In a simple fashion a cordless phone can make your business run better. Before you need to be glued into your desk during a phone call which means multi tasking is close to impossible. However with a cordless phone you can take back your freedom and do what you need to do even while on the phone. This type of office telephone equipment is especially beneficial for staffs whose work involves running up and down the office whilst still be able to receive and make phone calls.

There are many cordless office telephone available in the market today, however not all handsets are equal and you need to meticulously pick what best suits your requirements but generally speaking you need to consider the following features below as they need to be standard across models.

Range – Probably one of the biggest concerns in using a cordless office telephone is the range. On average a cordless phone has a range of 25 to 50 meters. It is best to acquire the top end range to prevent any disruption during a call to be able to receive a call wherever you are in the office. You can also purchase a range extender if the model you acquired has insufficient coverage.

Battery life – Another important factor is the battery, on average a regular cordless phone has a talk time of 3 to 4 hours pretty much like any smart phones today. It is best that you consider purchasing models with extended battery life especially for staffs that are always on the phone and do not have time to set it on the base station for charging.

Multiple handset capable base station – If you wish to acquire cordless phones for multiple staff it is best that you acquire a model that supports multiple handsets in a single base. Blatantly this will make your overhead cost lower.

Grip – As simple as it is the grip of the phone is also important. You need to be able to place between your head and shoulders comfortably otherwise it will depict the whole purpose of having a wireless telephone if you cannot use two hands to do other things.

Clear display and chunky buttons – Since you will not have a display that will par the size of desk phones it is best to choose a model that offers a clear display or better yet a color display to prevent eye fatigue and the large chunky buttons will facilitate ease of use.

If it is not too much to say, businesses cannot possibly run without a good telephone system. Phones act as one of the main doors that let clients into your businesses. A good phone will act both as your internal administrative medium especially for multi-branched businesses and as the primary communication media for sales and support services. With that said it is just a must to choose a good and trustworthy provider because a large portion of your success will rely on it.

Qualities of a good service provider

Trustworthiness – Although it is hard to determine the trustworthiness of any company that you deal with you can find cues and clues that will suggest they are worthy of your business. For starters an office telephone provider must always meet their deadlines especially if they are the one that set it. For an instance they told you that they will send you a quote within the day then they should send it within the day. If it is not possible then it is better they inform you ahead of time not when you are already on the phone complaining.

Remember it is better that the service provider tell that they will try with no promises made than to tell that they can only to find out they cannot. A trustworthy office telephone provider must always put your expectations on top.

Flexibility and options – a good provider should give you the flexibility and the luxury to choose what is best for your business. It is a big “no no” for any provider to only offer you the most expensive system if the in fact the lesser expensive system will do the job for you. Choose a provider that will give you all the possible options with all the pros and cons of each solution.

Flexible or no contract – It is just logic that if a service provider is confident that there service is good then there is no reason for a customer to switch. It is best to choose a telecommunications company that has no contracts, so if anything happen you can easily bail out and switch companies.

Unparalleled customer service – Being in the telecommunications industry it is a must for them to have outstanding customer support mechanism. It is a must for them to have the best phone etiquette and fast response because your business heavily depends on your phone system.

Continually growing – With all the technological innovations today call rates and other phone system associated costs are continually decreasing. It is a must for a provider to pass on the savings to the customers through promos, call cost reduction and so on.

Giving a personal touch to your cloud PBX office telephone system is indeed worth it. Not only that you will have the phones that you’ve always wanted but it will also improve your callers experience with your business that can help lead to better conversion rates.

Cloud PBX office telephone systems can easily be custom program according to your likes and needs because the systems runs over an open source programming language. Your service provider can easily structure a solution that suits your needs and your preferences that will give a personal touch to your cloud PBX office telephone system.

Phone system customization ideas

Personalized greeting message – give your callers something to smile about with a greeting message of your choice. Be clever and creative step up from the traditional greeting message and put a twist to it. It will help lighten things up and can improve customers’ outlook towards your business.

Diversified menu system – tired of answering calls due to a different department? A customized menu system with multiple sub levels is the solution for you. Not only it will save your staff’s time but it will also improve customer involvement towards your service. Get you customers straight to the right department and person with just a few press of a button.

On hold messages – Entertain your customers whilst on hold by playing trivia, music or important company news and announcements. This will allow you to hit two birds with one stone entertain your callers whilst opening doors for an up sell. Who said that waiting on hold need to be boring?

