6 Must Have Phone System Features

Business phone systems are designed to make lives easier, more convenient and rendering your service more effectively by phone. There are quite a lot of features that is available today especially with the birth of the innovative cloud PBX systems that offers better feature flexibility. However not all phone system feature is applicable to every business but there are a handful of must have that will assist you in streamlining your day to day operations.

Greeting messages – Every business big or small needs a professional phone system greeting message. It will help your business appear polite, trustworthy and an established company in your niche. Additionally, having such feature will make your attendant’s work easier and avoid repetitive loads such as greeting callers again and again.

Direct extensions – All phone systems need to allocate a dedicated extension number to every phone linked to the PBX. This will allow your callers to directly call the concerned person without having to wait on queue or be transferred back and forth.

Call forwarding – it is a must for any phone system to have a call forwarding option that is set up to transfer the call automatically to a mobile or to another extension when the called party doesn’t pick up and an override access that lets you punch a code to transfer the call when you out of the office, on holidays or for some reason you cannot pick your extension.

Call conferencing – Another is a conferencing feature; it need not be a conference room or something fancy. A three way conference is often enough for any business to execute operations unless you are running a business that requires multiple people in a single phone call.

Advance call queue system – Any business avoids putting the customer on a queue however in reality it is unavoidable especially during peak hours. What you can then do is to improve the quality of your queue system. You can set it up to inform the caller about their place on queue and the estimated time a representative will be able to take their call.

Dedicated voice mail box – Last but not the least is a dedicated message bank. Every extension must have their own message bank to avoid confusion and to facilitate better service to your customers by your representatives.

Other PBX features such as menu system, messages on hold and call screening are also helpful in improve the quality of service that you provide. However the six mentioned above are the universal or somewhat generic features that will assist any business in any niche to improve their services without stomping into any considerations that a business might have.

Identifying the Best Phone System for your Business

Choosing a phone system that suits your business can be tricky; you need to take even the smallest detail into consideration to ensure that you will have the best communication system possible. The key is to identify your needs first before heading out to look for a solution.

Your needs

The first step in acquiring a good phone system is to identify your needs. Ask yourself the following questions below and jot it down a clean paper. Scribble it a couple of times before finalizing your requirements.

Handsets – One of the most important requirements is the number of extension that you need because it will often dictate how many handsets you need. However it is not just the number of handsets that is important, various models have various feature. Count the handsets according to the function. If you need a reception style desk phone, a regular desk phone and a wireless unit tabulate it in a separate line item.

Lines or channels – Another phone system component is the number of lines. The number of phone lines or channels will dictate how many simultaneous calls your business phone system can handle. Getting the right number can be a little tricky but you want to get as close as possible to your needs. Make a summary of your call logs with your old PBX and from there you can get average on how many channels you need. For new businesses wherein base line data is not available it is advisable to acquire a couple of more channels than you expect to ensure proper capacity.

Features – You also need to decide what features you like on your phone system whether you need a greeting message, an automatic attendant, a menu system and other PBX features. List down all the possible features and phone set up that you need and keep it handy as your reference.

Telephone numbers – Another essential component of any phone platform is the number. If you have an existing one then most likely it is best to move that number from your existing carrier to your new one or if you need a new number then you need to decide whether you need a regular landline, a 1300 or an 1800. With you will be using Hosted PBX systems then you can even acquire a virtual number from any location giving you local presence that you need. 

Phone system types

After getting your requirements right then the next step is to identify what kind of phone system is best for you. Today there are two types to choose from. Firstly the conventional on premise PBX and secondly is the newer hosted PBX that sits in the cloud. Both phone systems have their own pros and cons, at the end of the day it is your business so only you can tell which if the two best suits you.

On premise PBX

This type of phone system is well established and business grade quality can be expected however the downside of the system is the cost and maintenance. Call rates are significantly higher because it still uses traditional means of transmission and PBX hardware may need regular maintenance to keep it running smoothly.

Hosted PBX

On the other hand hosted PBX systems are cheaper to deploy, maintain and use. On average businesses can save 50% with the system but like the latter it also has downside, being a VoIP solution it is directly dependent on the quality of your internet connection. If you are able to secure a good connection then there is no problem but if it is hard to secure one in your area then the solution might not be for you.

Phone System – Multiple Overseas Offices

Do want a phone system that will let you integrate all your offices under one communication platform? With a cloud PBX it is possible to have one phone system for all your offices regardless of whether your offices are located next door, interstate or overseas.

A cloud PBX phone system works under a VoIP platform making it versatile and flexible. Multiple offices can be integrated under one system but still operates independently from one another. This means that you can have a dedicated number for each location and receive calls accordingly without affecting other branches. It’s like having multiple phone system under one parent phone.

What are the benefits?

