Besides perhaps your website, a dedicated business phone number is probably the top way customers get in touch with the company for the first time or for repeat communications. Since your phone system likely gets such heavy use during a typical day, it’s important to consider upgrading it to a solution made for today’s fast-paced world. There are several perks associated with taking that approach, not to mention numerous types of technology to research.
Scalability is one of the top benefits of getting a new, better phone system for your company. Like most businesspeople, you’re probably hoping your establishment is continually profitable and doing everything in your power to make sure that’s the case.
Maybe your business is expanding at a rapid pace and it’s already clear your current phone system cannot cope with the increased levels of demand. When that happens, you and your customers may experience several technical difficulties that make it hard or impossible for you to provide the high quality of service as intended.
Even if your business is not actively growing, there’s a good chance it will in the future. By thinking ahead and planning for that time, you’ll be proactively doing something to reduce your stress and possibly cut costs, too.
Depending on how long it has been since you last upgraded the phone system, the existing equipment may be woefully lacking in terms of features. For example, you may not be able to see the name or even the phone number of the person on the other end before picking up the receiver and the setup might not allow for doing more seemingly basic things like logging call times and keeping records of overall volumes across certain time spans.
After talking with representatives about desired features for a new system, you may also discover it’s possible to get real-time, integrated monitoring abilities. In that case, it becomes much easier to ensure quality control and consistent customer experiences, as well as provide constructive feedback for your company’s telephone-based agents.
If the idea of upgrading to a new system from scratch makes you break into a cold sweat just thinking about the hassles doing so might cause for customers, don’t worry. Many reputable companies offer managed IT services so you can easily tap into measurable expertise about everything related to business telephone needs.
Depending on your circumstances and existing setup, you might be able to go with a hybrid VoIP phone system that converts analog signals into digital data and allows for a migration over to new technology that takes place across years rather than days, because it relies on equipment you already have. This option is also a good route to take if your budget does not allow for a complete communications overhaul.
After doing minimal research, you’ll realize you have choices to make when figuring out the ideal VoIP phone systems for small businesses based on your needs. For example, if picking a technology that resides in the cloud, phone numbers are not tied to single locations, which could be helpful if you have many remote workers who don’t often work in traditional office settings. On the other hand, an on-premise IP PBX system can handle thousands of users, making it a smart choice if you’re considering a major expansion or merger that could make your establishment much larger soon.
When employees have no choice but to endure using clunky, outdated phone systems, even the most dedicated among them may consistently lack productivity. If you’re perpetually frustrated because workers aren’t able to assist customers fast enough, the problem may be due to a phone system that frequently drops calls, makes it hard to hear people on the other line, or often fails when workers need to transfer calls to other departments.
Those are all problems that may occur with older phone systems. They could quickly cause employees to become disheartened and might even make them want to look for work elsewhere.
It should now be clear why there’s no reason to wait any longer before you at least see which options exist for capable business phone systems. The decision to do so could make a business stronger in anticipated and unexpected ways.