Office Telephone System – Must Have Basic Features for any Business

The demand for office telephones systems is in a constant rise, as the market continues to evolve more and more businesses are expanding their operations at time even engaging the international scene. Entailing this expansion is the need to overhaul or upgrade business communication systems and phones being the top priority.

As business communication systems today become smarter and smarter there are still basic features that all enterprise will need and should not be neglected. Below is a list of must have basic office telephone features.

Call forwarding and call transfer – part of running a business is being away in the office on several occasions, could be a meeting, a supplier check or a conference. Whatever it is you should still be able to receive important sales calls on your mobile. However, you don’t expect customers to call you on your mobile directly and it is often a big mistake to ask them to, so it is just a must for your office telephone system to have a call forwarding features so your attendant can just transfer the call directly to your mobile.

Additionally, call forwarding is also important during out of hours, weekends and or holidays so calls can be automatically diverted to your mobile, home phone or any other number so you won’t miss out on a possible sale.

Greeting message – Callers calling a business expect a professional service on your end and. A greeting message is often an edge to have as customers will think that they are calling a well established business. Not that you are trying to deceive callers but rather you are trying to earn their trust. 

Three way calling feature – This feature will come handy both for internal and external processes. Internally you can conduct small phone meetings, trainings and or seminars. Externally, you can conference customers and staffs as needed. For an instance your sales staff is having difficulty closing a sales he can then ask permission from the customer to bring in one of the senior sales representative to service him better.

Caller ID – Obviously this feature is a requirement for any business. It will help you identify who is calling your business and serve as a reference too just in case you missed out in getting a contact number or mistyped it.

Voice mail – All businesses try their best to get to all phone calls, however, it is sometimes inevitable to miss some of it. This is where a voice mail or a message bank comes really handy. Just make sure that your recordings prompt callers to leave their name, number and a detailed message so you can get back to him accordingly.

Office Telephone Checklist

Overhauling an office telephone system involves serious money and as a business owner you should be careful before signing up with a provider, otherwise, you might find yourself back to the drawing board and planning another overhaul. As we all know communication is important for any business to succeed and office telephone system plays a pivotal role so it is just a must to take some considerable time before deciding.

To help you decide and search for the best possible office telephone solution in the market today, a checklist should be made based on the following key points in an office telephone system. Bear in mind though that the more detailed your checklist is the better reference it will be.

Your needs – List down all your needs in an office telephone system, make sure that you include all important aspect of a communication system. What is the calling capacity you need? Does it allow call forwarding options? Is it able to handle an IVR?  If you need conferencing features, does it allow such function? Does it it allow an out of hours mode? Are the handsets fit for specific tasks? These are just some of the questions that you need to put in your checklist. Remember core idea is your needs and not what the system can give.

Customer service – Since you will be acquiring a service it is just a must for the provider to offer an outstanding customer service. You should be able to pick up the phone and call them if you are experiencing a problem or if you need any assistance in any matter. For a holistic quality service a good level of customer must always be provided not only in an office telephone but also in any other services that you will acquire be it for home or business.

Streamline your processes – A communication system should also allow you to streamline your internal and external processes otherwise it is not the solution for you. The phone should be a tool to assist you and your staff on your sales, support and marketing processes or else its overall function is futile and sooner or later you might have to replace it again.

Expansion – Lastly a phone system should never hinder your expansion, this means you should be able to add more extensions and or features without having to upgrade the entire PBX. Bear in mind that flexibility is very important in a business communication system and as a business owner it is your duty to secure such solution.

Office Telephone – What is a Cloud PBX?

Today businesses are torn between two options when it comes to a business communication solution. The constant battle between traditional telephony and VoIP phone systems leaves business owners confused to which solution to go for. Everyone is quite familiar with a traditional PBX; often the case is it is the VoIP solutions that are not known.

A business grade office telephone using VoIP solutions is called a cloud PBX. Basically cloud means the internet, similar to what cloud computing is, and PBX stands for private branch exchange or simply phones. Combine them together and it means internet office telephone systems. At first glance you may think that both options are just the same but in reality is a big difference separates the two. A cloud PBX uses servers and a network instead of hardware. This means that all the PBX components except the handsets are located in the cloud and is accessed using the internet. You can somehow compare it to a website.

By using servers and network instead of a hardware, the system is able to offer flexibility and cost effectiveness to customers. Flexibility because you can literally customized a cloud PBX based on your requirements. Think of it like one of the open source programming software where you can literally command the computer do what you want, the same way the system can be custom programmed to tell the phones what you like to happen. Additionally, since there is no hardware involved you can adjust your phone system capacity as needed.

