Taxi Driver Online

I need some help and advice regarding a phone system. Just like most if not all, your customers dial a particular number and all phones in office rings, anyone can pick up and book job. We are looking at having 3 telephonist and one dispatcher.

what would be the best telephone system to achieve that and would i need 4 telephone lines.

Also what phone system, have you all got.

thanks in advance.

Three telephonists and one dispatcher is about the level of staffing you might use if you’re running a reasonably large company. You’re asking this question so I have to assume this is possibly a start up situation therefore I’d need more info about what you’re trying to achieve in order to be able to give you the best advice.

Bill

Hello bill, thanks for your response. What we are trying to achieve is being able to have one main number, where customers call and if a customer calls, any one of 3 telephonist can pick up their handset and take booking and whilst on phone, customers can still call the same said number and not get an engage tone, thus allowing the other agent to deal with the customer inquiry.

So it like one number but with 3 lines/phones.

Ive been told that the bcm50 would be best, but what does anyone think and using at present.

I see what your saying but I think you might be misunderstanding just how phone systems work. Having multiple lines with the same number has nothing to do with a phone system. For example you could just call BT and ask them to put a second or even third line to your house using your existing number and you'd just have two or three phones and two or three wall sockets with phones. Incoming calls would go to phone 1 and phone 2 will only ring if line 1 is busy. Likewise, phone three will only ring if phones 1 and 2 are busy.

The problem with this in a taxi environment of course is that the person sitting next to phone one ends up doing most of the work while the person on line three is on a doddle! It's workable for some small companies but a phone system is a better option because it allows anyone to just pickup any phone and automatically get the next call in the queue.

The customer will only get an engaged tone if all the three phones are in use. What you have to decide is, what would you prefer your customers to hear when your company isn't quite coping? An engaged tone at least tells the customer that your busy so they may call back. A line that just rings say's nobody's home so they definitely wont call back!

The key points I'm trying to make here are that you don't need a phone system to have more than one line on a number and the number of lines you use should be realistic.

Bill

Oh BTW, the BCM50 is probably one of the most common systems in use these days but there are lower cost options if you're not looking to integrate with computers.

thanks, we are looking to integrate with computers, and looking at dispatch softwares like yours.

We would like the customer to get an engage tone, or a message saying we are extremely busy but will be with you shortly, something like that, but as you mention, we want any of the operators being able to pick up phone and deal with inquiries, not just one person getting the bulk of the calls because they are on line one.

I did say to myself, phones and phones system is a can of worms ive opened up, thanks

No it's not a can of worms, it's all quite easy once the penny drops so to speak. All the phone systems do essentially the same thing and pretty much all will work with computers. There's only one current one to watch out for and that's the BT Versatility. It won't work with our system or anyone else's despite what the sales person might tell you. And while on the subject, don't let the salesman talk you into all sorts of deals on lines and features because at the end of the day, you're only going to be picking up a phone to answer incoming calls. We see people going into contracts costing 10/12K over say five years for a system that can be had for about 2k!

If you are thinking of computerising, watch you don't buy a phone system that the computer company won't support. Some will only work with certain phone types so check first. (we work with everything except tin cans and string ) As for the recorded messages, don't go there because it's a real bummer for people with not a lot of credit on their phone; better to just let it ring. You really do need to have a think about this and make a decision. I see so many start-up situations where there's almost an obsession with making sure the customer never hears an engaged tone. Focus on making the phone ring rather than worrying about what happens when your too busy because the former's the biggest problem.

Bill

The phone ringing rather than message to save credit, never thought of that, thanks for letting me know, so what phone system would you recommend, without all the whistle and bells, like feature and all, like you said, all will be happening is answering customers calls.

It's a bit too complicated to try and answer this on a forum because there are so many factors I'd be here all night.(nearly have been ) I've left my mobile on your PM if you want to talk direct it's not a problem at the moment but have just poured drink number three!

What I was getting at with the sales people is that a phone system for a typical taxi company would be very different than for regular businesses like ours. For example, we make a lot of out going calls, a taxi company has mainly incoming calls. We need extensions phones all over the country, yours are in you office. The sales people more often than not don't fully understand the needs of the taxi trade and use the standard business pitch but they're bloody good at it and loads of people end up buying stuff that they just don't need.

I had one customer once that despite everything we'd told him, went out and bought the biggest and best system he could find. The system cost a bloody fortune and was massively over the top for what he needed. Worst of all, we'd never even seen one of these things so it took an age for us to work out how to interface with it. Total waste of money (and our time) when he could have simply chosen any standard phone system off the list.

Anyhow either way I think it might be best if you either call me or give the office a ring before you do anything.

Bill

i will first thing tomorrow. Thanks for your advice.

Only advice I can give is take Bill's advice

I can put you in touch with the people who sorted us out with a system, they can also sort you out with lines and broadband etc.

They are by no means the cheapest or.... quickest but the can do you a good deal.


Pm me if you need the details

Cheers

Derek

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Sound advice from Bill

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Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

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Sorry about the wrong number, shouldn't have had that last drink

Then BT kindly had our internet off for most of the day so no web or emails. I'm certainly in the office tomorrow morning but out doing installs in the afternoon.

Bill

Hi
I am telephone engineer of 28 years, now a MD of an operator with 350 cars.
I have set up many taxicos telecoms before.

If I can help, PM me.

Busby

The telecoms is variable.
there are options of analogue lines, ISDN2 or ISDN30, depending on what you need.
I like to get a 'feel' of the company, ask myself questions such as, will the office be permenantly manned? will they need to divert to a driver's mobile & shut the office in quiet periods? do they need Caller ID? do they need to interface with a despatch system such as AutoCab or Datamaster?
do they need screen popping, ringback, textback? what is an affordable solution? new or second hand? do they need an IVR? web-booking? is the system scaleable enough? value for money?
Trust me, I will offer my best help.

Busby

Is there not a cheap/affordable option to play an automated message advising that all agents are busy and then continue the ringing?

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Tam Tam the taxi man,
If anyone can,

Tam can