In this guide, we tell you about the best VoIP service for small businesses. There are a lot of different providers with different prices and features. You want one that will work well for your company and be good to use.
This guide talks about VoIP services that have been rated by people who have used them before, so you can know what to get from them. We break it all down for you so that you can understand what makes each VoIP good. With this information, you will be able to decide which VoIP phone service is right for your business with ease.
Choosing a VoIP service phone system isn’t easy. Your employees and customers deserve the best call quality and customer service in order to deliver your products in the most effective manner. It’s important to find a VoIP system that delivers real value to your business, teams, and customers.
What Is VoIP?
VoIP is a phone for your office. VoIP is an acronym that stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. It uses the internet to make and receive calls, and it gives more options for your business to use. VoIP gives you flexibility because you can work from anywhere, and on any device.
Businesses use IP phone systems because it allows people to talk on their phone even when they are at home or when they are travelling. It is good for business calls. You can even find a headset that will let you talk hands free or take notes while you speak on the phone. Many schools and universities use IP phones because they work well with an automated system for picking up calls.
VoIP can help to turn your workplace into a virtual office. This is done by using a VoIP solution, which allows you to use your mobile devices and computer to make calls. This can help to improve communication within your team and also save you money on phone bills.
How VoIP Service Can Improve Customers’ Satisfaction
To provide excellent service, you need to deliver what your customers need. VoIP can help you do this by providing a variety of common qualities necessary to provide a premium experience. Your customers want more, and they will appreciate businesses that give it to them. Your business needs a modern phone system to stay ahead in the competition.
To address customer needs, you need to do a few things. First, you must have a connection with the customer. This is shown by rapid response times to voicemail messages and quick retrieval of customer information. You also need to be willing to help and support the customer as well as give them convenience, features, and options when they are looking for something specific.
Finally, make sure that there are multiple channels for how customers can ask questions or get service so they can contact you in whichever way they want.
Small businesses should use high-quality business phone systems because they help increase customer experience. Customers want a positive, rewarding experience that they will recommend. Having a high-quality business phone system can help small businesses provide these types of experiences to their customers.
Each customer has a personal idea of what great service will look like. It is important that you have an understanding of what this looks like to each customer, or they will become frustrated. Customers might be just a tweet away from launching an angry fit because they typically call in on their mobile phones.
It’s crucial to communicate with customers in order to see success, so be sure to invest in a phone system that will allow you to always be reachable. For example, if you’re without power or Internet access because of bad weather, your business line can still go through on your cell phone.
How VOIP Service Can Affect Business’ Bottom Line
Businesses that provide phone service often fail to realize how important each customer interaction is. These interactions create experiences, and it’s the small details – such as “daily interactions” – that matter most. Satisfaction and buying decisions are often influenced by the provider’s actions.
Your office should have a reliable cloud phone system in order to provide smooth communication with your customers. This will prevent poor service from occurring due to miscommunication. Even if your office has a PBX, you can still use a cloud phone system to improve communication.
It is important to evaluate the options that are available when you are trying to improve your communication needs. When it comes to the types of communication channels that you need, you should consider any platform that could be utilized for this purpose. This includes messaging platforms, SMS, email, and phone system capabilities. You should also analyze whether these tools provided by the big tech companies are useful for your business or not.
Take into account their quality and analyze whether these tools are capable of performing at a top notch level.
The communications industry is constantly evolving and there are many ways to integrate VoIP into your business. A popular option, especially for businesses that use Cisco, Avaya or Polycom as their phone system backbone would be via SIP Trunks which provide a connection between the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) line on one end and IP PBX voice networks such as Asterisk at another.
A VoIP system is essential for a business that wants to provide a high-quality customer relationship.
Best VoIP Systems For Small Businesses
The modern business phone service offers so many more features than just voice calls. With the help of cloud-based phone systems, Voice over internet protocol (VoIP) business phone systems can offer unified communications as a service (UCaaS) features to help companies communicate in a variety of ways. This includes emails, text messages, instant and media messages, video conferences, and social media sites.
