Businesses and companies have a wide variety of options when it comes to choosing a phone system. Therefore, you may be wondering: how do you make a list of the hundreds of options available? What characteristics should you take into account when choosing the best business phone systems? The process in these cases can take up too much time.
A large part of the companies are using a telephony solution without knowing if it is really the right one for them. Currently, thanks to the advances of the digital age, the options we can choose from are varied, not being necessary to have a physical device to receive our calls.
Next, we will show you all the options you can choose from and we will give you a series of tips that will allow you to choose the solution that best suits your needs.
Fixed services and physical switchboard
Although it is still common to find many companies that use fixed and analog telephones, it should be noted that it is not the most convenient option in terms of costs. Companies have been using these phone systems for decades, but changes in new technology have made them obsolete compared to other options that we will see below.
Consumers just need to plug the phone into an outlet and start making calls, but for businesses they have more difficult requirements. They usually need physical switchboards that take up a large amount of space and do not always ensure continuity of service. In addition, at the time when teleworking is so present, these systems are not very useful, since we can only receive our calls from the place where the device is located, without the possibility of transfer.
Therefore, despite their various advantages, they cannot adapt to the modern and digital world, as they are not flexible and do not work well with other business systems. For this reason, they are very inconvenient for any company, especially those that are large and have many employees. Also its installation and implementation is usually expensive, due to the amount of special equipment that must be purchased.
VoIP telephony services
As we said before, traditional telephone systems have yielded to other modern systems, known as VoIP telephony or digital telephony. It is the preferred solution for today’s businesses. In these cases, the voice travels through the Internet and within it, we can find two types: traditional IP telephony solutions and solutions that work through WebRTC.
Traditional IP telephony
Although it is usually somewhat cheaper than traditional IP telephony, in these cases, you must buy a device and maintain it on your own. They usually work through facilities similar to the physical switchboard but which take up less space. This supposes, as in the previous type, a considerable lack of flexibility, since in a telework environment, we will have to carry out this installation again, since we will not be able to move the equipment easily.
In other cases, it is also necessary to download a series of additional software’s, known as soft phones, on the device where we want to receive and send our calls.
WebRTC
With the WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) protocol, everything happens in the cloud and nothing on the devices, so the system is always up-to-date. This solution brings considerable cost savings, since we only need a device connected to the Internet, regardless of whether it is a computer, mobile or tablet. Therefore, unlike the previous one, it does not require any type of installation, wiring or maintenance.
It is a simple and flexible solution, since it allows us to send and receive calls from anywhere in the world. If you are looking for a modern and efficient solution for the telephone service in your company, this is the best option.
Finally, these systems have many advanced integrated functionalities, in addition to allowing communication through new channels such as video or instant messaging, which allows the internal and external communication of the company to be managed effectively.
What you must take into account to choose the best telephone system for your company
As you may have seen, there are a variety of phone system options for your business. Each and every one of them has its advantages and benefits. You just have to take into account the characteristics of your business to choose the one that best suits your needs. Therefore, below we show you some of them, focusing especially on virtual telephony solutions:
The size of your company: the number of workers you have is very important, since within virtual telephone systems we can find solutions adapted to freelancers, SMEs and large companies. In the first case, the ideal is to find a virtual switchboard, and in the rest a call center software.
The number of calls you receive: depending on whether you make or receive many calls, the ideal would be to find a switchboard or call center software that includes functionalities adapted to your telephone activity. For example, if our company needs to make a large number of calls because it is carrying out a telemarketing campaign, the ideal is to find the solution that allows integration with this specialized software.
The image you want to project: the image that our company’s clients have can be influenced by the number we use in our telephone system. Thus, we can improve and project an image of a national company through a 900 number or an international company through an international virtual number, since our clients will not know where we are but they will have the feeling that they are contacting a large company and important, which will give them confidence.
If you want to include instant messaging: we live in a time when communication through these applications has become essential, so if you want to provide customer service through them, the ideal is to find the solution that allows integrate them. Not all of them allow it, so it is important to look for the one with which we can manage our conversations from the same platform to avoid continually changing screens and save time.
Choosing the best phone system for your company is not an easy task and it is true that, even though we are clear about what we are looking for, we must spend time comparing the different offers of the companies. If you want to find a virtual telephone system adapted to your needs but you don’t know where to start, we invite you to click on this link.