It’s a simple fact: Customers use your number to reach your company. So it makes sense to deploy local numbers where you want to reach more customers and explore new markets.

Get started by taking a look at your call logs to see where most of your calls are coming from.

• If you’re a nationwide business with a toll-free number, use Call Logs to look for opportunities in places where you’d like to do more business. For instance, if you don’t receive a lot of calls on the West Coast, consider purchasing local numbers in metropolitan areas like San Francisco and Los Angeles.
• If you’re a local business in a major city, but get regular calls from neighboring cities, consider adding numbers in those area codes—or even getting a toll-free number—to help you cast a wider net.
• Most callers won’t know they can use your number for calling and faxing. Consider adding a direct fax-only line, especially if you get a lot of faxes.

The more accessible you are to your customers, the more likely they are to rely on your services. And that can help expand your reach into new markets.

Call blocking is a great way to take only the calls you want to take. If you’ve had to deal with a string of pesky, unwanted calls, this will help you keep the funny business out of your business.

To activate call blocking:

1. Log in.
2. Select My Settings
3. Select Blocked/Allowed Numbers in the left navigation pane.

You can elect to block individual numbers as well as entire area codes, pay phones, and more. You can play a message that addresses blocked callers directly, “You cannot reach this number from your calling area,” or take a more gentle approach, “This mailbox is full.”

If you’re blocking a set of numbers, such as those from a certain area code, use the Allowed Numbers section to whitelist specific numbers from that area code you wish to receive.

You can even select Block All Calls. This is especially helpful for those who enjoy a lasting peace and quiet.

How many times have you wished you recorded a call? Well, now you can with Call Recording. Simply press *9 to start a recording, and press *9 to stop it. Use this feature to record calls on-the-fly.

You can also:

• Customize recording notifications
• Retrieve recordings from your call logs
• Forward recordings through email to coworkers

It works with any device you’re using, which means you can record calls from home, at the office, or even from your cell phone. This can be particularly useful in companies that run customer service, training, and/or support lines, and that want to keep accurate records for legal purposes.

Speaking of legal, it’s a good idea to brush up on your legalese before you start *9ing every call—keep in mind there are several federal and state laws that regulate the recording of telephone calls and other electronic communications. We’re not taking any responsibility for what you do with call recording, and we’re certainly not letting you use our get out of jail free card, either.

For those of you who use IP phones with your RingCentral service, such as the Linksys IP Phone SPA-942, you may have noticed a red indicator light on top of your phone that lets you know when you’ve received a message. And most of the times it works—somebody calls your company, you’re not available, so they leave you a message and the light goes on. Simple, right?

Not so fast. There have been a few reports made by customers who experience a lit message indicator without an accompanying voice message.

What’s going on? Is it:

a) A haunted phone
b) An extra-terrestrial life form attempting to contact your business
c) Your phone letting you know that you’ve received a fax message

If you answered b), we’re glad you have a great marketing team, but we haven’t expanded our phone service to reach outer space. At least, not yet.

Chances are that you have a fax message that’s waiting for you. Simply log into your account or open Call Controller™, download your fax, and the message indicator light should go out.

That is, until the next message arrives.

Call logs are a great way to monitor how business is doing. Would you like to know how many new leads you’re generating? Count up the number of incoming calls to your number. How productive are your employees? Take a look at the telephone activity for individual extensions. All the data is there for you to see.

For today’s Tuesday tip, we’ll show you how to have your company call logs delivered to you so you can get a regular snapshot of your business activity. Making adjustments based on telephone usage can go a long way to improving your overall business strategy.

To receive regular delivery of your call logs:

1. Log in
2. Select Call Log > Delivery Settings

Your delivery options are pretty self-explanatory;  you can select how often you’d like your call logs delivered (daily, weekly, monthly) and where you’d like your call logs emailed to.

That’s it! You’re now on your way to micromanaging bliss…

Let’s face it—during the holidays, you’re looking forward to more than just spending time with family and friends, you’re also looking forward to getting out of the office.

If you have holiday travel plans, don’t leave your customers in the cold—have your auto-receptionist take your calls so you can enjoy your winter getaway.

To set up your holiday answering rules:

1. From My Settings, select Answering Rules
2. Select ADD RULE
3. Select Date Range Schedule
4. Choose your holiday dates, then follow the setup wizard

Spread some cheer by including season’s greetings or a holiday jingle to your company greeting. That’ll work, even if you’re working straight through winter.

Happy Holidays from RingCentral!

Don’t refresh that browser, it’s working just fine. If you’ve come to our site recently, you’ll notice a couple of big changes.

First, RingCentral Online is now RingCentral Mobile. We noticed an emerging trend that our customers are shifting their businesses from traditional on-site centralized work forces to virtual distributed offices. With mobility being a crucial component to office communications, we decided to give our product a new name that integrates across our product line.

We’ve also taken this opportunity to completely redesign the RingCentral homepage. Our new homepage highlights our products stronger and provides simpler, more intuitive navigation.

So if you are a continuing RingCentral Online subscriber, you are now a subscribing to RingCentral Mobile. All of the features are the same; the only thing that’s changed is the name.

RingCentral Mobile makes it easy for you to:

• Get a complete virtual phone system to unify mobile employees
• Set up your phone system to work the way you do
• Incorporate your existing phones and mobile devices
• Make your company available to your customers wherever you or your offices are located
• Manage and access calls, voice and fax messages from a mobile phone
• Direct calls and faxes anytime, anywhere so you never miss a call or fax
• Deliver a professional sound and enhance your company image
• Get one low monthly rate with simple pricing
• Avoid setup or service cancellation fees
• Sidestep costly, complex hardware installation and maintenance

Click here to learn more about RingCentral Mobile.

