VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) communications are extremely popular nowadays, especially when it comes to small businesses. With great costs and flexibility advantages, VoIP surely seems to be like a great solution for everyone who prefers using phone communications as their primary channel for customer services and business in general. Back in the days, VoIP was nowhere as good as it is today, customers used to report quality concerns and many actually gave up on VoIP for a while. However, today VoIP has facilitated enormous quality and great satisfaction all over the world.
How to select the best VoIP for my home business? There are three types of VoIP options that are commonly implemented, 1, Private Branch Exchange; 2, Integrated Access; 3, Session Initiation Protocol Trunking (SIP trunking). Selecting the best VoIP for your home business is not an easy thing. You must understand your VoIP needs, look for best VoIP service providers, find the ones who offer redundancy, QoS, SLAs and those who have great support availability. Once you have done all of the research and you decide, your VoIP provider will document your requirements by assessing traffic patterns, network security, bandwidth requirements, the total number of lines and local area network topology.
Using decent business VoIP service, you will easily build a stronger relationship with your clients/customers, manage your business calls and effectively improve your sales and business results. VoIP allows you to share one phone number with all of your employees and ensures you/they can use it anywhere in the world. Imagine being able to add your business phone service right on your website and having even better communication levels with your customers on the go. Usually, online phone support works a lot better than live chat or contact forms too.
What Is A VoIP Service And Why Should You Get It For Your Business?
VoIP is short for Voice over Internet Protocol. VoIP is a business phone service that is internet-based and lets you make phone calls as well as receive them by using computers, mobile devices, and VoIP phone sets. Unlike regular phone services we use in our homes that use a landline, VoIP services actually use the internet connection to make phone calls. For this reason, VoIP services are much cheaper and they also provide you with great and very powerful features. Once you start using VoIP services, you will be able to track various things such as hold times, call duration, call wait times and much more. Certain VoIP services even provide you with advanced options like call routing, caller ID, call forwarding and so on.
Sadly, VoIP is not the best choice for people who have slow internet speed or people who have unstable electric power. Knowing VoIP is a completely internet-based, a decent connection is something you will want to have if you wish to flawlessly use VoIP services.
Understanding Your VoIP Needs
VoIP services can often seem very complicated and hard to understand, especially after seeing all of the acronyms used in the period of your early research about VoIP services. However, it is really not as complicated as it seems. There are three types of VoIP options that are commonly implemented and these are the ones you should know about in order to understand your VoIP needs as they are.
1. Private Branch Exchange (PBX)
Private Branch Exchange is a system that manages your phone services and calls. It can be hosted, on-premise and it can also be a hybrid of both. Hosted PBX is the one that is mainly used due to its cost savings and ease of use.
2. Integrated Access
Integrated Access allows you to use your IP network in order to carry your voice services as well. Use already existing LAN cables and regular Ethernet equipment to make phone calls. Your phone calls become an application, just like file transfers or emails. Doing this, you get great benefits such as easy troubleshooting, flexibility and of course cost savings.
3. Session Initiation Protocol Trunking (SIP trunking)
SIP trunking is basically a communications protocol that is used for controlling and signaling multimedia communications. One of the most common applications of Session Initiation Protocol trunking is in Internet telephony for video calls and voice over IP (Internet Protocol) networks. This type of protocol is much better than old PRI or analog trunking as well.
If you still have no idea what are your current VoIP needs, that is fine too. Good VoIP vendors will always take their time to figure out your business needs and they will always openly explain the pros and cons of their options and options for you. Good VoIP vendors will help you easily decide which solution will work the best for you.
Self-Hosted VoIP Or Hosted VoIP?
Hosted VoIP is great due to the benefits of outsourcing the actual maintenance of your current phone system. Your VoIP service provider manages the equipment installation, updates and routine updates to your system. Usually, the information technology department has access to the VoIP system via a cloud-based portal that is accessed fully remotely.
Self-hosted VoIP is all about the self-installation of a private branch exchange, it is mainly used by sophisticated organizations. The organization with a self-hosted VoIP is entirely responsible for the updates and phone equipment on their own. While this option can often save costs, it also requires an investment of time and knowledge to keep the system running smooth.
Best VoIP Service Providers
RingCentral
There are many VoIP service providers out there, but RingCentral is one of the most known ones out there. They offer very feature-rich business phone systems for everyone, small companies, as well as enterprise-level businesses. RingCentral provides its customers with a toll-free and local number, a minimum of 100 free minutes per month and voice, text, mailing services. With RingCentral, you can integrate your phone with third party services such as Salesforce, Dropbox and G Suite.
Pro’s and Con’s of RingCentral
Pro’s
- Easy to set up and use
- You can activate phone services within minutes
- You can add your own features to your business as it grows
Con’s
- Users complain about a rather bad customer support
Nextiva
Nextiva is one of the best VoIP services for business at the moment. They offer their customers a very simple but also very good phone system for their business needs. Their call management system includes call queueing, unlimited text messaging, faxing, unlimited calling, instant conference calls and much more. It is a complete communication system that features text, video, mobile app, voice and web collaboration. To make things even better Nextiva also includes a feature that will automatically greet your callers and help them pick the person or department they wish to speak to. Taco Bell, Conan, and Ashleys Furniture are just a few out of many companies who claim Nextiva is an amazing business phone service provider out there.
Pro’s and Con’s of Nextiva
Pro’s
- Nextiva is easy to use and has a user-friendly admin panel that will help you manage your calls, SMS, voice mails and a lot more.
- Nextiva is affordable
- Nextiva has a very dedicated customer service and support.
Con’s
- Rather hard to set up if you are a non-tech person. It takes a while to get used to Nextiva’s interface.
Grasshopper
Grasshopper is another very popular business phone solution for your business. Grasshopper can help you improve your business communications and it also allows you to pick from local, vanity toll-free and toll-free numbers so your business can operate quickly with calls. Grasshopper phone service includes mobile apps, desktop apps, call forwarding, virtual fax, custom greetings, business texting and much more. It is a virtual phone system that was designed to forward calls to any mobile device or phone number.
Pro’s and Con’s of Grasshopper
Pro’s
- Grasshopper is easily set up for your company
- You can call forward anywhere in the world by using Grasshopper
Con’s
- Your employees will need to use the already existing landline to make outbound calls.
Related Questions
What is QoS? QoS stands for the quality of service, it enables the router to prevent unwanted noises and increases the quality of your VoIP connections and calls. QoS prioritizes important packets that are meant to reach their destination as quickly as possible and delays those who are less important. QoS is one of the things you want to have when finding a decent VoIP service provider.
What is SLA? SLA stands for Service Level Agreement. It is your provider’s promise of network performance. Currently, the leading VoIP service providers are all offering SLA and are always ready to offer enough money as compensation if any failures happen. It is extremely important that you are offered SLA upon getting a VoIP service, this alone will ensure your business runs smoothly without any interruptions or bad quality of service.