Custom ringtone – It is often an office problem when a phone ring, all staffs tend to check their phone distracting them from what they’re doing. Why not set a custom ringtone for each of your staff? This will help lighten up your work environment whilst improving staff focus and overall workflow.

Custom ring pattern – did you know that you can enjoy a customized ringing pattern pretty much how a queue system works. You can either ring all your extension all at the same time or perhaps design a pattern where the first phone rings for a certain period the proceeds to the other then to the next. It all depends on how you would like it to be.

Apart from the features the capacity of a cloud PBX office telephone system can also be custom program to suit your needs. Technically speaking every component of the phone from the ground up can programmed according to your preferences.

It is a sad fact that the telecommunications world has been shrouded by multiple myths and misconception that often leads to confusion. It is a burden for all business owners to secure a reliable cloud PBX office telephone system because of such erroneous information. It is true that all phone system has their own pros and cons but some information over the web are just simply absurd.

Common myths busted

Low quality voice calls – Probably the most sought after myth is about the quality of cloud PBX office telephone. Most people think that since it is more affordable and uses the internet quality will suffer. It is true that this type of phone system rely heavily on the internet however internet connection these days are not like what it used to be back in the 1990’s. Today it is easy to secure a good and stable connection and often times exceeds what is needed by such system.

Unsecure calls – It is a must for any business to have a secure office telephone system especially when dealing with private and sensitive information like credit card details and health concerns. Cloud PBX office telephone systems are capable of doing just that. By using a technology called encryption data are transmitted securely. In fact it is easier to create a physical connection to the copper wires of a traditional telephone than breaking into an encryption and converting packetized data into an analog form for retrieval.

Unreliable – Another common myth is about reliability. Common individuals think that since there is on premise hardware running the system issues of reliability may arise. For starters not all technological solution are 100% guaranteed even the well established on premise PBXs are also facing down time and maintenance issues. The same with a cloud PBX office telephone but the difference is the level of fail-over back up. In a traditional phone when the system is down its down and there is no way for your business to make and receive calls. With the latter it can be custom programmed to transfer a call to a mobile, another office number or voice mail so can still be connected to your customers.

Cost and charges – Another myth is about the cost, well for starters it is obvious that this one is clearly busted. VoIP solutions are well known for the savings that it can generate. Calling charges and upkeep cost are significantly lower not because of some magic trick but rather because of innovative call transmission and system management.

Starting a business is indeed a daunting task; you have to start from the ground up working on every elements of the business. It takes time and a lot of resources before you can be fully operational. However this doesn’t mean that you should stop in pursuing your goals. A business is both rewarding financially and emotionally once you’ve established it.

One important aspect that you need to take a little more time in deciding is choosing a phone system that will suit your business. These days two options are prevalent, the traditional PBX and a cloud PBX either of the two can be beneficial but only you can tell what will suit your needs best. Whichever of the two phone systems you choose there are features and functionality that are a must have in both solutions.

Telephone number – Obviously you need a number for your customers to call you at. However having a plain number might not always do the job. For businesses that need national presence it is advisable to acquire a 1300 number or a 1800 number. These are also termed as a toll free hotline that helps in extending your national presence. It works like a collect call service so callers need not to pay anything when you phoning your business thus removing cost barrier.

IVR – Whether you want to use it for your professional greeting message, on hold messages, menu system or out hour’s mode one way or the other an IVR or interactive voice response will come really handy. It will lessen the work load of your staff whilst improving your caller’s experience.

Multiple phone lines – For home use one line is enough to handle all phone calls however home and business are two different things. You need multiple lines or channels to handle simultaneous phoning. On average a telephone system with 5 handsets will require at least 2 lines for incoming and at least another two for outgoing not unless your service provider offers unlimited outgoing channels.

Call transfer and call forwarding – It is also essential for a phone system to transfer calls between extensions and to an external number like a mobile or a land line. The same way an automatic forwarding account is also helpful especially during holidays and as a failover mechanism.

Business PBX have tons of features available be sure to discuss it with your service provider and identify what features will be helpful in providing your products and services.

Business phone systems are designed to make lives easier, more convenient and rendering your service more effectively by phone. There are quite a lot of features that is available today especially with the birth of the innovative cloud PBX systems that offers better feature flexibility. However not all phone system feature is applicable to every business but there are a handful of must have that will assist you in streamlining your day to day operations.

Greeting messages – Every business big or small needs a professional phone system greeting message. It will help your business appear polite, trustworthy and an established company in your niche. Additionally, having such feature will make your attendant’s work easier and avoid repetitive loads such as greeting callers again and again.

