Last Updated on September 24, 2020 by Guest
Which phone system to use is one of the most important decisions a small business will make. If your phone system goes down, can not handle the volume of calls you receive, or doesn’t have the features you need, it can cost you customers and grind business to a halt. Virtual phone systems are making it easier for small businesses to get the features they need at a price they can afford. When choosing your next phone system, consider these eight benefits of virtual systems.
1. Cost
The rates charged by virtual phone systems are usually cheaper than comparable traditional carriers for local, mobile, and international calls. As long as you have access to the internet, you can use your virtual phone system to make calls from anywhere, while avoiding the roaming charges you might incur with a mobile carrier. Additionally, because the number is hosted in the cloud, you will not need to pay line charges or maintenance. The setup costs are also usually lower.
2. Keep Your Number
If your business is a startup or young growing company, you may be working out of a home office, temporary space, or need to move into new larger facilities as your company grows. With a virtual phone system, you can keep the same number when you move to a different space or are traveling, which helps maintain an appearance of stability and professionalism. It also prevents you from potentially losing customers because they are trying to contact you at a number that is no longer in service.
3. Get the Features You Need
Most virtual phone systems come with an easy online portal that allows you to quickly make changes such as adding or removing numbers, customizing your voicemail, setting up call forwarding, and accessing call logs. By contrast, with a traditional carrier, you often have to wait on hold with an agent to request feature changes, and you may have to pay a fee.
4. Quick and Easy to Set Up
Some traditional multi-line phone systems are very complex to set up, and you may have to wait days for a technician to come out and install them for you. Additionally, it may take several days to train your employees on using complex systems. Many virtual phone systems can be set up in just a few minutes.
5. Choose Your Number
If you are based in a different physical location from where you plan to do most of your business, it may benefit you to have a number that matches the location where your customers are, rather than where your business is. You can do this with most virtual phone systems.
6. One Number for Many Locations
If your employees are working out of home offices or satellite locations, you can use your virtual phone system to have one number that can be routed to extensions in all of your locations. You can also use sharing features to have calls automatically route to an available employee if the person at the extension dialed initially is not available. With some systems, such as ninja number, you can set up a separate business number routed to your phone.
7. Portable
You can take your virtual phone system anywhere you have access to the internet. Calls can be routed to your mobile phone or smartphone app. You can choose to receive voicemails and faxes as emails. This makes it easier to work on the go, without having to worry about paying for extra data and roaming charges on your cellular plan.
8. Avoid Missed Calls
With virtual phone systems, you can have your calls routed to a linked phone, PC, or tablet so that you can answer calls wherever you are and on whatever device you are using. You can also set up the system to route calls from one device to the next if you do not pick up or have them all ring at the same time, so you can be sure you do not miss an important call.
Virtual phone systems provide the features and portability of complex, enterprise phone solutions in a user-friendly and affordable package that makes them perfect for small businesses. If you want the features of a traditional multi-line phone system without the price tag and hassle, consider going virtual.