How To Choose A VoIP Solution for Small Businesses?

There are many uses for VoIP phone systems across an organization. Most common today are sales, marketing, and customer support. Contact centers attract the most call traffic and are usually the main reason why small businesses transition from hard-line phone systems to VoIP phone systems.

This transition comes with the dilemma of selecting a VoIP phone system from among the many providers on the market.

As you may have figured by now, not all VoIP phone systems are equipped with the right mix of functionality to cover your needs. In fact, unless all you want is to receive calls over the internet, it could take a few trials to finally settle for one.

Chances are your competition is using VoIP phone systems already. As such, knowing more about the technology and why they’re using it is a step towards leveling the playing field.

What Makes One VoIP Phone System Better Than Others?

When picking out a VoIP phone system, consider the following. These features often give you hints as to which systems go with your current set of requirements.

• No-Code Integration With CRMs: Lowering the level of technical expertise required to use a VoIP system lowers barriers for users. You also get to try out more application areas at virtually no cost and in less time than would be the case with complicated VoIP phone systems. (The complication comes when you have to contact the vendor each time you need a new integration.)
• Voice Recognition and AI: With artificial intelligence in the mix, a basic VoIP phone system can do plenty more. Possible features range from identifying what the caller intends to inquire about based on their past call logs, to suggesting the right call center agent for their current call session. Read more about IVR and NLU here.
• The Scalability Factor: Growth is a core objective among many (if not all) companies nowadays. Like predatory sharks, they either keep moving forward, or risk going extinct. Growth comes with more customers as well as more support calls. A system incapable of accepting such growth essentially stunts your company’s expansion.

Justifying the Cost of VoIP a Phone System

When you finally fix on a particular VoIP phone system the last hurdle before implementing will most likely be cost. Getting everyone else on board can take a few meetings. But mention cost savings and you can make the process a little smoother!

Consider these cost-saving efficiencies when justifying the cost of a VoIP phone system.

• VoIP phone systems save you money: While you’ll endure a spending spree during implementation, the return on investment is almost instantaneous. To start with, it’s been shown that when implemented, you will save upwards of $1000.00 for every 30 users or instances within your VoIP phone system.
• Increased employee retention rates: Recent statistics indicate that remote call center agents tend to stay with a company longer than would on-site agents. Sprinkle in the fact that it costs significantly less to hire remote agents, and you have a recipe for savings not common with traditional telephony systems.
• Happier (returning) customers: In the long run, as with many other companies using VoIP phone systems integrated with the technologies we’ve touched on above, you nurture a cove of happy customers. The up-sell and cross-selling opportunities that present themselves at such a point in time make the investment all the more worthwhile.

Optimize VoIP Phone System Usage

The implementation of your VoIP phone system needs to be precise. It’s actually more important to set up your system well than to get the absolute “best” VoIP phone system out there.

Just getting a system and assuming it will work for you the way it does for your competition often leads to disappointment.

Set KPIs and Chase After Them

The first thing you ought to do is to have goals that all users understand. Without these, regardless of the system, you’re less likely to reap the benefits of your investments.

The more customer-oriented your priorities, the better your chance of replenishing the budget you spent on buying the VoIP phone system.

Some customer-first KPIs you could familiarize yourself with include:

• Average Time in Queue
• The Average Speed of Answer
• First Call Resolution
• Customer Satisfaction

Common among the lot is how a customer’s sentiment always counts when determining the level of success (or the failure of the KPI itself.)

Put the Customer First

Think about how average waiting time in a call center queue would irritate an otherwise loyal customer. On the other hand, even when calling with a complaint, getting answered quickly sort of eases the customer into a resolution with the call attendant.

When a customer has to call more than once to get their issues resolved, chances are you’re about to lose them altogether. On the other hand, a good VoIP phone system makes it easy to set up an outbound customer service strategy.

An outbound call strategy confronts the customer before they have to check on any tickets they would have initiated previously. This makes them certain that even when they’re off the phone, your team is working to make their lives easier.

Customers thinking like this often stay on your revenue source list for a long time. They’ll even tell others how happy they are with your business.

When all is said and done, it will not matter how much you paid the VoIP phone system provider, especially when it’s all to please the customer.

We’ve only touched on a few thinking points around choosing the best VoIP phone system. We also took a swipe at revealing tips and KPIs to watch when you finally buy one. However, these are just the tip of the iceberg when considering what goes into the day to day operations and metrics around a call center.

At the very least you should know the way forward when picking, justifying, and setting up a VoIP phone system for your organization.

Dialing telephone keypad -DepositPhotos

 

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