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The Best VoIP Systems for Small Businesses
Voice over Internet Protocol is a business phone system that uses your internet connection to let you make and receive phone calls. VoIP systems allow you to make phone calls from anywhere as long as you have an internet connection and a compatible device. Businesses are now leaning more towards using VoIP phone systems for their convenience and low costs. And so, VoIP providers started customizing their services to adjust to their needs.
If you are a business owner looking for the best VoIP system for your small business, you are in the right place; we will go over everything you need to know before choosing a provider and recommend you the best ones on the market.
How Do Business VoIP Phone Systems Benefit Your Business?
Once you start using a VoIP system for your business, you will be able to tell the difference yourself. But we will go over some of the most important aspects in which you will notice the change to give you a quick idea:
- Excellent call quality: VoIP systems can now offer the speakers on the call a better quality than that of a traditional phone.
- Cutting costs: Using your internet connection to make phone calls is undoubtedly cheaper than using a traditional landline or a cell phone. Not only will you save money, but you will also allow your callers to save money by providing them with direct inward dialing (DID) numbers that are either free or charge low costs.
- Portability: As VoIP systems can be installed on compatible smartphones, your employees can be available from anywhere inside or outside the office.
- No cabling required for your phone: You will not deal with the hassle of phone wiring, as you will use either your Ethernet or Wi-Fi to secure a connection.
- Extensibility: VoIP systems allow you to forward inbound calls so that users can receive them on their smart devices or any other compatible devices.
- Increased productivity: VoIP systems will help you get rid of “phone tag.” Phone tag is when two people are trying to reach each other over the phone but neither of them is able to get hold of the other. If your customers are trying to reach you or are waiting for a call from you, it might lead to their frustration and you might start losing customers. VoIP solves this issue, as you can allow your customers’ calls to go to multiple devices before reaching voicemail.
VoIP Systems Features for Small Businesses
The list of features you can find in a VoIP for small businesses is so long and some can also be customized to fit the needs of each business. Below are some of the most important features you can expect to find in your business VoIP:
Call queuing routing
When a customer calls your business, their call can be placed in a queue and routed to the responsible department to answer their call. This can save customers and employees time that otherwise would be wasted on redirecting calls manually.
Call screening and anonymous call rejection
Your VoIP can help you decide which calls you want to answer and which ones you need to reject. This tool will use the callers’ IDs to filter them and decide which calls should be answered, rejected, escalated, and so on.
To spare your employees the trouble of having to deal with prank calls and the like, your VoIP system can automatically detect anonymous callers and blocked caller IDs and reject them.
Virtual attendant
A virtual attendant or assistant can fill the place of a receptionist; it can answer all your incoming calls and route them as needed. This will help you cut down on hiring costs and keep your customer happy and satisfied at the same time.
Business messaging
Sometimes, customers may prefer texting over phone calls; some VoIP systems offer business SMS texting tools. You can find a good VoIP system that allows you an unlimited number of text messages that you can utilize to send messages and notifications to your customers and to your employees when needed.
Call forwarding
With many businesses leaning more towards working remotely, your VoIP will let you forward calls from office phones to the smartphones of the employees so that you never leave any call unanswered. This is also helpful when you travel or work in the field, as you can choose to have all of your calls forwarded to your cell phone. Or if you take days off work, you can forward your calls to your secretary or any other responsible employee.
Call recording
Your VoIP can record phone calls so you can listen to them whenever needed and tell your employees about any areas of improvement. You can use the phone calls for training and coaching purposes and to improve the quality of your services for more customer satisfaction.
Free local phone number
Your VoIP allows you to choose a local phone number for your business, which will help you establish and keep your local presence and visibility.
Toll-free number
You can provide a toll-free number for your international customer so that they don’t get charged any extra fees when they call you.
Hot desking
Hot desking allows your agents to log into the system from any device and still have all their data stored. No matter where your employees log in from, their data will automatically show up.
Mobile app
The best thing about VoIP systems is that they can be installed as software or an app on your desktop, laptop, or mobile. Your VoIP app will allow you to create a whole virtual office, which can be helpful if you are running low on office space so you can have your employees work remotely.
Video conferencing
VoIP systems provide a platform where you can make video calls for up to 500 participants usually. You can also make use of this feature to hold conferences for customers as a marketing strategy.
The list goes on and on and every VoIP provider has its own extra features that can benefit your business.
The Best VoIP for Small Businesses
You will come across many VoIP providers who offer features that can greatly benefit your business. To make the search easier, we have picked two VoIP systems that can work perfectly for your small business:
Ooma
Ooma is a VoIP provider with services designed to help businesses no matter their size or needs. They offer several plans that can benefit your business. We will go over their plans which are designed for small businesses in particular:
Ooma Office
This is the most affordable plan; you will be charged $19.95 per user per month. The plan comes with a list of features that can be very helpful for small businesses, including:
- Call forwarding
- Call queuing
- Business SMS texting
- Virtual receptionist (attendant)
- 3-click provisioning
- Similar features to Microsoft Teams
- 99.999% uptime with SLA
- Month-to-Month agreement
- 7-digit dialing
- Music on hold
- Call log
- Extension-to-extension
- Call forwarding (helpful in outages)
- Multi-device ring
- 24/7 support
Ooma Office Pro
This is the other plan for small businesses and it is an upgraded version of the Ooma Office plan; it charges $24.95 per user per month and includes everything in the first plan, plus a few more features, including:
- Video conferencing
- Call recording
- Voicemail transcription
- Caller info match
- Call analytics
- Call through Ooma's desktop app
- 3-click provision
- 24/7 support
- 99.999% uptime with SLA
- LTE Primary and Failover connectivity
- Advanced business phone features
- Single or multi-location
Dialpad
Dialpad is a great company that offers multiple VoIP system plans for small businesses. We will go over the first two plans in detail:
Dialpad Talk Standard plan
This is the company's basic plan; it starts at $15 per user per month, and it includes:
- Unlimited calling
- Unlimited SMS
- Unlimited MMS
- Customized voice mail
- Call controls
- Voice mail transcriptions
- Google and Microsoft 365 integration
- Call routing during off-hours
Dialpad Talk Pro plan
This plan starts at $25 per user per month, and it includes all the features in the basic plan plus:
- CRM integration
- Unlimited meetings
- Local number supported in over 50 countries
- Hold ques
- International SMS
- Desk phone support
- Slack, Zapier, and Zendesk integration
- 25 ring groups
- 24/7 phone support
Nextiva
Nextiva is one of the biggest VoIP providers on the market. They have four plans to fit all business needs. Since we are speaking about small businesses, we will focus on their basic plans:
Essential Plan
This plan starts at $18.95 per user per month and comes with a list of all the essential features a small business needs in VoIP. Some of these features include unlimited audio and video calling, unlimited internet fax, free local and toll-free numbers, and 24/7 customer support. You also get a few more features, like voice-to-email, virtual attendant, and a mobile app. This VoIP system can integrate Outlook, Google Contacts, and more.
Professional Plan
This plan starts at $22.95 per user per month. The Professional plan is good for small teams, according to Nextiva. This plan offers many features, including unlimited audio & video meetings, business text messaging, team collaboration tools, and voicemail to email & SMS. It allows unlimited conference calls for up to 40 users and unlimited video conference calls for up to 250 participants.