12 March 2014

Choosing The Right Small Business Phone System

By Lisa Williamson


Some people may be cynical about using a small business phone system. However a company of any size in Boston MA can benefit from being more efficient. As with any investment in your company it is about making the right choice and knowing what is most appropriate for the needs of you, your customers and your employees.

The first thing to consider is the kind of business you have. The needs of a call centre will be very different from the needs of someone running a restaurant. Therefore any company installing the system ought to be able to describe how what they have to offer is best suited to your company.

You need to think about what features are most appropriate for your employees. For example even if you have limited opening hours you may still get enquiries from customers when you are not available. Therefore you may want an automated attendant to give people guidance when employees are not available to deal with enquiries.

The good thing with technology is that it can solve common problems. For example one thing that commonly frustrates people when calling a company is when they want to talk to someone and they are not available. Unfortunately this can result in people continually transferring them for a long period of time before confirming this fact.

This is also useful if you get enquiries outside opening hours. The fact is that a new customer may not necessarily know what your opening hours are. Therefore it helps to have an automated attendant available in order to give details and also deal with any basic level enquiries.

However there are also practical benefits outside of call centres. For example presence technology is useful because it indicates to people who is available at any given time in an office. This helps to prevent people getting unnecessarily transferred to people who are not around and can save time in the process. An annoyed customer is less likely to come back to your company if they feel your business is not being as efficient as it could be!

Another good example are retail applications. Access to data means you never have to go back to the stock room in order to check to see if an item is in. The information will flash up and you will be able to instantly tell someone whether or not an item is available. With the right system the information is accessible to everyone, allowing the business to be as efficient as possible.

There are numerous companies that can install a phone system for your business. It is best to look for companies that deal with businesses that are around your size as they are more likely to be able to adapt to your requirements. Use you regular search engine to look for businesses in your local area as well as feedback from previous clients to see if they were satisfied with the service that they received. With sensible comparison and research you will be able to find the ideal option to suit the communication needs of your business.




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