Did you know that phone companies are slowly reducing their investments in traditional phones to a halt?
And with less investment, that means less support for those who decide to stick around. But more than the foreseen consequences for their loyal supporters, the dwindling investment is also an indication that fewer people and businesses are using traditional phones.
In place of these, they’re using cloud phones. This is also known as VoIP, an offer provided by companies like Telnum.
Businesses specifically have been reallocating their communication spending to cloud phones and found it to work better for them.
Find out if your business will also benefit from a cloud phone service, by learning more about it in this post.
A quick overview of cloud phone service for businesses
Are you at least in your 20s? Then, you know how it was like to live without constant access to the internet.
If you want to play video games, you’d have to go to your friend’s house and use their console and controller.
But kids nowadays don’t have to do that. They can interact with friends and with the rest of the gaming community online. What’s more, the number of people they can play with isn’t limited by the number of controller slots on their console. They can play in teams without paying extra.
It’s pretty much what a cloud phone service is trying to do, but for calling. It’s making the limits set by location and even hardware irrelevant. What’s continuously gaining relevance today is a more advanced and sophisticated solution compared to its predecessor.
Advantages and Disadvantages
But you shouldn’t have to just take our word for it. Evaluate the following advantages and disadvantages to see if this solution will work for you.
Pros
1. Nearly zero downtime
The great thing about cloud services is it’s so easy to set up. You don’t have to wait for technicians to set any equipment up or bring them to your place of business.
If your business
- heavily relies on calls to connect with customers and close leads;
- has its workforce spread across different states or all over the world;
- has its success built upon the constant collaboration of different departments;
- wants to be available for customers all the time;
- wants to keep everyone connected
… then you should strongly consider cloud phones. Most of the time, you can complete the switch in an hour or less.
2. More affordable
No matter what the business climate, it’s always a smart idea to look into how costs can be driven down while at least maintaining the same level of service quality. And we’ve found that cloud phones do just that.
Businesses are able to slash their phone costs by half and even more for those that always make international calls. That’s because cloud services charge way less than the old phone companies.
Plus, if you don’t use your minutes as much, you can get a per-minute pricing instead. Meanwhile, businesses that call people all the time can get unlimited call packages.
So no matter what the business size, cloud phones will always be the more affordable option.
3. Improved reliability
Do you hate service disruptions? Your customers hate them too! That’s why you’ll love cloud services for making its system redundant.
This means that even if a server goes down, you’d just be directed to another server in a different location so you won’t even know the difference.
And any service interruption normally only takes minutes at most. Unlike with phone lines that if they’re hit by a storm, it will take long before the service is restored.
Cons
1. Unreliable internet provider
The internet is supposed to connect, but sometimes, it doesn’t. Even if your cloud phone system works perfectly, you still wouldn’t be able to use it if you have internet connection problems.
Sure, making voice calls doesn’t consume a lot of bandwidth. But a sudden drop on your internet speed will affect the quality of the call.
2. You may have to purchase an IP phone
While you can opt-out of this economical purchase by using your computer or your smartphone instead, employees may already be used to the “feel” of a regular phone. Because that’s exactly what an IP phone looks like – a regular phone that can make calls via the internet.
Plus, this is a must for hosted phone service. Unless you’re fine with getting random numbers and having someone falsely represent your company once you drop those numbers, you may need this purchase.
Despite the two illustrated drawbacks to using a cloud phone service for your business, it remains a more economical and practical choice. The additional cost of getting IP phones can easily be made up for by lower cost per call.
Any modern business that wants to keep up with the times will love cloud phone services. Why not give it a try? The world is only getting bigger. And only this can keep up.