Business VoIP: How Your Business Can Benefit From It

VoIP features many benefits that are appealing to small business owners. Here's our complete guide to all the business VoIP advantages you can enjoy right now.

Your small business can save up to 40 percent on local calls by making the switch to VoIP. For international calls, VoIP services can help you save up to 90 percent of what you currently pay.

For more than a few businesses, these cost savings alone are enough of a motivation to make the switch. However, if you still aren’t sure whether or not business VoIP services are right for you, keep reading.

Here you can learn about the most significant benefits and most compelling reasons to make the switch to VoIP services today.

VoIP vs. Cloud PBX

Before jumping into all the amazing benefits offered by VoIP, it’s important to understand the difference in VoIP services and cloud PBX. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is also referred to as Cloud PBX, Business VoIP, Hosted VoIP, and a myriad of other terms that have very similar meanings.

While the services are similar, these options have different features. It’s important to distinguish these differences before moving forward.

The Many Benefits of Business VoIP You Can’t Ignore

Now that you have a better understanding of what it is, it’s time to dive into the benefits it offers. These include the following:

Superior Call Quality

Modern VoIP technology has evolved in a way that makes sure the person you are calling or who is calling you can’t tell the difference from a traditional landline and VoIP services. Some VoIP services have even surpassed the call quality provided by traditional landlines.

Simple Installation, Configuration, and Maintenance

IP phones are pretty easy to install, even for those who have minimal know-how. In fact, instead of having to have a third-party provider come in and run all the needed phone wiring through your office or facility, you can easily set up the IP phone and use it quickly.

With hosted VoIP software, it’s also easy and cost-effective to add new users. The convenient web portal makes it easy to change, add to, or even move your system’s configuration.

There is never any VoIP hardware to install. All you need to get started in IP phones – you don’t even have to install any software.

Reduced Costs

Compared to traditional phone lines, VoIP is much more affordable. Cost savings are often listed as the top reason business owners make this switch.

After all, you can only install a certain number of phone lines, and the costs to do this add up quickly. This is especially the case if your business is making long-distance calls regularly.

When communication data is modified into data packets and sent through your IP network, the problem of a single phone line only being accessible to two individuals is eliminated. The IP network may be a direct IP connection to the current phone service provider you use or your internet connection. In some cases, it’s a combination of the two.

A traditional phone line is also going to typically charge you for every minute of call time you use. With a VoIP system, the only costs you pay are your monthly charges from your chosen ISP. It’s a good idea to compare VoIP costs from different service providers to ensure you are getting the best deal.

Multi-Functionality

There is more to today’s VoIP services than just receiving and making calls. Today’s systems incorporate other types of communication services, too, such as receiving faxes and voicemail via email, video conferencing, teleconferencing, presence information, and instant messaging.

The multi-features of VoIP, such as video conferencing, let you stay in touch with your employees to take about matters, regardless of where they are located in the world. By implementing the use of this communication system, your employees don’t have to be physically present in the same building. Instead, they can work abroad or from their home.

When VoIP is implemented, it’s also possible to forward faxes and voicemails to your email. By using this system, you can receive all of your messages in a single location – your email. This helps you to forward or archive your messages.

Easily Scale Services Up or Down with VoIP

It isn’t always easy to determine how many phones you are going to require in the next year. If you use a traditional phone system, you have to carefully estimate this number to ensure you don’t spend too much on phone lines that are never going to be used.

With a hosted telephone system, all this goes away. When VoIP is implemented, you can add lines when new employees are hired. Also, if an employee leaves, you can reassign their line, or remove it altogether. This ensures you always have the right number of phone lines for your business’s needs, without spending too much.

Simplified Conferencing

When there’s no need for dedicated phone lines, your conferencing abilities are considerably simplified. While traditional phone systems provide a conference feature, you are going to wind up paying for extra service along with hosting several callers each time you want to conference.

When a converged data network is in use, these features are native, and the cost is already built into the affordable prices of the VoIP services currently being paid for.

While this is true, voice calls aren’t the only thing provided by VoIP systems. With VoIP video conferencing is simplified, too. It’s simple to travel several media formats (text, video, images) during your video or phone calls. This helps you to significantly improve your ability to handle issues or conduct presentations while on the go.

Improved Security

Compared to traditional analog telephone connections, VoIP systems are much more secure. The phone system has several standardized encryption protocols. This ensures your data and calls are secure, which is something that’s not possible with a regular telephone connection.

The Ability for Employees to Take Their Numbers Regardless of Where They Go

Are you planning to expand or rearrange your office space? With a hosted VoIP phone system, you have an easy-to-use web portal that can be reconfigured at any time.

Implementing the use of a hosted VoIP system is also a good idea for businesses that have workers that travel often or field workers. The calls coming in can be diverted to any location in the world thanks to the features of a cloud-hosted VoIP phone system.

Improved Use of Bandwidth

A lesser-known benefit offered by VoIP is that it allows you to use your existing bandwidth much more efficiently. With approximately half of all voice conversations made up of silence, the VoIP system is going to fill these information gaps with additional data from other customers, helping you make the most of the resources you have.

What’s even more beneficial is that VoIP allows for the elimination of and compression of any speech redundancies, which help to improve overall efficiencies further.

Automated Assistance

By using VoIP, answers to the simplest, frequently asked questions regarding your product or service can be programmed into the system to serve your customers better. Also, these recordings can be heard by people who call in after hours, or on the weekend.

Easily Integrate VoIP with Other Business Systems

Since VoIP calls are always internet-based, a hosted VoIP system is much easier to integrate with the business applications you and your team use daily. You can easily perform actions such as placing outbound calls through Outlook or another email client or bring up customer records using the customer’s inbound calls.

VoIP also provides voicemail accounts through email for workers who travel regularly, and you can opt for voicemail transcription (i.e., visual voicemail) from some service providers. With this feature, your voicemail messages are transcribed into text, and they are routed to your email accounts. This eliminates the need to take notes while talking or listening to a message.

High Levels of Reliability

A common, yet inaccurate, objection to using VoIP is that if a business doesn’t have internet service, for any reason, they are also going to be without a phone. A benefit of VoIP is that if an office phone goes down due to no network, the calls can be forwarded to mobile phones or other devices.

This also means that power outages and weather-related issues no longer present the risk they once did.

Is VoIP Right for Your Business?

This is an important consideration that each business owner or management team has to decide for themselves. The fact is, though, compared to other types of business phone systems, a business VoIP setup offers a wide array of advantages.

If you are interested in having this type of phone system installed for your business, or if you want more information, get in touch with the professionals today. They can help ensure you get the services you need, for a price you can afford.

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