Voice over Internet Protocol Business (VoIP) or IP communication is a method of having conversations over the internet rather than through traditional telephone lines. IP phones look like conventional handheld devices but offer various business benefits traditional telephones simply can’t match. Plus, with VoIP, users can choose desk phones, cellular, or computer softphone apps, making it much more flexible for growing businesses too. No wonder VoIP is quickly becoming the best value in bolstering business communications.
In the past, businesses would have to hire high priced consultants to set up their systems or host and staff it themselves. But today, fully hosted cloud communication systems like Clarity are changing not only how we manage our office telecommunications, but also how we communicate with customers. In this post, we’ll highlight functionality you won’t find in your traditional telephone.
How Does Business VoIP Work?
Business VoIP converts a user’s voice (speaker) into a computerized audio file and digitally transfers the file over the internet to the recipient (listener).
Most business VoIP calls utilize desk phones called IP telephones whose internal software converts conversation to the internet protocol required by VoIP service. These devices look and feel like any traditional telephone, but have a host of functionality that provides businesses with a competitive edge.
How VoIP Improves Business
For many businesses, their phone is the life-blood of their sales growth. Customers call to book appointments, schedule service, ask questions before purchasing online, and much, much more. Clear, quick, and convenient communication with customers is critical to business success. With the business world growing more competitive, selecting a phone system that can keep pace with the changing preferences of your prospects is key to long-term sales success.
Not every customer prefers the same type of communication. Older generations like to simply “talk” to someone, while younger buyers prefer to text or chat as a means of quickly getting the answers they seek before engaging with a company. Businesses in various industries and sizes can reduce expenses while increasing their organization’s effectiveness by switching something as simple as their phone company.
Typical business VoIP service includes voice, video, and texting functionality, meaning your team can communicate with prospects and customers from anywhere in any way the customer chooses to interact with your organization.
Best Business VoIP Features
With business VoIP, you get fantastic business flexibility, typically with a more predictable cost because ongoing upgrades, security, and maintenance are built into the monthly service plans. Additionally, your business can customize call handling, productivity tools, and gain managerial insights too. Ask your VoIP specialist if you can select the calling features that are most valuable to you.
Entrepreneurs Rank The Top 15 Most Valued VoIP Features:
1. Auto Attendants: With this feature, your VoIP system will automatically answer callers, offering them a choice of where to route their call. It reduces staff interruptions, provides answers to the most common questions such as location or hours of operations, and speeds the routing of callers to the right departments to get them the help required.
2. Call Routing: You can direct an inbound call by client type, inquiry type, issue priority, staff accessibility, and more. Increase speed of answer, likelihood of live responses and improve interactions.
3. Business Text Messaging: Many Business VoIP services offer business SMS messaging capabilities. Some offer this at extra cost, while others include it in bundled packages. With some service, texting only contains words, where others use MMS (multimedia), enabling images to be included in messaging too. From appointment reminders and schedule change alerts to sale announcements or service authorizations, text messaging often gets a quicker response from customers.
4. Call Forwarding: Get the call wherever you are. Some systems only allow forwarding within your company’s 4 walls, while others enable forwarding to off-network telephones like a home office or cellphone. Look for VoIP service that follows you wherever you roam.
5. Missed Call Notification: This feature sends a text and/or email alert to you when someone calls who doesn’t connect to a live-answer. Look for this feature to not merely alert you when someone leaves a voice mail but also when they abandon being on hold. To maximize sales, you’ll want to get an alert whenever someone dials your business phone number. Buyers are impressed when businesses call them back, offering assistance – it shows you’re not only sophisticated, but you care about their business to quickly offer help.
6. Call Park: Unlike placing a caller on hold, which requires you to return to the same phone, call park enables callers to be parked, and then anyone on your phone system can pick up the call to aid in answering the inquiry.
7. Call Queue: This feature is significant for businesses that get large volumes of callers. It lets you automate the flow of inbound calls. Sort by staff escalation, service groups, and even between multiple offices to cover vacations. Call queuing reduces hold times and empowers your team(s) to support more callers.
8. Call Screening: Call screening helps you accept or reject immediate inquiries. For example, some providers can screen out robo-dailer telemarketers which interrupt work flow. This function utilizes the caller IDs to channel which calls to accept vs. send to service teams or send to voicemail.
9. Call Transfer with Presence: This function enables users to see if others are talking prior to transferring callers. Some systems will also offer assisted transfers – meaning you can connect with the department where you’re transferring a call, letting them know who and why you’re transferring, so when they connect with the caller, they’re informed and ready to assist.
10. Managerial Tools: Business VoIP offers powerful training and monitoring functions for managers. Listen-in, Whisper, Join and Call Recording all offer managers ways of speeding training and providing first-hand insight into company conversations.
11. Mobile App: Business VoIP has the benefit of being more flexible and offers mobile applications for cell phones and tablets. Remote work is made easier with these convenient tools. You can have discussions with groups, internal colleagues, or clients anywhere business takes you.
12. Speed Dial: Speed dial is a convenience that saves time and ensures calls are quickly routed with 1-touch precision. No more taking time to look up departments call queues to route callers or find hard-to-recall numbers. With VoIP, you can instantly program all phones across your company, choose a department for select employees to have speed dial keys immediately updated or individually programmed based on personal preferences.
13. Three-Way Calling: Foster faster collaboration and have more productive discussions. In business, often multiple minds are required to problem solve, confer or host a quick meeting. In these circumstances, three-way calling can help. With Commercial VoIP, three-way calling comes as a standard element. For more progressive needs, business VoIP companies may include video conferencing enabling even more connectivity, more participants, screen sharing, and more effective collaboration.
14. Internal Chat: There’s no better way to get quick answers when you’re talking to a customer than instant messaging your team. Odds are someone can ‘chat’ answers back, enabling you to address customers’ concerns in one call without being placed on hold while solutions are explored.
15. Unlimited Voice Calls: Last, but certainly NOT least, is unlimited lines and unlimited calls. Traditional telephone service often has per-minute charges and call limits, which require a unique dedicated phone line to support each conversation. If you have 3 concurrent discussions, you need 3 phone lines. With business VoIP, this requirement disappears. Unlimited lines mean you can have unlimited simultaneous callers, and they’ll NEVER hear a busy signal. If you have multiple callers waiting, everyone will be answered in the order the call was received. It may sound basic, but it could save you a bundle compared to the traditional telephone system.
