Want New Phone Systems for Small Business? Think About This First!
February 9, 2016
Category: Info Articles
The phone industry really has changed in the last 20 years. Companies are moving away from buying phone equipment and moving to paying for phones as a service. Here are some things to consider when you make your decision.
PHONE EQUIPMENT
For many, the practice was to buy a physical phone systems for small business. You would buy the phones, the voicemail, the expansion slots to support the phone lines and the phones on the desk. You would also buy the processor for the system that would do all the routing and “thinking.” The problem with this is, shortly after paying all this money the equipment would become outdated (like a cheap car). It would lose its value and it would not be able to keep up with the new features coming out on newer systems.
Many tried ordering a small business IP phone system and then taking the “DIY” method for programming or installation. Without the expertise, those companies would find this process frustrating or worse, it would end up costing their company money from missed calls, downtime, improper call routing and more. Plus, buying phone equipment that sits in your office means no redundancy. If any piece of the system fails the whole system is probably disabled. To make matters worse, if the connection from the phone company had a problem (and that never happens right) you are waiting for a repair team to fix your problem with no way to support your customers.
PHONE AS A SERVICE
The big trend now is what is commonly called “hosted voice.” This means that the only equipment in your office are the physical phones and usually some sort of gateway commonly called an “integrated access device.” This solution really does make it simpler for your business. It offers the additional benefit or redundancy. These “brains” for a hosted voice solution usually sits in a highly redundant and highly available data center, where the chance of a failure is a percentile fraction of what others have with typical equipment and services. Hosted voice also provides redundancy. When your internet connection fails, Your customers, can still get to an auto attendant, they can still dial by extension and you can set up the system to allow calls to route to cell phones (or other lines) and if your employees do not answer, the data center voicemail will take the message and then provide the message as a WAV file in your employee’s email in box.
A WORD OF CAUTION
Hosted voice is like Ice cream, it has dozens of variations or “flavors.” Each one has subtle differences that can be very important to your company depending on your industry. Call quality is the most important point to discuss and each solution handles it differently.
NOW TAKE ACTION!
Does this sound like your business? Does your call quality damage your company reputation? Do you have a question about your current system and how to handle it? Are you tired of sitting on hold waiting for someone to answer your questions and answering them in plain English that makes sense? Give us a call and set up your time to meet. We can answer your questions, we can solve your problems.
