantages that include generating ongoing cost savings, scalability, flexibility, supporting remote workers, improving customer experience (CX), using advanced calling features, and accessing future-proofed

Recently, we published an article highlighting the unfortunate fact that North State is being acquired by Segra. Why “unfortunate”? Because not only do we expect to see many hard working and loyal North State employees get laid off in the coming months, but also because this is probably going to be bad news for North State’s customers in High Point, Thomasville, Archdale, Randleman, Jamestown, Trinity, Greensboro and Kernersville. We expect they will lose the “small business” relationship and dynamic they had with North State once the acquisition is complete (and probably well before that). In light of this development, we

A hosted cloud-based VoIP system or hosted PBX services provide many significant advantages over the purchase or use of a traditional telephone system because they furnish advanced telephone system features as a service over the internet. Many of those advanced features are expensive to deploy as part of a telephone system. Hosted PBX service is delivered with equipment located on the premises of the provider. This means a business does not need to invest in a telephone system to take advantage of its rich features and capabilities. In most cases, only phones will need to be purchased or leased which

Most small businesses are looking for ways to save money or reduce costs. Even those that are doing well, are keen to spend money wisely and never want to spend more than they need to. One significant expense that you might wonder if you could do without is your office phone system. A PBX phone system, on average, will cost between $800 and $1000 per user. These are the most popular choice for businesses that have over 40 employees, with different departments and offices, which need multiple lines and the ability to direct calls accordingly. A key system is often

Driven by strong economic growth, rising equity markets, and an increase in auditing, regulatory and compliance burden, the U.S. accounting industry is booming. According to research by IBISWorld, over 95,000 accounting organizations employ nearly 560,000 people, and generate over $114 billion in annual revenues. Industry Disruption At the same time, the accounting industry is under relentless pressure — from within and without — to adapt to an array of factors. As noted by Forbes: “Fee pressures, rising staff labor costs, and lack of quality staff will force [accounting] firms to carefully examine their mix of services, industry concentrations, and their

In business, one of the main key factors to success is to keep costs down and to keep all expenses to a minimum without compromising on any quality down the line. Costs vary from brand to brand but when it comes to the main factors of business, it boils down to the very vital concept of communication which includes digital, telephone communication and internet. These three major methods of communication can bring costs up incredibly high especially if your company is within the realms of sales. It may just be possible though, to have less outgoings by switching a phone

Static on the phone line used to be a pretty common problem. Most of us have experienced poor quality calls at some time. You might have even experienced the bizarre phenomenon of being able to call the other side of the world without any issue. Speaking on a perfectly clear line, hearing them as well as you could if they were sat next to you on the sofa, but being completely unable to hear when you call someone that lives down the road. There’s often no rhyme or reason to why some calls are filled with static, buzzing and dropouts,

There are many situations in life when all signs point to a change for the better. When we heed these signs, we’re always rewarded. When we ignore these signs, we always regret it — and wish we had a time machine to “know then what we know now.” With this in mind, if your business is seeing any or all of the following signs, then it’s time to elevate your business phone system to the cloud — so you can enjoy rewards, instead of lament regrets: 1. You’ve outgrown your current on-premise phone system. Your business isn’t static and unchangeable.

Traditional phone lines have had their time. They are over. Dead. Sure, they have had advantages in the past, and you might be fond of your on-premise PBX and equipment. But, if you want to take your company into the future, taking your telephone systems into the cloud can be a big step forward. Do You Like Wasting Money? The average on-premise PBX lasts for around ten years, less with hard use, or a lack of care. During this time, phone lines go down, cables and wires need maintaining, office equipment needs servicing, and IT support is needed to correct

At Carolina Digital Phone, we know how essential it is for our customers to communicate with anyone, from anywhere, and at any time. That is why we utilize a state-of-the-art geo-redundancy infrastructure to drive high availability. Below, we explain how this technology works, and why it is so beneficial for our customers. What is Geo-Redundancy? Geo-redundancy involves distributing key infrastructure components (e.g. servers) across several data centers, which are located in different geographic regions. As a result of this setup, if one component falls below acceptable performance standards due to heavy usage or fails due to a local power outage,

This just in; customer service is fundamental to success! Okay, so that might not be news (at least we would hope not), but did you realize that businesses currently lose around $75 billion to poor customer service? Many companies perform so badly here that around 67% of customers are becoming what’s known as ‘serial switchers.’ As if that weren’t worrying enough, 51% of consumers report that one negative experience is enough to stop them from ever doing business with a company again! In an age where more companies are concerning themselves with 24/7 web chats and speedy social media replies, phone calls are

