Is your business phone holding you back? Future Proof with Hosted PBX

Jun 7, 2016Uncategorized0 comments

Upgrade-to-pbx-simplicitySmart phones have become a deeply rooted part of our culture. Regardless of your daily routine, chances are you will find scores of people talking, texting, tweeting, surfing, working or playing on a mobile device. Phones have become our lifelines to the outside world.

Many of us stand in line for hours awaiting the newest yearly upgrade, if only to show our friends how tragically hip we are. Then, once every app imaginable has been downloaded on our new device, we begin to argue brand supremacy as if we are debating politics or college basketball.

The ironic part of it all, however, is that while many of us will flaunt the superiority of an iPhone over an Android, many businesses continue to run their organizations on antiquated phone technology dating back to the Reagan administration.

The most common reasons are more basic than you might imagine: presumed costs, apathy toward change, and most unfortunately, ignorance toward the potential ramifications.

The following highlights some reasons why small business owners should look into upgrading their phone systems with the same excitement and zeal they so often do with their personal smart phones.

It is too expensive to upgrade my business phone system

For the vast majority of small business owners, there is a common concern about a large capital investment for a brand new hosted IP PBX, a cloud-based phone system. This false premise is largely based on outdated information.

Today’s competitive market has trimmed the costs associated with this expenditure greatly. Rental agreements, bundled pricing and commoditization all work to the consumer’s advantage, creating a buyer’s market where providers bend over backwards to outdo their competition in customer service, reliability and cost savings.

Much like how you may have financed your home, long-term rental agreements are now commonplace in the hosted IP PBX space. The advantages of these rental agreements include, among other things, free upgrades and maintenance.

Are you currently paying a company to provide annual system updates, as well as periodic moves, add-ons and changes? You no longer have to, and other expenses like local and domestic long-distance calling have become a thing of the past as well.

My business phone system has worked fine for me so far

Similar to how today’s smart phones can do things once thought unimaginable (such as reading this article on one in between posting on Facebook, and creating a puppy caption on Snap Chat), so can your business’s hosted IP system.

For example, consider allowing an app on a smart phone to control your entire hosted IP PBX system remotely at the push of a button. Say you’re enjoying the horse races when it occurs to you that today was supposed to be half-priced chili day at your restaurant. With access to an internet connection, you can alert your entire client base within a few brief moments by updating your on-hold message.

 

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Honestly, how much can my phone system actually help my business?

As mentioned earlier, phones are our lifeline to the outside world. The same is true in business. Every phone call received provides an opportunity for your business to add new revenue, and every missed call becomes a potential missed sale.

Features such as selective call routing and cellular phone twinning ensure hosted IP PBX users are able to answer customer calls properly even in off hours or during emergencies. Busy signals leading to missed sales become a problem only your competitors must deal with.

Furthermore, many hosted IP PBX systems come with online portals that allow for accurate call recording, promoting higher employee activity levels.

Lastly, and arguably the most important feature of any cloud product, is that hosted IP PBX’s are disaster proof. The brains behind a majority of these products are located in geographically diverse data centers, meaning that no single event will cause your business to lose all of its vital information.

No one likes to talk about tornadoes, fires, or floods but these types of events can happen at any time. While buying a hosted phone system won’t prevent bad things from happening, it does allow a business to bounce back sooner and at a much lower cost than if all of your vital information were stored locally.

The next time you find yourself walking around town talking, texting and tweeting on your smart phone, take a few minutes to research how expensive, and often inefficient, it is to maintain your organization’s current on premise phone system. Afterwards, consider how much more agile and effective you can be for your customers by deploying a new hosted IP PBX, especially since you won’t have to stand in line for hours waiting for the newest upgrade.

Adapted from an article posted on InsiderLouisville.com

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