TLC Creative has had its company phone number for over 20 years and that phone number has been with half-a-dozen phone companies during that time. For the past 6 years everyone at TLC had a corporate phone on their desk with their own extension. 

Looking at our phone call usage over the past few years, we went from 1,000s of minutes of phone calls each month to under 50 minutes of monthly calls. Yet the amount of our communication hasn’t changed…it now happens over Teams meetings, chat, email and yes, some phone calls.

So, after much planning, testing, and discussion, TLC Creative Services has ditched our desk phones and has gone virtual! The same TLC company phone number is active and when someone calls, the auto-attendant answers and routes the call, or provides information (such as our website, or how to email the team). The big change is now everyone makes and receives phone calls either through their computer using the Microsoft Teams app, 

or on their mobile phone, through the Teams app there.

Receiving voicemails, transferring calls, and all the other “telephone” features are there, just accessed through an app, not a physical telephone. 

For everyone here at TLC, it has been an easy transition to “virtual” phones, especially because we are constantly on Teams “calls” with each other and clients. Transitioning to using Teams as a traditional telephone is just a different tab in the same app we have all become familiar with. We just don’t have that many phone calls which I am certain is a major business trend; companies have fewer traditional telephone conversations, and rather, are communicating more over email, text, and virtual calls (e.g. Teams/Zoom meetings). 

And yes, the accounting department is happy. The overall budget line item for the company phone system is lower, even with more staff and extensions. The one feature we are anxiously awaiting is SMS, or text messaging, integration into the Microsoft Teams phone system. 

Side note: see our December 5 post “So Long Fax Machine!”, which was another big communication change implemented here at TLC Creative Services this year. 

-Troy @ TLC

I have an unusual announcement to make. It’s quite novel, really. And yet I can’t imagine anyone scrambling for a sticky note so they can jot this down, but here it goes: 

TLC Creative Services will no longer support fax communications. 

If anyone (and I mean ANYONE) feels they will be impacted by our decision to discontinue our fax number, please reach out to me (Lori)!  

Actually, there is one person who has faxed us consistently over the years. There is a company selling refurbished supply vans. We get the same fax twice a year. It’s a black and white fax featuring clip art images of vans and lots and lots of text. Hmmm…I might have some insight as to why they’re having a hard time selling those vans! 

I do, however, remember a time when we utterly relied on a fax machine, mostly for design proof approvals. Back in the (cough, cough, two-thousands, cough…) we relied on couriers to send proofs back and forth to clients for approvals. Federal Express was the go-to, but we also used local couriers…a lot. Yes, we had fax machines then, but a black and white thermograph piece of paper didn’t give an accurate proof. Did you know there was a very short period in the technology timeline when there were color fax machines?! And yes, TLC Creative had one. However, the dawn of the color fax machine, though expensive to use at the time, cut down on those courier expenses dramatically. And now, almost all proofs are sent digitally via email, efax, or some sort of download link. Ah how far we’ve come! 

While we haven’t had a physical fax machine connected for many (many) years, we still bid adieu to the fax. Your technology was much appreciated and will (not) be missed.  

-Lori 🙂