Businesses of all sizes are now switching to VoIP for all their communication needs. Why? Well, there's a range of benefits that include cost, reliability, convenience, flexibility, and more.
When choosing to go with a business VoIP system, you’re likely to run into two different ways of providing the same service – on-premise VoIP or hosted VoIP solutions.
What is hosted VoIP?
A hosted VoIP solution runs in the cloud and all the features are handled through your provider’s server. On-premise VoIP means equipment and software required to run the platform will be housed within your office (or a physical location of your choosing).
The only difference between a ‘regular’ phone system and a VoIP one is that the latter works over the internet.
Hosted VoIP provides you with a service without needing to install expensive hardware, which is especially useful for smaller businesses or ones that don’t want to dedicate a lot of resources to the maintenance of a VoIP solution.
Hosted VoIP is great for any size business though, including larger companies with extensive communication needs.
Here are some of the benefits…
Lower cost per call
VoIP is best known for how cheap it is to make a call. Those low costs are due to the fact that hosted VoIP uses your existing internet connection. This goes for international calls as well as domestic. The only new charge you have to think about is the monthly price of the hosted VoIP service you use, your team members are free to make as many calls as they want to, to each other. Compare this to traditional landlines that require hardware like wires, installation, and expensive phone bills!
Installation and maintenance
This is handled by the VoIP provider, and all you have to do is indicate what features you want, for instance video conferencing or messaging. Other than that, all hardware and software upgrades, all maintenance activities and support requests are handled by your provider. Setup and installation costs are low and its quick to get started.
Hosted VoIP delivers both your Voice and Data over the same network. Rather than having two lines (one for your telephone and one for your data) VoIP simplifies your infrastructure – and saves costs, of course.
Scalability
At some point you’re going to need to scale your hosted VoIP system up to match your growing business. This could come in the form of simply adding more users and phones or adding in new features to support a new business initiative. Hosted VoIP systems are in the cloud which means that resources can be shifted as needed to meet business needs.
All you have to do is ask your service provider to add more lines when your team is increasing or remove a line when someone moves on. At any given point of time, you’ll only be paying for what you are currently using.
In other words, a hosted VoIP solution can grow comfortably alongside your business, no matter what your size.
Work from anywhere
Hosted VoIP is perfect for any company that has remote or hybrid employees, as it can be accessed from anywhere at any time. A hosted system will allow you to make calls on your mobile phone, laptop and even tablet – you just need an internet connection.
That way even if you don’t see colleagues and clients in person, you can still collaborate and work together effectively. For contact centre agents, this means you can reach customers without physically being in a call centre.
Contact centre benefits
For businesses that are used to engaging with customers over the phone or email, hosted VoIP is an ideal upgrade – giving you a 24/7, contact centre.
With a hosted VoIP solution that supports your contact centre needs, you can experience:
- Unified Communications – Unified Communication solutions (UC) allows your agents to communicate with customers via phone, chat, email, WhatsApp – wherever it suits the customer. It is not possible to have UC without a VoIP, so if you’re interested in integrating UC into your business, you’ll need hosted VoIP first.
- Reporting and monitoring – Most hosted VoIP services for cloud contact centre solutions offer easy access to monitor performance, and call analytics so that you can improve your employee and customer experience.
- Interactive voice recognition (IVR) – With hosted VoIP you can route calls to exactly the right department or person, with no problem at all.
- Smarter call routing – Hosted VoIP offers extreme flexibility in routing, allowing you to optimise the number of calls received according to training, skill level, and other factors.
Easily monitor inbound call activity, with barge in and emergency escalation available when needed. Intelligent call distribution ensures calls are answered efficiently and get through to the right people.
Better customer experience
Simply put, customers value VoIP. With a contact centre solution, it can avoid feelings of being bounced around from agent to agent, enabling them to talk to the right person immediately. It also means higher call quality, and faster responses to queries.
With the right service provider, you may be able to unlock far better customer service than you have with your current phone system.
Improve collaboration, reliability in our fully scalable hosted VoIP phone system. Move over quickly and easily, future-proofing your business and saving money.
Chat to our team now on 03300 888 999 to find out more or leave us a message here.