As 2024 gets close to its conclusion, one of the behind-the-scenes technology shifts that we embarked on for TLC Creative Services has been the trifecta of “business” communication; telephone, fax, and a auto attendant that answers all incoming telephone calls. 

TELEPHONE 

We maintained our business phone number, but removed the desktop telephones – and really all telephones. A review of our phone usage over the past 5 years revealed we went from 1,000s of minutes of phone calls each month, both incoming and outgoing, to a pittance of use – under 50 minutes per month, and that is for the entire staff combined! 

Did our business volume decrease? No. Did clients stop calling and asking TLC Creative to assist with their design needs? No. On a business level, TLC Creative is as busy as any previous time. But business communication has shifted. Being a corporate entity for over 20 years allowed us to evaluate business volume and client communication. The information was clear, phone usage is out. Email, text and Teams/Zoom meetings are in. 

And we removed the ubiquitous Cisco & Yealink desktop phones. See the December 10, 2024 blog post “TLC Welcomes Teams Phone!”.  Our team now receives and makes phones calls through the Microsoft Teams app. 

 

FAX 

We cancelled the TLC Creative Services fax number after 20 years of being available. The fax machine had left years earlier as incoming faxes became PDF email attachments. All of this is something we had fun talking about in our December 5, 2024 blog post “So Long Fax Machine!”. Now I guess we need to update our business cards as they list the now defunct fax number… 

 

AUTO ATTENDANT 

The last item in our trifecta of business communication is that person who is the single point of contact answering calls, directing calls, or taking a message. The Microsoft Teams Telephone system has a pre-recorded “auto attendant” that answers each call and helps direct the call to information or someone’s extension. For the pre-recorded auto attendant greetings, we leveraged the Microsoft Clipchamp app. This video edit software has an amazing text-to-speech feature. No actual recording session or voice actor, it is now something our IT manager creates from a script document, loads into Clipchamp, exports the audio files, and programs the Microsoft Teams Phone auto attendant with! It is pretty amazing.  

TLC Creative is ready for 2025 design projects, new clients – and whatever the next trifecta of operations changes happens!