Direct extensions – All phone systems need to allocate a dedicated extension number to every phone linked to the PBX. This will allow your callers to directly call the concerned person without having to wait on queue or be transferred back and forth.

Call forwarding – it is a must for any phone system to have a call forwarding option that is set up to transfer the call automatically to a mobile or to another extension when the called party doesn’t pick up and an override access that lets you punch a code to transfer the call when you out of the office, on holidays or for some reason you cannot pick your extension.

Call conferencing – Another is a conferencing feature; it need not be a conference room or something fancy. A three way conference is often enough for any business to execute operations unless you are running a business that requires multiple people in a single phone call.

Advance call queue system – Any business avoids putting the customer on a queue however in reality it is unavoidable especially during peak hours. What you can then do is to improve the quality of your queue system. You can set it up to inform the caller about their place on queue and the estimated time a representative will be able to take their call.

Dedicated voice mail box – Last but not the least is a dedicated message bank. Every extension must have their own message bank to avoid confusion and to facilitate better service to your customers by your representatives.

Other PBX features such as menu system, messages on hold and call screening are also helpful in improve the quality of service that you provide. However the six mentioned above are the universal or somewhat generic features that will assist any business in any niche to improve their services without stomping into any considerations that a business might have.

Choosing a phone system that suits your business can be tricky; you need to take even the smallest detail into consideration to ensure that you will have the best communication system possible. The key is to identify your needs first before heading out to look for a solution.

Your needs

The first step in acquiring a good phone system is to identify your needs. Ask yourself the following questions below and jot it down a clean paper. Scribble it a couple of times before finalizing your requirements.

Handsets – One of the most important requirements is the number of extension that you need because it will often dictate how many handsets you need. However it is not just the number of handsets that is important, various models have various feature. Count the handsets according to the function. If you need a reception style desk phone, a regular desk phone and a wireless unit tabulate it in a separate line item.

Lines or channels – Another phone system component is the number of lines. The number of phone lines or channels will dictate how many simultaneous calls your business phone system can handle. Getting the right number can be a little tricky but you want to get as close as possible to your needs. Make a summary of your call logs with your old PBX and from there you can get average on how many channels you need. For new businesses wherein base line data is not available it is advisable to acquire a couple of more channels than you expect to ensure proper capacity.

Features – You also need to decide what features you like on your phone system whether you need a greeting message, an automatic attendant, a menu system and other PBX features. List down all the possible features and phone set up that you need and keep it handy as your reference.

Telephone numbers – Another essential component of any phone platform is the number. If you have an existing one then most likely it is best to move that number from your existing carrier to your new one or if you need a new number then you need to decide whether you need a regular landline, a 1300 or an 1800. With you will be using Hosted PBX systems then you can even acquire a virtual number from any location giving you local presence that you need.

Phone system types

After getting your requirements right then the next step is to identify what kind of phone system is best for you. Today there are two types to choose from. Firstly the conventional on premise PBX and secondly is the newer hosted PBX that sits in the cloud. Both phone systems have their own pros and cons, at the end of the day it is your business so only you can tell which if the two best suits you.

On premise PBX

This type of phone system is well established and business grade quality can be expected however the downside of the system is the cost and maintenance. Call rates are significantly higher because it still uses traditional means of transmission and PBX hardware may need regular maintenance to keep it running smoothly.

Hosted PBX

On the other hand hosted PBX systems are cheaper to deploy, maintain and use. On average businesses can save 50% with the system but like the latter it also has downside, being a VoIP solution it is directly dependent on the quality of your internet connection. If you are able to secure a good connection then there is no problem but if it is hard to secure one in your area then the solution might not be for you.

Do want a phone system that will let you integrate all your offices under one communication platform? With a cloud PBX it is possible to have one phone system for all your offices regardless of whether your offices are located next door, interstate or overseas.

A cloud PBX phone system works under a VoIP platform making it versatile and flexible. Multiple offices can be integrated under one system but still operates independently from one another. This means that you can have a dedicated number for each location and receive calls accordingly without affecting other branches. It’s like having multiple phone system under one parent phone.

What are the benefits?

Huge savings – The obvious benefit of this kind of set up is the savings. Instead of up keeping multiple phone system then you will only need to maintain one and since it is cloud based communication solution, maintenance is very minimal and often times it takes place under a remote server level which doesn’t affect your business and at no cost to you.

