8x8 X Series offers good functionality for customer focused small businesses
November 12, 2019
8x8 X Series offers good functionality for customer focused small businesses
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with 8x8 X Series (Formerly Virtual Office)
I have three business locations at which we use 8x8 X Series. We provide music lessons and programs to kids, so our programming occurs after school for the most part. As a result, our business operating hours are 1 pm-9 pm. Since these hours don't align with most customers (parents) regular workday, Virtual Office has been valuable in allowing my managers to receive voicemail messages via email earlier in the day from their home or mobile device before our regular operating hours. It also allows me as a manager to remotely check in on quality control of customer service and how calls are handled (when using the call recording option). We also host off-site events periodically. We don't like to share employee's personal cell phone numbers, so it's been useful to setup auto-forwarding in Virtual Office. That way customers can phone our regular business number and have it forwarded to reach a manager onsite at the event.
- Delivering voicemail via email and the ability to save, forward/share recordings with relevant parties is helpful and improves the ease and accuracy of relaying messages to the correct person.
- The ability to setup numbers to which to auto-forward in the instance of a power outage or internet outage is essential for running a customer service business like ours.
- The ability to record calls during training periods with new employees is great to improve customer service and sales abilities.
- Sometimes the forwarding functionality to an outside number is tricky to set up correctly if you have any kind of phone (ring group) established.
- The reliance on the internet connection without a backup in some way can be problematic.
- Sometimes the phones just blank out for a second and the restart process taking a long time, so if you're in the middle of a call, it's stressful to know the person who's call dropped is likely trying to repeatedly call you back. When it's a lead or new customer, it makes a terrible impression like we're not answering the phone.
- The "do not disturb" button is too easy to press accidentally by a cleaning person dusting for example and there isn't a notification to tell you remotely that it's been tripped. This means you walk into the business to a million voicemail messages b/c everyone was sent directly to vm. Additionally, sometimes someone hits do not disturb during business hours in error and again there's no notification. There should be a confirm feature before do not disturb is enacted to ensure it's not a "fat finger" mistake.
- The functionality of call recording and remotely accessing has facilitated training in customer service and sales skills.
- Voicemails delivered via email has improved customer service by allowing my managers to hear time-sensitive customer requests outside of operating hours so they can respond quickly. This has improved customer satisfaction.
I haven't used any other services.
Do you think 8x8 Work delivers good value for the price?
Not sure
Are you happy with 8x8 Work's feature set?
Yes
Did 8x8 Work live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of 8x8 Work go as expected?
No
Would you buy 8x8 Work again?
No