How I Use Google Voice for My Business

Telephony is growing stronger.

And you should really start to understand what this means for your business. It’s a more sexy and functional way to process information (coming in) – and market yourself (going out).

I myself am just getting into it. I held off for many reasons, including expense (although pricing is coming down) and complexity (none of the systems I have reviewed seemed easy to me), but that’s going to change this year for me – with Google Voice (GV).

I know what you’re saying… why should I use it for business? Well, call tracking for one. Mass distribution of voice messages is another. But how about text messaging a group of people, or a carrier non-specific number, or grabbing a quick testimonial from a customer? THAT’s the power of telephony – and with GV, it’s FREE.

At its core, GV is a Voice-Over IP (VoIP) service, which means all your calls are through the interwebs. Some have complained that the sound quality is shaky, but I have found it to be pretty darn good.

Interesting things it can do.

The Google Voice Inbox (Callbox?)

Transcription. GV allows for transcribing of voice messages, including a record feature when using. The transcription at first was hit or miss, but now it’s astonishing in accuracy.

Forward to email. You can also reroute transcriptions or sound to your email inbox. Pretty nifty.

Forward to your phone. You can have messages forward to any phone you have. If you use multiple phones (one for biz, one for personal) this tool allows you to ‘redirect’ messages to the phone you’re carrying (or not carrying, as the case may be).

Get emailed alerts. It goes without saying that you can be alerted that you have a GV ‘new message’.

Integration with Gmail. Since it’s a Google product, it’s easy to jump back and forth between GV and Gmail. I use this now to integrate voice messages with my contacts.

Visual record of messages. Since you have a visual representation of the recordings you make, you can sort them, search them, etc.

Dial out. I remember the days of old, where I used to hold up my phone to the computer speaker and the computer dial a number through sound. This is, of course, better – you can dial anyone and use your computer to do it.

Brilliant things it can do.

Interviewing people. Since you can record a conversation, you can interview people with this technology, now. Plus, since it transcribes the convo, you can copy/paste certain snippets of conversation and ‘flesh out’ for articles, etc.

Divert work. I know that I already said it before, but the diverting of work is really great. I can send a voice or transcription to my employee, my girlfriend, etc.

Google Voice call me Widget - setup on your website for lead tracking!

Call me better widget. Instant GV integration onto your website with the Widget makes call tracking a reality. Now, it’s not super-sexy – you only have one phone number to ‘distribute’ across your marketing channels, but for small business, it’s probably enough. Google Analytics will then know what page your caller called from, and BAM – you know what triggered a potential customer to call.

How I am using it now.

Sometimes, clients give me information on the phone. That means I can quickly listen to the important information, log it. You could also use this to send recordings to other people’s phones, like an employee. Oh, Mark the employee is going to love this one (not).

Threading. Since some information comes to me in text form (email) and other info comes to me in voice form I can ‘thread’ my information into a continuous workflow. I do a lot of ‘transcribing’ from what clients say to me on the phone, so this is a timesaver.

How I will be using it later.

Call tracking from my website. I’m all about tracking success for my clients and myself, so knowing what page on my website a person called from is pretty important. That’s a fantastic type of feedback about how your website is working for you, and what triggers a call.

Mass SMS messaging. I can mass text a group of people in my Gmail account. Love it!

Customized greetings for certain groups. Since it integrates with Google Contacts, anyone that I group as a ‘client’ can hear a particular message, and a ‘potential client’ can hear another. I LOVE that.

Allow me to invite you; start playing now, instead of waiting for an invite.

You could wait around for Google Voice to invite you – which might take some time (the service is not in mass distribution mode yet) – but I have a special offer for my readers.

Allow me to invite you!

The first three thoughtful commenters on this blog post will get an invitation directly from me – which will instantly allow you access to Google Voice (and an account). If you have a Gmail account, you can link the GV service to it – and that means even smoother integration for things like jumping between a phone call and your Gmail Contacts information.