What is VoIP ?
It’s impossible to talk about modern business telephony tech without getting into the topic of VoIP. It’s responsible for revolutionizing the way phone calls are handled, and has an array of benefits to provide the organizations that adopt it.
Of course if you’re not already well versed in VoIP, it’s easy to get confused, so let’s bring you up to speed on the basics and the advantages it offers.
Introducing VoIP
Standing for voice over internet protocol, the beginnings of VoIP can be traced back to the 1990s, and the fundamental concept hasn’t changed much since.
The idea is that instead of relying on old-school analogue phone lines, voice communication can instead take place over a digital connection.
Today, the VoIP market is valued at over $133 billion, with double digit growth anticipated going forward. But what makes it such a no-brainer for businesses?
Understanding the perks of VoIP
There are all sorts of reasons behind the rise and rise of VoIP tech, including:
Cost-effectiveness will make adoption easy to justify
Calls between VoIP users are significantly cheaper when compared with equivalent landline services, and even when a VoIP caller gets in touch with someone who’s using a traditional telephone or even a mobile device, the price of the call is still generally lower.
Getting a local number will improve customer confidence in your business
With a VoIP phone service, you can pick and choose from as many contact numbers as your business requires.
This is particularly useful from a marketing perspective, as it means you can set up a local number for every region that you serve.
Then, when a customer wants to get in touch they won’t be charged a premium rate for the privilege. Likewise if you’re the one doing the calling, your local number will be instantly more trustworthy to the recipient than an equivalent geographic number from another region, or a non-geographic number for that matter.
Call quality will blow you away
The quality of analogue voice calls hasn’t improved much in decades, and because VoIP conversations handle audio digitally, there’s a distinct improvement to the quality and clarity of the experience.
This means no more having to put up with harsh, distorted audio for hours a day, and no more mishearing between customers and team members.
The flexibility is incredibly convenient
VoIP isn’t tethered to a particular set of hardware, so in fact you don’t require an on-site PBX to run business phone systems whatsoever. You can set up a VoIP phone as a software application on a desktop PC, laptop or smartphone, for example, and that flexibility is invaluable.
There are also advanced call handling features that aren’t out of the reach of small businesses.
This includes the ability to forward calls as needed, routing them to the right place depending on the context, and to integrate voice call functionality with other business systems you’re using, whether that’s a CRM platform, a virtual communications hub, or anything else.
Reliability is assured
In the case that your business chooses to rely on a remotely hosted VoIP service, you won’t be as concerned by the prospect of unplanned downtime getting in the way of your day to day operations.
Modern providers have the infrastructural resilience and the overall expertise to keep services up and running for enterprise clients day and night without disruption.
The bottom line
Those companies which haven’t adopted VoIP for calling yet should make it a priority. The selling points are overwhelmingly in its favor, and the downsides essentially non-existent.
