Business Phones
Starting a new business means that you have to be able to draw in new customers, and keep them. Communication is a key to doing this, especially by telephone. If you are an established business, you already know that having reliable business phone service is paramount in your daily dealings. If you are new or an established business trying to save money, you may be surprised at the amount of business phone plans that are available, and how affordable they can be. New technology means that companies almost have to bid to get your business, and they will offer you tons of business phone services.
Not two companies are exactly alike, so their needs are not alike either. Phone companies know this all too well and therefore offer differing levels of service based on your needs. Before you go shopping for a business phone plan, you need to know what your own company's needs are first.
The first step to evaluating your business phone services needs is to look at the size of your company. How many employees do you have, and how many of them have a specific function that will require them to have phone line availability? Of course, you should also plan for the future when evaluating. You may only have ten employees now, but what is your expansions plans (if any)? Do you plan to add more workers in the next few months or years? If so, it may be cost-effective in the long run to choose a plan that expands with you and grows as your company does.
You also have to evaluate what specific services you would have a need for. Do you need local calling only, or is there a need for affordable long-distance calling as well? Will you need a switchboard-type of operation where dozens of calls may be coming in at all times, or do you simply need one phone number? Will you need extensions at different desks, or a few lines that all employees can share? Once you find out the answers to these very important questions, you can then begin shopping for business phone plans.
Even if you don't subscribe to local phone service at your home (a lot of people only use cell phone service now for home), you have likely been signed up for it in the past. Local phone service is great and very reliable since they have a long-established business with lots of available lines of service.
For the needs of your particular company, using a local phone company's business phone plans will be more than enough. If you have a small, home-based business with only a few employees (or just yourself) and only need to call the local area code then this might be perfect. Generally speaking, local business phone services will charge you a flat rate for unlimited local calls, both incoming and outgoing. They may charge an extra fee for services like Caller ID, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding and Voicemail, should you need any of these features.
As the needs of your company grow, though you may not be satisfied with just the local phone company. This is especially true if you need long distance service. Long distance service from a local phone service is generally much pricier than if you went with a long distance specialist instead.
A growing number of businesses have decided to do away with traditional, landline-based business phone plans and go with VoIP instead. VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. It is a new way to get local, national and long-distance phone service by using your computer instead of a landline.
There are two ways you can go about getting VoIP service. You can go with a service that requires you to plug a headset into your computer, thus giving you the ability to have phone service without actually having a phone. All dialing and receiving of calls is done using your mouse and keyboard. You talk through the microphone on the headset, and hear your caller though the headphones. This is quick, simple and generally very cheap.
The other way to do it is to use either your own phone or a specialty phone that is sent to you by your VoIP provider. This way, you have all of the functionality of a full-featured phone, but you are still using your Internet connection to make and receive the calls, instead of a phone jack. If you didn't know it was VoIP, you might not be able to tell the difference.
The great thing about VoIP is that they are still trying to establish a loyal fan base and gain people's trust. Therefore, they are willing to throw outrageously good package deals at you in order to gain your business. If you shop, you will find outstanding deals on monthly and even yearly plans that include many features that your phone company would charge extra for. These business phone plans can truly save you a lot of money.
You must have a computer and Internet access in order to use a VoIP business phone service. However, not just any computer or any Internet service will work. If you are still using an older computer, your business phone plans might not work at all with them, or they might work, but not very well.
One of the biggest complaints about VoIP service is dropped calls, static or choppy calls. The biggest reason for this is because your computer and/or Internet service are not fast enough to deal with placing or receiving calls online. Each company has different standards as to what they want if you are going to use their service, so make sure your computer setup is compatible.
If you choose a business phone service that is a VOIP provider, then you need to make sure that your computer is compatible. Generally speaking, the majority of computer users are on either a Windows-based or Mac-based platform. A small majority of users might be using another type of service such as Unix. You must make sure that your business phone plan provider can use whatever system you are on. If they can't, you may find yourself with a lot of fancy equipment and no way to use it.
You can usually find out from the provider's website. If you can't find out there, then of course you can call their customer service line and ask. In the case of Mac, many just require a small plug-in or other software program to allow you to use the full range of services that you paid for without having to switch to a PC.
If you are going to be in need of a large amount of phone numbers and/or lines, there may be a discount for your business phone services. Many companies realize that you can't pay full price for each and every line when there may be dozens or even hundreds that you need. For this reason, they often will give you a discount depending on how many lines you need now.
If the discount is small or you don't quite need enough lines to get the discount, ask if there will be one in the future. You should keep in mind that if your company is slated for expansion, you may eventually need more lines than you currently do. If this is the case with you, then you should definitely look into how much you will pay in the future. If one company will give you a discount once you add 20 additional lines but the other won't until you add 50, then which one will be more worthy of your money in the long run, and which will save you the most money? You must always think of the future and what your needs will be down the road. To only think of now is short-sighted and could end up costing you money.
Basic phone service alone that only allows you to call in and out with no features may be great for some businesses. For others, it would be much too limiting. The majority of businesses will need other special features with their business phone service. The question regarding these business phone plans is-how much are the extras going to cost?
Call waiting is a feature so common today that we don't even think about asking for it. But it generally does not come with a basic phone service; it must be added for a fee. Likewise, most people today are so used to Caller ID that they forget it isn't a part of the standard service for most business phone plans. You can add many services to this list that we take for granted and forget about the extra cost. Of course, you won't forget about the extra cost if you sign up for a business phone service. Those extras add up quick.
It is for this reason that you should seek out a business phone plan that allows for package deals. They may give you a discount or even offer free services if you sign up for a contract of some sort. This contract could be a short-term one (six months or so) or long-term, all the way up to three years. There are penalties if you break the contract, though you can likely upgrade it to a bigger plan without penalty. Always read the fine print when it comes to these things.
Some of these great business phone services only come with the service, and nothing else. This means that you are expected to have your own phones, headsets, jacks, extensions, switchboards, answering machines or any other electronic devices that you may need for the services.
On the flip side of this, some companies will offer you their own equipment if you don't have any. There is usually a small rental fee involved in this that is added to your bill. These phones are generally new or off lease and function well. An added bonus of using the phone company's equipment is that if it malfunctions, they will fix it, usually free of charge.
Of course, there are drawbacks to using the phone company's equipment. Should you decide to go with another phone service for any reason, you will have to give all of the equipment back. This means that you better make sure the company you switch to has phone service that includes a rental fee for equipment. If they don't, then you will be forced to buy all new phones out of your own pocket, which would be a substantial cost.
There are several local, long-distance and VoIP companies that are vying to be the one to provide you with your business phone services. Because of all of the competition, a business phone plan no longer has to be an extravagantly expensive proposition. Instead, it can be quite affordable if you do a little digging around.
Before you go shopping for a business phone plan you should do your homework first. This means evaluating not only your current business phone services needs but also your future needs. Once you know exactly what you want, you can go shopping for a phone company that will give you a reasonable deal on the services you desire.
Depending on the size of your company, you may be able to get bulk line discounts on basic service that will save you a lot of money. You may also be able to get package deals where you get extra services like caller ID or call waiting for a fraction of what the normal add-on fee would be.
If you don't have your own equipment, your phone company might be able to provide you with rental equipment for a fee every month, or it may be free as long as you sign a short or long-term contract.