Choosing a hosted PBX system

Posted by sophiamilller on August 23rd, 2013

 Choosing a hosted PBX system is the best way to go if you are at the beginning of the road with your business or own a small company, because this service allows you to benefit from similar features that medium and large companies could receive from regular telecommunications providers, but at a much lower cost.

Among these features, there can be included the possibility of contacting more than one employee from a single number, voicemail, conference calling, call waiting, call swap and barge in, customised greetings, and call routing. However, the best advantage of a hosted PBX is the possibility of initialising very cheap internal phone calls.

The phone numbers of the employees working for an organisation are all of them interconnected. Plus, they are connected to the public switched telephone network, because company managers and also some of their employees need to talk to the exterior as well, meaning with other managers, local authorities, government agencies, and so on.

Choosing a private branch exchange system is rather easy, if you know what you are looking for in terms of telecommunications and have a very well established organisational ierarchy. If you have just started your company, you can ask for the help of a privately held communications service provider.

A virtual PBX is created to help the employees of a company communicate much easier with one another, at a low cost, and also to give the impression of a professional company, that deserves their customers’ trust. And taking into account that, nowadays, most customers are contacted by phone, it is imperative to create a very good first impression.

If you have just created your company, most likely you need some guarantees that you would not be charged extra, if you decide not to use the small business phone systems designed for you. So, before signing an agreement with a privately held communications service provider, make sure they do not charge cancellation fees.

Also, ask if the provider offers more than just an auto attendant, or virtual receptionist. Lots of such companies offer receptionists; if you want to give your customers something in addition, choose a provider that can offer the services of a help desk technician. Customers need to have their problems solved very fast, otherwise they might leave towards another company.

Taking into account that now you opt only for some small business phone systems, and that you plan to grow in time, ask the provider if they can offer you some medium or large business phone systems in the future, as your business develops. If the provider can deliver that, ask about the cost of such changes.

The phone service per se is very important, but it cannot be at a high quality, unless the phones themselves are high quality as well, so check out the phones too, before signing the contract with a provider. Evaluate the phones’ capabilities and make sure they are tested by some of your directors, since they will use them most of the time.

Looking for a smart phone service solution for your small business? We can deliver everything you need in terms of hosted PBX, from small business phone systems, reroutable calls for disaster recovery, completely customised auto attendant, to fully hosted and maintained medium business phone systems.