For a business to succeed, communication is crucial. According to a 2022 report by FinancesOnline, 62% of customers prefer to chat with a customer service representative over the phone, over other forms of communication.
As a company outgrows the limitations of a personal phone, a business phone system is a suitable replacement. Even though finding the ideal phone system for your unique requirements takes time, money, and patience, the rewards are overall worth the effort.
A business phone system not only enhances your company's perception and helps simplify the communication process, both internally and externally. This article will examine seven advantages of a business phone system for your company.
Top 7 Benefits of Installing a Business Phone System
Here we’ll explore the top benefits of business phone systems for companies.
1. Saves Money
A business won't need to purchase every employee an expensive dedicated smartphone if you have a corporate phone system. Instead, you can get by with only one phone set and connect additional handsets to increase its accessibility. These telephone sets and handsets are significantly less expensive than cell phones.
2. Streamlines Communication Flow
Business phone systems are designed to improve the flow of internal communications and external customer interaction. For instance, most business phone services offer call and skill-based routing, which allows your staff members to redirect an incoming call to the relevant staff. In addition, a business phone system will also allow you to handle your business communications from your cell phone, using the call forwarding feature.
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3. Tracks and Manages Calls
Business phone systems make it extremely easy to monitor and manage calls. With a phone system, businesses can design call flows to ensure that priority calls never go unanswered. Organizations can track the effectiveness of marketing strategies and their team's overall productivity and ability using the call recording feature.
4. Increases Interaction Speed
A corporate phone system can take care of critical calls directly and transfer less urgent calls to the appropriate employees, ensuring that everyone gets a prompt response. In every aspect of business, it’s important to return calls as soon as possible, whether from clients, business partners, or employees seeking to reach you.
5. Improves Sales Potential
As a rule of thumb, customers who experience satisfactory customer service are likelier to buy from you. A company phone system improves your ability to respond to consumer calls, which boosts your likelihood of closing deals and generating more income.
6. Improves Company Image
A business must be reachable if it wants positive word of mouth. Satisfied customers refer a company’s service or product to their family and friends. Customers are likely to share their experience with your brand on social media. How a company treats its customer directly impacts its brand image.
7. Enables Advanced Features
Business phone systems tend to include many advanced calling features that you won’t get with a cell phone. For instance, these business-centric systems mostly show call analytics to help you improve your communication flow. Some other advanced features of business phone systems include call forwarding, anonymous call rejection, and call routing.
Advanced Features of a Reliable Business Telephone System
As mentioned, business phone systems tend to include many advanced calling features to improve the communication flow for an organization. Here’s an overview of the top calling features you can expect from a reliable business phone service:
1. Call Forwarding
Call forwarding refers to redirecting an incoming call to an alternative number. It’s a widely used business phone feature that lets you forward a call to a relevant member. The ring is instantly sent to a coworker's office phone when an employee is unavailable.
2. Smart Routing
Intelligent call routing is another essential feature included with a business phone system. This feature uses conditions the company sets to create a productive communication flow. It allows you to build an advanced condition set, so incoming calls route to the appropriate sales rep or support agent.
3. Call Waiting
Call waiting is beneficial when dealing with inbound customer calls. It lets you manage multiple calls by activating one call at a time. When you've finished that call, pick another one from the queue and attend to it.
4. Voicemail
The voicemail feature lets you listen to and manage digitally recorded messages that a company receives from its customers or employees. It stores these messages into a digital mailbox to provide easy organization and call management.
5. Call Recording and Tracking
Call recording is a compelling calling feature in the business community. It allows a business to listen back on a call to know everything communicated during it. Moreover, it enables a company to monitor its employees' call history at any given time, to track performance and productivity.
6. Auto Attendant
An auto attendant is a widely used calling feature that helps you minimize the time needed to handle incoming calls. It helps eliminate the need for an individual to forward calls to the relevant department. Businesses can route incoming calls to specific phone extensions based on the callers' preferences.
Popular Types of Business Phone Solutions
Since the inception of the telephone in 1876, business phone systems have evolved extensively over the years. The best business phone providers continue to innovate and add additional features to their phone systems. Here we’ll explore the four most standard types of professional phone systems.
