Despite the presence of emails, video calls, and text messaging, business offices still prefer to have telephones. Most of them prefer calls to send emails especially if the ongoing transaction requires an immediate response.
In that case, the phone system you choose can make or break your business’ customer relation, as well as the internal affair within your company. Before deciding which phone system to integrate into your organization, you have to consider a few but important factors concerning cost, functionality, and reliability. Let us start with the traditional phone system known to us as the landline.
What is a landline?
In case you don’t know, the landline was invented in 1876 and to this date, still remains the same. Landline telephones operate by conveying signals through a string of physical switch boxes via copper wire from one telephone to another landline. This makes the traditional phones dependable and fast. However, it needs regular maintenance and a really time-consuming one.
What are the pros and cons of a landline phone system?
Now, let’s talk about the advantages and disadvantages of using a landline phone service. Let’s tackle the pros first.
Pros of a landline phone system:
- Dependability – there is no doubt that traditional phones are very dependable. Since the connection utilizes wires, you can rely on your service not to be intermittent. This is crucial for any business since customers are more inclined to make a transaction to a reachable company.
- Voice quality – landline phones offer a consistent sound and call quality without dropping calls.
Cons of a landline phone system:
- Outdated technology – as the world is shifting from traditional to the latest telephony system, the need for a more flexible phone technology is in greater demand. By saying this, the analog systems have already been left behind when it comes to flexibility and significant, helpful features.
- Higher cost – if you’ve been running a business, you have already heard it, and maybe experienced higher cost or expensive call charges with landline telephones. This is true especially if you add features such as caller ID, voicemail, or call waiting. Additional fees may also be added to the landline subscription.
- Spam calls – the mere fact that landlines are more vulnerable to spam calls than VoIP should make you think twice.
What are the pros and cons of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone system?
Let’s tackle the VoIP telephony system – its pros and cons – and how it can bring your business to the next level.
Pros of a VoIP phone system:
- Lower cost – one of the significant advantages a VoIP phone system has is low cost. Unlike the traditional phone system, you are only charged for your Internet use rather than for call minutes. Also, long-distance calls using VoIP-enabled phones cost less and oftentimes, free of charge.
- Connect anywhere – since businesses nowadays are on the go, especially with our current situation where remote working is mostly preferred, VoIP allows you to make and receive calls anytime and anywhere. Thanks to its automatic rerouting system that enables calls to be redirected to your preferred mobile device. As long as you can connect to the Internet, you can place and receive sms or calls.
- Innovative technology – VoIP is a product of a group of technology for the delivery of multimedia sessions and voice communications over the Internet Protocol (IP) network. With that being said, VoIP can wonderfully and effectively work with any mobile devices, laptops or computers, and VoIP-enabled desk phones.
- Reliability – with a fast and dependable Internet connection, VoIP functions accurately and in real-time. And as long as you have a high-speed Internet connection, high-quality voice calls are one of the things that you can experience.
- Value-added features – there are numerous features a VoIP phone system has that you cannot find in a traditional phone system. We will discuss some of them in the latter part.
- Scalability – when we talk about scalability, it means that a business – especially those startups and small ones – who dream of growing can easily add features without installing or purchasing additional expensive equipment or hardware. VoIP services providers such as Telnum have different plans that accommodate various business sizes.
And many more!
Cons of a VoIP phone system:
- Emergency calls – perhaps this is the main disadvantage of VoIP systems. You cannot rely on them to supporting emergency call services like 911. Well, you can’t blame the VoIP systems since they are flexible in nature. Unlike the traditional telephone lines that can be easily traced to a specific location, VoIP or VoIP-enabled phones are being used anywhere in the world. The best thing you have to do whether a VoIP provider offers 911 service is to call the service provider directly and ask about your concern.
Internet dependency – for some, the fact that VoIP service is
entirely reliant on the Internet makes them assume that any time, the Internet connection will crash. Though this belief is very far from the truth, it is always recommended to have stable Internet connectivity to attain the maximum benefit a VoIP system has.
VoIP important features
VoIP has tons of features that you can use to accelerate the growth of your business. Listed below are four of the most essential features that you should integrate into your daily communication.
- Call forwarding/voicemail – usually, startups and small businesses can’t operate 24 hours a day. It also means that there will be times that you can’t attend to calls being made by your customers or prospects beyond office hours. With VoIP, you can provide a voicemail system that can be forwarded to your own mobile device or your preferred employee. When calls are transferred to a mobile phone such as yours, then you can answer all incoming calls any time of the day. Thus, leaving a positive impression on your callers.
- Conference call – VoIP service offers conference calls that every business owners need. Aside from that, end-users can also send files, share presentations, and chat messages. You can’t find this type of feature in a conventional phone system.
- Auto-attendant – auto attendant allows you to set up a menu system that uses voice prompts. The feature will help your callers navigate to the appropriate department or person in your organization. This type of feature from VoIP eliminates the need for a human receptionist, thus, providing tremendous savings at your end.
- Call recording – Call recording is an important feature that you can utilize for your future reference. You can recall frequently asked questions by your customers that you can add to your marketing campaign content. You can also use them during training your existing employees or newly-hired staff about the right way to answer calls.
Final thoughts
The mentioned features are just a few of the benefits that you can get with a VoIP system. There is no doubt that VoIP is the most demanding cloud-based telephony system in our business world today.
If you have further questions or concerns, you can always get in touch with Telnum, your one-stop-shop cloud-based phone service provider. Our Tech Specialists are ready to answer all your inquiries. We will even help you in analyzing the right phone system for your business!