Nicky Smith, President of Carolina Digital Phone, Invited to Join Triad Business Journal Leadership Trust Triad Business Journal Leadership Trust is an Invitation-Only Community for Top Business Decision Makers in the Triad  PRESS RELEASE: GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA— Nicky Smith, President and Founder of Carolina Digital Phone Inc. has been invited to join Triad Business Journal Leadership Trust, an exclusive community for influential business leaders, executives and entrepreneurs in the Triad (Winston-Salem, Greensboro and High Point, NC). Nicky was chosen for membership by the Triad Business Journal Leadership Trust Selection Committee due to his experience, leadership and influence in the local

Over the last few decades, growth in the cloud-based (VoIP) phone service industry has been massive. Here are some of the statistics:  By 2020, VoIP will have approximately 204.8 billion subscribers worldwide. (Source: Future Marketing Insights) VoIP is the fastest-growing industry in the world. (Source: IBISWorld) Total revenues for U.S. VoIP service providers reached $14 billion in 2019 (Source: IBISWorld)   VoIP is now the #1 telephone choice by U.S. businesses. (Source: Software Advice) 70% of businesses have already deployed Unified Communications (UC) in the cloud, or plan to do so in the near future. (Source: InformationWeek) The hosted VoIP industry

Communication is vital in any business. Whether you are talking to customers or internally to employees, ensuring your company has an efficient and reliable local service provider is essential to make sure business operations run smoothly. Fortunately, communications technology has been advancing in recent years and in turn, giving your company more options for improving systems such as office phone solutions, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and extending flexibility within your organization through virtual office solutions. If you’re one of the many businesses that have felt trapped in current communications contracts or are unsure where to turn to compare services

October 9, 2019: Today Spectrum has experienced a nationwide outage effecting millions of businesses and residential customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia, Ohio and many mid-western states. When calling Spectrum their Tier 1 Support Team will deny they have a problem, but after being transferred to a higher level technician they will tell you they are having a massive outage and do not have an estimated time for recovery. A recent Tweet from @Ask_Spectrum says they “do not have an estimated time of repair”. Additional Resources can be found at https://outage.report/us/spectrum and also https://downdetector.com/status/spectrum/map/

North Carolina attorney general Josh Stein announced a coalition of 12 telephone companies and 51 attorneys general to adopt a program to fight unwanted robocalls. This program includes 8 principles to protect phone users from unwanted robocalls and make it easier to prosecute unlawful robocall perpetrators. Josh Stein, NC Attorney General: “Robocalls are the greatest frustration I hear about from North Carolinians,” said Josh Stein. “Last month, my office announced a robocall petition and within days, we’d heard from thousands of people who have been harmed or harassed by these unwanted and illegal calls. Today, I’m proud to lead this

An N11 code or N11 number (said as n-one-one) is a special abbreviated dialing telephone number within the North American Numbering Plan, which allows access to special services. Each of these eight numbers prevents 10,000 telephone numbers (from N11-0000 to N11-9999) from being used. Only non-geographic area codes, such as toll-free 800/888/877/866/855/844 numbers and 900 numbers may use N11 as the telephone exchange prefix, since the area code must always be dialed for these numbers. Usage is generally assigned as follows: 2-1-1: community services, United Way. This service is not available via Carolina Digital Phone Service. Please visit the United Way web site http://www.211.org/ for more information. 3-1-1: in some areas used by municipal government services,

We all know that all businesses these days need to “think global and act local.” But when it comes to selecting the right cloud service vendor, this wisdom needs an adjustment: “think global and buy local.” Let’s start with the first part of this advice: think global. What this means is that small and mid-sized businesses should ensure that they get the same enterprise-grade telecommunications features enjoyed by large multinational firms, such as: auto attendant, live call forwarding, call transfer, automatic call distribution, online message access, call queuing, call announce, company directory, hold music, voice and fax email messages, message notification,

Why your business will be better with a Hosted VoIP system from Carolina Digital Phone. Your business has decided that upgrading from a costly, inflexible, and restrictive on-premise phone system to an agile, advanced, and affordable hosted cloud phone system is the way to go. However, before you can start reaping the rewards of your wise decision, you need to choose the right partner. To help you make this decision, here are 10 essential questions to ask hosted cloud-based phone system vendors: 1. Do you specialize in installing and supporting hosted cloud phone systems? You want to steer clear of