While we seemingly have an innumerable number of ways to communicate with clients, prospects, and vendors these days, business phone systems still play a vital role in the modern workplace. Not only are professional-grade telephone systems useful, but they also help our brand image by making a company seem more reputable. However, many businesses have ditched traditional landline telephones for a more viable alternative: Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). They made the switch to VoIP for a number of reasons, including lower prices, more features, and greater scalability.
While turning to VoIP is a wise decision, choosing a provider and package can be difficult, with so many options available to us today. So before making the leap to VoIP, there are several things for you to keep in mind to ensure you make the right decision.
To start, take some time to list all of the features you require from a phone system before you begin shopping. VoIP offers a great deal of valuable collaboration tools, but depending on providers, some of them might be add-ons that will cost more money. So be sure to identify all of the features you need to do business efficiently to prepare yourself to find a package that suits your needs while remaining cost-effective.
If your business is like most, your employees are on the go, relying on mobility to optimize productivity. That means often working from a mobile device. Therefore, it’s essential that your VoIP service offers a robust, feature-filled mobile app that allows them to communicate efficiently when they’re away from their desktop. Don’t ignore each provider’s mobile app and its capabilities.
For your business to operate without skipping a beat, your VoIP solution must play nicely with others; as in other applications you currently utilize. Choose a system that supports a healthy amount of third-party integrations, whether it’s cloud storage such as Dropbox or Google Drive, or customer relationship management (CRM) support such as Salesforce or HubSpot CRM. If you are interested in building your own custom application programming interfaces (APIs) to integrate with your phone package, be sure to find a provider that can affordably accommodate that for you as well.
Last but certainly not least, you need to find a VoIP solution that is secure. Security should always be a priority for your business communications. With VoIP utilizing the internet to transmit your data, this must be done as securely as possible. Your VoIP provider should offer strong end-to-end encryption, as well as advanced security features such as multi-factor authentication.
Trading in your landline business phone system for a VoIP solution is a wise decision for small- and medium-sized businesses. But like anything else, you need to do your homework first to ensure you choose the right system for your company.