Business Phone Systems
Why would anyone want to sign up to phone system features that you don’t need on a platform that is worse than your existing system?
There is some panic and push in the market place to force businesses on to new VOIP cloud based phone systems.
Some business telephone companies are running around saying that when the NBN arrives to your street your current phone system won’t work so you must upgrade now. This is often a scare tactic to get you to spend up big and sign a crazy contract to a new deal with limited benefits.
We recommend to most businesses that they carry out detailed research and planning in this area. Taking advice from companies with a vested interest in their products, or who may be receiving kickbacks from specific phone system companies may not be the best solution for your business.
Our clients often turn to Evolved Sound about upgrading their phone system.
We aim to share some general tips and ideas to help you make the right decisions in this area.
General Phone System Advice & Considerations
When upgrading your business phone system here are some important considerations to take into account.
- Call quality should be equal or better to a traditional PSTN landline. Anything less is not business grade and is totally unacceptable. This means you should never put up with call drop outs, or packet loss – similar to that of a mobile phone with poor reception. These quality issues would have a negative impact on your business.
- The business phone system you choose needs to be scalable and future proof, easily adapting and adjusting as your business grows. It should not require expensive call-outs from technicians or huge capital expenditure every few years.
- Ensure that your new phone system supports the loading in of your own messages on hold recordings. Not only must this be supported, but it is essential that the playback sound quality is high. When callers are placed on hold it should be at a random point within your script each time and not from the beginning. This will ensure that callers (particularly repeat ones placed on hold) are not hearing the beginning of the recording each time which would be very repetitive.
- Ensure your new business phone system will work equally well if / when the new fastest broadband has replaced copper lines in your local area. All business grade VOIP systems and some current PBX system (with central hardware in your office) do support this.
- Evaluate your current phone system especially all the things you would like to do with your business phone system but presently can’t. A new phone system can do wonders for your business; everything from improving productivity with staff and customers to centralised communications and potential call savings.
Other capabilities of a new phone system include:
- Linking your phone system to your contact list for faster and more integrated dealing.
- Advanced call queues and paths.
- Special ring groups for different staff, divisions, functional areas.
An old dinosaur of a business phone system may be holding your business back severely, and a new one could be that well-earned boost your business needs.
Cloud Based Phone System Considerations
- Ensure that you have a backup plan that covers your business in the event of power failure and / or the internet going down. This can be achieved by having calls automatically divert to a spare PSTN line or mobile phone in the event of your primary internet-reliant system going down.
- If you want to connect multiple offices and / or enable staff to work from other locations or at home, a hosted VOIP system is generally the best and most seamless way to achieve such functionality. It can offer many advanced configurations that were previously only available to larger companies. These include the ability to have your office line and mobile phone ring simultaneously, which means you never have to worry about diverting. Open and closing times can be automatically set, diversions to voicemail are automatic and messages to voicemail can be instantly sent to your email if you wish. Other features include detail call statistics and reporting, IVR menus and the list goes on!
- Determine how important security, privacy and full control is for your business. A hosted VOIP phone system may make your business more vulnerable as other parties may be more privy to your call activity as you are relying on them for calls. This means you have less control of the situation, and your phone data is potentially less private.
Traditional PBX Phone System Considerations
(central control unit in your office where all your handsets connect into)
- Ensure that you have control over standard everyday adjustments without needing an expensive call-out from a technician each time. These include adding or removing voicemails and after-hours messages, programing diversions, closing time adjustments and general troubleshooting.
- Having the option to receive or make calls via Voice Over IP (internet) can be bonus. This can often provide the best of both worlds with a rock solid traditional system and ability to save on some calls to certain destinations.
- If you have a power or other outage in your office, consider an emergency fall back strategy whereby important business calls can instantly be switched over to a fall back phone number.
- Verify that you can connect an external device to play your on hold messages. This will ensure that playback quality is always excellent, and future updates by your on hold provider will be easy and fast.
Evolved Sound has years of experience working with just about every type of business phone system. We know what you should be looking for in the market place and we know how to keep it simple. If you are currently experiencing lower than preferred call quality, or feel you are missing out on important phone system features we recommend you attend to this sooner than later.