How Do You Know That You Have the Right Small Business Phone Service?

If you are looking for the right small business phone service for your business, it is wise to do a little research before you make a final decision. There are quite a few phone service providers but all of them might not offer the services or features of your need.  You need a phone service that perfectly complements your business needs making your business communication more effective and powerful. Following are a few recommendations that will help you find the right small business phone for your business:

Analyze Your Needs

Even before you head to look for a small business phone service for your business, you must first determine a few things. Does every employee need a separate extension? Do they need a voice mail box and online fax? Does your business need an auto attendant? Do you think your employees will benefit if they can read their voice-mails in emails? Before you decide on using a small business phone it is important to know the answer to all these questions. You should know how many extensions your business needs before you start looking for a virtual telephone .

Check for the Important Features

Auto attendant

The next important thing is to check for the features that you and your employees need.  Check if your phone system has an auto attendant or not. An auto attendant is perhaps one of the most important features of a small business phone service. An auto attendant greets and routes your callers. You can record all your information on the auto attendant greeting and your customers can choose according to their need. You also have the flexibility to customize your information. An auto attendant works like an automated receptionist round the clock.

Call forwarding

Call forwarding is another important feature of a small business phone service that can have immense influence on your business. An auto attendant receives any call and forwards it to the right person or department. But in case the right person is not available to answer the call, the automated attendant then forwards the call to the voice-mail box. You can also set your system to forward calls to more than one phone number of your choice. You provide the phone numbers to the system and also specify the time and the day when you are available on each number to receive calls.

Voicemail box

If you are not able to answer your customer’s call, the auto attendant forwards the call to your voice mail box.  Your small business phone service can send you an alert as soon as there’s a new message in your voice-mail box. It also allows you to read your voice mails in emails so that you can manage all your communications from one place.

Online fax

Online fax helps you to send and receive fax from anywhere and at anytime. You do not need a fax machine or paper for sending fax. It is faster, convenient and more effective than the traditional facsimile.

The Capacity of the Service

The last but not the least important thing is to check the capacity of the small business phone service that you are opting for. You obviously want your business to grow. In fact that is one of the reasons for buying a small business phone. So you should also check the capability to upgrade your service in the future. Your phone service should be able to grow as your business grows.

Why You Need a Small Business Phone Service for Your Business?

A business phone system is a must have for businesses of all sizes. In today’s age where the success of a business is heavily dependent on the efficiency of its communication system, it is wise for all businesses to make their communication system as strong and sound as possible. A small business phone service can make the communication system of any organization strong and effective. It is in fact perfect for businesses of all sizes. Following are a few features of a small business phone service that is ideal for all businesses:

Inexpensive

A virtual small business phone service does not need to be installed with any particular telephone connection. It can, in fact, work with any telephone connection. It also does not need any hardware or software. So it is can save considerable amount of dollars for any business. But this is especially important for a small business, start-up or home based business that works in limited financial boundaries. Nevertheless, it saves money for big firms as well and is equally pertinent for all businesses during turbulent economic times.  Moreover, most of the virtual small business phone service providers offer flexible service levels. There’s no contract to be signed and most of the plans include considerable number of free minutes.

Automated Receptionist

When a customer calls on your small business phone an auto attendant receives the call. An auto attendant greets and routes your callers. You can pre-record all your information on the auto attendant and your customers can choose according to their need. You also have the flexibility to customize and change information according to your need. An auto attendant completely eliminates the need of a receptionist. It in fact works like an automated receptionist 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Special Features

A virtual small business phone service has all the features that makes you business look bigger than it actually is. You can transfer calls to your employees and colleagues located in the same office or maybe across the country. You can also forward calls to your personal cell phone, residential phone or office phone.  If you are unable to answer your customer’s call he/she can leave a message in your voicemail box and you can reply back to them at your convenience. Moreover, it allows these voice messages to be read in emails. So you do not lose out any time checking your voicemail box and your email separately.

A virtual small business phone system also offers certain extra features over a traditional phone system. For example, you can send and receive fax online using your small business phone. This is the most modern way of sending and receiving fax without a fax machine and paper. You can also program your phone system in a way that you set days of the week and even hours when you are available on each number and the auto attendant will forward calls accordingly. You can also use a toll free number with this virtual telephone system. Toll free numbers are especially known for its success in attracting customers and influencing the sales of a business.

A virtual small business phone system shows your professionalism and credibility. It makes you look bigger and can create your presence anywhere – virtually.

Characteristics of a Small Business Phone Service That Need to be Contemplated

A small business phone service allows organizations to grow and achieve success. It just isn’t a dust collector around the business table but an important tool in the day-to-day operation of your business. Your business receives many types of calls throughout the day. Every call is not equally important. In fact there are a few calls that you can directly route to your voicemail box without answering it ever. A small business phone service has certain features that helps you decide if you want to answer a call immediately or want it to be routed to your voicemail box. Below are some of the characteristics of a good phone system that you can refer to while deciding on your small service phone:

Measurable

A small business does not remain small forever. In fact, there are many large firms that started its operation as a small business but gradually they have expanded their business. With the growth of your business you will find that you need more telephone connections and also a few advanced features of a phone system that will allow you to work remotely. Using a small business phone service can prove to be helpful particularly in the long-term. It is scalable and you do not need to invest again for a phone system even when you are planning to expand your phone system because of the expansion of your business.

Cost Efficient

A small business phone service provides all the features of an enterprise phone system but without the hefty price tag. It does not need any hardware, software or any expensive installation. Moreover, the service providers of a small business phone also offer simple and flexible plans that are especially designed to cater the requirement of different sizes of businesses. Most of the plans that they offer include a considerable number of free minutes and you have to pay only for the overage minutes.  So you can start with a plan that is perfect for your current needs and can change to other plans as and when required.