If you’re looking for a way to communicate with your customers and employees more effectively, you should switch from your old telephone to a business VoIP service provider. VoIP providers offer many features that can help your business run more smoothly, including conference calling, voicemail to email, and call forwarding. Furthermore, VoIP providers are often more affordable than traditional phone providers.
When you’re looking for a VoIP service for your business, it’s important to know why you need it. What are your specific needs? Do you need a call center-friendly system? More or less control over how your service works?
Once you know what you need, you can start looking at the providers that offer those services. Here are a few systems to consider:
PBX: A private branch exchange (PBX) is used to communicate internally or externally. A PBX often handles internal phone extensions and call management.
Virtual PBX: It is a service that provides businesses with phone system solutions to help them manage their calls in different departments or offices.
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Trunk: SIP Trunks are used for voice and video communications. Data is sent via a SIP client, which makes it an efficient way to get things done.
PSTN: The PSTN, or Public Switched Telephone Network is the infrastructure and services for public telecommunication. It includes a network of switches that connect all calls together in one place to make them easy-to use with just one phone number.
Eight Best VoIP Service Providers To Choose From
There are many VoIP service providers to choose from, but these eight are some of the best. They offer great features and benefits that will improve your business communication and customer service experiences.
1. RingCentral
The RingCentral phone system is a one-stop shop for any company looking to modernize their communication needs. With features like voice, video and team messaging all in one streamlined interface; this investment will save you time management headaches while providing an efficient way of staying connected with your customers and employees no matter where they are or what device they use.
RingCentral is a company that has been in the VoIP space for quite some time. They are known to have innovative and cutting-edge technology, which can be integrated into any type of cloud hosting solution with ease.
RingCentral offers the best in quality international video conferencing which can really help companies conduct meetings more efficiently and cost effectively.
RingCentral’s pricing starts at $19.99 monthly per user for their Essentials plan which allows up to 20 users, but you can choose from three different packages if your business needs more than that: Standard plan starts at 24.99 and Premium or Ultimate plans have advanced features such as automatic call recording and single sign-on integrations available too.
2. Nextiva
Nextiva offers four different business phone service plans to meet the needs of small business owners. The higher-tier plans come at a cost, but provide unlimited voice and video, toll-free minutes, and conference call participants without any other features. Sales teams will find the higher-tier plans from Nextiva to be a great fit for their business phone needs since it provides helpful insights on incoming customer calls with its Call Pop feature.
The price of Nextiva’s phone service starts from $20.00 per user every month. It offers a better deal, once you add more users. Its price plans also give you the options to expand your office phone.
3. GoToConnect
GoToConnect gives your business the ability to combine voice and video as well as mobility so you can always stay connected with your work on your phone even when you are not in the office. It simplifies phone line management and call monitoring.
If you’re looking for a professional call center or sales team, the GoToConnect Premium plan will provide more than 100 features at an affordable price. Its premium plan starts at $30 per user per month for more than 100 users.
You can buy its Jive phone service plan at $19.95-$29.95 per month per user. After that, price plans change with every additional group of users.
4. 8×8
8×8 offers a truly unified cloud-based communication system that works with your business to provide reliable, seamless solutions. It prides itself on being an innovative thinker and keeps you connected for better customer service.
8×8 quickly resolves all miscommunications-related issues that your business faces. It allows you to build good relations with your customers by ensuring that messages delivered are no longer hampered by the system you use.
Its price plans range from $25 to over 170 dollars per month.
5. Dialpad
Dialpad is one of the best business phone systems. It includes AI features in all three of its business phone plans. Dialpad refers to its AI-based features as voice intelligence. Voice intelligence features can help you collaborate with team members and improve customer interactions.
Dialpad’s Voice intelligence feature can transcribe calls and send summaries to team members after the call is over. This feature can be a valuable tool for growing your business by providing insights into client interactions. The AI insights can recommend next steps in client interactions and provide speech coaching tips for future calls.
Dialpad offers a variety of plans for various needs. For as little as $25 per month, users can get all the features and functions offered by Dialpad with no additional cost.
6. Vonage Business
Vonage’s business phone system is a great choice for companies that want reliable service with high uptime. Microsoft Teams integrations are extensive, and you can easily get started with Vonage.