Better Service – With the help of a reliable business phone system you can improve your services instantly and make room for better sales opportunity. For an instance you have an office in New York and in Sydney, out of hour’s calls to Sydney can be forwarded to New York and vice versa. This will ensure that you grab the client at their buying moment and not be sent to your voice mail that often leads to poor conversion.

This so called follow the sun feature can be set up in full automatic so you don’t need to worry about missing an important call ever again.

Line sharing – You can even set up your phone to share lines between offices at your benefit. For example you have a New York office and a Boston office. We all know that New York can be very busy during peak hours and to accommodate the sudden bulk of business calls your Boston lines can be pulled to take New York calls. This will allow you to maximize current channels you have and accommodate more phone calls on certain branches without increasing your monthly telecommunication costs.

Free internal calls – Since all your offices is under one phone system internal calls are absolutely free regardless of the branch and location. For example your extension in Sydney is 701 and your colleague’s extension in New York is 801, you can simply dial 801 and your call be connected accordingly for free! This will remove the distance boundary between offices making it easier to coordinate efforts.

At first you might think that an interactive voice response or IVR will serve you no purpose with your business phone system but the truth is an IVR is one of the most flexible and efficient feature you can have in a phone system. For starters an Inter Voice Response is a recording that you play on various circumstances to inform, entertain and guide callers to your business.

Clever uses of IVR

Greeting Messages – ever wanted that professional greeting message on your phone system? With the use of an IVR you can record virtually any greeting message you want or have a professional actor do it for you so all you’re callers are greeted to your business without fail. Although this solution may seem to be very simple but it actually increases the confidence of your callers to your business and make you appear to be one of the most established names in the market.

On hold messages – Another clever use of a phone system IVR is via on hold messages. Every business tried to avoid putting a customer on hold however sometimes it is inevitable so why not put a twist to it? You can play music, trivia and other interesting facts that will delight your callers and help them keep their cool whilst waiting. In fact you can also use this as an up sell opportunity by playing company news, new products and services.

Out of hour’s mode – After business hours it is still essential to grab a call and send them to your voice mail. But wouldn’t it be polite to tell your customers that they have reach during out hours before directing them to your voicemail?

Menu System – Have you always wanted that menu system that professionally direct calls to the right department? With the help of an IVR you can now have a sophisticated menu system that will assist your customers to in touch with the concerned person easily without having to wait on queue.

There are other clever uses of an Interactive Voice Response especially if you will use together with a cloud PBX system. Because of the system’s flexibility recordings can easily be integrated with your phones and the best part is there will be no cost to upkeep it and monthly charges for the service just a minimal set up fee.

Be sure to discuss with your service provider the various options how you can benefit from such solution and weigh every option vigorously to ensure that you will have the communication system that you’ve always dreamt of.

Indeed communication is vital for any business to succeed thus it is a must to secure yourself a reliable system that will help streamline your internal business procedures whilst still keeping your cost down. Traditional phone systems are now starting to become a thing of the past because of the ever changing demand for efficiency and cost effectiveness. These dinosaur systems just cannot keep up with the pace and will soon become parts of the history book.

As technology evolves a newer, better and more affordable phone system is now taking the business sector by storm. Cloud PBX systems or simply cloud phones are now becoming the number one option for many business owners worldwide because of the charming benefits that it can bring. On the very top of the list is the savings, users of this type of phone system can save an average of 50% on their monthly telecommunications cost with an expected return of investment in just 3 to 6 months.

Apart from savings this type of phone system is also capable of delivering innovative features that will perfectly suit your business regardless of what it is. Before you need to adapt to your phones because the practice has been to provide a universal platform but with a cloud PBX the system can be fully customized to suit your every need. All you need to do is tell your service provider your requirements, how you would like the phones to behave, the capacity you need and everything will be custom programmed for you. On top of that you need not worry about expansion and such because the technology is very flexible you can easily add more lines and extensions in an instant without having to upgrade anything.

Although all of this may sound too good to be true but it is very much doable with a cloud PBX. The key to this innovative phone system is the fact that it is based or situated in the cloud making it very customizable and flexible pretty much how a website works. To better understand how the system works, all VoIP technologies run using the cloud computing which refers to a series of hardware and software that can be access over a network like the internet. This means that your phone system is managed by a series of hardware and software in a remote server which you gain access through the internet.

With that said, maintenance and upgrades are no longer in your shoulder unlike in traditional telephony.  A Cloud PBX will only require an input device and an internet connection on your end to work which makes a low cost phone system to upkeep.