Mobility is everything when you travel during the holiday season so we want to remind you of some of the best features for road warriors included in your RingCentral plan. By adjusting a few settings, you’ll be well on your way to greater peace of mind knowing your clients’ needs are well taken care of even while you’re away from the office. Below is a list of features we hope you use to stay connected and in control of your business’ communication needs. Feel free to leave a comment with any related tips you may have for fellow travelers.

Call Forwarding

Call forwarding is at the top of our list for obvious reasons. This feature allows you to route your callers to up to ten different numbers including your cell, home, or office phone from any extension. Our FindMe feature will send callers to several pre-set numbers simultaneously or in sequence, so if you’re on the road (flight, abroad, or out-of-range), you can have calls routed to other people until you’re available again. Want your calls to go straight to a single-number? No problem, change your FollowMe settings on-the-fly by phone or through your online account, and have calls routed to a single number. It’s that easy!

RingCentral Mobile for iPhone

iPhone users should download our free application if they haven’t already. RingCentral Mobile gives you access to visual voicemail, your iPhone contact list, and you can even make business calls from your cell phone without revealing your personal mobile phone number. If you’re a fan of faxing, then you should know you can view, edit, and send faxes right from your iPhone too.

Calling Card

Lost or dead cell phone? Don’t sweat it. Simply find a local landline and make long distance calls using your “Calling Card.” All you do is dial your RingCentral number, log into your account, and dial the number you wish to call after the prompt. The best part is you don’t need a plastic calling card–as long as your remember your toll-free number, that is.

Call Controller

If you have your laptop with an Internet connection, then you should be all set to make calls on our Call Controller. Our Call Controller lets you screen callers, forward calls to another phone, make conference calls, record calls, and answer calls through your PC. Those traveling abroad will find this feature handy when they need to call their contacts in the U.S. Happy Holidays!

We surveyed our customers and found that nearly half of their employees spend 75% of their time working away from the office. Given this statistic, it’s clear that mobility is paramount in today’s business world. With features like call forwarding and multiple extensions, RingCentral gives your business the ability to stay connected with your customers, even when you’re out of the office. In today’s Tuesday Tip, we’ll show you how to update your answering rules so that you can identify incoming calls from multiple extensions.

Let’s say you forward all your sales, support and billing calls to your cell phone, how will you know which extension is forwarding the call? Simple! Add an identifying code to forwarded caller ID numbers. That way, you’ll be able to quickly identify which extension the call is being forwarded from, see the caller ID information on your cell phone and give the appropriate response. “Hello, you’ve reached the sales department…”

To do this, first log into your RingCentral account:

1. Select Company Settings, find the extension you want to identify, then under Rules, select Edit
2. Find the answering rule you want to add your code to and select Edit
3. Under Forward My Calls, select Edit for the number you are having your calls forwarded to
4. Enter your code in the pop-up window

Cutting costs around the office is possible with the right business applications. Here are several tools your office shouldn’t be without.

• Google Docs: The beauty of Google Docs is that you can collaborate with others in real time, access your documents from anywhere, and even publish them to your website. With Google Docs you can create spreadsheets, presentations, and collaborate on documents so you always have the most recent version online. Best of all it’s free to use!

Have your own domain name? Put it to use with Google Apps for Domains. All the best Google applications, plus you get to use your domain name in your email address so your business correspondence always looks professional.

• OpenOffice: Not ready for web-based applications? Open Office is an open-source full-fledged office suite that includes a word processor, spreadsheets, presentation package, and database. This powerful suite can be installed on as many computers as you’d like, and is absolutely free to use.

• Basecamp: Organization goes a long way in business, and this cost-effective web-based application is a great tool designed to help small businesses collaborate and stay on top of all its active projects. Basecamp features to-do lists, file sharing, milestones calendar, group chat, time tracker, message boards, and a concise project overview page to help your team get all their tasks done in time. iPhone users have the option to download various applications to keep them productive even when they’re on the road. Plans start at $24 a month, but there is a free 30-day trial if you’re curious.

• Freshbooks: This web-based service offers a slew of features to users looking for an invoicing program similar to QuickBooks. A free account lets you use an unlimited number of invoices for up to three clients (you can pay a premium if you want more), and allows you to insert your company logo on your invoices, mail out invoices, and track the time you spend on each project. Your clients can pay your directly online via one of the multiple payment sites, and best of all, it keeps track of any outstanding accounts for re-billing. Certainly a must have for anyone starting a new business.

• Constant Contact: Using newsletters to keep your customers engaged and informed is a must, and Constant Contact has some serious tools that allow you to create professional online surveys, newsletters, and invitations to events. You can also keep track of who’s reading your emails and clicking on your links in real time. Their plans start at $15 month, and go up based on the number of email address on your list.

• Free Conference: This free service offers your small business a convenient way to set up conference calls with clients, employees, and colleagues. Calls can be scheduled online from any Web browser for up to 150 callers. There is a 4-hour maximum time per call, and all participants receive an email with a dedicated dial-in number along with an access code.

• SlideShare: Wanna share that great PowerPoint deck or Word document with the world? SlideShare allows you to do just that by creating an embeddable Flash presentation you can post on your website or blog. Simply upload your docs, add audio, and wait for the Flash movie. Presentations can also be downloaded by users or shared via email with friends. It’s all very Web 2.0.

Got any other suggestions? Let us know which ones you use in the comments below. Hope this guide helps you save money this season.