Imagine you’re in a café catching up on some work over a coffee and get an important business call on your laptop. You have a professional phone number that follows wherever you go. You’re wanting to expand your business into London, so you improve your brand with a business number with a London area code—even though your office is in Manchester.
These are just some of the features of a hosted VoIP phone system.
If you’ve ever owned your own business, or you’re looking at starting a new business, you’ll know that there are many communications solutions on the market to keep you connected. Trying to figure out which is the best small business phone system, can be daunting.
VoIP is an often overlooked option and yet may provide one of the most comprehensive long-term solutions for SMEs.
V-o-what?
VoIP is an acronym for Voice over Internet Protocol, or in everyday language: phone over the internet. The underlying technology’s different. VoIP is a technology that allows voice calls to be made using your existing internet connection, rather than the traditional method of using dedicated phone lines.
VoIP is hardly new; it has its origins way back in the 1970’s. But despite its longevity, it’s still a little unfamiliar to most people. Common practical questions people want to know, include: which phones can access VoIP and is it cheaper than a dedicated phone line?
First, the two most common ways of accessing VoIP, are through a physical hardware phone, or a software-based phone on your computer or mobile. Second, both methods are relatively inexpensive compared to a traditional landline setup. There are a variety of VoIP apps, many of which are free. If you purchase a VoIP phone from us at Dial 9, it’s shipped pre-configured—just plug it in and you’ll be good to go!
To get started with a small business phone system using VoIP, you just need a VoIP service provider, and a Wi-Fi or 4G data connection to make and receive calls.
Let’s look at some serious competitive advantages for SMEs in choosing VoIP.
Increased productivity
Because VoIP calls travel over the internet rather than the public telephone system, you can make and receive more than one call simultaneously, without ever needing to pay for additional phone lines for each incoming call. For a small office, the convenience of not waiting until another staff member finishes a call to make yours—and not missing important calls from clients, is considerable. This can only increase the overall productivity of your business.
Portability
With a VoIP business phone system, there’s no reliance on a physical location. With Dial 9, you can forward calls to your mobile while you’re out, so you can receive calls anywhere you have 4G or an internet connection.
Our free Dial 9 Anywhere app, provides you with everything you need to take your phone system on the go. Fully compatible with iPhones and Android phones, you can pair your mobile with your desk phone. This means you can pop in and out of the office as you please, whilst still being able to answer important customer calls.
For many types of business, especially those in the sales or service industries, a VoIP phone system not tied to an office line, has serious advantages. You can sure get a lot more done.
What’s more—should you need to move office, it’s much easier for your VoIP phone service to follow you to your new location, versus a fixed line number.
You and your business gain freedom to move.
Scalability
Traditionally, small business phone systems are difficult to scale. Not so with VoIP. With VoIP you can easily scale up, to add new phones to your system if you hire new staff members, or reduce lines if you need to downsize for any reason. You’re only ever paying for what you need.
You have full control over your phone system.
Lower costs
Cost savings are a biggie for any business, and especially important for startups. Traditional phone lines typically charge fixed landline costs and different call rates. Costs can quickly add up.
On the other hand, With VoIP from Dial 9, you can access a range of flexible payment plans from pay as you go, to call bundles, or low monthly fixed rates.
Outstanding call quality
Another fear people have: is VoIP call quality as good as traditional landlines? A good VoIP provider will constantly monitor the quality of their service, to ensure that call quality is crystal clear.
Here at Dial 9, we run our own autonomous network and connect directly to many ISPs, to ensure the best connection for your calls. This means that someone you’re speaking with, shouldn’t be able to tell whether you’re using a business phone powered by VoIP, or a traditional landline.
Extensive additional features
The added benefit of VoIP is that you can leverage the power of the internet, to enjoy a wider range of advanced additional features. VoIP offers an experience that conventional phone technology can’t offer.
Everything is aimed at boosting operational efficiency. For example, our call queues feature, lets you place callers into a queue and answer them in the order they arrived.
Our time-based routing feature allows you to change what happens to incoming calls, based on the time of day. For example, when you’re closed, you can easily send callers to voicemail.
Because we developed our own VoIP platform, there’s flexibility to meet the needs of our customers. Services can be tailored to the unique needs of your small business phone system.
Added benefits, transparent pricing and unrivaled support
Dial 9 is an affordable small business phone system for SMEs that’s powered by a reliable, in-house sophisticated VoIP platform. You can gain advanced phone system features. It takes only ten minutes to set up, pricing is completely transparent, and switching is easy. You’ll receive a high quality service and unrivalled UK-based support.
Opting for a VoIP service, not only means a much wider range of communication options for your business, but also significant savings on phone calls.
Have a question?
If you need any help getting started with your Dial 9 business phone, please give us a call on 0330 088 0900, email us at sales@dial9.co.uk, or head to our website here to start a live chat and we'll be happy to help you set this up.
