Is the business phone system still relevant in the age of instant messaging, social media, and many more emerging technologies that’ll revolutionize the way we communicate? The answer is a resounding “Yes!”
Business phone systems have been around for a long time, the late 1800s to be precise. Over the years, it evolved exponentially. And the result is the VoIP-based PBX business phone systems that a lot of businesses use today.
As per Global Market Insights, the hosted IP PBX segment is projected to grow by 15 percent from 2019 to 2025, making it the fastest-growing segment of the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) market. According to Yeastar, in 2019, the hosted PBX had a share of almost one-fifth of the total PBX market pie.
Like these two data, many more stats indicate that IP PBX business phone systems are here to stay. Organizations that use sophisticated business phone systems would benefit a lot. This blog post discusses how important business phone systems are for contemporary businesses. Read on to gain valuable insights.
Ways business phone systems drive your business growth
The right business phone system can be immensely beneficial to your business. Here are some ways a sophisticated business phone system can drive your business growth.
1. Cost-effective
No doubt, sophisticated business phone systems save a lot of time and money. But to what extent? Let’s take a look at some stats to know the magnitude of financial benefits businesses can get by using contemporary business phone systems.
As per Tech.co, small businesses can save up to 40 percent on local calls and up to 90 international costs by using VoIP business phone systems. The same study also asserted that VoIP can trim down initial startup costs by almost 90 percent.
As per a stat released by digital media company Ziff Davis, Unified communications can result in $920,000 in gains and 50,000 hours in saved time because of higher productivity and efficiency.
As per a 2019 VoIP market research, companies can save 50 to 75 percent on communication costs using VoIP instead of landline services. A 2018 RingCentral study found that companies can save up to two-thirds of phone and fax costs.
2. Many customers prefer calling businesses over the phone
Customers today have a wide range of options to contact a business. Apart from making a phone call, they can go to a company’s website and chat with the customer service team. They can contact the company over social media, of course. They can also get in touch with the business using instant messaging apps. But a majority of customers still prefer to use their phones. Here are some stats to prove it:
As per Invoca, nearly two-thirds of customers who participated in the survey said that they prefer to contact a business by phone call, whereas less than a quarter of customers prefer using the website to contact a business.
As per American Express, three-fourths of customers believe that phone calls will help them get a quicker response from businesses. The financial services behemoth also found out that two out of every five customers prefer talking to a real person on the phone while one in every five prefers face-to-face interaction to report their issues.
3. Simplify business communications flow
Contemporary business phone systems can accelerate response times and mobilize your teams. Apart from simplifying communication flow, they streamline processes and enable you to keep up with the demands of customers.
As per a stat published in Business 2 Community, three out of every ten companies switch to VoIP to simplify call forwarding to their mobile phones. As per a stat by Digium, businesses that leverage unified communications solutions save an average of 191 hours daily and 49,660 hours per annum.
As per Harbor Networks, Unified Communication, and VoIP systems can enhance productivity by up to 20 percent by enabling customer service representatives to take calls anywhere around the world.
4. Leverage data to make data-driven decisions
Equipped with advanced analytics and reporting tools, business phone systems can gather valuable data related to customers’ call history, requests, needs and preferences, and many more. This will help organizations make data-driven decisions and also know how their customer service representatives communicate with their customers. By leveraging the available data, businesses can enhance their customer service.
Apart from customer-related data, businesses can get data, which would help them determine their contact center’s performance. By leveraging the real-time data and insights, they can calculate the average handle time, first response time, first call resolution, agent utilization rate, average call abandonment, and many more metrics.
5. Promotes mobility
By enabling customer service representatives to work from anywhere in the world, business phone systems promote mobility. As per Eastern Management Group, 84 percent of IT managers opine that mobility is extremely crucial and is one of the prime factors responsible for boosting PBX growth.
Agents and other customer-facing employees can access the business phone system by using their mobile devices, which helps in enhancing productivity and customer satisfaction. A Cisco 2016 study found that more than 50 percent of employees believe VoIP plays a huge role in enhancing productivity. The same study found that VoIP promotes mobility in business operations.
6. Competitive advantage
The competitive advantage a company gets by using a sophisticated and reliable business phone system is massive. With so many businesses switching from traditional phone systems to VoIP-based and IP PBX business phone systems, the companies that do not use them will be left behind.
As per CCW Digital’s 2018 study, nearly two-thirds of businesses believe customers should be able to talk to an agent. The same study found that three out of every five companies said that business phone systems and live agents are their most urgent investment priorities.
As per Eastern Management Group, over 20 million small and medium businesses in the U.S. will likely stay as the largest hosted PBX market in the near future.
7. Enhances company’s image
With a majority of people preferring to contact an organization by phone call (as reported by Invoca), a business phone system can enhance a company’s image in many ways. A dedicated business phone system gives the impression that the company is professional and trustworthy. When a company has a reliable business phone system, it can easily handle its customers’ queries, requests, or complaints.
Apart from enhancing the company’s image, sophisticated business phone systems provide an easy user and shopping experience. As per Eastern Management Group, a subscription-based business phone system not only eases shopping and user experience but also results in more loyalty and less churn. In 2019, the monthly churn rate of hosted PBX services for small and medium businesses was only 1.3 percent.
Tips to choose the right business phone system
Choosing the right business phone system can make all the difference between success and failure in business. That’s why it’s extremely crucial to invest quality time and resources while choosing a business phone system.
- Determine your business’s needs: Before investing in a business phone system, first, determine what you want from it. Consider your present business size and the number of employees you have. Do you plan to expand your business and customer support team in the future? If yes, then you will need your phone system to be scalable so that it can give you the flexibility to scale up and down. Also, ask if you want to make more incoming calls or outgoing calls. Based on that, you can select a phone system with suitable features. Apart from factoring in your present business needs, consider your potential future needs.
- Set a budget: After determining your needs and deciding the features you want in your business phone system, set a budget that would be feasible for you. That’s because business phone systems vary widely in cost and if you don’t set a budget, then it would be extremely difficult to make the right decision for your business. When it comes to setting up a business phone system, you can choose between paying a recurring monthly fee or paying an upfront amount.
- Research: When it comes to researching sophisticated business phone systems, nothing can beat the speed and precision of the internet. The more specific you are with the search terms, the higher would be the relevance and usefulness of the search results. Enter long tail keywords such as “top business phone systems in 2023,” “best business phone system for small businesses in (your area),” and “most cost-effective business phone systems in (your locality).”
- Visit the websites of the service providers: You will get many results on the search engine result page. But focus on the first page, in which you’ll see ten to eleven websites. The results on the first page are usually of high quality and you would save a lot of time by researching the top five to six listicles and websites.
- Shortlist a few business phone system providers and contact them for more details: You can visit the individual web pages of each business phone systems provider and compare the features, prices, and customer ratings and reviews. After shortlisting a few companies, consider calling their sales team or booking a demo.
- Book a demo and check the efficacy of the phone: After discussing with the service provider, request a demo and make sure your employees can use the business phone system effectively. If everything goes well and if the business phone system ticks all the important boxes, then you would be better off with it.
All in all,
The right business phone system is an extremely valuable asset for every business as it can streamline communication, enhance customer experience and customer service, as well as enhance the efficiency and productivity of employees. By selecting the right business phone system, you can take your business to new heights.
