How can VoIP bring a big business feel to your small business?
Just because you run a small business it doesn’t mean you have to look and think small.
As a small business it’s likely you don’t possess the brand awareness of much larger and more established enterprises. However, sending the right message to your customers in terms of how you are perceived is crucial regardless of your company size.
This is where a VoIP telephone system is strongly worth considering, as it opens up a number of new technologies and features that were previously only considered available to larger organisations – all at a very affordable cost.
Minimising disruption in the event of a disaster
Losing all telephone communications in the event of a disaster can be exactly that for a business – a disaster. You won’t be able to make any outbound calls, your customers will not be able to reach you and it doesn’t exactly make your business look stable or reliable.
With a traditional fixed line this could result in hours or even days of downtime before everything is fixed, on top of potential hefty costs.
VoIP, on the other hand, can help you dramatically reduce any disruption prior to a scenario like this happening, by giving your business newfound flexibility through the use of clever call routing features that you can put in place by simply logging into your account. You can decide to route calls to any other destination within the few clicks of a button, such as your mobile phone for example.
Therefore, in the event of a disaster, you can help to maximise your up-time with just a few simple changes in your account so you can make sure you’re available for your customers when they need you.
Make your business look the business
VoIP enables you to take advantage of a range of features that can help you look the part, leaving a lasting first impression on customers calling your business.
One of the most popular is the ability to direct callers to the correct department at the first time of asking, allowing customers to speak to the relevant person straight away and save them from being transferred from pillar to post.
This is known as IVR, whereby a customer will be greeted with a message and asked, for example, to “press one for customer services” when they dial your number and subsequently being sent directly to the person or department within your business that deals with customer services.
Using hold music is also a simple yet effective feature, usually associated with large corporations, opened up to smaller businesses through the use of VoIP.
If you place a customer on hold but they can still hear you talking or shouting over to colleagues it doesn’t sound very good. Telling the customer to hold on for just a moment and playing professional hold music can make you look the real deal and leave a positive impression on your business.
Taking the stress out of transitional periods
When there comes a time to think about growing your business, it can sometimes be off-putting when the expense and hassle of doing so is taken into account.
But a VoIP solution can make growing your business look as easy as large enterprises do, by making the transition as painless as possible by minimising inconvenience and expense.
There’s no costly upgrades to premise equipment or the installation of new lines to worry about for starters, because as it’s is cloud-based you simply have to add new users and new phones with a straightforward account upgrade.
These account changes can be completed in just minutes and, even when ordering hardware such as desktop VoIP phones, it’s entirely realistic that you could have new staff up and running within 24 business hours.
