The discontinuing of traditional analogue telephone lines in 2025 means forward-thinking businesses are planning to switch over to VOIP and take advantage of the benefits it brings, as discussed in the article ‘Is VOIP the future of phone calls’. This transition requires some thought and planning as when choosing a VoIP service provider there are a variety of things to consider. In this blog, we will discuss some of the important factors to consider when making that choice.
Connectivity
VOIP connection is established through the internet, so call quality and uptime is contingent upon your broadband connection. Therefore the most obvious consideration before exploring VOIP solutions would be to ensure you have a stable and consistent internet connection that has capacity for your new VOIP system, particularly important if you are expecting a high volume of calls. If you are in a serviced office or have an IT department you can discuss this with them, alternatively you could use software such as the Netflow Traffic Analyzer to assess your connection, we also found the StarTrinity tool useful which can be run using your browser.
If you need to upgrade your internet connectivity we have various options, from fibre broadband through to dedicated leased line options. For more information, click here and we can assist you.
Mobility
VOIP can allow you to pick up your phone with confidence and answer those calls wherever you are at any time of the day knowing that your customers and colleagues will love that you are accessible!
What level of flexibility do you need in this regard? It’s important to evaluate your needs whilst considering the functionality afforded to you by VOIP service suppliers as the mobile apps for each company can vary.
Functionality
What telephone functionality is important to your business now and in the future? VOIP functionalities include:
- Call recording – you can record and listen back to calls
- Call monitoring – monitor all activities to see telephone usage within your business
- Service messages – Messages can be played prior to calls or during out of hours to inform callers of key information
- Call centre functionality – wallboards, statistics key features specific to a call centre environment and what’s more new phones can be provisioned quickly to meet business needs
- Audio conferencing – conference with internal and external participants
- Call whispering – before a call is answered you get a prompt, one of the user cases for this is identifying which the campaign the call is in relation too or it could be a reminder to the staff to upsell a certain product.
- Call queues – manage inbound calls with call queues and set expectations by informing the caller of their place in the queue
- Music on hold – don’t keep clients waiting in silence instead you play music
Scalability
Whether you have a seasonal business, run campaigns that require dedicated numbers or simply have growth plans it’s important to consider whether the proposed VOIP solution and provider can scale to meet your business needs both immediately and in the future.
These are 4 considerations when choosing a VOIP solution, though ensure you also consider termination costs, migration process, device compatibility, whether the solution would be hosted or onsite and if you require alternative power plans and whether you’d need a technician to make changes or does the VOIP solution afford you to make updates independently.
For free advice on how your business can benefit from a VOIP solution get in touch.
