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Google Launches Cloud-Based Phone System for SMBs

By Andrew Martins, WriterMay 2, 2019 12:54 pm EST

Credit: Google CallJoy


 Google's CallJoy service launched yesterday on an invite-only basis.

 The system was created to give SMBs "access to the same customer service
options that have historically only been available to larger corporations."

 It handles multiple phone answering needs for $39 per month.

For a small business owner, communicating with your customers is a top priority. While
social media and other online channels are paramount, speaking over the telephone is
still a major point of interaction for SMBs and their customers.

To make phone interaction easier, Google announced a cloud-based, AI-driven service


yesterday to handle small business phone services for $39 per month, dubbed CallJoy.
In a blog post announcing the service's launch, CallJoy General Manager Bob Summers
said it was built to give small businesses "the same customer service options that have
historically only been available to larger corporations."
Prior to CallJoy's creation, Summers said, his team at Google's experimental
workshop Area 120 conducted a study and found most small businesses receive
approximately 13 calls each day. Considering there are approximately 30.2 million small
businesses in the U.S., the number jumps to about 400 million incoming calls from
potential customers. [Looking for a business phone system? Check out our best
picks and reviews.]

"High call volume can overwhelm any small business, especially when coupled with
peak call times and the ever-increasing monsoon of spam callers," Summers wrote.
"CallJoy helps small business owners offer better customer service, make more
informed business decisions and ultimately increase productivity."

Answering the call

To keep high call volumes from hampering productivity throughout the day, CallJoy
provides a sort of virtual customer service representative to handle calls.

Rather than someone answering common questions like a store's business hours over
the phone, CallJoy's virtual agent can provide that information through its integration
with Google My Business. Similarly, if the answer to a caller's question is available
online, the virtual agent can offer to send a text message with a link to the relevant
answer.

Along with the service's ability to answer queries, CallJoy includes a local phone
number – you can't port existing numbers – and allows users to set a custom greeting
for the AI to use. Once online, the service also immediately begins blocking spam calls.

Analyzing the conversation

While Google says this new service could make it easier for customers to get basic
information about a business, it claims the service will also give business owners a
better understanding of what their customers expect from them.

Whether the virtual assistant handles the entire call or an actual person picks up the
phone to finish a conversation, CallJoy will record and transcribe each call. Transcripts
are then stored in the cloud, where users can filter and tag conversations for future use.
It can also compile additional data – including call volume, call length, and the number
of new vs. repeat callers – and share it in a daily email update.

CallJoy is still in the invite-only phase, though small business owners in the U.S. can fill
out an application to receive more information when the service is available to more
users. Given Google's propensity for announcing new products and initiatives only to ax
them later, we'll see if this virtual answering service takes off.

Andrew Martins
Andrew Martins is an award-winning journalist with a Bachelor of Arts in
journalism from Ramapo College of New Jersey. Before joining Business.com
and Business News Daily, he wrote for a regional publication and served as the
managing editor for six weekly papers that spanned four counties. Currently, he
is responsible for reviewing tax software and online fax services. He is a New
Jersey native and a first-generation Portuguese American, and he has a
penchant for the nerdy.

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