Technology is evolving every year and consumers are usually quick to adopt the latest iPhones. However, companies are slower in the uptake, especially when it comes to upgrading their infrastructure. Sometimes, the reason is existing systems work fine or cutting costs and budget issues.  To stay competitive and survive in the business environment small businesses need to adopt innovations in communication technology. 

Here are a few signs that it may be finally time to upgrade your business phone system.

1.High expenses

Operating a landline phone is expensive to run and includes installation fees, line rental and costs of calls your small business makes. Having extra lines and additional phone numbers can also cost extra. Leaving your small business with high unnecessary costs and hindering the growth of your business.

A switch to VoIP is an advanced solution that is much cheaper to run. VoIP allows calls to be made via the internet and doesn’t need a cable to be installed. A single VoIP account can host multiple users throughout your business. In fact, VoIP users can save up to 40% on local calls and up to 90% on international calls.

2. Missed calls

If your business is constantly missing calls due to: a high volume of calls, trying to connect customers to the right department, full voicemail inbox. It’s time to upgrade.

A VoIP phone system which has 50+ features to make sure every business call reaches your business. For example, creating custom call queues and hunt groups re-route and can customize journeys to make sure that customers get through on the first call. Furthermore, voicemail to email will send a voicemail recording to listen to at your team’s leisure.  

3. Want to offload the IT management of the current system

Overwhelmed with the current set up of your IT infrastructure? Simplifying and streamlining your internal communication and workflows is another sign you’ll need a new business phone system. A fully managed hosted cloud system can save your business time as it’s managed remotely with minimal on-premises hardware. What’s more, is that any updates and support are dealt with externally leaving you and your staff to focus on the business rather than the maintenance of the telephony system.

4. Remote workers can't stay connected

In circumstances where employees would need to work remotely, they wouldn’t be able to stay connected via a landline phone. VoIP allows calls to be transferred to different employees when away from the office and also easily facilitates remote working. For example, unified communications over a voice call, video and instant chat features mean your employees are contactable no matter where they are.

5. Using technically obsolete phone systems

Above all, some older systems just aren’t up to the job. For example, the features are so limited that landline phones don’t support call recording or comprehensive features such as CRM integration. Furthermore, hardware issues such as regular downtime, expensive and time-consuming maintenance and limited scalability are all signs that an upgrade is long overdue.

6. Business is scaling and growing

When thinking of growing a business location and opening a new branch or office comes to mind. In these two scenarios, your landline system poses a major financial and technical problem.

Landline phones rely on traditional telephone infrastructure installed at the business premises. Moving your business will lead to expensive new lines having to be installed and potential technical errors. Further, a new location will lead to higher phone bills due to increased communication between team members.

Final thoughts

Overall, VoIP is clearly a better phone system for modern small businesses. To see how a cloud solution can create flexible solutions with less expenses speak to our expert team on 0203 697 4166.