Huge savings – The obvious benefit of this kind of set up is the savings. Instead of up keeping multiple phone system then you will only need to maintain one and since it is cloud based communication solution, maintenance is very minimal and often times it takes place under a remote server level which doesn’t affect your business and at no cost to you.

Better Service – With the help of a reliable business phone system you can improve your services instantly and make room for better sales opportunity. For an instance you have an office in New York and in Sydney, out of hour’s calls to Sydney can be forwarded to New York and vice versa. This will ensure that you grab the client at their buying moment and not be sent to your voice mail that often leads to poor conversion.

This so called follow the sun feature can be set up in full automatic so you don’t need to worry about missing an important call ever again.

Line sharing – You can even set up your phone to share lines between offices at your benefit. For example you have a New York office and a Boston office. We all know that New York can be very busy during peak hours and to accommodate the sudden bulk of business calls your Boston lines can be pulled to take New York calls. This will allow you to maximize current channels you have and accommodate more phone calls on certain branches without increasing your monthly telecommunication costs.

Free internal calls – Since all your offices is under one phone system internal calls are absolutely free regardless of the branch and location. For example your extension in Sydney is 701 and your colleague’s extension in New York is 801, you can simply dial 801 and your call be connected accordingly for free! This will remove the distance boundary between offices making it easier to coordinate efforts.

Phone System – Uses of Interactive Voice Response

At first you might think that an interactive voice response or IVR will serve you no purpose with your business phone system but the truth is an IVR is one of the most flexible and efficient feature you can have in a phone system. For starters an Inter Voice Response is a recording that you play on various circumstances to inform, entertain and guide callers to your business.

Clever uses of IVR

Greeting Messages – ever wanted that professional greeting message on your phone system? With the use of an IVR you can record virtually any greeting message you want or have a professional actor do it for you so all you’re callers are greeted to your business without fail. Although this solution may seem to be very simple but it actually increases the confidence of your callers to your business and make you appear to be one of the most established names in the market.

On hold messages – Another clever use of a phone system IVR is via on hold messages. Every business tried to avoid putting a customer on hold however sometimes it is inevitable so why not put a twist to it? You can play music, trivia and other interesting facts that will delight your callers and help them keep their cool whilst waiting. In fact you can also use this as an up sell opportunity by playing company news, new products and services.

Out of hour’s mode – After business hours it is still essential to grab a call and send them to your voice mail. But wouldn’t it be polite to tell your customers that they have reach during out hours before directing them to your voice mail?

Menu System – Have you always wanted that menu system that professionally direct calls to the right department? With the help of an IVR you can now have a sophisticated menu system that will assist your customers to in touch with the concerned person easily without having to wait on queue.

There are other clever uses of an Interactive Voice Response especially if you will use together with a cloud PBX system. Because of the system’s flexibility recordings can easily be integrated with your phones and the best part is there will be no cost to upkeep it and monthly charges for the service just a minimal set up fee.

Be sure to discuss with your service provider the various options how you can benefit from such solution and weigh every option vigorously to ensure that you will have the communication system that you’ve always dream of.

Phone System – The Edge of Cloud PBX

Indeed communication is vital for any business to succeed thus it is a must to secure yourself a reliable system that will help streamline your internal business procedures whilst still keeping your cost down. Traditional phone systems are now starting to become a thing of the past because of the ever changing demand for efficiency and cost effectiveness. These dinosaur systems just cannot keep up with the pace and will soon become parts of the history book.

As technology evolves a newer, better and more affordable phone system is now taking the business sector by storm. Cloud PBX systems or simply cloud phones are now becoming the number one option for many business owners worldwide because of the charming benefits that it can bring. On the very top of the list is the savings, users of this type of phone system can save an average of 50% on their monthly telecommunications cost with an expected return of investment in just 3 to 6 months.

Apart from savings this type of phone system is also capable of delivering innovative features that will perfectly suit your business regardless of what it is. Before you need to adapt to your phones because the practice has been to provide a universal platform but with a cloud PBX the system can be fully customized to suit your every need. All you need to do is tell your service provider your requirements, how you would like the phones to behave, the capacity you need and everything will be custom programmed for you. On top of that you need not worry about expansion and such because the technology is very flexible you can easily add more lines and extensions in an instant without having to upgrade anything.

Although all of this may sound too good to be true but it is very much doable with a cloud PBX. The key to this innovative phone system is the fact that it is based or situated in the cloud making it very customizable and flexible pretty much how a website works. To better understand how the system works, all VoIP technologies run using the cloud computing which refers to a series of hardware and software that can be access over a network like the internet. This means that your phone system is managed by a series of hardware and software in a remote server which you gain access through the internet.

With that said, maintenance and upgrades are no longer in your shoulder unlike in traditional telephony.  A Cloud PBX will only require an input device and an internet connection on your end to work which makes a low cost phone system to upkeep.