Choosing the Best VoIP Service for Your Small Business

As a small business owner, finding an excellent and cost-efficient phone system is crucial. If you want to scale your business and keep your customers happy, having a robust telecommunications solution is a must.

If you are not happy with the services of your local telephone provider or you are looking for a more budget-friendly and robust communication solution, VoIP service can be the right fit for you. Whether you want to use in-office or mobile phones, you need unlimited calling and toll-free numbers, or additional features like conference calling, voicemail transcriptions, visual voicemail, screen sharing, team messaging, unlimited extensions, and a virtual receptionist, there is a VoIP phone service for your organization.

As businesses move towards a remote or hybrid working model, VoIP services have become all the more popular today. If you want to take your business’s communication to the next level, investing in a business VoIP service can be a smart move. It can also help you consolidate your incoming calls and outbound calls all under one solution (unified communications), which helps you track business communications with greater control. 

But what exactly is a business VoIP service or business VoIP phone system? And how can you choose the best one for your growing business? Read on to learn about your best options, the essential features you’re looking for, and discover why a business VoIP system is a wise choice for savvy business owners like you. 

What Exactly is a VoIP Service?

VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol is basically a system for using the internet for making phone calls. While you may think that VoIP is a new technological development, it is not a new concept. In fact, Voice over Internet Protocol has been around since 1995. It has been helping businesses of all sizes to make local and international phone calls over the internet.

Today, with the internet reaching every nook and cranny of the world, the importance of VoIP has grown tenfold! More and more businesses are transitioning to VoIP. each day, adding this important technology to their list of effective communication tools. 

The best thing about this powerful communication solution is that it not only facilitates smooth phone calls, it also offers several other features too. For example, your team can use it for video conferencing, audio conferencing, call recording,  and voicemail. It will help you improve your international calls, support your sales teams out in the market, provide options for audio conferencing, covers you with auto-attendants, and does so much more for a strait-forward monthly price. VoIP can also be integrated into your CRM solution. This will help you gain viable customer insights.

5 Effective Tips for Finding the Right VoIP Provider

If you want to upgrade to the VoIP system for handling the telecommunication needs of your business but don’t know where to start, this section will help you out.

To enjoy all the incredible features of VoIP, you need to pick the right VoIP provider that offers the best services at affordable prices. In this section, we’ll discuss the five most effective tips to help you find the right VoIP service provider for your business.

Have a Clear Idea of Your Budget

Before you start looking at different service providers to meet your business VoIP solutions needs, it’s important to have a clear idea about your budget and the money you are willing to spend on a new VoIP service. After all, you don’t want to end up with a plan that exceeds your budget.

So, make a list of all the potential VoIP providers you’re interested in and browse through their plans, pricing structure, and advanced features they offer. See if they meet the needs of your business or not. While you are at it, make sure that you are considering your long-term business requirements. Oftentimes, for business owners who work alone or many small businesses, the basic plan provided is enough. However, for many other businesses, the basic plan won’t offer all the features they need. So, make sure you’re doing thorough research. 

After this, cross off all the VoIP providers who are too expensive or don’t offer what you are looking for. This will help you narrow down your search and come up with the names of a handful of VoIP services that actually match your business’s telecommunication requirements with the right price and the wide range of features needed for continued success. 

Prioritize Collaboration Features

The best VoIP provider is one that offers several advanced collaboration VoIP features at an affordable cost. Almost all VoIP services come with multiple collaboration features that help you enhance the quality and speed of your communication.

Features like online virtual meetings, video conferencing, call scheduling, and voicemail, are common parts of almost every VoIP plan. These VoIP features are especially useful to your remote employees. They enable them to interact and work together even when they are sitting miles away.

VoIP is a smart communication solution that aims to offer better services than your regular telephone provider. Make sure to make the most of all available smart collaboration features that help you take your business’s communication to the next level and keep your scattered team on the same page. 

Seamless Integrations With Third-Party Apps

Make sure the VoIP service you choose offers seamless third-party integrations with outside applications. VoIP services are not limited to making and receiving phone calls like your traditional phone system.