Cost effectiveness because instead of using traditional trunk lines in routing a call it uses a SIP trunk. On average businesses can save up to 70% on phone bills depending on the usage and the size of the system. Apart from cheaper calls, line rentals and also relatively cheaper compared to traditional solutions. Pushing the savings even further is the features. Traditional Telecommunications Company may charge you monthly even for the most basic feature like caller ID and call forwarding, but with the latter, all features are already included and complex requirements may just require a one-time set up fee.

However, a cloud PBX doesn’t work like magic. For a successful deployment business need to secure one of the most important requirement and that is the internet. Frankly speaking, if you are unable to secure a fast and stable connection then the solution might not be for you. All VoIP solutions are reliant to the quality of the internet. If you are able to secure this one requirement then you can expect business grade call quality every time you make or receive a call.

Office Telephone System – Answering Service Solutions

Answering services is now becoming a booming in today’s busy and fast paced business sector. Basically the main role of answering service providers, from the word itself, is to answer calls in behalf of a business. Typically these types of services are hired by company that is too busy to pick up their phones but cannot afford to send customers on message banks. It is then a must for these service providers to secure a reliable and suitable office telephone system that will cater all possible needs of various customers.

Below is a list of must have office telephone functionalities

Call forwarding – Answering service companies pick up calls even out f hours, this means that an office telephone system must be able to forward a call automatically to a mobile, a home number or any number. The office telephone system should also offer the option either forward calls automatically when not pick after a certain number of rings or enable an override code that will activate the feature.

Call announcement and caller ID – Answering service companies often take calls for multiple businesses so it is a must to know where the call is coming from to answer accordingly. Call announcement means that a recording will be played to notify whoever picks up the call where is it coming from, the same way caller ID will tell where it is coming from. However, although both features serve the same purposes it is a must to have it hand in hand. Remember like mentioned above, calls be diverted to mobile, that means you won’t be able to determine through caller ID which business is that call for. The same way caller ID provides the info throughout the call just in case you forget.

Line sharing – lines or channels is the trunk or the mechanism that allows a number to receive a phone call. This means that if you 2 lines connected to a number you can receive 2 phone calls at the same time on 1 number. However, answering service companies often needs to share lines across numbers. To explain it better here is an example. You have 5 Sydney numbers and 5 lines, what line sharing means is that you can pull the lines to where it is needed. Sydney number A can then use all 5 lines or not, the same way Sydney numbers B to E can use all lines. This method is effective for an answering company because not all business they’re servicing is as busy as the other one.

Office Telephone Consumers Guide

Office phone systems are a must have for any business. It is used for internal communications as wells as external communication. Businesses that have a good and reliable system are able to carry out their sales and support processes effectively. Thus, the market for office telephone systems continually grows and more and more providers are opening each year. However, the reality is not all service providers out there are capable of delivering a good service and as a business you need to be careful to avoid being ripped off. To guide you in this important decision below are some important general consumer guide points in purchasing a phone system.

General Consumers Guide

The price – The first thing will come to almost every business owner’s mind is the price. Office telephone systems aren’t cheap as hotcakes. However, this does not imply either that you need to spend a fortune. Business owners are advised to collect as many quotes or as many price sheets as possible for comparison purposes and then on, you can create a baseline data on the average price. The baseline data will let you know if a provider is overcharging you or if it is at a reasonable level.

Quality of hardware – Whether you opt for a traditional phone system or favor the newer cloud PBX office telephone system a hardware will still be present. General notes of checking hardware are relatively easy. Inspect the PBX and or the handsets thoroughly, make sure that the build quality and materials are of high grade. Apart from physical inspection you might also want to look into the firmware that it is running on and make sure that it is compatible with the provider’s network.

Quality of calls and lines – This is where it starts to get tricky, lines or calls is not something you can inspect physically. You can check this by calling the company several times and grade the call quality accordingly. If possible, ask for a trail period, so you will experience firsthand what the call quality is.

Quality of service – Apart from the actual phone system, business owners should also consider the overall service of a provider. A good customer support and process suggest a well managed company and thus can imply that it is safe to sign with that provider. Additionally, office phone systems are no magic so problems will surface from time to time and you would want to be able to call your provider and report the issue.

Level of flexibility – more often than not, business owners tend to neglect this point thinking that they everything place already. However, would you want a phone system that will require an upgrade every time you wish to add a handset or perhaps a feature? It’s costly and time consuming system and cannot be called a solution if that is the case. It is advisable to opt for a communication solution that is flexible enough to increase the capacity and or modify it without any upgrades or overhaul. This will not only save you business money but also save your precious time.