Nursery Manager

Time-management, record-keeping and cutting down paperwork.

Time-management, record-keeping and cutting down paperwork.

Those (along with free anytime calls, of course), are why Suvir Rai uses Vonage for her business.

Suvir, 34, is the owner-manager of a pre-school and nursery in Hounslow, Middlesex, with six members of staff. So she's glad of anything that makes life easier.

She already had Vonage at home, so didn't hesitate to get it for work, too (on a Virgin broadband connection). It helps her run her business in several ways.

• Phoning abroad. Suvir is on V-Plan 2, which means she can make unlimited¹ calls to America and Canada (including mobiles). As with all Vonage call plans, the international rates for countries not included are extremely competitive (it costs Suvir just 5p a minutes to call India, for example). So Suvir doesn't hesitate to pick up the phone to call abroad if she needs to. "Many of the children go abroad for holidays," she explains. "If they're delayed for any reason, I can immediately find out when to expect them."
• Updating clients. "If parents don't have time to see me in person, I will phone them to discuss their child's progress." Those calls may last a good half hour or more. "Also, if we go on an outing, parents sometimes call the nursery to find out what time we'll be back. So I use the free Call Forwarding feature to route calls to my mobile."
• Record-keeping. "I've spent ages trying to sort things out with the Inland Revenue," says Suvir. "If I leave a message with anyone, and they deny it, I can simply print off a record of the call. It's so helpful."
• Cutting down on paperwork. "I hate filing," says Suvir. "With Vonage, I just file my on-line records straight onto the computer."
• Time-management. Suvir makes good use of the Caller Display feature. "If I'm incredibly busy, I can see who is trying to get hold of me," she explains. "If it's a parent, I'll always answer. If it's not, I may leave it until I'm not so busy."