What is the Best Phone Service for a Small Business

Phone service for small business

What is the best phone service for a small business?

One of the mistakes that a lot of small businesses make is not thinking about of the system as the first priority. Most of them stick with the cheapest alternative that they know so that they can cut the cost because the thought is that who even calls anymore. You might be amazed to know that whenever a customer face is an issue with your service or has a complex enquiry for you then they still choose to make a phone call. A Phone system for small business needs to incorporate multiple phones the VoIP phone technology and several accessible features to enhance the efficiency these kinds of phone systems are also known as the main system. In this article, we are going to talk about a number of the best phone systems for small businesses in the market so that you can save your time and your money.

What Small Business Phone System do you require?

 

VoIP vs. traditional PBX system: what is so different?

It is an obvious fact that the best phone system for any business will depend on the type and size of the business. If your business is expected to have and make a lot of goals and have an employee office based during the day, then you should not buy the highest Technology phone system because it will just be a waste of your time in money.

Moreover, it is also important that you should think about the long term. Even though your business may be small at present but what about the next coming years? You might just need an office-based system at the moment but what will you need if some of your employees wish to work from home or another remote location. You will need a business phone system which can facilitate this kind of flexibility instead of hindering these advances.

That is where the VoIP phone system comes in. VoIP phone services allow businesses to move away from the traditional onsite business phone lines. Employing VoIP phone services allow your employees to communicate with each other and with customers in a better way by using their Smartphone. It is a fact that if you have the right phone system and a strong internet connection then your business can lower the cost and gain from every feature of the traditional phone systems. Before making a decision you may want to know the difference between VoIP and the traditional office phone system.

Traditional phone system PBX

If you are opting to buy a traditional business point system then you should know that all of your employees will need an individual phone line. If you own a small business setup then you will have just a handful of employees so you might be able to use the home phone system. If you want a lot of extensions for your office then you will have to look at the private branch exchange. It can coordinate all of the incoming and outgoing calls which helps in transferring the calls and managing the voice mail of different extensions. If we used an on-site PBX system that is mounted on the wall then every phone line will be plugged into that mounted box. These days the PBX can be virtual too, providing the same functionality as the traditional hardware did.

VoIP

Contrary to the on-site business phone systems the voice phone services work by transmitting the phone call audio over the internet it is essential to ensure that all of your voice phones don’t utilize the identical connection for the internet.  Because if several employees are online at the same time then you could experience garbled are dropped phone calls.

For instance, if you have a 2 person business then you will probably just need 2 phone lines. Instead, if you have gotten 10 employees business then you will most probably need 5 to 7 lines and if you have a company of 100 employees then you will most likely need 20 or more phone lines. It is also worth knowing that VoIP phone systems also provide hosted cloud-based and non-hosted versions

Read more: Team Managing and Video Conferencing with VoIP Phone services

So what is actually the difference between VoIP and business IP phone systems?

The IP phone systems use of private data network to carry all the conversations over the distance. Whereas, VoIP users use public data network. In case you don’t have a private network then you will need to go for VoIP. you will not notice any difference in the quality if the system is installed properly.

How can you find the correct match for your business?

As we have described the difference between traditional and VoIP systems. We hope that you have now a more clear understanding of how different they are. When you are searching for a phone system you should always ask yourself the following 11 questions:

  1. How many four lines are you going to need?
  2. How many extensions are you going to need?
  3. What type of features do you want on your phone system?
  4. How many and provider sockets are you going to need?
  5. Does your phone system have the capability to expand with your business?
  6. Are you going to need call forwarding and feature integration into your system?
  7. Will you need call redirection for employees who work from the remote location?
  8. Do you want to have a high speed that a network which can run on wireless Technology?
  9. Do you need your business to integrate with the phone system with it used?
  10. Do you want to recognise customer details and then dial number from the computers it is called computer telephony integration (CTI)?
  11. How much can you pay for the line rental?

You must have all the answers to these questions when you go out to look for the best provider.

Now we are going to discuss some of the best or top of their game phone systems which are best for small businesses.

Small business phone providers in the UK

 

  • 4com
  • 8×8
  • British Telecommunications BT
  • Mitel Networks
  • LILY comms
  • Cisco Systems

 

1.     8×8

Selecting a business phone system is a hard task but it can be harder to find a provider more innovative than 8×8. The company has won several high profile awards because of their industry leading and cost-effective technology. The company also has high clients like NetSuite and McDonalds.

