The VoIP offerings continue to progress, especially in the form of hosted VoIP technology. The technology is being perfected, and as has been discussed earlier, Quality of Service rates are now so high to be seen as perfect.
However, some business owners are having a difficult time sifting through the providers to find a efficient service which is cost effective. With this in mind, I have decided to create an easy checklist to assist you to choose the right hosted VoIP provider, and to know what to look for from a provider.
1. Ensure Voice Quality, is “Business Voice Quality.”
Before committing to a hosted service, make sure you confirm that the call quality is up to an acceptable industry standard. The best way to do this is to take a test call using their service or to ask a current customer about their experience with the product. Do not be afraid to ask for customer testimonials.
2. Feature Offering to be Inclusive
One of VoIP’s major benefits is the range of features offered. Here are some features that should come standard with your system:
- 3-Way and Conference Calling
- Off-Hook Call Placement
- Call Transfer
- Hold Advertising or Music
- Do Not Disturb Button
- Speed Dialling and Extensive Address Book
- Speakerphone
- Call Mute
- Distinctive Rings
3. Additional Features Considered Standard.
Many hosted VoIP plans have additional features that usually come in the form of accessories and services, which, depending on the provider, come at no extra cost to you.
- Unified Voice Communication and Fax Messaging: Ensure you have a single phone number for both voice and fax. Send all voicemails and fax messages as email attachments to the addresses of your choice and access everything through email or an online control panel? This is pretty much standard today, and at no extra charge.
- Outlook Business Integration: Make sure your hosted VoIP service integrates with Outlook. This will save you time and you’ll love the easy to use click to dial feature.
- Recorded Calls: Ensure your hosted service can record some or all of the calls you receive? With this feature you can cut down on taking notes, improve quality control, and review communication if you need to.
- Advanced ACD & Call Queue: Advanced automatic call distribution allows you to choose how your calls are forwarded, including round-robin, simultaneous, and skills-based distributions, while advanced call queue lets you better control calls during peak hours. Some services offer these capabilities, allowing you to better manage call volume and get calls in the appropriate peoples’ hands. You and other staff do not have to always be in the office.
- Utilising an Internet Control Panel: The hosted service runs over the internet, so ensure you have the benefit of an Internet control panel to manage things like call routing features, voice and fax messages, call reports, account information, and other control features. Make sure your hosted provider gives you this level of access, you and your employees will enjoy being able to easily manage their calls, voicemail etc.
- Visual Communication Reports: Clearly see everything taking place on your business phone system at anytime. With this enhancement you’ll be able to generate, filter, and export detailed call reports online with easy-to-read spreadsheets and graphs.
- Voicemail Transcription: Convert your voicemail messages to text and deliver them to your email or mobile phone. This is a great feature, especially if you spend a lot of time out of the office.
4. Is the Service Compatible with the Right Phone?
Choosing the right phone is easy once you work out exactly what features of VOiP you really need and want. Usually, the provider will have a preferred supplier.
5. Customer Service must be of Highest Order.
The only way to check this is to talk to the potential providers’ customer. As usual talk is cheap, but you need immediate response from someone not onsite.
6. Efficient and Cost Effective Price.
Again, this will be made obvious by talking to hosting providers’ customers and making sure they always deliver on claimed quality of service. Remember, if you can not measure the service, you can not manage it!
Tags: Best voip