Everything before voicemail
Ringing a second person, a third, a mobile: the rules that decide whether a call is answered at all.
Read about virtual systems
Akron, OH
Business VoIP in Akron, OH
330 and 234 cover northeast Ohio together and have for twenty five years, so the number takes a paragraph. The rest of this page is about voicemail, which almost every business here has, almost nobody reviews, and which quietly absorbs a good share of the calls that were supposed to turn into work.
Disclosure: AldoMedia is a paid affiliate of Unitel Voice. If you sign up through a link on this page we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend what we would set up for our own clients, and we say plainly below who should not buy this.
Two codes, one sprawl
330 was created in 1996 and covers a broad piece of northeast Ohio taking in Akron, Canton, Youngstown and Warren. 234 was laid over exactly the same ground in October 2000, so ten digit dialling has been ordinary for a long time and nothing printed since is incomplete.
Because the pair covers several distinct cities, the code tells a caller very little about which one you are in. That is worth knowing if you assume a local number is doing positioning work for you: within this region it is not, because everybody from four different cities holds the same two codes.
Port a 330 number if you hold one, take 234 if that is what is offered, and say which towns you actually serve rather than leaving the digits to imply it. Porting is on business phone numbers.
Voicemail is where work goes to die
Every business has voicemail and almost nobody chose it. It came with the line, it has been there for years, and the assumption underneath it is that a caller who cannot reach you will leave a message and wait. For a supplier relationship that is often true. For almost everything else it is not.
A caller comparing two or three firms does not leave a message, because leaving one means waiting for a stranger to decide when to call back. A customer with an urgent problem does not leave a message, because the problem is now. What a message actually indicates, most of the time, is a caller who already knows you and is willing to wait, which is the caller least at risk of going elsewhere.
So the useful reframing is this. Voicemail does not capture the calls you were going to lose. It captures the calls you were going to keep, and it gives you the comforting impression that missed calls are being handled.
The fix is not to abolish it, it is to demote it. Anything before voicemail is worth building: ring a second person, ring a third, ring a mobile, ring somebody at home. A call answered badly by the wrong person beats a message left perfectly, because a human being can at least say when somebody will ring back. Virtual phone system is what those rules are called.
Two smaller things, both cheap. Make messages arrive as email so they are visible without anybody dialling in, because the mailbox nobody checks is a genuine and common failure. And once a quarter, look at how many calls went to voicemail against how many were answered. Most providers will show you that, most businesses never look, and the number is usually higher than anybody expects.
None of which makes the service local
There is no Ohio phone product. It is software, it runs a long way from here, and the only thing your address decides is the three digits at the front of the number.
How it works and what it asks of your connection are on the main business VoIP guide. The rest of the state is on business VoIP in Ohio. The greeting in front of all this is on auto attendant and extensions.
Who gains here
The working economy here runs on polymers and materials, specialist manufacturing, healthcare, logistics, and a large trades and contracting sector across several adjoining cities.
The materials and manufacturing side has a version of the voicemail problem that is worth naming separately. Their callers are often technical, asking a specific question of a specific person, and a message describing a technical problem is usually an incomplete description of it. The answer that works is not a better mailbox, it is a colleague who can take the call and either answer or arrange the right callback with the right information.
The trades and contracting side has the blunter version: a stranger comparing firms who will not leave a message at all. For them the entire product is that somebody answers, and everything else on a feature list is decoration.
Who should not bother: one person, one phone, customers who already reach you. That is a monthly cost against a problem you do not have, and we would rather write it here than after you have signed. And if the connection into your building is unreliable, deal with that first, because voice is less forgiving than anything else you run over a line. VoIP vs landline is the honest case for keeping copper.
The decisions behind the number
None of these are about Akron. The first is everything that should happen before a call reaches a mailbox.
The greeting in front
Menus and extensions, and why a caller who already knows who they want should not hear options.
Read about auto attendantThe number itself
Keeping a 330 number you already hold, and what porting one between providers involves.
Read about business numbersWhether to switch at all
The honest case for keeping a copper line, which still applies to some buildings and connections.
Read VoIP vs landline
Common questions
Akron VoIP questions
Is there anything wrong with just using voicemail?
It is fine as a last resort and poor as a plan. The callers who leave messages are mostly the ones who already know you and would have waited anyway. The callers you are at risk of losing, somebody comparing firms or somebody with an urgent problem, generally do not leave one at all. So voicemail catches the calls you were going to keep and gives you the impression that missed calls are handled.
What should happen before a call reaches the mailbox?
Anything. Ring a second person, then a third, then a mobile, then somebody at home if that is realistic. A call answered awkwardly by the wrong colleague still beats a perfect message, because a person can say when somebody will call back and a mailbox cannot. Set those rules once and they run without anybody thinking about them.
How do we know how bad the problem is?
Ask your provider for the count of calls that went to voicemail against calls answered, and look at it once a quarter. Most services will show it and most businesses never look. The number is usually higher than people expect, and it is the only honest way to tell whether any of this is worth spending money on.
Find out how many go to voicemail
Tell us what happens to a call today when the first person does not pick up. If something sensible already happens before the mailbox, we will say so.