Faxes and Fax Forwarding

Chapter 6

The old method of having a solid, dedicated fax line is still very popular with traditional businesses.  You don’t want to tie up your voice lines when an important fax might be coming through. However, when you have a dedicated fax line - you are opening yourself up to those pesky mass or spam faxes. We’ve seen them and chances are you have to. Some criminally inclined companies use automated dialers to “troll” for fax lines.  When the line picks up - they recognize it as a fax machine and “boom” - your on the list!

• Ways to avoid this:
• Block numbers that come through as private or unknown.
• Use an extension that requires a human to send the fax.
• Use a Virtual Office set up which requires someone enter an extension to send a fax.

New methods of faxing are more available every day.  A lot of people simply send word processor documents or scanned files via e-mail.  The drawback to these methods are viruses - which are often cloaked as such files. You should never open a word processor document without having it scanned first. See “Protecting Privacy and Security”.

Another method is to rent a virtual fax number which receives your fax and stores it electronically.  Then you retrieve it later via internet or forward it somewhere.  Many companies offer a stand-alone service that does this.  However, it is more economical to get a full-featured virtual office system/service which includes this option.... read on...

• Finally, there are fax features used within Virtual Office Systems.  We’ll go over them here. One thing to keep in mind is that most of these features are “virtual” - in that they are not producing a hard copy right away. They are stored electronically as a file for retrieval at your convenience.
• Fax mail; a fax which is stored as a file on the host system (like an email server) and can be forwarded later via e-mail or directly to a fax machine to produce a paper copy.
• Fax messaging or distribution; literally the same idea as above - except that it refers to forwarding to multiple people. No need to send paper to everyone (which can be slow).  By sending it electronically and then letting them print it out - you save time on your end.
• Automated fax-back/fax-on-demand; this is great for sales (especially real estate and people who offer products or services to the general public).
• You use a fax machine to “upload” a fax to your virtual office system.  When a caller calls, they here the options (for example; “press 1 for sales, press 2 for service, press 3 to receive a fax,” etc..).  So, if they pressed “3”, the system would instruct them to leave their fax number and hang up.  Then, your virtual office system would call them back and deliver the fax to their fax machine. This is a landmark feature.  Imagine this: You are a realtor or other sales person. At the moment you are unavailable. The buyer really wants information on something (say a flyer or mls listing/description or product description for example). If you have the fax back/fax on demand - they get enough information to keep them interested and possibly satisfied.  Thus, you avoid losing a sale if they were only to have heard your voicemail or answering machine.
• E-mail fax message delivery; a fax has been sent to your virtual office system and is forwarded to you in your e-mail as a file. Again, the same principal as the first two.
• Dedicated fax; this is an option for people who still want a dedicated separate fax number - but want it to work with the virtual office system that they order in a monthly service.

As you can see, “virtual systems” and other “virtual” concepts are quickly gaining popularity.  The downside to “virtual” is that you must be vigilant about doing regular backups. While hard copy faxes and other tangible property usually doesn’t disappear, computer files sometimes do.  The upside is that you can reduce your amount of paper piles, file cabinets and become more efficient.  Think of the time saved by having faxes sent automatically and coming into your inbox!

Next, we discuss Chapter 7. Setting up a web site.  Relax, it’s become easier than ever... almost automatic!

 

[Home] [Getting Started] [Unified Messaging] [PBX/Key/Virtual Office] [The Power of Toll Free] [Office Phone Set Up] [Fax/Fax Forwarding] [Setting Up A Web Site] [Automated Selling] [Cellular/Wireless/Paging] [Protecting Privacy & Security] [Making Systems Pay You] [Provider Listings]

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