If you are now at a crossroads, whether to go over to the side of VoIP or stay in the realm of traditional landline telephony, we have compiled a top 5 road map for you. At the end of this post, you’ll know exactly how VoIP works for business and is it worth switching to it.
While you read and think about it, we added a link to one of our favorites songs, here we go, enjoy!
1. Reduce costs for the telephony.
Situation. You rule a global corporation and need to make lots and lots of international calls. In the landline telephony, distance defines the cost of a call. Because of this international and mobile calls are high-priced.
For a large organization, you are also setting the office phone system – Private Branch Exchange (PBX). In the landline phone system, you’ll need to have a separate line for each employee. So, add to your costs several telephone sets, hubs, switches, phone adapters, and routers. And don’t forget about PBX setup and maintenance charges.
The total amount of those expenses scares even the bravest of us.
Solution. With the IP-telephony the price does not depend on the distance – therefore the cost of international calls will be several times cheaper than that of landline telephony. You don’t need any additional equipment for the IP PBX. On top of that, you don’t require any in-house maintenance technicians. VoIP provider manages the network and handles all the issues. And it’s included in the price 🙂
2. Customize phone numbers to reach more markets.
Situation. Your office is located in London, and you call to Paris. When your customers see a number with an unknown country code, they simply do not pick up the phone.
Solution. DID (Direct Inward Dialing) looks like the usual geographic or mobile number. But actually, this virtual number doesn’t require the local presence of your business. So in London, you buy a number for Paris – and voila! Your customers pick up the phone and have a more positive attitude to your offer in general.
3. Receive calls anytime anywhere.
Situation. Your offices are located in different time zones. And you want to redirect your customers calling out of hours to the office which is working at the moment.
Solution. VoIP telephony allows forwarding to either landline, mobile or DID numbers. You can set forwarding rules to manage inbound calls. So your customers get the best service all around the clock regardless of their location. By the way, VoIP call forwarding is free of charge.
4. Dynamically scale the phone system to fit your current business size.
Situation. You want to call customers to announce your great Black Friday discounts. To do this, you temporarily attract several agents. In order to connect them to the traditional telephone system, you need to buy additional phones, draw telephone lines and spread them around the office, set up external telephones, and then assign each telephone line to each new employee. Not only is it expensive and lengthy. Also, these extensions hang dead weight until you again require them.
Solution. And here VoIP steps in. VoIP allows adding lines during peak season to accommodate the increased demand. You can instantly scale your VoIP system without any hardware changes. During the offseason, you can quickly return to your regular service. This way, your business saves time and money, paying only for the actual services used.
5. Integrate phone system with your customer relationship tools.
Situation. Your clients base is growing. And at some point, you realize that managers do not have enough time or they forget to enter data on all calls to your CRM. Customer data is lost; customers are not called back; almost completed sales fail – your business bears losses.
Solution. Integrate VoIP phone system with your CRM. All data on calls are automatically recorded in the CRM. You can even get call records and detailed reports. During the call, agents will immediately see the customer data and will be able to add or change information, leave comments, and so on. Now you genuinely control your calling.
We looked at the most obvious uses of VoIP telephony to fuel your business prosperity. There are much more features of IP telephony, but that’s another story.
Still doubt? You can have a free trial of our VoIP solution so that you check how IP-telephony works.