VoIP Phone Service for Small Business

Most small businesses prefer to use hosted VoIP services rather than traditional enterprise phone systems for a variety of reasons. This is not to say that VoIP is only suitable for small businesses.

Rather it offers multiple benefits for organizations regardless of size or industry. Nevertheless VoIP phone service for small businesss offers an ideal combination of enterprise features at very low cost compared to the alternatives.

Although an enterprise can use VoIP through SIP trunking – which gives them control and customization options – it requires upfront investment and personnel who are knowledgeable about the system for regular maintenance.

This is rarely something that is affordable for small businesses and most would rather not have to deal with the hassle. This is why hosted VoIP is preferred by small business owners across the country.

VoIP Phone Service Costs

The biggest draw for small enterprises is the cost of getting started with VoIP phone service. Many good vendors offer a free trial during which the client can use all the features in real-world testing. It ensures that organizations are not disappointed by a demo or sales pitch.

If a company does not make a high volume of calls every day, a flat fee plus per minute billing are a suitable choice. For businesses that undertake tech support such as call centers, unlimited plans are better option. In both these cases, the cost per call is very low which means that these companies can easily estimate their monthly expenditure and plan for it.

There are not many fees in the form of equipment costs since any device with an Internet connection can usually be made used to make calls. Many businesses prefer to purchase dedicated IP phones for higher-quality, but calls can be made through the computer or mobile device as well.

VoIP Phone Service Features

The second benefit is that VoIP allows small businesses to present a professional image to callers – whether it is partners, vendors or customers. It let them compete with multinational companies with features such as auto receptionist, IVR etc. These features would normally require expensive PBX boxes but with VoIP, they can simply be activated/de-activated through an online dashboard.

For a small company of 10 to 15 employees, handling incoming calls usually requires employees to put callers on hold so that they can be connected to the correct person. This entire process can be automated thanks to VoIP by reducing the number of voicemails or missed connections. Although it appears to be a trivial matter, streamlining workflows can lead to increased revenue and profitability.

VoIPstudio is a good example of a hosted VoIP service that is suitable for small businesses. Compared to vendors that offer per minute billing (call times are rounded up to the nearest minute for billing), the company offers per second billing which ensures that clients are not charged for even one extra second more than what has been used. It might only make a small difference for each call but over thousands of calls per month, it can add up significantly.

Quite a few hosted VoIP services for small businesses are handicapped in the sense that clients cannot get phone numbers in more than a handful of ZIP codes, depending on which country the vendor is based out of. Fortunately VoIPstudio is able to provide phone numbers in more than 4000 cities across the world to help small businesses reach customers in any market.

Some companies are in such a hurry to upgrade to VoIP that they forget to evaluate vendor customer support. However, this is an important point that has an effect on the user experience. VoIP studio has 24 x 7 customer support and extensive FAQs that can be helpful for users if and when they need to troubleshoot certain issues regarding installation or usage.

The availability and reliability of customer support can make the difference between a small business being able to use the services that they paid for or waiting hours/days for the provider to handle their support ticket. Downtime of even a few hours can mean a lot to most small enterprises. There are not many alternatives to hosted VoIP that offer a better value to small businesses and VoIPstudio is a great example of VoIP phone service done right.