How Does Mobile VoIP Affect your Business?

Communication is going mobile in both the consumer and enterprise worlds. No communication technology will survive long if it does not include a mobile component. What if all the devices you use in a day had to be tethered for you to use them? Our homes and offices would be a mess of wires crisscrossing the floor and walls.

Devices like phones, tablets, laptops etc. benefit enormously from their mobility. The only time you need to connect them to a wire is to charge up the battery. Mobility has become a necessity in the business world. Salespeople need to stay in touch with clients and service reps should always be on standby to answer queries from customers. It doesn’t matter which department you are in, mobile communication technologies help you stay in touch with colleagues and partners.

What is Mobile VoIP?

Any reputable VoIP service provider will offer mobile VoIP as part of your subscription. What does it mean to have mobile VoIP? It means you can use your smartphone to make IP calls over some sort of data connection. If you’re in the office or at home, you can use the Wi-Fi network to make calls. In places where Wi-Fi is not easily available, your phone’s data connection (LTE, 3G etc.) is used for calling.

Most people prefer Wi-Fi for mobile VoIP as it can be quite a bit faster. In the home or office Wi-Fi networks are also not throttled or limited. Mobile data plans on the other hand are generally not unlimited. Since each mobile IP call takes up valuable data, you are limited by the data plan your phone. However using your data plan can be less expensive than paying for mobile minutes.

Mobile VoIP for Enterprises

Mobile VoIP has the potential to affect your business in many ways. It opens up valuable opportunities that would otherwise not be available. Sales and customer service departments benefit the most from having access to mobile VoIP. Let’s take a look at several scenarios where mobile VoIP changes things dramatically.

Improving Customer Relationships

Today’s consumers demand customer support around the clock. Ideally any customer who is having trouble should be able to reach your customer service department on the first call. When you put people on hold or they get a busy signal, it increases their frustration with the problem they’re having.

Mobile VoIP lets you handle customer queries more effectively. Service representatives don’t have to be tied to their desks to answer calls. You don’t even have to provide separate business phones for your employees. They can use their personal devices to make VoIP calls with their professional numbers. The caller ID on outgoing calls will show the business number, safeguarding their privacy. More mobile VoIP apps can match the feature set of a desk phone but some of them come pretty close.

Flexible Work Timings for Employees

Your employees can also benefit from mobile VoIP and the flexibility it offers. Workers can choose to work from home or come to the office during nonpeak hours. They can still take business calls during office hours thanks to mobile VoIP apps. Offering flexible work timings is a huge bonus when it comes to attracting top-tier talent and dedicated workers for your business. Many people value such perks even more than cash bonuses or a higher salary.

This flexibility allows employees to balance their home and work life effectively. Some people like to come into the office and interact with their colleagues. Others would love to stay at home to take care of children or aging parents while working. You will have fewer employees burnout or leave the company due to working extra hours, weekends etc.

Mobile VoIP in the Traditional Office

Even if your office environment is more traditional and you don’t have employees who telecommute, mobile VoIP offers benefits. Employees can use a combination of their desk and mobile phone to take calls even when they are not at their desks. People go out for lunch, go to a different office for the day or work from client sites for part of the week. Mobile VoIP apps help such workers stay in touch regardless of their physical location.

This is not to say that mobile VoIP can completely replace desk IP phones. Mobile VoIP calls are limited by the speed of the data connection, the battery life of the mobile phone and other factors. They’re limited by the hardware which means audio quality will not match high quality desk models. Soft phone apps won’t have all the features available on your desk phones either.

While small businesses and startups can rely on mobile VoIP for some time, larger companies will want to have a combination of both. Try out mobile VoIP in your own company and see how much of a difference it can make with your own eyes!