In less than 7 years, BT will begin with its plan to shut down existing public switched telephone network (PSTN) and transition to all calls being made using VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol, or Cloud phone) systems. If your business is still using a landline service, now is the time to make the switch to a Cloud-based phone system.
Switching to a VoIP solution today can have immediate benefits to your business.
1. Save Money – If you’re using landlines in your business, you’re probably familiar with the extortionate costs involved – equipment, software installation and ongoing maintenance fees. A hosted VoIP system removes all these costs by transferring your business telecoms over to the Cloud.
Moreover, employee productivity massively increases due to the flexibility of the system. Teams can work from a variety of locations by having calls diverted to a mobile, home phone, or simply by taking the handset with them and plugging it into an internet connection, wherever they are in the world.
In addition, your business will already be paying for an internet connection. Cloud-based phone systems take advantage of your existing connection, meaning you don’t need to keep paying for a separate dedicated phone line.
Lastly, call rates are also significantly less expensive when compared to a traditional phone line.
2. Flexibility and Scalability - When you're using traditional phone service, adding additional phone lines isn't always easy, often involving lengthy time spent scheduling and waiting for an engineer to install handsets and waiting long periods of time before the changes can happen.
VoIP allows you to add phone lines easily within minutes, using just the handset and the ability to perform a few clicks. The flexibility and scalability of VoIP is ideal for businesses with seasonal fluctuations in staffing or companies experiencing rapid growth.
3. Add-on Features - Hosted VoIP is flexible and can scale to your business’s needs. Start-ups may need a minimum of features to get started as cost-efficiently as possible, while larger, well-established enterprises may be looking to unlock the most features possible for more integrated communications.
VoIP offers all the features of a traditional phone line and more, allowing you to quickly tailor features to your needs. Popular add-ons include:
- Data Integration: Voicemail-to-email transcription
- Automated Call Distribution: For contact centres or high call volume needs
- Interactive Voice Recognition: Smarter call routing powered by intelligence built into the system
- Remote Management: Web-based administration for adding phone lines
- Video and teleconferencing
4. Contact Center Benefits - Hosted VoIP is primed for the needs of contact centres of any size - from a small handful of customer service representatives to hundreds of agents operating 24/7.
With a hosted VoIP solution, benefits include:
- Unified Communications (UC) - allows your reps to communicate with customers via phone, chat, email, and more.
- Reporting and monitoring - easy access to the metrics and oversight needed to make smarter staffing and training decisions.
- Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR) - throw away old-school push-button phone trees and route calls to exactly the right department.
- Smarter call routing - VoIP allows you to relay calls received according to CSR training, skill level, and other factors.
While VoIP still has many myths surrounding it, today’s Cloud-based telephony is a well-established platform for business communications and is quickly becoming the norm for businesses of all sizes.
It is important that small businesses embrace the changing technologies such as Cloud phones and take advantage of all the benefits and features that they offer. You and your business can rest assured that a hosted VoIP solution means better cost savings, reliability and productivity.
As a leading provider of Hosted VoIP and business communications tools, Syscomm offers complimentary, pressure-free consultations. Contact one of our expert representatives today to learn how you can benefit from switching away from plain-old-telephones.
Call us on 0247 771 2000 or email us on [email protected]
