Top Things to Consider When Choosing a VoIP Provider

If you’d like to save up to 80% on your company’s phone bill, you should consider switching from a traditional phone system to a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) system. These phone systems rely on Internet service to transmit calls, and are growing in popularity in many businesses and institutions.

While a number of companies provide business VoIP systems, each provider is different. When choosing a VoIP provider, remember to consider:

Telephony services

VoIP systems don’t just provide savings. They can also help your business to upgrade the functionality of its phone system. However, some VoIP providers neglect to provide even basic services like call forwarding.

Make sure you choose a company that can provide upgrades your telephone system with telephony services like:

· Automated phone attendants

· Custom greetings

· Intelligent call routing

· Music or information during on-hold periods

· Virtual voicemail

· Call recording

· Caller ID

· Ring groups (which allow you to direct callers to departments instead of individuals)

· Teleconferencing

Flexibility and customization

The wide variety of services that VoIP companies offer, like the ones listed above, should also feature built-in options and controls that allow you to use each one to suit your company’s unique needs.

A VoIP company should also provide you with customization options that allow you to grant different levels of system control to different individuals.

Customer support

Due to the critical nature of keeping your company’s phone service running smoothly, VoIP providers should offer reliable customer support seven days a week in case of any maintenance or technical issues.

The best VoIP companies will provide trained support staff, and should go beyond basic support with services like helping you to assess and attain the bandwidth you’ll need to run your VoIP system.

This support should also extend to the setup and maintenance of your VoIP system. VoIP companies should house your system’s hardware at their facility, so that all upgrades and updates will not need to take place at your facility and take up your company’s time.

Updating your own system

Today’s advanced VoIP technology means that you should be able to manage your VoIP phone system from your computer or smartphone’s web browser. This allows you to make necessary tweaks to your system in real-time, without the need for technical support.

Of course, make sure that you fully understand the settings of your VoIP system before making critical changes — again, your VoIP provider should offer support by helping you to understand and master the management of your system.