When you think of the backbone of a business, your first thought is probably the employees, management team, customers, or something along those lines. However, there’s one thing that holds all those core parts together. The communication system.
Without a phone system, neither in-house nor external communications would be possible, and day-to-day operations would fall apart.
However, your business needs a reliable phone system that meets its needs, or it’s almost the same as having no phone system at all.
Today, we’re going to go over your options in detail to help you figure out what is the best phone system for a small business.
What are Your Options?
When it comes to reliable communication options, you have 3 real choices in the modern market.
There are business-quality traditional phone systems, VoIP, and hosted VoIP systems.
Each of these has its own unique benefits for the most part, and we’re going to go over each one.
1: Traditional Phone Systems
This category is the standard business phone system you’ve either used or seen in businesses for decades. They’re either landline phones or smartphones under a business service plan with a normal phone provider.
With the landline phones, your calls go directly through the phone lines. There’s no signal to worry about, internet connection, or anything like that. As long as the phone lines work, you can make calls.
Smartphones are a bit newer, but they have been leveraged in the same manner by many businesses. They rely on cellular signals to connect to the larger telecommunication system, and as long as you’re in a place with reception, you can make a call.
The primary issue with these options is that they’re very expensive. Service plans are expensive for individual normal users. As a business owner who needs several lines for several employees, that bill is dramatically increased.
With landlines, the hardware is also limited. It’s not as limited with a smartphone, but those are far more expensive per unit, and your business is still responsible for maintaining them.
Not to mention, service quality can vary dramatically. There are many different service providers, and they tend to either have their own infrastructure that only covers certain areas, or they piggyback on the infrastructure of other providers and don’t get priority treatment. This means that one service in your area might be amazing, but the next might be a hindrance to your business. You also don’t get to experience the service beforehand. You typically have to sign a contract for a prolonged period.
2: VoIP
VoIP, or Voice Over Internet Protocol, comes in two main variants for businesses. There are also similar technologies available for consumer usage, but they vary dramatically.
In this section, we’re talking about the type of VoIP that was common years ago.
This type of VoIP system is installed on-site in your business. The service provider comes in, sets the system up, and your business can make internet-based calls.
This opens up a new world of benefits. You can have the professional business features you need without the fancy systems, it operates on your internet connection, and that gives you control over its performance to an extent, it’s scalable, and it can be used with more devices.
However, there are a couple of drawbacks. Since it’s based on your business, there’s more IT work to be done. It also stops working or becomes unreliable if you lose internet connection or the connection weakens. So, you have to have a good internet connection.
3: Hosted VoIP
Hosted VoIP is the next step above the regular VoIP services we just mentioned. It fixes all but one of the issues.
First, you get all the awesome benefits of VoIP and some are even more pronounced. You can choose a service that offers the finest business features rivaling even megacorporation capabilities, it’s extremely cost-effective, and it can scale to meet your needs in either direction. If you need more capability, you can pay for more. If you need less, you can cut the fat and save some money, too.
The difference is that hosted VoIP is run on the cloud. That streamlines it dramatically, and it takes all the burden off your shoulders.
The service provider worries about server speed and space, updating the system, maintaining appropriate security levels, notifying you of new features that are available, troubleshooting issues, and more. You get all the beneficial features, but you don’t get the drawbacks. The phone system can even be installed on various smart devices or on dedicated handsets that are supported by the service provider. It’s extremely flexible.
The only drawback that you have to worry about is that you still need a good internet connection. It’s unfortunate, but it’s just a limit of the technology, and you can’t get around it.
What’s the Best Phone System for a Small Business?
While all of these have some benefits, and each one still serves a purpose, the clear winner for small businesses is the hosted VoIP service.
A small business simply doesn’t have the capital to spend on overpriced telecoms, the manpower to maintain a lot of IT needs, or the time to fuss with unreliable systems.
A hosted VoIP service fixes all of those issues, and your small business can enjoy professional communications on par with the best phone systems available at a price that fits your budget.
Since it scales with you, you also don’t have to worry about changing your phone system as your small business grows. If you suddenly expand and open a new location, you just have to upgrade your service tier.
Overall, as long as you can get a reliable internet connection, a hosted VoIP phone system is going to be your best option as a small business.
Try VoIP for Your Small Business Today
If you’re a small business owner looking to try the power of VoIP for your telecoms, check out Lanstar Voice and Data today to get started. Contact us today!
