Grasshopper's great for phone calls wherever you find yourself.
August 30, 2016

Grasshopper's great for phone calls wherever you find yourself.

John McMahon | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Grasshopper

We use Grasshopper in place of having desk phones. It allows us to utilize a BYOD (bring your own device) model where each employee has a phone they are comfortable with, yet we don't have to give out those individual numbers if we don't wish to. Grasshopper gives us a single business number and each user's cell phone is an extension on that main line (ex. 555-555-1234 ext. xyz). It's been a fantastic alternative to having desk phones for everyone and facilitates our flexible work arrangements (remote work, etc) by allowing anyone to contact us with the main number regardless of whether or not we're physically in the office.
  • iOS and Android apps cover most mobile devices. This is something that any business could implement, especially if they are looking to replace a traditional desktop phone system or implement a BYOD policy.
  • Grasshopper allows for a ton of flexibility and multiple work strategies. From having our front desk and support specialist able to answer the phone whether they're at their desk or in a meeting, our sales staff available out of the office, or remote workers all being tied to the same system regardless of where they work..
  • It's pretty simple to add new users to the system when we have a new hire. All they need is a cell phone and to be assigned an extension.
  • The app is pretty nice, allowing you to show the company's main phone on caller ID for outgoing calls, take calls to your cell phone when the main number is dialed with your extension, view/listen to messages, and view a full call history for the primary number.
  • The Android app is still listed as a "beta" and does have some bugs. There are times when I try to dial out and it just drops when trying to do that. A simple restart of the app clears that up.
  • You need to be careful in the call history section, it's relatively easy to hit the phone icon or number/name and dial the number instead of the arrow all the way at the right to see info about when the call came in/was placed/etc.
  • I still find myself answering "hello" and then get the message "Incoming call from Grasshopper, select 1 to answer..." It can be kind of annoying, but all the benefits far outweigh any annoyance with that.
  • Again, I'm writing from a user perspective, so I don't know the exact dollar figures. It does seem simpler to maintain than a traditional phone system, and the upfront infrastructure costs are much less.
I've been a user of both Grasshopper and Google Voice, and Grasshopper seems to be a bit easier to maintain and use from my perspective. Google Voice had a lot of issues with getting a "Local" phone number. It also seems from my use that Grasshopper is a better choice and easier to use with multiple employees and extensions. Grasshopper was already in use when I started at CWS, but I haven't had any issues and really like the platform/app.
Grasshopper is great for all kinds of small or medium businesses. Much less infrastructure cost/maintenance than having to set up a whole desktop phone system. It's also great for anyone who wants the flexibility to work from any location while keeping a single phone number. It's also nice to be able to use a personal cell phone without having to give out the cell phone number.

I could imagine it would be less useful for larger/enterprise situations. I'm writing this from a user standpoint, so I don't know the exact limits on number of extensions and things, but it could get unwieldy for a large number of users.

Grasshopper Feature Ratings

Hosted PBX
Not Rated
Multi-level Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
Not Rated
User templates
Not Rated
Call reports
7
Directory of employee names
10
Answering rules
9
Call recording
Not Rated
Call park
Not Rated
Call screening
8
Message alerts
9
Video conferencing
Not Rated
Audio conferencing
Not Rated
Mobile app for iOS
Not Rated
Mobile app for Android
8