Top Reasons to Change your Office Telephone System

We all know that communication is vital for any business to succeed and that it is a must to acquire a reliable and good quality office telephone system. However the reality is many businesses are stuck with horrible phone system that hinders growth and development. Below are the top reasons why businesses need to change their phone system.

Downtime – So you probably are tired of having to pick up the extension cannot make a phone call. Occasionally it’s fine because there is no such thing as 100% but frequent downtime is unacceptable. Remember you are running a business and spending hundreds of dollars if not thousands to generate sales lead and have people call you. Missing out a single phone call may mean losing thousands of dollars.

Customer support – Like mentioned above no solution is 100% there will be instances that you will face problems at a reasonable frequency. However, what matters most is the quality of customer support mechanism that an office telephone provider gives. You should be able to pick up the phone call them and ask for assistance in virtually any issue big or small. Bear in mind that a true solution entails all aspects and not just cost effectiveness.

Insufficient capacity – If your office telephone system is no longer giving you enough capacity to handle all your calls and upgrading it will cost a fortune then it is better that you replace it with a solution that is flexible enough. This will allow you to scale your phones up and down to ensure that you have enough capacity every time. This will also allow you to development your communication platforms without spending a fortune.

Expensive dial rates and line rentals – tired of paying a ridiculously priced line rental and call charges? Then maybe it is time to replace your telephone system. You can ask for a bill analysis with a service provider you’re looking to sign up with and see firsthand how much saving you can expect. You might also want to look into new solutions such as VoIP because on average the technology can save you by as much as 50% on call charges. The savings will push even further the more calls you make.

Value for money – if you feel like you are not getting the level of service for the money you’re paying then it is a strong factor to consider. Every business needs a solution that offers great value for money regardless of whether it is for communication or not.

Top 5 Tips to Maximize your Office Telephone System

An office telephone system is a very powerful tool that can literally make or break a business. Thus many businesses are spending serious money to secure a reliable and high quality phone system. So it is just a must that you maximize the capabilities of your phones to further push your communication system to its full potential and in time help in securing a pipeline of customers.

Here are 5 tips how you can maximize your office telephone system

1 . Automated booking system – businesses that involves reservation, booking or unmanned order can highly benefit from an automated office telephone booking system. This will allow save your staffs time, involve customers in the actual sales process and avoid human error during this delicate task. An automated office telephone booking system will also give a high tech and professional feel to your business that is perfect is today’s competitive market.

2. Integrating multiple business and offices – Quite a lot of entrepreneurs are running multiple businesses at one time but this doesn’t mean that you need to acquire a separate phone system for each business. There are communication platforms in the market today that enable integration of multiple enterprises in a single PBX making it cost effective and more efficient especially if you are a sole trader. The same way multiple offices or branches can have a dedicated number but  run under a single PBX, this means that you will be saving money on monthly bills across offices and maximize your investment on phones.

3. Custom on hold messages – You can also play customized messages while the call is on queue. This will allow you to hit two birds with one stone, firstly entertaining your customers to help keep their cool; secondly it can be an up sell opportunity if you will slide a bit of marketing in your messages. Perhaps some information about your new products, promos or a bundle offers.

4. CRM integration – A volume leads can be troublesome to manage luckily there are a bunch of software such as a CRM that will assist you to manage all your leads and file it in a central place. You can further maximize this software and your phone system by integrating the two together. This will help you manage your leads even better and make your staff’s life easier.

5. Data integration – Want a central system for all your communication channels? Then choose a phone system that enables voice and data integration. Mainly protocols such as a SIP trunk enable integration amongst all kinds of information so you will have a central place for everything and reduce your infrastructure cost.

Ideal Office Telephone System for Small Businesses

Telephones have been revolutionary since its inception; it has paved way for better communication among family members, friends and loved ones. The same way telephones revolutionized the way we do business. Before you have to go to a shop to inquire and to place an order but today almost everything can be done through phone. It has helped businesses expand their reach and service larger areas for better sales opportunities. For the past decade or so acquiring a good office telephone has been a must for all businesses big or small and no one ever doubt the pivotal role that it’s playing.

Having a good and reliable office telephone can also help small businesses tackle on the big boys. By having an effective communication stream you can show customers that your business it worthwhile and can be better compared to the big names in your industry. An office telephone can also streamline your internal processes for better efficiency and overall performance.  However the big question is not how important it is but what is the ideal telephone system for small enterprises. Below are some of qualities that you should be looking for.

