As a small business owner it sometimes seems as though you need to be everywhere at once.  You’re growing, but with an eye on the bottom line it isn’t yet practical to hire an army of support staff. Yet you need to be accessible to your customers and present a professional image, whether you’re working at Starbucks, driving to your next meeting, or sitting at your desk.  Is VoIP the right technology to help?

Voice over internet protocol (VoIP) had some voice quality hiccups in its early days but has now matured to be a viable enterprise solution, even for heavy users like call centers.  It allows you to take your office anywhere, answering calls from your laptop at a cafe, creating a local area code presence, regardless of what state your business calls home, and receiving voicemails and faxes to your inbox so your business doesn’t miss a beat.  The technologies support the delivery of voice and multimedia over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet.

More businesses are making the switch to VoIP to not only save money, but increase the flexibility and productivity of their staff.  VoIP providers are not burdened by the same costly infrastructure and regulatory fees as their phone company counterparts, and as such are able to pass along the savings to customers.

The arguments to make the switch are compelling.  With only a headset and a laptop your team can make cost effective calls from anywhere, receive all of their messages in one place and even forward faxes and voicemails to others as easily as they might forward an email.  And by configuring the system to ring simultaneously to your landline and mobile phone before going to voicemail, you increase the likelihood of reaching a live person and providing your customers with more attentive service, to say nothing for reducing the time and cost of voicemail tag.  With “find me” features, many VoIP systems can be configured to quickly route a call through a series of numbers or extensions until the call is answered, based on a set of rules that are easy to configure.

This improved customer service can even be extended to your website on online marketing campaigns with a “Call Now” button that allows an immediate voice connection.  And the next time you need to get on a conference call with a group of team members and clients to discuss your latest project, your VoIP platform can support audio participants without a conference line.

VoIP has truly arrived as both a solution for small business that not only saves communication costs but has significant benefits for productivity and customer service.

As the founder of nQuery Telecom Solutions, Emilio Diaz uses his 20+ years of experience in the telecom business to help build cost effective telecom solutions for businesses, nonprofit organizations, and government institutions. His experience as an innovative technology entrepreneur and a long-term business owner gives him intuitive insight to help boost productivity and maximize future growth. You can reach Emilio at Emilio@nquerysolutions.com or connect with him on LinkedIn.