One of the main challenges facing small businesses is staying competitive against the enterprise juggernauts in their space. Being a smaller business means a tighter budget, which can lead to sacrifices in the quality of deployed technology.
A hosted VoIP PBX is designed to help reverse this trend, putting enterprise phone system features within reach of an SMB. Here are a few of the key features and advantages of switching to hosted VoIP that keep a small business on the cutting edge…
Professional Auto Attendant
While running a small business directly through cell phones might offer a more personal touch, it’s a step backward when it comes to impressing most clients and customers. With a professional auto attendant greeting answering your calls, you immediately project the image of being a well-established and highly available company that can be reached at any time. By customizing this greeting on your hosted VoIP PBX to deliver timely information and updates about your company, you can keep your clients and customers up-to-date without overloading your limited call-handling staff.
Connects with Advanced ACD
ACD, or automatic call distribution, lets you intelligently route calls to your hosted VoIP PBX to the person or departments that the caller wishes to reach. With advanced ringing options like simultaneous ring or skills-based routing, you can choose how to optimally utilize your resources and provide the best experience for your callers.
Allows for Telecommuting
Whether you choose to establish satellite offices at remote locations or allow employees to answer calls and work from home, the flexibility of hosted VoIP allows you to disperse your workforce as you see fit. Each VoIP phone connects to a broadband connection and is seamlessly joined on the same call-switching PBX network via the Internet. And to keep remote employees on task, features like online call reports and recording live calls give administrators visibility over every call that takes place.
Low Total Cost of Ownership
For an SMB, the phone system of choice unfortunately often comes down to the price tag. This is where a hosted VoIP PBX wins out hands-down over traditional phone system solutions. With hosted VoIP, there is no call switching equipment to buy – it’s all managed from remote by the service provider. This reduction in capital expense makes the prospect of buying a phone system a lot more manageable for a small business.
Beyond upfront cost, a hosted VoIP PBX has next to no equipment maintenance expense. Small businesses do not need to tax their existing IT resources or get stuck in long-term maintenance contracts to troubleshoot issues with their PBX, as again, this is all handled from remote by the managed service provider. Finally, hosted VoIP technology is highly scalable, allowing at-will expansion of the phone system without incurring additional equipment or capacity costs.