Cost and Quality – An office telephone system should be cost effective whilst not lagging on quality. The most expensive system might not be the best out there and the cheapest might not be the most cost effective one either. The main idea is getting the best value for money dollar per dollar. Choose an office telephone that will give suffice all your needs with good quality whilst keeping the cost at a reasonable level. This can be a little tricky because determining the quality may be hard and you couldn’t actually tell unless you sign up with a provider. The key is finding as much information about the provider as you can and this will give you an idea of the quality of service they provide.

Your requirements – Obviously a solution won’t be a solution if it doesn’t fit your requirements. An ideal office telephone system should be able to provide all your current needs and possible needs in the future. This means that you a need a solution flexible enough so you can modify it later on as your business progress. In other words it should be able to grow with you without overhauling it.

The provider – The service provider will play a big role, they should have good customer support mechanism in place and good up time otherwise everything will be futile. Remember you should always be able to pick up the phone and call your provider to ask for upgrades, maintenance and any concern that you might have so it will be worthy to be called an ideal telephone system.

Things to Consider in Choosing an Office Telephone System

Many would think that a phone is a phone no matter and it will always do the job for you. Well that may be true if you are just looking for a residential solution. However businesses need more than just the ability to make and receive phone call. It should let businesses improve their communication stream and assist in tendering products and services.

Choosing an office telephone system is very important and business owners should be very careful and meticulous in every aspect of the solution you’re looking at. Below is a list of the things you need to consider before in an office telephone system.

Cost – Blatantly one of the most important factors is the cost. Choose a system that affordable but not cheap and the system that will give you the most value out of your business money. Initial cost often burdens businesses because of the big bucks involved however, did you know that there are service providers out there that allow you to loan the handsets? This model is ideal for businesses that are running on a budget but desperately need a phone system as soon as possible.

Dial rates – Another factor that still involves money is the dial rates, it is obvious that all enterprise owners want to have the best dial rates. Most of the time it is a battle against capped calling plans, which means you only need to pay for a certain amount for unlimited calling and pay plans. Both plans are great but are indicated for different needs. If you are sure that you will be doing tons of calls then obviously capped plans will be better for you but if you are just an average use then paying just for the actual calls that you make is better.

Features – To be called a PBX it just a must to have tons of features built onto it, features that will help you assist in streamlining your internal and external business processes. There are service providers out there that offer almost all their PBX features at no additional cost whilst other charge even for the very basic one such as a caller ID so you need to be careful in choosing a provider as it will play a vital role in your overhead cost.

Reliability and quality – lastly you need a phone system that will ring whenever a call comes through and ensure that your call is of good quality. Choose a provider that can vouch for their quality, reliability and customer support mechanism. You can also gauge these aspects by logging in to forums and getting feedback from real users and real customers.

Office Telephone - Managing your Phone System Capacity

A true blue phone system solution is not only comprised of good features and cost effectiveness. You also need to look into the capacity of your phones. Nobody wants to end up paying thousands of dollars on marketing your business just to find out that your potential customers get the engage tone every time they call your business.

It is a must for an office telephone solution to offer the right capacity to handle your expected number of calls and still be able to accommodate outbound phoning. So before you go ahead and acquire an office telephone solution it is best that you estimate the number of simultaneous phone calls you expect to receive and the actual number of serviceable customers at any given time. Why? Because you will need this information in deciding how many channels you need to acquire for your number, the more channels the more simultaneous calls it can handle but it also means that you need to pay more for line rentals.

As a starting business it is a must to minimize every cost as possible and save as much as business money as you can. Paying line rentals that is not needed will be a complete waste of money whilst having less is no good either because you won’t be able to grab sales opportunities so having just the right amount of channels or phone system capacity is as important as the whole telephones itself.

However, at this point you might be wondering how you can tell the number of calls your business will receive at any given time. Well for starters you cannot, all you can do is estimate it. So it is a must that you choose a service provider that generates and provide call accounting reports on a monthly basis to determine whether your current capacity is enough and not and make an informed decision whether to add more channels or not.

Lastly, apart from price range and quality of the system you also need to put flexibility on top of your list when choosing your service provider. 3 channels may be enough for you this month or the next but who knows you might need less or you might need more in a few months time. Choose a provider that will allow you to scale your phone system up or down depending n your requirements without any set up and or upgrades needed. This will allow you to manage your capacity that will help in propelling your business towards success.