VoIP Phones Offer an Ideal Solution for Small Business Telecom

The role of an efficient phone system in successful businesses is often underrated. The fact that you have been using a traditional POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) for a number of years is not sufficient reason to continue to do so. Many of your customers make their first contact with you through a phone call. Long-standing customers also often call with new orders or inquiries. The impression they get from the way those calls are handled can make all the difference.

As a rule, the older your PBX (private branch exchange) phone system gets the less reliable it becomes, and the more expensive it becomes to maintain. Technological advances over the last few decades have brought web conference calls, automatic phone attendants, IP trunking and many other new phone services into regular use. These developments have raised call quality expectations. Even if your current phone system seems to be working well, if it cannot meet today’s expectations then you need to seriously consider changing it.

Hosted VoIP PBX

When you begin to investigate which type of phone systems have become popular with small businesses today, you are certain to hear about the hosted PBX, or hosted VoIP. In this system, the service provider hosts the phone system server. They route your firm’s calls and data over the public network to this server. The VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) term is used to describe how your analog voice signals are converted into digital signals for transmission over the web.

Access to the hosted system is sometimes offered for a monthly fee while your firm needs to buy the IP phones from the service provider or another supplier. Alternatively, this equipment can be rented, and a service package deal made. You are offered a certain amount of free calls, display of a single business number for all your outgoing calls, and other value-added telecom features. All of these services can be provided using your existing broadband connection.

The technology and method of operations are certainly interesting but business people are naturally primarily keen to found out what a hosted VoIP can offer their firm. The key point to absorb is how it allows small businesses access to communications features and productivity-enhancing tools previously only available in large business phone systems.

So how exactly does a hosted IP solution change the face of your business telecom?

How Hosted VoIP Improves your Phone Service Experience

The hosted VoIP call experience improves your phone systems efficiency and cuts the costs in a number of ways. Here are just a few of the highlights.

Improves your Business Image

Better handling of customer calls strengthens the loyalty of existing customers and makes potential new customers more likely to beyond actual ones. They are encouraged to call with features such as toll-free and virtual numbers. Quality audio and video conferring provides a highly efficient and convenient way of conducting business with them over a distance. Options of this kind also help convey the impression that the customer is dealing with a well-established, reputable firm.

Unified Phone System

Hosted VoIP boosts business efficiency through its support for mobile business communications. Allowing employees to handle business communications from distant locations is a big plus for customers as well as a bonus for your employees. They can receive calls at home, or in a hotel as if they were seated at their office desks. When the customer needs to speak to a certain employee, they don’t have to wait for him or her to get to the office. The Automatic Attendant feature also makes it much easier for customers to contact whoever they need to speak to.

Major Cost Savings

Savings in phone system costs are understandably particularly important to small businesses operating on tight budgets. These savings are achieved in several ways. First of all, hosted VoIP PBX saves the firm the cost of capital investment in new PBX equipment, and the ongoing expenses of maintaining and upgrading this equipment; all of these expenses are assumed by the service provider. Call charges are also very competitive with attractive unlimited local and international calls plans available.

Ensuring Communications Continuity

We take the availability of telecom services for granted but recent events show that businesses, in particular, cannot afford to ignore the risks. Hurricanes, floods and other kinds of disasters cannot be prevented but if you have hosted VoIP PBX your data can be saved and communications with customers maintained. There is no physical PBX equipment on your premises that can be damaged by flooding, fire, etc. The hosted service provider can easily direct your calls over another broadband network if problems occur with your regular network.

Finding out More About Hosted VoIP PBX

There is a great deal of information available online and through other resources, but if your expertise is not in telecom the choices can be bewildering. One of the major advantages of hosted systems is the ease with which they can be customized to individual business needs, but to identify the best system for your business demands professional knowledge. We have built up such knowledge in the course of many years of experience in this industry.

We would be happy to let you benefit from our extensive experience helping firms find hosted phone system solution precisely attuned to their needs.