Phone Systems for Smaller Businesses

 

If you are a small or mid-sized business owner, it’s important that you choose the right phone system to give you an easy communication option both inside and outside the office. Lots of smaller businesses find that the phone system they’ve chosen doesn’t suit their needs, or is even hampering their ability to scale up the business.

If you started out as a one-person operation, you may have been able to rely on a single landline or even a mobile number as your means of contact. However, as soon as you start to take on more employees, they’ll need their own company numbers, as you can’t expect them to give out their mobile numbers to customers. For smaller companies, it’s best to have all of the phones connected to the same phone number. This means that when they contact your office or workplace, the number on the caller display should indicate the best person to take the call.

Extension systems are one of the most efficient phone set-ups for offices. This means that transfers can be made easily to the correct person if the caller wants to speak to someone specific. Avaya phone systems are well know for offering exactly this. It means you don’t need to fumble around passing phones across desks or stretching wires across the office to make sure the caller speaks to the right person.

For a more professional impression, be sure to set up a personalised answerphone message. You can either record this yourself or pay a voice artist service to record a suitable, branded message for you. You send the text, select the voice and the tone of the message (such as corporate or friendly) and the message will be recorded for you. You can even opt for background music if you like. A similar system could be put in place for the holding line too. Make sure you include all the relevant information, such as opening hours and an emergency phone number if it seems appropriate.

Lots of phones are only used at the desk, but if your job requires you to get up and move around a lot, consider a system of cordless phones which will allow you to take the call with you, making you more efficient and meaning you don’t have to leave a caller mid-phonecall. The advantage of this is that it means you can always be available if you remember to take your office phone around with you. Just remember to place phones in their chargers when not in use to avoid having them run out of battery.

About the author: Oscar Tyrell is a small business and start up consultant who helps fledgling operations get off the ground