4 Things to Consider Buying a Business Phone System: Save Time, Lower Your Costs
Business phone systems are a great way to save time, lower costs and improve the quality of your business communication. Businesses can choose from a variety of systems that offer different features based on their needs. If you’re interested in learning more about Business Phone Systems or would like to purchase one for your business contact us for quotes today.
There are a number of features that you will definitely want in your office phone system, but here are four things you should consider before making your purchase.
1-Scalability
You’ll need the ability to add more phones as your business grows. Businesses are always in the process of growing or shrinking, so it’s important that you have a system where more phones can be added easily.
2-Landline vs Business VoIP
Landline phone systems vs VoIP business phone systems: Businesses and consumers are seeking easy-to-use, reliable communication options that come with a low upfront cost. VoIP business phone systems have emerged as the clear front-runner in this race.
VoIP Systems of ideal when you are looking for Business Phone Systems because they work with your internet connection and often have a lower upfront cost. They may not be the best option if you do not have an always-on, strong wireless or wired broadband connection in your office.
-If you want Business Phone Systems with an upfront cost, VoIP is ideal because they often come with low costs initially
-VoIP may not be your best option if you do not have reliable strong wireless or wired broadband connection at your office.
-Landline phones systems are best if you need Business Phone Systems that work without the internet.
3-Business Phone Features
Next, you will need to decide what features are important for your business phone system. Here are a few features you may be interested in.
- Voicemail: Business Phone Systems with voicemail come in a variety of configurations, but it’s important to find the one that offers exactly what you need. Setting up VoIP Business Phone Systems is often straightforward because your existing computer and browser are used to manage everything. However, if you’re purchasing Business Phone Systems for an office space shared by many people, having all features centralized can make things more complicated.
- Voice mail to email: With this feature enabled on your Business Phone System, voice messages left by callers will be available as a .wav file attached to an outgoing message notification from your company email address. This type of business phone system might work well when employees share offices or have different schedules because they will alter.
- Cloud Access to the messages when they are most likely to be checking their email.
- Voice mail transcription: Business Phone Systems that include a voicemail transcription service will automatically transcribe voice messages and send them as .wav files in an outgoing notification from your company’s email address. With this feature enabled, you can simply listen to the audio file attached or read it at any time without having missed any important information.
- Call forwarding: Business phone systems with call forwarding allow for calls coming into one number (or multiple numbers) to be routed elsewhere based on a set of rules–such as if no answer after x rings, or adding another person’s extension before sending the call through–so you never miss a call or customer.
- Call queues: Business Phone Systems with call queues allow you to assign a certain number of calls at one time to different members or departments in your office. This is helpful when you have an employee who isn’t able to take every call and need the other person to continue calling back until someone answers.
- Holding Calls: Business phone systems with this feature let anyone on your team listen, monitor, and control multiple live conversations simultaneously from another device such as their smartphone or laptop computer using softphone application software (SIP). The Business Phone System will automatically forward any unanswered incoming calls so that they are instantly transferred directly into voicemail while everyone else remains engaged in conversation. With these features enabled, employees can focus exclusively on what’s happening in the Business Phone System, without having to worry about missing calls.
Additionally, you may consider these popular features:
- Interactive voice response (IVR)
- Conference calling
- Voicemail to text
- Automated attendants
- Extension to extension dialing
- Ring groups
- Call transfer options
- Internet faxing
- Call monitoring
- Missed-call notifications
- Video conference calling
- Online meetings
- Instant messaging service
- Integrations with Microsoft Outlook, Salesforce, etc
4-Cost of Business Phone Systems
The cost of business phone systems vary greatly, but usually, Business Phone Systems can be purchased for a reasonable price.
To start with, investing in a Business Phone System saves time by taking care of every aspect related to a traditional phone system from voice over IP (VoIP) lines that don’t need an internet connection to call forwarding so you never miss a call from customers or clients who are trying to reach you during off-hours times. Additionally, Business Phone Systems come with plenty of features perfect for businesses that have more than one line at their office space–such as voicemail transcription services or interactive voice response (IVR).
On the high end in a business phone system will cost more than $9000, but it’s also possible to find Business Phone Systems for as low as $200.
The driving factor of how much you will pay for a business phone system is the number of features you require. Businesses with multiple lines that need a lot more than just basic call forwarding functionality will pay higher prices for Business Phone Systems, while businesses who only need one or two lines and want to save money.
Other cost factors include:
– Business Phone System + SIP softphone apps (optional)
– Cloud Storage of Voice Messages + Voicemail Transcription Service (optional)
– Call Forwarding Options + Hold Calls Feature (Optional)
Online Meetings and Instant Messaging with Business Phone Systems: The best Business phone systems offer features for the money that are designed with the needs of modern businesses in mind. That means you can take advantage of online meetings or instant messaging, which is great when employees are spread out geographically. This type of business phone system will allow your team members to be productive from anywhere on any device while still keeping their attention focused.