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DelmarvaVOIP – Turning phone calls into cash

Internet-based service uses valuable commodity
April 1, 2013

The internet touches nearly everything in our daily lives. Shopping, making reservations, emailing watching movies and listening to music over the net are ordinary.

But most internet users don’t know a telephone communication technology called voice over internet protocol, commonly known as VOIP, is often working in the background.

When used by businesses, VOIP cuts the connection to conventional telephone service and opens a pipeline for both voice communication and a means to collect today’s hottest item – data.

“We’re taking the data that normally no one pays attention to, and we’re converting that into information a business can use to make money and save money,” says Jack Berberian, president and cofounder of DelmarvaVOIP, a Lewes-based company started last year.

One of its business-to-business services is an analysis of a company’s workflow, looking at marketing and advertising methods, number of employees, costs for telephone service and other characteristics.

“We’ll try to obtain as much information as we can about the business. Depending on what we’re there for, we’ll propose a solution that will save them time and money and give them a completely new perspective on how they can make money from their phones,” Berberian said.

He said a conventional telephone is a device the user picks up, says hello, has a conversation and hangs up. “What you remember or what you write down from that conversation is where the revenue generation from that call ends,” Berberian said.

Delmarva VOIP’s telephones and software provide customers a system that can be customized in dozens of ways. The system eliminates missed calls, busy signals and lengthy holds and also provide data that will boost a company’s bottom line.

“We’re able to incorporate all these things into the phone and into the software, which is really what differentiates us from anybody else. We’re able to take the software and wrap it around the business,” Berberian said.

Many companies spend a lot of money on advertising and marketing, he said, printing postcards and coupons, buying space on billboards, in magazines and newspapers, and time on television and radio.

“If I’m spending $10,000 a month on coupon advertising or $10,000 a month on billboard advertising, how do I know it’s effective?” he said. Some companies measure efficacy using a spike or peak in sales. Others have employees ask customers how they heard about the business.

“You’re relying on those individuals to ask those questions, and as the day gets busier they just don’t ask,” Berberian said.

One way DelmarvaVOIP gets data is by giving clients a custom phone number to use on billboards, postcards, newspapers, radio spots or any type of advertising. Calls to the custom number seamlessly tie into whichever existing telephone numbers or company telephone systems the client desires.

“Then we’ll give them a report that says based on the advertising you did on this billboard, you received 700 phone calls. We can tell them how long that person was on the phone, the zip code and area they were calling from, how long they were on hold or if they called back repetitively,” Berberian said.

Unlike conventional telephone company charges, he said, VOIP custom phone numbers are inexpensive.

“There’s no line to set up, no long-distance program or 15 other fees they charge, and typically it’s about $40 to $60 per phone number. Our solution costs a fraction of that. It’s $2 a line per month,” Berberian said.

Clients may continue to use seamless, custom phone number tie-ins as long as desired.

Andrew Laroche, DelmarvaVOIP cofounder, said the system’s ability to automatically expand and contract makes sense for seasonal businesses.

“If you have a busy season it can automatically add more phone lines so your customer is not getting busy signals,” he said.

When call volume is heavy for a few months, clients pay slightly more, and when call volume decreases so do charges.

“With traditional phone services they have to buy and retain those lines for the entire year,” Laroche said.

Berberian said Delmarva VOIP’s clients operate large businesses such as franchise restaurants and real estate offices, and small businesses such as a one-person plumbing company or a retail shop.

“The power of VOIP increases tenfold for businesses that have one or more locations. The more locations they have the more revenue they save. The more unified their system becomes, the more we can tie their team together through a network of software and hardware,” Berberian said.

The company also offers residential VOIP and computer services including network installations, hardware setup, data recovery, diagnostics and repair.

DelmarvaVOIP is at 1143 Savannah Road, Lewes, second floor, suite 2. For additional information, call 302-703-9717 or go to www.delmarvavoip.com.

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