Every business looks to cut costs and improve efficiency. By upgrading your phone system to VoIP, you can do both these and much more. Today, we explore the many benefits of VoIP for small business, a topic we are very familiar with. As VoIP providers, we’ve seen the endless ways cloud phone systems have benefited our clients, from single freelancers to larger SMEs. Read on to find how the advantages of VoIP and how they can impact your business.

VoIP Benefits for small business

All organisations benefit from a VoIP phone system, but it is especially suited to small businesses and sole enterprises. Cloud-based phone systems allow SMEs to compete with big companies in terms of customer service and capacity. Plus, at a much cheaper rate than traditional fixed lines, it’s a cost-saving solution for any small business looking to cut costs as everything else seems to go up.

Cost Saving

This is the first and foremost thing in most small business owners’ minds. Saving overhead costs on your business is essential to improving profit margins. As consumers, we are often told to shop around for the best deals for mobile, internet and phone lines. So why is the same often not said in business? By switching traditional landlines to a VoIP system, you can reduce your costs significantly. Set up is low cost, monthly fees are affordable, and call charges are a low price compared to traditional phone systems. This includes calls to numbers abroad.

With a cloud phone system, you also can benefit from free internal calls. This is incredibly beneficial for small businesses that have several locations or where most of their staff work remotely. As costs for all utilities continue to rise in the UK, why not get a quote for VoIP and see how it could impact your communication bill.

Better Remote Working

One of the most drastic things the pandemic changed was how we work. Many people started working from home for the first time and continue to do so today. Any digital-based industry or office-based work can likely be performed from home, so ensuring your staff have the communication aids they need to work effectively is vital in this world. A primary benefit of VoIP is that it allows for accessible communication between workers no matter where they are located in the world. The only fundamental requirement is a good internet connection and a device that can be used to make a call.

VoIP allows remote workers to connect to the same phone system, share phone directories, access call queues, and transfer to colleagues with ease. In addition, VoIP can replicate standard office features from any location and with many staff.

Growth Capabilities

Even if you’ve started as a freelancer, your small business could grow massively. VoIP phone systems are scalable by nature and can expand as and when your company grows. As a digital phone system is hosted in the cloud, it is just a case of adding extensions for each new user. If your workers are office-based, you may want to add additional desk phones, but you can also utilise any mobile phone with our purpose-built app.

Not only does VoIP allow you to grow, but you can also scale back if required. Furthermore, adding users that will primarily use mobile means you can grow your business quicker than if you were reliant on office-based workers and traditional landlines.

Improved Customer Service

While customer service is often down to how your staff handle enquiries and issues, a decent phone system can streamline the process for your team. Small businesses have lots to deal with daily, so use VoIP to support your customer service with tailored features. Some of the features that benefit small and busy businesses include:

  • Greeting message to welcome callers
  • Autoresponder to provide options to callers
  • Call queuing features such as hold music or adverts
  • Out of office call management so you never miss a call or can respond to any voicemails efficiently.

All these features improve customer wait times and engagement. They also allow staff breathing space when it comes to busy call periods to handle all calls in a calm and collected manner.

Enhanced Training with Monitoring

Relating to improved customer service, cloud phone systems allow small businesses to track and record calls. This will enable owners and managers to provide enhanced training to increase customer satisfaction further.

There are several call monitoring options which VoIP systems are capable of producing. For example, real-time wallboards provide managers with current data for incoming calls now, including those in a queue, those missed and those currently on a call. This can highlight bottlenecks and problem calls. At the same time, call tracking provides data from any time in the call history. This allows managers to create reports and highlight call trends over time. Monitoring like this ensures that staff make or pick up the calls they need to. These features are beneficial for call centres and sales teams.

Another feature which provides an excellent training opportunity is call recording. Allowing staff to listen back to calls offers real-life examples of how to handle calls and how not to. There are no better training examples than genuine customer interactions.

Choosing a Phone System Provider

As you can see, there are some fantastic benefits of VoIP for small business. If you would like a quote for these services, get in touch Tt discuss your needs or for any advice, call or email Yestech on 0800 524 4293, sales@yestech.co.uk. If you’re not sure about a new provider, check out our article, 9 Things to Consider When Choosing a UK Telecoms Company.