When it comes to running a business your phone system is vital. Having a reliable and robust system allows you to stay in touch with your customers, your team and your suppliers - in short, you need it to be able to run and grow your business.
There’s increasing research that shows a direct correlation between positive customer service experiences and brand loyalty. 94% of customers are more likely to purchase again after a positive customer service experience. On the flip side, 61% of customers would leave after only one poor customer service experience. When you’re looking to stand out in business, it’s clear the importance of outstanding customer service.
For businesses examining their communications system to empower them to provide great customer experiences it’s clear that not only is it critical to choose the best quality service at the right price point, but in order to give positive customer service they need to receive it.
Because what happens if your phone system goes down? Or you encounter an issue with it? It’s not just your system that needs to be reliable, you also need a provider with reliable support. When a business is unable to provide excellent customer service to their customers because they’re being held back by poor service from their communications provider it’s frustrating and it costs them money. We see customers switching from their existing communication providers because they aren’t able to provide the service they want due to slow, unresponsive or just downright substandard customer service when they’re encountering a communication issue. Find out more about one of our customers whose driving reason for switching was customer service.
Otherwise without access to fast, responsive and reliable support, that tiny set-up issue that should take 5 minutes to resolve will turn into a day’s lost business.
That’s why when it comes to choosing your VoIP provider, support is an essential factor to consider. Here are our 5 top tips to help you choose a VoIP provider who can give you the best support.
Tip 1: Understand your business needs
This one sounds obvious, but trust us, it’s a step that’s often overlooked. Before you start reaching out to VoIP providers, start by taking time to define your business needs.
- How many lines will you need?
- What type of call volume do you have?
- Are you looking to scale in the next 12-months?
- How will your team make and receive their calls? Laptop, mobile phone, a mixture?
- How do you access support, and where is it based? Automated bots, live chat, email, phone calls?
Mapping out your needs and priorities will help whittle down VoIP providers and you’ll know that the service you choose will be fit for your business needs.
Tip 2: Research customer support options
When doing your research, look into what their customer support options are and how they are delivered. Some providers might only offer online chat, while others offer email or phone support. If you can, test out their support response times too. Drop them a quick chat message to see if the help is automated, or try calling them to see how quickly they answer and how friendly they are.
People often think of customer support as being there for when things go wrong, but that’s not the case. Customer support can help with any setup questions, offering advice on advanced features you might not have used yet or simply providing guidance on the best call bundle for your needs. Knowing that there’s a friendly team who will be happy to guide you through any question you have, whether big or small, makes your VoIP experience that much easier.
Tip 3: Check what their customers are saying
While researching VoIP providers, make sure you check out what their current and past customers say about them online. You can take a look at their online reviews and you might also be able to find previous survey results either published by the provider or independently.
Discovering what others have experienced from that VoIP provider can be quite telling, and keep an eye out for instances where they’ve had to deal with customer services. When you combine your research into customer reviews with your personal experience of contacting their customer service team from our previous tip, you’ll begin to get a solid understanding of their level of customer service delivery.
Tip 4: Check their call quality and service reliability
Your phone system needs to be reliable and you need to be able to hear the person on the other end of the phone. While your provider might be able to resolve most service issues, if you’re experiencing problems with poor call quality, even if their customer service team is fantastic, it might make your customers think twice about using your service. So when you’re doing your research look into those two factors.
VoIP call quality is measured by the R-factor which takes into account factors such as delays, jitter and packet loss to produce a score between 0 and 100. The higher the score, the better the call quality with anything over 90 classed as excellent. Talk to any potential VoIP providers and find out what their R-factor is. In May 2024, our R-factor was 91% and it’s something we’re always working on.
If you’re confused by the technical terms, you’re not alone. We’ve got a useful guide to VoIP terminology that might be worth checking out.
Tip 5: Consider the total cost of ownership
It’s likely that if you’re considering different VoIP providers, they’ll all have slightly different packages with different price tags. Trying to compare them directly can be tricky. To make it easier look at the total cost of ownership across the full contract length - taking into account all immediate and long-term costs to give you an overall figure. If you’re locked into a lengthy contract, then across the term you might be surprised at how the costs mount up. It’s easy to be taken in by the monthly contract rate, but do your homework about how much that’ll cost you across a lengthy contract, so if you decide to go with that contract, your eyes are fully open to the total cost.
This can help mitigate any additional costs along the way and also ensures that you’re only paying for what you need. You might be surprised at what’s included, or not, in some packages.
While customer service isn’t a direct cost, if you’re having to spend time on hold or chasing up issues, then you’re being taken away from your business, and that has an opportunity cost. If your average billable rate is £150 per hour and you spend 2 hours dealing with a problem, then that’s £300 lost. That’s why great customer service should be a non-negotiable when considering providers.
Only when you’ve got the full cost in front of you, can you relate that to the service on offer, allowing you to make a fully informed decision.
Making the right choice
Choosing the right VoIP provider allows you to operate a communications system that’s reliable, robust and the right fit for you. While there are many aspects to look for, which we cover in this handy blog, customer service and reliable support should be a major part of that decision. By using the tips in this blog, you’ll be able to identify the VoIP provider that’s there to support your business, not just charge you every month.
At Dial 9 we prioritise customer satisfaction, based on our 2024 customer survey 100% of our customers are satisfied with the support they received and report that their issue was resolved quickly, take a look at what our customer’s have to say. Our business phone solutions are supported by our friendly team who are on the other end of the phone to help with whatever questions or issues you’re encountering.
Talk to us about our VoIP packages and how we can support your business right now, and in the future.