Instead, they offer a plethora of advanced features like automation, email integrations, CRM integrations, etc. to make it easier for you to handle several business tasks. Thus, while choosing a VoIP service, make sure to pick the one that provides integrations with applications like the Google Workspace (Gmail, Google Drive, and more) along with Dropbox, and others. 

These key features will enhance your collaboration, allow your employees to better serve your customers, store key files in a single place, and increase your team’s efficiency.

Good Security

Cybersecurity is one of the biggest issues for modern businesses. What’s more concerning is that almost 43% of cyber attacks and data branches are aimed at small businesses. And a mere 14% of these businesses are prepared to handle such an attack.

Small business owners should always be on the lookout for the most secure and reliable services. Whether you are investing in a new CRM or buying a VoIP service, ranking them on the basis of the security they offer is smart. Trust us, you do not want to pay for a VoIP service that offers you little online security and leaves you vulnerable to online threats.

Make sure to analyze various VoIP services and pick the one that offers a safe and encrypted communication channel for your teams, customers, and business partners. It should have multi-factor authentication, and a host of other lock-tight security parameters. Make sure that your VoIP provider also has solid options for overcoming redundancy or other network-related issues.

Easy Call Management

Next up is call management. The biggest and most important job of a VoIP service is to offer you excellent call management and handle all your audio and video calls better than a traditional phone system.

A good call management system offers a smooth and uninterrupted communication system. It enables you to listen to your customers’ issues and offer them the right solution without being interrupted by network issues. This helps you enhance your communication and impress your customers. And it gives them the confidence and security they need to keep coming back for more. 

Choose a VoIP provider that has a knowledgeable and experienced team of professionals who not only check for a stable internet connection, but who can examine your local digital traffic, network bandwidth, router, firewall, and every other relevant connection. They will tweak all this in such a way that you can enjoy high-quality and uninterrupted calls at all times.

Analog phones were life-changing in their day. Cell phones are an incredible advancement. Instant messaging is great. Unlimited internet fax is practical. But VoIP is a huge step forward in the ease, quality, and scope of business communications.  

The Bottom Line

The right VoIP services offer a wealth of team tools and management features and can unlock doors to new opportunities for your business. It can help you attract new customers, convert leads, support you team and your objectives, and impress your existing clients with robust communication and quick services.

However, this all starts with choosing the right VoIP provider for your business. So, make sure to use the tips above to choose wisely and discover all the advantages of VoIP for your business. 

Tech Masters helps business owners increase productivity and grow their business with superb IT and technology management plans. Reach out today to learn more and find out how you can qualify for our incredible 3-Month Free Trial with our Enterprise MSP Program. 

To learn more about VoIP phone services, check out our frequently asked questions below. 

FAQ

1. What are the three types of VoIP services?

VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol is a powerful telecommunication service that offers you a way to make and receive high-quality phone calls (both audio and video) over the internet. The system allows you and your team to make calls from a variety of devices and platforms including mobile devices, computers, and more.

When it comes to VoIP, there are three major types of services that users can choose from according to their needs. They include the following:

In-house VoIP systems

Hybrid VoIP systems

Hosted VoIP systems

2. What are the two devices needed for VoIP?

Since VoIP services allow you to make or receive phone calls over the internet. You will obviously need a solid internet connection and devices necessary for handling that internet connection.

So, the two devices needed for VoIP include a router and a modem. Since these devices are a part of your internet setup you will likely have them in your possession already.

3. Do I need a special phone for VoIP?

Well, whether you need a special phone for your VoIP service or your existing traditional telephone can be worked with depends upon your VoIP provider and the kind of VoIP services you choose for your business.

For some VoIP services, you will have to invest in a special phone as they don’t work over your traditional phone. However, there are many other VoIP services that work exceptionally well over your traditional phone and computer. For these services, all you need to do is connect your phone to a VoIP adapter and you’re good to go!

Thus, before investing in a VoIP service, make sure to talk to your VoIP provider and find out whether their service will work over your existing traditional phone or if you will have to buy a special VoIP phone.