1. Wireless Business Phone System
Wireless business phone systems are a modern-day solution that eliminates the need for an internet connection and fiber optics or copper wire cables. Instead, they operate off local cell towers in the area.
Generally speaking, wireless phone systems connect to local cellular networks. Providers with such services provide a landline base device that connects your telephone set to a nearby cellular network.
The main benefit of a wireless business phone system is the low installation cost, as you won’t need to purchase an internet connection to establish a connection. Also, wireless systems are easy to set up as the interference of physical hardware is minimal, eliminating the need for a technician. Moreover, wireless phone providers like Community Phone provide custom phone plans to suit business needs.
Wireless systems are more convenient as they allow businesses to place their telephone system anywhere within their premises. Wireless phone systems are perfect for small businesses as they provide great convenience, affordability, and flexibility.
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2. Traditional Business Phone System
Traditional business phone systems use copper cables to enable communications. The infrastructure is aging and has started to be phased by many top telecommunication services. The FCC announced that on August 2, 2022, US Telecom companies would no longer be required to provide landline service to these smaller, local companies.
Traditional business phone systems have been a standard for decades and tend to be reasonably reliable. They continue working during power breakouts and internet outages, making them a reliable solution during miserable weather conditions.
On the flip side, traditional phone systems have quite a few limitations, like lack of convenience, as they exclude advanced calling features. Also, traditional landlines can be expensive, with long-distance calls resulting in a hefty bill.
3. VoIP Phone System
VoIP stands for voice over internet protocol. VoIP business phone systems rely on the internet for data transmission. Therefore, a company will need a reliable internet connection if it opts for this phone service.
VoIP phone systems are generally reliable and practical but require high-speed internet. If your internet speed is inconsistent, you’ll likely experience poor voice quality with interruptions and dropped calls, which is not ideal when many of your staff members are busy with calls.
VoIP phone systems have varying installation costs, depending upon which type of cable you choose. For instance, the newer fiber optics cables are more expensive than the coaxial and ethernet cables. Moreover, selecting a VoIP business phone system means your systems will go down in the event of a power outage.
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4. Cloud-Based Phone System
Cloud-based phone systems also operate on the internet but mainly use cloud servers to track and store calls and messages. These cloud phone systems turn the caller's voice into digital for transferring it to the listener over the internet.
The unique advantage of a cloud-based phone system is that it enables communications on any device connected to the internet, which includes smartphones, computers, and tablets.
Why Landlines Are Popular Choice For Small Business Owners
Landline-based phone systems are a widely popular option for small businesses because of many reasons, including:
Easy to Setup and Integrate
Setting up a landline is quick and easy, especially if you choose a wireless connection. All it takes is for you to connect your telephone system to the landline base device or landline cable. Once the setup is complete, you can easily extend your phone system by attaching handsets or more telephones to it.
Cost Effective
Landline phone systems are a long-term affordable solution. Unlike cellular packages, they’ll require a single subscription each month, which all your staff members can benefit from. Additionally, you won't need to purchase high-priced tools like cell phones for your staff members that work in the customer service division.
Easy to Master
Unlike a complex computer-based system, a landline phone system won't require staff members to place and manage calls. A small-sized business has employees from all age groups. Ideally, you’ll need a business phone system that senior citizens and millennials can use.
Secure
A landline connection will be accessible to a far smaller audience than a widely used internet connection, making it a lot more secure option. For corporate communications, landline phone lines provide the best possible privacy.
Final Thoughts
There’s a reason why business phone systems are widely used in organizations. They’re more effective, affordable, and quality-packed than regular phone systems.
This article discusses the seven top reasons small businesses should consider a business phone service. The most common ones include easy call management, better brand image, and more chances of sales. Moreover, a landline phone system is a popular choice among businesses as it has a short learning curve and boasts an easy setup.
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About the Author: Sam Molony is a senior marketing strategist at Community Phone. Sam’s goal is to inspire people to not just “hang in there” but to thrive. When Sam's not publishing or promoting new content you can find him playing sports and cooking up a storm in the kitchen.
