The desk phone of 30 years ago has evolved several times over to become the smartphone we know and love today. While virtually everyone carries a mobile phone around with them nowadays, that’s not the only business phone option available to you. VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, is one of the most intriguingly cost-effective options for businesses in this day and age.
In this article, we’ll go over six of the most convincing reasons why you should choose a VoIP system for your business phone service. We’ll also introduce you to some of the requirements for setting up VoIP systems.
What Is VoIP?
As you may have guessed from the name, an internet protocol VoIP phone system uses your web connection to provide an internet-based phone service. Whereas the wired phone calls of the past were transmitted over phone lines, VoIP calls are cloud-based—in other words, your calls transfer through the internet.
You can still call anyone with wired or mobile phones, and your customer will never know that you’re contacting them from the internet instead.
VoIP systems have many benefits over traditional phone service, most of which we’ll get into in the meat of this article. If your smartphone has an option that enables calls over Wi-Fi, you’ve probably even used VoIP before, albeit in a lesser capacity.
6 Reasons to Upgrade Your Small Business Phone System with VoIP
Now that you know what’s involved with VoIP phone systems, it’s time to dive into why you might want one! While VoIP service isn’t for everyone, VoIP phone systems can provide numerous advantages over a traditional office phone solution. We’ll introduce you to some of them below.
Lower Costs
Most small businesses are looking to lower costs while maintaining high-quality goods and services. Fortunately, for these small businesses, switching over to a VoIP provider can be an excellent way to find some extra cost savings.
Not only does a VoIP plan offer flat savings over a wired plan, but VoIP providers instantly cut out those installation costs, too. Because your VoIP plan works over your existing network infrastructure, as long as your current setup can support it, no upgrades are needed.
A traditional phone set up with phone lines simply does not compare, as traditional phone lines need to be upgraded whenever you reach their maximum capacity.
Don’t forget that VoIP phone systems save you money on other things, too. Your web service provider may charge a flat per-month fee for VoIP services, but the use of the system is toll-free. Another of the many advantages of VoIP is that the number of calls you can handle is limited only by your personnel, not by the number of office phones you have.
Space-Saving, Flexible, and Scalable
Remember how we talked about cutting installation costs in the paragraph above? Because VoIP providers usually don’t need to install any extra hardware, all of that saved space is yours to use as you see fit. As long as the network in your place of business can handle the load, a VoIP setup for your business is often completely plug-and-play and ready to use instantly.
If your businesses can’t handle the network load from a quality VoIP setup, you’re not out of luck, though! You still have the option of hosted VoIP systems, which are entirely cloud-based. While the VoIP technology for a large business may need on-location servers to handle the extra network traffic, a hosted VoIP business charges slightly extra to eliminate this need.
Business-Related Features
While not all small businesses need a host of extra business-related calling features, it’s never bad to have a few growth-minded advantages in your back pocket. Among other things, some of the additional VoIP features you can look for from your favorite provider include:
- Video conferencing
- Call forwarding
- Call recording
- Mobile app access
- Conference calling
- Voicemail to text
- Voicemail to email
- Caller ID
As long as you have an internet connection at your place of business, you can access all of the features of a traditional phone plan, plus advanced features that would normally cost more from a traditional provider. However, when looking at VoIP providers, make sure to find a plan that fits all your needs for the right cost, as not all providers may offer the same benefits.
Higher Call Quality
Would you believe that VoIP offers better voice quality and sound than even most smartphones today can? While it depends on the location of your business and the bandwidth your business can support, VoIP codecs continue to evolve all the time, so VoIP only ever improves.
Reliability
If you’re worried about what happens when your ISP goes down, you have no need to fear. Because Voice over IP doesn’t rely on a physical route, you can easily forward a call to your smartphone or home network temporarily if necessary.
Because your VoIP service will be backed by a large provider, you can have faith that your service will always come back on after it goes down. Additionally, because today’s VoIP businesses compete for who can offer the most reliable services, the reliability of these systems continues to get better every year.
Worldwide Access
Because all Voice over IP systems are network-based, you (and your employees) can access them from anywhere in the world. This means that you can keep your business running as usual when you’re on vacation if your physical store closes down, or when moving to a new location. You can also easily deploy new departments in different locations around the world if you so desire.
You’ve Got Questions And We’ve Got Answers
If you need information about installing a VoIP system or any other IT-related service, contact Network Elites today for support and advice. Our Dallas, Texas-based professionals can help you solve all of your technological needs with intelligent, managed IT solutions. Call our sales office today at 214-247-6962 to learn about how we can help.
