Selecting the right business phone system can feel confusing. There are countless advanced features to consider along with aligning its functionality to your business needs.
The great news is that with a cloud PBX system, you don’t need to plan that far ahead. In fact, with softphones (mobile apps and desktop apps), your team can place phone calls in minutes without additional hardware.
Here are several recommendations for picking the best small business phone system.
Identify your needs for a VoIP phone system
To find the phone system for your small business, consider your current business needs and the challenges in the future, such as hiring and customer growth.
Next, take a closer look at how you want to communicate across channels:
- Voice calls: High-definition phone calls between users, customers, prospects, and partners
- Video meetings: Real-time video conferencing with your team members
- Text messaging: Send and receive text messages (SMS) through your business phone numbers
- Auto attendants: Deliver useful messages and provide an easy way for customers to reach the right department with a touch-tone-based IVR
- Call forwarding: Never miss an important call again with automatic call forwarding to any team member or mobile phone
- Toll-free number: Pick a non-local business phone number for a professional and consistent customer experience
- Contact center: Serve customers using a call center or a multi-channel contact center without the burden of a PBX system
- Business integrations: Connect your company’s phone system to CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, etc.) and email (Microsoft Outlook and Gmail) applications improve workflows. You can also integrate with business applications like Zendesk, Five9, and Microsoft Teams.
The next area to consider is your technology needs. Is your company in an office or does everyone work remotely? Either option works great with small business VoIP. As long as you have a strong internet connection (at least 1 Mbps per user), you’ll enjoy unlimited calls in HD quality. Not sure? Take a quick VoIP call quality test.
Analog and cloud-based phone system differences
Many business owners are familiar with traditional landline phone systems. Your phone company provides them and carries additional costs, including on-premises PBX equipment maintained by your IT team and copper wiring to connect your phones to the telephone service provider.
Analog phone lines have a reputation for reliability. Usually, they carry a clear sound, but storms or wiring problems cause downtime. Also, they can be hard to scale because they require on-premises systems. You will have to work with the telephone provider’s schedule if you want to add new phone lines or change system features. And calling fees can be high, especially for long-distance.
Unsurprisingly, traditional landline phone systems are declining in popularity due to their costs and lack of flexibility, especially with the norms of working from home.
Cloud-based phone systems (also known as Voice over IP or VoIP) offer the highest degree of flexibility and scalability. VoIP phones are created for employees who work from home or on the road since the phone number is not limited to a physical location. Plus, you’ll typically save on the cost of business calling plans, especially if you’re making long-distance calls.
At the end of the day, cloud phone systems offer more advanced features like unified communications to support the needs of every employee — and they cost less.
Types of cloud phone systems
Moving forward with a cloud-based phone system is an important step. Now, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the types of cloud solutions on the market.
Cloud-based phone systems are available in two different models: on-premises or cloud-hosted.
On-premises VoIP: Use your high-speed internet connection as the exclusive medium for calling and give you access and control over phone system features and settings. But, all the equipment and phone system maintenance is physically located in your office. You're responsible for updates, maintenance, and uninterrupted power and internet service. Depending on the size of your small business, this isn't the best phone solution for you.
Cloud-hosted VoIP: With a cloud phone system provider, you lean on their expertise and efficiency. You would only need a high-speed internet connection for business phone calls and team communication. In most cases, the VoIP phone provider will suggest affordable IP phones you need and free apps to receive calls from any desktop or mobile device.
Unlike on-premises VoIP or landline systems, cloud-hosted phone systems won’t carry much in the way of upfront costs. Instead, you’ll pay a monthly fee per user, plus extra costs if you request special add-ons like AI-powered virtual receptionists or call centers.
Choose the VoIP provider with the best service
Top VoIP providers can outfit your business with dedicated technology, including phones, headsets, mobile apps, and more. Top VoIP phone system providers will also give you the dashboards and technical tools to seamlessly view every customer conversation in a single place, regardless of whether it happens by phone, email, or text messaging (SMS).
But technology can get your small business so far. As your company scales, you'll run into new communication challenges. For instance, let's say you're adding new locations or need a call center for your sales team or a customer support contact center. Will your business phone provider help you implement them? Customer service is a key differentiator among business phone systems — you don’t have to look far to see which is best.
Nextiva is the best choice for small businesses and enterprises. With its superior reliability, advanced functionality, system feature choices, ease of use, and customer service tools, no other VoIP provider comes close. Nextiva also includes live customer support 24/7. It might not seem like a big deal now, but getting real customer support from your phone service provider is priceless.
AI-Powered Contact Center
AI Voice & Digital Bots
Customer Journey Orchestration
Intelligent Virtual Assistant
Secure Payment Assist
Intelligent & Skills-Based Routing
Progressive, Predictive Outbound Dialing
List and campaign management
Conversational Commerce
Unified History and Native Contact Management
