The Business Side Of VoIP
Although most of the marketing of VoIP is directed at the in home consumer, one of the largest benefits that this service can offer is to the business owner.
Just consider your business phone bill. Do you pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars each month to keep your employees connected with clients, shippers, suppliers and the rest of their needs? Do you pay long distance charges that are exceedingly high? Are you afraid to even look at the international charges on your phone bill?
VoIP is designed to allow both the personal and the advanced business owner to have all of the interconnectivity that they need at the affordable rates that only VoIP can offer to you.
If you are a business owner, VoIP will cut your costs down considerably. It can even provide additional services to you to enhance your experience with VoIP. Here, we’ll show you only some of the tools and benefits of using VoIP with your business.
Costs Drastically Lowered
The largest benefit to the business owner in using VoIP is the cost savings. There is no doubt that the long distance costs that most business interact with on a daily basis are going to be outrageous with a traditional phone line, especially when business associates and customers are located around the world.
With VoIP, your calls are transmitted into data which is then sent over the internet. It works just in the same way that it would in a home user environment. With this also comes the benefit to having the low costs of making calls and sending information.
Here’s an example. Let’s say that you are on your way to a meeting and running late. You get a business call on your laptop telling you about an important update. You take it then head out to the airport. When you get there, you get an urgent voicemail that was directed to your business phone. The good thing is that it was just sent to your email inbox and now that you’ve got a hotspot, you’ve got the information.
Although you are traveling from New York to Los Angeles, you didn’t have to have your customers, your clients or even your business associates change the place they call you. You take your phone number (with New York area code) with you to Los Angeles and don’t miss a single beat in the process.
Because all of your information and data is sent over the internet, the costs are low. Business accounts are readily available to the business owner for VoIP services. You won’t have to worry about getting the most for your money, especially with flat rate service. Just compare for one minute the difference in cost from a standard or traditional long distance plan to what you can get with VoIP. You’ll be amazed.
Another money saver that the business has when they use VoIP is that they don’t have to maintain separate networks for their data transmissions and their phone system.
You don’t have to incur additional costs for when an employee moves, changes or is added. This can easily cost a $100 or more per employee when it happens on a traditional line. This way, it costs you nothing. You just take the phone and move it to where they are going and plug it in.
Productivity
Just imagine all that you can do and keep on doing because there is the ability to stay connected no matter where you go. There are features that allow you to do all of the things that you would want to do and then so much more along with it.
One of the largest benefits that come from using VoIP for increased productivity has to do with the way that your phone numbers are configured.
For example, you can configure the system so that a call that comes in will be simultaneously ringing on several devices. For example, it could go to the desk or to the cell. That means that before it heads to your voice mail account, it’s been able to be answered faster and by more locations. Therefore, you don’t miss important calls. You stop the problem of phone tag!
This service along was shown by one research firm, Sage Research, to have increased productivity in the workplace by adding almost 4 hours per week per employee to your role. That is a huge significance to many business owners today worrying about productivity.
There are additional ways that it can benefit you and your employee productivity, too.
For example:
• Plan a business meeting where you and your associated are located around the world. The good news is that they are right there in the same room with you using video phone technology. The cost is the same as a phone call using your VoIP service.
• In the middle of the night you can get your messages without leaving your home. No need to worry about the piece of information that you forgot to bring home. Its available right on your VoIP service.
• Need to send a message to your employee? Don’t bother with picking up the phone to call them, having to do all the formalities or even waiting for them to become available. Just send them a message that arrives right in their email box.
• You don’t have to wait for a line to be available. As long as you have a VoIP ready phone or a computer with a microphone, you can talk to them in seconds.
• Access your business phone anywhere, anytime as long as you have a connection to the broadband service. In airports, at home, or at the hotel around the world that you are staying with.
• Talk with your laptop. With the right software installed on your laptop, you can send and receive all of your calls using a microphone or headset. Take your laptop with you and gain the benefits.
• Voicemail and faxes can easily be sent and received through VoIP. They will end up in your email inbox. That means that you have on easy place to get them, and you can easily forward them to others.
• Use virtual phone numbers to connect with your customers. If you want your customers to believe that you are in one location and that they are dialing a local company, select a phone number with that locations area code.
Getting VoIP Into Your Business
So, we’ve convinced you that there are benefits to adding VoIP into your business, but how do you do that?
The business systems that you have in place are all complex and while VoIP really is simple for you to install and start using, even in the business world, there are things to consider before installing it.
One thing you should consider right away is hiring a professional to handle the process of installation of the service. Even using a VoIP service provider’s expert installation professionals is a smart move to make for a number of reasons.
But, this isn’t necessary if you have a small business and are using a standard VoIP product. You’ll be able to install this type of system without a problem in most cases. If you do have more dedicated plans, though, you should consider hiring a professional.
A larger VoIP system is just as beneficial and can even provide more to you than a standard service. But, hiring a professional is almost always necessary just because of the details. You can also have your service tailored to fit your specific needs when you have a professional install them. It’s not that costly and it will pay off within the first few months of use.
Testing, Testing…
You should also implement your VoIP technology slowly at first. By taking the time to test one area of your business with VoIP will work out and glitches or concerns that people may have. By testing VoIP on just a few users will help you to make sure that you are happy with using VoIP and that you have the system set up to provide you with the tools that you need.
By testing the VoIP service with just a handful of employees, you can insure that the process is going to be beneficial to you. The good news is that in most cases, working out the bugs takes minutes if that and you’ll be able to start benefiting from it right away.
Call Forwarding Benefits
Another thing to take into consideration is call forwarding services. For example, the largest problem with VoIP is that if the power goes out or you somehow otherwise end up with no internet service (as if that’s every happened!) you’ll need some method of still being able to use your phone system.
There are two solutions you should install to prevent this problem. First, consider having a back up power source available. Depending on your desired need, having a generator (the size that would equip your business with what it needs) will help you to actually keep your internet up and running even when the power goes out. Installing a generator or other back up system doesn’t have to be too costly or too time consuming either.
Secondly, you should consider using a call forwarding set up. That means that for when the power goes up, you have your VoIP system set up to move calls to a landline phone (the traditional type) or they can be forwarded to a cell phone or even a service.
By instilling these things into your system, you’ll save yourself from not having the ability to communicate when you need to.
Security And VoIP
One thing that you must do when it comes to using VoIP is securing your network. If you will be using VoIP for any important considerations, or your internet connection is important to you and your business, then you need security. This should not be something that is new to you in that there are countless products and reasons to use security if you have an internet connection at all.
But, with VoIP you want to insure that not one can get into your business through your internet connection. Technically, without the right firewall and protection on your system, a hacker could get in and wreak havoc on your business phone service.
But, before you throw VoIP out the window because of this risk, realize that with the right protection, you can completely safeguard your internet connections.
In fact, you are no more at risk with the VoIP technology as you are with the internet you are using.
As a business owner, it is important to consider all of the tools that are available to your business to make it run as smoothly as possible. Without taking advantage of something that potentially could save you thousands of dollars in profits every month, you are simply wasting your money.
VoIP is good for business. It cuts costs. It increases your employee’s productivity. It helps your business to stay connected. It provides you with high quality, above standard quality phone service. It just works for business needs.
When shopping for a VoIP provider is a major concern. Shopping for a provider is very easy to do when you have all of the benefits of doing so on the web. Of course, you’ll want to compare several companies to find out which VoIP provider offers you the very best option for your business needs.