subject: Tips For Choosing The Best Business Phone Systems [print this page] Tips For Choosing The Best Business Phone Systems
Your business phone system can be large or small depending on the size of your business and the types of services you offer. One of your major concerns no matter the size of your business should be good quality equipment. Choosing phone equipment that is of poor quality will be counterproductive and will prove to be a risk for the business if communication ever becomes critical. So you should not let your budget hinder your decision to purchase the best quality as it will pay off in the long run.
When choosing a phone system you should think of the present needs of the company as well as the possible future needs. So you will need to think of possible growth and thus an increase in the number of lines that you may need in the future. The productivity of the business is closely linked to the effectiveness of customer service and as your customer base grows you will need more employees for the customer service department and hence more equipment.
If your system ever becomes too small, you will be at risk for losing customers when you cannot fully accommodate their enquiries etc. But you can also make your system too large, this is not good as you end up wasting money on services that you are not utilizing.
Your next consideration will be how much you can afford. Some will have flexible budgets where others may not. If you find that you are the latter and can only afford inferior equipment it would be best to put off your purchase until you can afford to get good equipment. You should do this because purchasing cheaper, poor quality equipment will give many problems which may cause you to spend more on maintenance. You should compare not only prices but what is provided in each package of the same price. Different companies will offer different features so you may have two packages priced the same but containing different features.
Ensure that the features that you are paying for are actually going to be used. To determine what features you need look at what you kind of services you offer and who your customers are. Where are they? Are they in different time zones? Etc. Bear in mind that there aren't many companies that allow you to only pick features you need so there will be some that end up on the list that you may not use often. Just ensure that there aren't many of these on the list.
When choosing a phone system it should follow all the above and at the same time be easy to use. Do not get a complex system that will need days of training thus having you short staffed and having your customers waiting days to get the information they need. Just as it is easy to use, it should also be easy to upgrade in the event that your business grows or downgrade if your business downsizes. This is an important decision and should not be taken lightly so do not make decisions on a whim.
