Phone System Tips for Starting Businesses

Starting a business is indeed a daunting task; you have to start from the ground up working on every elements of the business. It takes time and a lot of resources before you can be fully operational. However this doesn’t mean that you should stop in pursuing your goals. A business is both rewarding financially and emotionally once you’ve established it.

One important aspect that you need to take a little more time in deciding is choosing a phone system that will suit your business. These days two options are prevalent, the traditional PBX and a cloud PBX either of the two can be beneficial but only you can tell what will suit your needs best. Whichever of the two phone systems you choose there are features and functionality that are a must have in both solutions.

Telephone number – Obviously you need a number for your customers to call you at. However having a plain number might not always do the job. For businesses that need national presence it is advisable to acquire a 1300 number or a 1800 number. These are also termed as a toll free hotline that helps in extending your national presence. It works like a collect call service so callers need not to pay anything when you phoning your business thus removing cost barrier.

IVR – Whether you want to use it for your professional greeting message, on hold messages, menu system or out hour’s mode one way or the other an IVR or interactive voice response will come really handy. It will lessen the work load of your staff whilst improving your caller’s experience.

Multiple phone lines – For home use one line is enough to handle all phone calls however home and business are two different things. You need multiple lines or channels to handle simultaneous phoning. On average a telephone system with 5 handsets will require at least 2 lines for incoming and at least another two for outgoing not unless your service provider offers unlimited outgoing channels.

Call transfer and call forwarding – It is also essential for a phone system to transfer calls between extensions and to an external number like a mobile or a land line. The same way an automatic forwarding account is also helpful especially during holidays and as a fail-over mechanism.

Business PBX have tons of features available be sure to discuss it with your service provider and identify what features will be helpful in providing your products and services.