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This is the second part of my previous column on capable but inexpensive phone systems for small businesses.
Here are some pointers when choosing a small business phone system as we discussed yesterday:
- Use a phone system that can support both plain old telephone lines (POTS) and Internet lines such as the ones from Vonage and Cablevision. To minimize cost and maximize performance, use POTS for about a quarter of the inbound phone lines. POTS are very reliable and compatible but more expensive than Internet phone lines. Use Internet phone lines for the rest of your lines. These are typically fixed price, roughly, in the $30 a month range with unlimited calling, but there can be some rare compatibility and uptime issues.
- If you need international dialing, make sure that your Internet lines will support calls to the countries that you are calling.
- Some systems have limits on the maximum number of local extensions that are a little low. Choose a system that can support or be upgraded to support at least twice the number of extensions that you are starting with. What if your business grows rapidly?
- Make sure that the system can hold at least 15 minutes of voicemail per user. 30 minutes is better. There will always be one fellow who never deletes his voicemails and fills up the system.
- If you use a standard CD player to provide on-hold music, you will find that it will stop working after a few weeks. Regular CD players, it seems are not designed to run for more than a few thousand hours. A radio will last longer but make sure it stays on its station other wise instead of on-hold music, you will have on-hold static. The right way to do this is to buy a CD player/changer designed for providing on-hold music, but these will be a few hundred dollars.
- Use a system that can use generic phones such as the ones that you can buy at Staples or Walmart. This will allow you to use very inexpensive basic phones if you wish, especially in utility locations such as doorways, copier rooms, bathrooms, storerooms, etc...
A. G. Bell: "Mr Watson, come here, I want to see you"
Comments
You're right about the consumer grade CD players failing as an on-hold source. The bigger problem is that most POTS (ordinary) 2 to 4 line phones have no way to play hold music. The hold button on these phones is simply a "mute" button. We have tested dozens of devices made to interface hold music with less expensive phones, and users can expect to invest up to $300 just for the phone hold interface/activator.
There is also a 2-line "external hold button" that can play hold music on one-phone-only for about $59. For music playback, small offices should look into a commercial-grade mp3 player. Unlike CD players, these are 100% digital with no moving parts and are made to play continuously. The mp3 files reside on a common USB flash drive (non-proprietary). One good source of information is easyonhold.com. Even a small office should work with a professional on hold company in order to sound like a bigger office.
You make some valid points, particularly not limiting the number of extensions you can add and making sure you can purchase your office phones anywhere.
Another alternative is switching to a phone service for small business such as my1voice. (Full disclosure: I am product marketing manager for my1voice.) Rather than having to purchase, install and maintain expensive equipment, a phone service is managed for you. It connects to your existing land or mobile phone; you can then assign as many extensions as you want, even to people who don’t work in the main office. If you want to change extensions you can do it yourself instead of having to pay a contractor hundreds of dollars.
A service solves the CD player issue because it provides on-hold music for you. It also gives you the ability to add a professional-sounding greeting, voicemail, smart call forwarding and a host of other capabilities. You can even get a toll-free number, making your business look larger than life.
I've been thinking about having a business phone systems put into my home to run my business phone calls through. I own my own company and I work a lot from my home, as well as the office. However, my family gets a lot of personal phone calls on our family land line and I miss the calls business calls that I need to be taking. Is it worth the investment to put in an additional business phone systems ?
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