Traditional Business landline vs VoIP: which is the best option for you?
The debate between VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) vs traduitional business landline can be confusing, which is right for your charity? especially if you are happy with your current landline. You may just want your customers to be able to get in touch with you, have a good call quality and your network to be reliable – and don’t want to spend energy on complicated jargon. But what if you are missing out on the opportunity to have all that on top of reducing costs, improving your customer experience, scalability, mobility and it is easier to use than you think? We have addressed your confusion and compared VoIP to traditional business landlines to give you the answer to which one is the best option for you based on your business needs!
1. What does VoIP even mean – a fancy word to say another type of landline?
Technically no! A fixed phone plugged into a telephone wall socket is what people generally refer to as a landline. VoIP is an internet phone which uses an internet connection to convert the call into digital signals without the need for physical exchanges like landlines. Simply, both VoIP and landlines can make and receive calls using any type of phone, but their network is different which allows VoIP to have more technologically advanced features.
2. I am out of my office a lot and don’t want to lose customers by missed calls – which one should I use?
Business landlines are wired to your office wall which ties you to one location. VoIP uses a digital cloud-based service and is not limited to a single handset and can be accessed from various devices including your mobile phone. By using the `twinning feature` you can pick up your VoIP phone number from your smartphone and answer work calls from anywhere as if you are at your desk. Even though many landline providers can bundle in mobile phones with your service tariff at an additional cost, those phones will have different numbers.
Additionally, the voicemail-to-email feature of VoIP can allow you to access the missed call messages from your e-mail, so you don’t have to wait to get back to the office. If you are looking for location flexibility, improved time management and reduce missed calls VoIP is more beneficial than business landlines.
3. I am not incredibly technologically gifted – which one should I use?
As soon as you’ve plugged your landline connection into the wall, your phone system can be used for sending out, receiving and routing calls. As VoIP has a more advanced desktop and mobile features compared to landline phones, it may seem a bit confusing to team members with fewer tech-skills. However, most VoIP providers offer help with the initial setup and after that, it is easy enough for users of all skill levels to utilize and navigate through different features on mobile and desktop apps. Therefore, you don’t need to be a tech-wizard to successfully use VoIP, but the real question is whether the advanced technological features appeal to your business or not? If not, the simplistic nature of the landline phone system may be easier to use.
4. I want to cut down costs – which one should I use?
Ever heard the saying `time is money`? VoIP helps you save money by better managing your time. With VoIP’s video conferencing feature, you can reduce traveling expenses, as you can have several meetings from wherever you are. You save on average 32 minutes per day and improve staff productivity. VoIP is significantly less costly than business landlines as it does not require expensive infrastructure and specific office equipment. If you are looking for cost-effectiveness both in short-term and long-term, VoIP is a better choice than business landlines.
5. My business demands frequent change, but I still want to be cost-effective with my telecommunication – which one should I use?
Whether that change is due to the nature of your charity (e.g. being a seasonal charity) or due to high staff turn-over the VoIP system allows you to add or remove users with ease at little to no cost. VoIP can support an unlimited number of users depending on the strength of your internet connection. However, with business landlines, you are limited to the number of lines that you have connected. This means that with business landlines adding more users requires installing and upgrading your hardware which increases set up and maintenance costs. With the unique advantage of scalability, VoIP is more cost-effective than business landlines.
6. I want a reliable telecom system with excellent calling quality – which one should I use?
How annoying is it when the voice on the other end of the call gets disrupted occasionally? Business landlines are reliable and effective with almost 100% of the time as it is not affected by internet connectivity or power outages. Reliability and call quality could be a potential downside of VoIP as it is dependent on the strength of your internet connection and can lead to miss calls in a power outage. However, rising internet speeds and advancements in technology have allowed VoIP to catch up with the quality of business landlines. Although charities without stable internet connections may benefit more from traditional landlines, all other businesses that use internet will benefit more from VoIP.
7. What can VoIP do that business landline can’t?
Your traditional business landline can already offer basic features such as holding calls, displaying caller ID, voicemail options and call blocking. Yet what VoIP can do is advance these aspects and add a personalized touch. For example, let’s assume that you are out of your office networking every Friday morning. Every call missed is a potential customer lost right? VoIP can provide `time-based forwarding` when calls are forwarded to a certain number only on specific days and over particular times. Furthermore, this feature can forward the calls into either ring groups where several phones in the office ring at the same time, or with the twinning feature it can be picked up from your mobile as if it is your working number. This means that VoIP can provide you mobility, speed, and flexibility which business landlines can’t do.
With VoIP you can personalize the left on hold feature where you can add promotional messages, customized company soundtrack, relaxing music or whatever you like really! If you have multiple charities or multiple positions within your charity, with VoIP you can bundle multiple phone numbers into a single phone. This way VoIP helps you to save time, know what your customer is calling for and improve the customer experience in a way that business landlines are not equipped to do.
If your charity is small but you want to change the perception of being a one-man-band to a bigger trustworthy company VoIP can help you with that. Unlike business landlines, VoIP allows your charity to have any local or national number (including 0800 & 0330) so you can strategically target customers on both local and national levels. Additionally, with the call recording feature, VoIP can enable you to create a perception of being a more trustworthy company and the conversation can be used as a legal document. Both features of VoIP contribute to your charity by building a more trustworthy brand and provide a perception of being bigger as a company.
8. My landline is already set up! – why should I change?
Your business landline may have cost you a lot in the past but now it is all set up and running smoothly. However, the UK government has plans for landlines to be phased out and move all services over to Internet telephony by 2020-2025. This means that once you face a problem with your landline in the near future, there won’t be any services available to help you out. As it will get increasingly difficult to repair or find replacement parts for your business landline it will not be a cost-effective solution for long-term budget planning. Unlike landlines that date back from the 19th century and remain the same since then, VoIP is a cloud-based phone system and it is the future of communications. With VoIP, you can have a cost-effective telecom system both in the long-run as it is future proof and in the short-run with updates and new features being added automatically at no extra cost.
Conclusion
To sum up, VoIP as a cloud-based service is more beneficial for your charity than business landline if you are looking for (a) cost-effectiveness (b) scalability, (c) location flexibility (d) time-management (e) help with creating a trustworthy brand image and (f) providing better customer experience. Staying with your current business landline is only a better idea if you (a) have a really bad internet connection, (b) your job does not require to leave your office at all, and (c) you are the only employee in the building. VoIP’s benefits far outweigh its potential drawbacks (e.g. dependent on internet connection) but the drawbacks of business landlines are not affordable to overlook (e.g. phase out by 2025).