It is cloud-based, which allows you to manage your entire office phone system from anywhere. Moreover, with Vonage Business, you do not need to worry about additional installations or costs since the software is easy to integrate with any existing infrastructure.
You can also get started right away because all of the features are already included in this line of business phone systems.
The Vonage Business Nexmo API platform helps you provide excellent experience to your customers. Its omni-channel capabilities are industry famous for giving better customer experience.. This means businesses can provide a more unified customer experience by providing consistent customer service across all channels, including voice, chat, and text.
7. Ooma
Ooma offers technology that assures every customer call is crystal clear. This helps keep your customers happy and makes your business look professional.
It’s hard to think of a more reliable way than with Ooma. It delivers voice quality even under extreme conditions and keeps the conversation flowing no matter what you’re doing.
With a VoIP provider like Ooma, you can realize how different it is from the rest. It improves employee commitment to service; it also delivers ease and productivity for all employees involved with business communications.
The price of Ooma phone service starts from $19.00 per month, per user.
8. Avaya
Avaya’s cloud phone system is a one-stop-shop for all your communication needs. You can call, chat and meet with employees or customers from anywhere in the world using this platform.
The Avaya Cloud Office provides you with the perfect solution for all your communication needs. You can reach out customers or coworkers through voice and SMS messaging on your desktop or mobile device with this service.
The Avaya Cloud Office suite offers four different pricing plans to fit your needs. With each plan based on the number of licenses you need, there’s sure to be something for everyone.
Its basic plan starts at $19.99/user/month. This plan is good for companies having less than 20 users. The Standard plan starts at $24.99/user/month, Premium begins at $34.99/user/month, and Ultimate starts at $49.99/user/month.
FAQs On Office Phone Systems
What Is A Small Business Phone System?
A small business phone system is a communication platform that uses the Internet, rather than the standard phone network, to make and receive phone calls. VoIP phones offer features that you don’t get from a traditional phone system. VoIP offers features like call recording, call routing, visual voicemail. Your traditional desk phones don’t offer such advanced features.
What is “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD)?
Bring Your Own Device, or BYOD as it’s often called, has been a growing trend in the workplace for some time now. Employees are bringing their own devices into the office, then connecting with both work and personal apps on those devices. Allowing employees to bring their own device to work means less for employers to purchase and support, since the employee is already familiar with its use and has data security measures in place. This also helps companies balance budgets by not having to reinvest large sums of money every few years when a new technology comes out that they need every employee to have.
What Should I Look For In A Small Business Phone System?
When looking for a small business phone system, you should consider the features that are important to your business. Things to look for include a system with a 99.9% uptime, scalable pricing/plans, mobile applications for Apple and Android devices, integrations with existing third-party communication and client management software, and unlimited calling. You should also consider standard VoIP features like call routing, call recording, call forwarding, call transfer, call queueing.
What Equipment Do I Need For A VoIP Phone System?
In order to set up a VoIP phone system, you will need a broadband internet connection, a router and modem, and standard phones. A VoIP provider will provide you with the software needed to make calls, which can be installed on any computer or mobile device. Most users choose a cloud-based solution, where the provider hosts the data server.
However, some businesses may choose an on-premises VoIP service which requires additional equipment. Additional equipment you need include headsets, speakers, analog phones, microphones, and even professionally installed conference rooms with digital whiteboard screens.
How Do I Set Up A Small Business Phone System?
Setting up a phone system doesn’t have to be difficult – many providers offer easy-to-use online tools. In just a few minutes, you can be up and running.
The steps to take for a business VoIP system are: check network compatibility, choose a business phone number, make sure how many people will be using the system. The next step is to download the VoIP app.
There are two types of VoIP phone systems, those that work over cable and require an actual PBX box to be connected from the user’s location all they way back into their home office or workplace network. Cloud-based solutions do not have this requirement because there isn’t any sort of physical connection between your device and computer.
You can also use an Ethernet cable to connect your desk phones/computers with the PBX box.
VoIP providers want their customers to be satisfied with the service and experience, which is why they offer a variety of features to make it easy for you.
Most VoIP companies have onboarding programs available or do training webinars.