The first time someone explained the benefits of Hosted VoIP to me, I immediately thought, “this is the perfect solution for car dealerships!”
My grandfather, father, and brothers are all in the car business. (While I freely admit that I don’t know anything about cars, I do know a lot about the business.) Car dealers adopting a Hosted VoIP solution will dramatically improve the quality of their communication, phone leads, and customer relations. That’s why so many car dealers are switching to Hosted VoIP technology.
If you’re about to make the switch to Hosted VoIP, first I’d like to say congratulations! It will make your life easier and open new opportunities for your business. Second, I want to give you some advice. A lot of auto dealers overlook one important element when selecting a Hosted VoIP provider: overhead paging. Don’t make this mistake.
If overhead paging is part of your dealership culture and communication strategy, you must evaluate overhead paging integrations, costs, and features when selecting a Hosted VoIP provider.
The culture of overhead paging
Working as a part-time receptionist at a dealership, I quickly became comfortable with overhead paging. I can still hear my voice reverberating across the car lot:
“Dale Kranz, you have a call on line one. Dale Kranz, line one.”
For many dealerships, paging is a necessity because of their size. In addition to the actual building, dealerships include vast lots to display hundreds of vehicles. And the actual building can be overwhelmingly large too. It’s typical for dealership to have high ceilings and loud noises. Whether it’s the echoing chatter in the showroom or the deafening noise of equipment in the service bay and Body Shop.
So we get it: you need a functioning overhead paging system to break through the noise and space of your dealership. That’s why this is something you need to consider carefully as you’re selecting a Hosted VoIP provider for your dealership.
Overhead Paging integrations
You must consider how well a Hosted VoIP provider integrates with existing systems. If you don’t, it will prolong your installation process and cripple a primary communication tool. That may sound extreme, but integrating with existing overhead paging systems is difficult. In fact, the majority of Hosted VoIP companies struggle with overhead paging integrations.
“The difficulty in paging integrations is the amount of diversity you see in the equipment out there. Older equipment can also be tricky because admin manuals, at times, are hard to find, and the person who installed it is no longer working with the company.”
—Nick Nelson, Jive Field Engineer
Finding an expert
So what will make a Hosted VoIP provider prepared to integrate with your existing system? You need an experienced provider. Jive just happens to be one of those experienced providers.
Jive has worked with thousands of schools over the years. And if you just think about the schools your kids attend, (sadly) you wouldn’t be surprised if one of them had a paging system from the 70s, right? So by working with thousands schools across the country, we’ve really developed a skill integrating with just about any existing paging system you can think of.
“For many businesses, overhead paging is a mission-critical system that unfortunately is treated as an afterthought by many hosted providers today. Unlike these providers, Jive has invested heavily in this space to offer the breadth of available devices, the technical expertise, and the affordable pricing necessary to keep this vital system functioning smoothly. No other hosted provider has as complete an offering as Jive.”
—David Ninow, Jive Product Manager
And we’re not only adept at integrating with antiquated systems. Field Engineer, Nick Nelson, praises his fellow Jive engineers for also having great expertise to prepare or fix a network to work with newer systems using multicast methods. So whether you have a new or old system, Jive’s experienced engineers have your back.
Overhead paging costs
With a lot of Hosted VoIP providers, you need to read the fine print for costs. It’s common for many Hosted VoIP providers to put caps on features like voicemail boxes, dial plans, conference bridges, auto attendants, and paging.
With paging in particular, many Hosted VoIP providers tack on a monthly charge for each paging group, and in some cases charge for each integration they make to an intercom speaker, etc.
Unlike many of our competitors, Jive doesn’t limit the number of paging groups/realms or number of extensions assigned to a paging group. Our all-inclusive pricing means we don’t charge our customers for each paging group.
Overhead paging features
In addition to all the traditional Hosted VoIP features, switching your dealership to Hosted VoIP provides access to more capabilities and control with your overhead paging.
Here are some of the features Jive IP or hybrid paging can provide for your dealership:
- Multiple zone configurations throughout the dealership
- Utilizing the handset multicast paging along with overhead paging system
- Music streaming through paging system
- Individual speaker configuration for efficient workflow at the dealership
- HD voice quality
- Multiple hardware options available to fit a variety of use cases
A Jive solution for auto dealerships
So if you value your overhead paging system, find a Hosted VoIP company that can get the job done. Focus on integrations, pricing, and features.
Jive understands how vital paging can be to your dealership, and we’re one of the best providers out there for this dealership necessity. We’ll modernize your communications and keep your costs low. To learn more about a Jive solution for your auto dealership, watch our testimonial below.