VoIP Phone System for Small Business

At first glance, the process of setting up a VoIP phone system for a small business may not seem to be very different from the deployment process for every other business.

Especially when you consider hosted VoIP services, there appears to be no difference other than the number of seats for employees.

However the requirements and needs of small businesses are different enough that it makes sense to select a provider that either focuses exclusively on small and medium organizations or whose customers mainly come from that segment.

Why Does Business Size Matter?

The term small business encompasses a wide range in terms of size. A small business can be anything from a local bakery with eight employees to an IT company of 50 workers spread across three states.

Even the type of business can make a difference – a professional company that offers tax, accounting or computing services will have different requirements from their phone system when compared to a small stores selling pet products.

Some services are focused exclusively on tiny businesses i.e. freelancers, independent contractors working from their homes with no more than two or three employees.

Naturally such services may not be suitable for those small businesses that land firmly in the upper end of the spectrum or companies that are growing rapidly.

The same logic applies in the other direction as well. Quite a few service providers cater to medium and large organizations and their subscription plans reflect this.

They may offer features that are superfluous to a smaller company or bundle so many of them in the base tier that it becomes very expensive. In essence a small business may end up paying for a package where it does not use 30 to 40% of the features.

In between these two type of service providers, there are a number of vendors who tailor their offerings specifically for small businesses.

It means that the company does not have to spend time in customizing plans to suit their requirements and are able to get the support they need because the vendor has experience in dealing with smaller enterprises.

VoIPstudio is one such hosted VoIP phone system that is particularly suitable for small businesses in terms of the features, subscription plans and tech support.

What Features Should You Look for?

Business Features

A VoIP phone system offers a multitude of features which can be roughly categorized into business and technical features.

Some important business features to look out for include no annual contracts, number porting and the ability to work on mobile devices through native or third-party clients.

Even if a provider offers lower prices for contracts, it is more reasonable for the business to try out the service for a few months before making a commitment.

Small businesses rely on customer goodwill to a great extent and the ability to take your number with you – even if you change service – is a highly underrated feature.

VoIPstudio provides all of these features and more. For instance, the service allows for one second billing, which means that call charges are not rounded up to the nearest minute unlike other providers. A 43 second call will be charged for 43 seconds and not one minute.

A savings of a few cents per call might not seem much but they continue to add up by the day. Such savings are especially important to small businesses that often cannot afford to overpay for essential services.

You can also read about benefits of a VoIP phone system for a small business here.

Technical Features

Service vendors will often have an impressive list of technical features but it can be confusing to identify the features that are absolutely essential for your business.

For many small organizations, features that allow them to project a professional image and compete with larger companies are absolutely essential. These can be features like interactive voice response that connects callers with the right person or department without wasting time.

Your small business may not have a dedicated customer support department. In fact, it may consist of just two employees answering the phones but it doesn’t mean your phone system has to be rudimentary.

VoIPstudio provides the option of using ACD queues, wherein customers can be directed automatically to the first available employee. You can even set it up so that callers are informed of their position in line and the average wait times.

Another important feature is the amount of storage space available for voicemail, call recording and other data intensive features.

While some services impose a hard limit at which point older recordings will be deleted, VoIPstudio offers unlimited storage space so that your business never has to worry about callers being unable to leave a message because your inbox is full.

There are plenty of other features that are included by VoIP service vendors but not everything may be worth paying for. As long as the necessary features are included in the basic package, the company can always add extra services later.