A Few Advanced Features

1.  Auto Attendant:    A small business phone service usually provides all the advanced features of a traditional phone system.  But at the same time they also offer some advanced features as well. For example, an auto attendant is an incredible feature of a virtual telephone that eliminates the need to hire a receptionist. It is not only a huge cost savings for a small business but also a great advantage for any big business. An auto attendant works 24×7 answering and routing your customers. Your customers can now reach their desired person or department without wasting much time. This is very important to influence your customers and showcase your professionalism.

2.  Call Forwarding:     In case you are not available to answer a call, the phone system can forward it to your voicemail box. You can also program your phone system in such a way that if you are not available at one of your numbers the system will forward the call to one of the three other telephone numbers of your choice. This drastically reduces your chance of missing any call.

3.  Online Fax

Online fax is another unique offering of a small business phone service. It allows you to send and receive fax without a fax machine and paper.

Do You Need Small Business Phone Service for your Home Business?

Have you recently started a home-based business and are curious about the different options available to you? Perhaps you have been running a small home-based business and your current communications solution is seriously lacking. In either case, a virtual small business phone service may be just the solution you are looking for.

Distinguish Between Call Types

Many home-based business owners make the mistake of assuming that they can cut costs by making use of their current landline telephone for business calls. Although this may seem like a fantastic option at first, it will inevitably cause some serious problems. First of all, even with caller ID, it is difficult for family members to distinguish a business call from a personal call; it is important for each business call to be answered with a uniform greeting in order to promote professionalism and credibility. Instead of opting for a distinguished ring for a second number on the landline, it is cheaper to use a virtual small business phone service—and it comes with more business features, as well.

Better Features

Most home-based businesses only have one employee—the homeowner. This makes it difficult to be available for every single business call around-the-clock. Thankfully, a small business phone service makes it easy to ensure that every call is answered promptly and that callers get the information they need. By combining the auto attendant feature with an information hotline and perhaps even virtual voice mail, callers will be able to get the information they need 24 hours a day, whether or not the business owner is available to take the call. Should the caller decide to place an order or make an appointment for services, they can choose to ring through to the business owner or the voice mail service.

Affordability

Since cost is often one of the primary concerns when business owners consider small business phone service for their home phones, it is important to note that a virtual phone system is surprisingly affordable—often even more affordable than adding a business feature package to an existing landline. If an entirely new second line is desired, this can become expensive with landline service. Jacks or splitters must be installed and the monthly cost may be exorbitant. Basic virtual system packages, which are often all that is needed for home based businesses, can cost as little as $10 per month. Even feature-packed systems are as little as $30 per month, which is much less than the cost of a second line.

Better Customer Service

All of the features that are found with a virtual telephone system make it easier for home based business owners to provide the best customer service possible. Professional greetings, better organization and the ability to forward calls to mobile phones when away from home are all imperative for the overall success of a business. As call volume increases and additional employees are hired, more extensions can be added to the same account for use in other homes or offices.

Running a home-based business can be a successful endeavor provided that the business owner is able to give their customers the best experience possible. With the help of a small business phone service—particularly of the virtual nature—this can be painless and inexpensive.

Is a Hosted Small Business Phone Service Right for You?

Perhaps you’ve been hearing the entire clamor about hosted phone services that operate over the internet. Many small business owners have turned to virtual phones to manage their communications needs. If you aren’t sure if a hosted small business phone service is right for your business, here are some questions to help you consider.

Are You Outgrowing Your Phone system?
Customers who can’t get in touch with a company when they need to are very likely to take their business elsewhere. If your phone service is overrun by too many calls, you may be hearing about it from some of your customers, but there are probably more of them who simply gave up and didn’t look back if they couldn’t get a hold of you. Additionally, as a business grows, sometimes it resorts to patchwork style fixes to keep an outmoded system running, which results in an unwieldy mess that is difficult to run, and nearly impossible to explain to new employees.

Do You Need Something User-Friendly?
Implementing a new phone system can be difficult. If you have the training and the patience, it can be very cheap to create a system tailor made for your company. However, not everyone has the time or abilities that are required. If you have a hard time understanding the technical stuff, a hosted small business phone service takes the responsibility for maintenance and programming and gives it to a dedicated team of professionals. It’s the host’s job to make sure the system is easy for everyone to use. There’s no need to pay for a separate IT expert because there is nothing technical for you to handle on your end.

Do You Work Outside the Office?
Virtual phones are especially useful to anyone who works outside of the office, as most providers allow you to connect any number of different phones to the service. They do not constrain you to phones physically located in the office space, but can be adapted for use with cellular phones, or the home land line, or anywhere else clients or employees need to reach you. This allows customers to only need one number to call whoever they need, rather than making a series of calls to different numbers, or dealing with being forwarded through a series of extensions.

Is Your Business Growing?
Traditional phone company contracts can be very restrictive, locking you in to service packages for months or years, and upgrading can be very difficult. Sometimes, even the hardware of the phones themselves need to be tinkered with or replaced. Hosted small business phone service is much more flexible and easier to upgrade than traditional phones. If it’s probable that a business is going to need different service in six months, this may be a good choice. Virtual services also tend to offer more “pick and choose” style options, tailoring service to the needs of the business.

In the end, only you can decide if you small business requires small business phone service, or if a hosted service is right for your needs. If you answered yes to even one of the above questions, a virtual telephone service may be right for you.