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What benefits 8×8 can provide your small business:

 

  • Work from anywhere: with feature-rich desktop and mobile apps you can work remotely.
  • Highly responsive customer service team: you get setup aid and resolve issues as they arise.
  • Go global: you get virtual office editions which support call to and from up to 45 countries.

 

2.     Mitel

Mitel is one of the leading business phone service providers with almost 2 billion connections each day. The company caters for businesses that have one to 2500+ employees, in a wide range of industries from hospitality to healthcare. The company can identify the requirements of office phone systems which can make life simpler and technologies which can adapt to the changing dynamics of the businesses.

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What benefits Mitel can provide your small business:

 

  • Everything in one place: this means that your desk and mobile phones, voicemail, web conferencing, instant messaging etc together in one integrated system.
  • Facilitate mobility: remote working and host desking will not have an impact on your staff’s performance. The company takes all this into account.
  • Specialists in call centre solutions: you will not have to risk the aggravating potential and existing customers with a frustrating call. The company works to provide your customers with the best experience possible.

 

3.     4Com

The company is proud on offering tailored services to every individual business. The company is an expert when it comes to the small businesses, it knows that the one size fits all approach cannot work or everyone. 4comm works closely with their customers to reduce their business cost and enhance their business efficiency. Therefore, the company has earned a lot of recognition and is among the top 1000 companies to inspire the Britain.

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What benefits 4Com can provide your small business:

 

  • Computer telephony integration (CTI): this means that your phone system and business computers can work alongside each other. For example, CTI enables you to see incoming caller’s information and hence offer a more personal customer service experience.
  • Call reporting: with this, you can analyze how the customers can transfer through your phone system and to know when there are ‘blockages’.
  • Call recording: this makes it easy for you to provide staff training and monitor your employees’ performances.

 

4.     BT

BT offers you a great collection of phone systems including cloud based VoIP and on-site PBX for small businesses. Particularly businesses that move often also can get the BT one phone office. This option gives customers the best of both landline and mobile, all in one phone. BT has a lot of industry experience and knowledge making the extremely reliable choice.

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What benefits BT can provide your small business:

 

  • Plug ‘n’ play options available: with this, you can set up and have the services running in no time.
  • Dedicated project manager: a person who will know your business from inside out, and will even visit your office space to make recommendations.
  • Access to 4G and more than five million BT Wi-Fi hotspots: with this, you can work outside the office easily.

 

5.     Lily Comms

Lily Comms is an expert in providing customers with affordable and effective small business phone services. According to a recent survey almost 86% of customers saved capital when they switched to Lily. They have worked alongside high profile customers including Lidle, Specsavers, Citroen and NHS.

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What benefits Lily Comms can provide your small business:

 

  • They promise the most up-to-date technology: company’s partner firm Ericsson-LG, have reported spend almost four times as much on the development and research than their closest competitor. You can ensure that each solution has the cutting-edge.
  • Dedicated account manager: the company is proud to provide customers with ‘friendly expert’. Further, your dedicated account manager works with you to choose the best option.
  • Save Money: the company has a track record of save their customer’s money.

 

6.     Reach Digital Telecoms

Even though the company is relatively new, it has still made a lot of name of itself by fulfilling its commitment of making life easier for the business customers. The company offers all-inclusive packages along with top quality services. Reach Digital Telecoms has you covered whether you want a new, nothing extra system or the full works including call on-hold, call transfer/divert and auto-attendant etc). Their every solution is tailored so that you are just paying for what you require.

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What benefits Reach Digital Telecoms can provide your small business:

 

  • All-inclusive packages: you have the free consultation, installation and maintenance. There are no hidden charges or malicious surprises.
  • Improved business telephone systems for all: the business of every size can boost their productivity and enhance customer service through the advanced and user-friendly telephony.
  • Top customer services: one of the company’s proudest achievements is the proactive aftercare service.

 

7.     Cisco

Even though the company was established in the US it provides services in the UK and Ireland as well. The company has been in business for more than 30 years. It offers tailored phone systems for small businesses. They stay ahead of their competitors with the latest communication solutions such as cloud-hosted software.

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What benefits Cisco can provide your small business:

  • Simplicity: the company unifies your communications instead of making the system more complicated.
  • Build relationships: the company provides high-class video links that enable you to connect with customers and providers like never before.
  • No phone? No problem: the Cisco software enables you to make and receive calls from multiple devices such as computers or tablets.

 

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