Grasshopper

Grasshopper allows our small business to have a professional phone presence and never miss a call.

Comentários: It's been easy to use and has saved us a lot of money by not having someone to staff a phone when there isn't a need to have a person on site. The cost is very reasonable and it's completely transparent to customers.

Vantagens:

Grasshopper allows us to manage calls with a lot of flexibility. Whether we're at our business or out and about, the customer never knows. We can assign different people to handle different types of calls, we can accept text inquiries, and we can be available for calls whatever hours we want, up to 24/7.

Desvantagens:

It can take a little longer that I'd like for customers to get through, since they have to wait for Grasshopper to answer, listen to the greeting, put in an extension, and then wait for the call to forward. This is a minimal issue though in comparison to the alternative.

Very Basic; Room for Improvement

Vantagens:

Ultimately this system is very straightforward and easy to use. For a small business, it provides the basic functions I need. I needed a business line so I could keep my personal phone free of business and this served that purpose.

Desvantagens:

One of my biggest frustrations is that it does not have a separate contacts function. The phone app requires syncing with my personal phone contacts which is exactly what I did NOT want. I wanted my business contacts completed separated from personal friends and family. Even the desktop app does not allow for that.

Would not recommend this

Comentários: We used this to call our customers and text our customers. If they could get the glitches and kinks worked out, it would be a much better program. It was good to used for days when you have multiple calls per hour as it is hands free and you can just call from your computer. However, it is not one hundred percent reliable. The experience I had makes me not want to use it again, unless they were to fix everything so it functions like it should.

Vantagens:

What I liked most about this software is that it provides a phone number and service that you can access using your laptop and headphones. It is easy to make calls from your computer, and you can send texts and check voice messages as well, and typed transcripts of those voice messages. It provides a professional looking phone system for your business and has a voicemail that is also seems professional and can be set up to transfer to employee's Grasshopper phone numbers or to roll over to their cell phones.

Desvantagens:

The problem with this software is that it is full of glitches. There were several times when Grasshopper sent the voice messages to the wrong phone numbers, the extensions got changed or were wrong, or the app just stopped working all together. It seemed like every week or two, we had to waste time calling in to customer service to get them to fix the problems. Also, you could not send mass texts or multiple texts to more than one person without them seeing each other's phone numbers and all responses going to all people in the group text. So if we had a group session where we wanted to confirm, invite, or remind twenty people, we had to send each text individually through Grasshopper. This involved sending a text, copying it, going back a screen, typing in the next number, pasting the text, and then sending it to the next person. It was a time waster.

Grasshopper is an Amazing Tool for Entrepreneurs

Comentários: We've been using Grasshopper since 2013 and it's been a wonderful tool. You know your software is great when you don't actually spend any time thinking about it and it just works. Support is amazing, but I hardly ever have to use it because we never have any problems. We just opened up our third Grasshopper account for our consulting firm, and other manufacturing company. Our favorite things about Grasshopper is that there are only the flat costs, instead of per user costs. Our business works with many independent professionals, ( ie our dedicated IT person is also a small business owner) and we needed to be able to give people their own extensions so our customers could reach out to them directly, but still under the umbrella and safety of our business. Grasshopper makes it really easy to do that, keeping us professional and our customers satisfied. I would hate to have to pay for 13 extensions, when I really only need 7 users, but with other systems, for every email you add on, you have to pay for that user. You also only pay for what you use or your plan, so you don't have to break the bank. We don't take an excess amount of calls to our office, mostly email, so you only have to spend a little, you really get a lot. You can pay by the minute (which we choose to do based on our fluctuating call patterns) or you can buy a bulk minute plan, which is incredibly competitive in price. The call quality is absolutely amazing, because Grasshopper runs over traditional phone lines and not VOIP. This allows you as a business owner to run a cloud based system, but get all the benefits of landline quality. If you're a business of 1 and want to sound more professional, Grasshopper is the best way to do it. You can set up multiple extensions (press 1 for sales, 2 for support) even if they all forward to the same place. It's also perfect if you're like our business, where you require not a lot of talk time, but several departments and extensions to be able to suit your customer needs because of contractors on your team. I definitely recommend this to anyone who has large contractor teams that work on several projects together regularly and need to delegate some responsibility. Whether you're a solopreneur, a small business, or even a large business, Grasshopper allows you to take your business anywhere, any time, without problems. It's easy, affordable, and get's the job done well.

Vantagens:

Grasshopper gets it done right. It's incredibly affordable for letting your business have a professional line without breaking the bank and there's never a call quality issue. You can also choose a vanity number which is a huge bonus (100% of my recommendations to others for Grasshopper get a vanity number.) Biggest perks include: *No per user cost - only pay for what you use, or buy a larger plan if you talk a lot *Create a ton of extensions *Mobile App is really helpful - you can dial out using your vanity number *Voicemails delivered to your inbox or listed to them over the mobile app *Call screening (personal favorite, so I can truly decide if I want to take that call or not!) *Time Zone setup for users that are maybe on a different coast then you (we use this currently)

Desvantagens:

Lack of integration with CRM. Other CRM tools often an auto dialer that allows you to associate calls with leads and so forth, and I think this would add a lot of value if it were added. Also, no local vanity numbers. Wish regulatory fees were a bit lower but can't do too much about that. Lastly, not really a con, but when you sign up, you need to call and ask them to upgrade you to the advanced user interface. There is no extra cost, but this is the you really need to make your life easier.

Makes managing a virtual team's phones sound like a fortune 500

Comentários: When you call my Grasshopper number, it sounds like it's a fortune 500 company, but really Grasshopper is letting me use the same phone extension, but point it to any number I want. My virtual team can point their extensions to their cell phones. Traveling in Europe? No-one has to know! And getting my voicemail via email is a game-changer. The dashboard for managing everything is easy and intuitive. I can't tell you about customer service - because I've NEVER needed it. Doesn't that just say it all?

Vantagens:

Lots of great features, but especially being able to manage where and how phone numbers are forwarded - while the customer-facing experience remains seamless.

Desvantagens:

It's tough to come up with something, especially now that they've added a phone app. I can't think of anything I don't like.