Published : November 6, 2023Whether it is a startup, a small business, or an established firm, the phone system plays a crucial role. More so, with a remote and distributed workforce, keeping everyone on the same page demands sophisticated features.
Cloud-based phone systems help streamline internal collaboration and external communication. Studies show that a robust phone system helps businesses save 90% on international calls and 75% on operational costs.
In this blog, we have covered the important business phone system features you must check for while choosing a service provider.
Having a robust communication system means your customers can count on your support anytime. Businesses are on a spree to elevate their customer support quality, and if you have not invested in VoIP phone systems, time has never been more appropriate.
What to Know Before Getting a Business Phone System?
Business phone systems come with a wide array of features and functionalities. You must choose the right business phone system based on the following aspects.
- How many employees are there in the organization? How big is your team?
- Are your team members working from home or office? Or are they distributed?
- Do you have an exclusive customer support and sales team?
- Do you have an existing phone system? What are its features and gaps?
- Are you planning to retain your existing mobile phone number?
- What is the expected call volume? Low, medium, or high?
- Are you a growing business? Are you planning to expand your business in the coming months or years?
- Do you prefer a private branch exchange or a trusted VoIP phone system that communicates over internet protocol?
- What are the most important business phone system features you may need?
- What is the type of business phone number you require? Is it international, toll-free, or local?
To help you out, this blog will help you with answers to most of the questions. Check them out.
Types of Office Phone Systems
Office phone systems are essential for business communication, and they come in various types depending on the size of the organization, the number of users, and the features required. Here are the main types of office phone systems:
1. Traditional Landline (POTS – Plain Old Telephone Service)
This is the most basic type of phone system, relying on the traditional copper wiring infrastructure provided by telephone companies.
Features
- Limited features compared to modern systems.
- Typically used by small businesses or older organizations.
Best For: Companies that don’t need advanced features or are in areas without strong internet connectivity.
2. PBX (Private Branch Exchange) Systems
PBX systems are on-premises phone systems that allow internal communication within a company while also routing external calls.
Features
- Call routing and forwarding.
- Voicemail and automated attendants.
- Internal communication between employees.
- Customizable and scalable based on business needs.
Best For: Companies that want full control over their communication infrastructure.
3. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Systems
VoIP systems use the internet to transmit calls, offering greater flexibility and a wide range of features.
Features
- Calls are made over the Internet for lower costs.
- Integration with other digital tools and software.
- Advanced features like video conferencing, voicemail-to-email, and call analytics.
- Easily scalable with no need for additional physical hardware.
Best For: Businesses of all sizes, especially those looking for flexibility and scalability.
4. Cloud-Based (Hosted) Phone Systems
This type of phone system is hosted by a service provider in the cloud, meaning that businesses don’t need to install or maintain hardware on-premises.
Features
- Easy setup with minimal hardware requirements.
- Accessible from any location via the Internet.
- Automatic updates and maintenance by the provider.
Best For: Small to medium-sized businesses or remote teams looking for a low-maintenance, scalable phone system.
5. Key System Units (KSU and KSU-Less)
This is a type of multi-line phone system often used by small businesses. It allows users to manually select their phone line.
Features
Limited in terms of features compared to PBX systems but offers basic call routing, conferencing, and voicemail.
Best For: Small businesses with fewer than 40 employees.
13 Business Phone System Features
The best thing about cloud-based phone systems is that they offer a plethora of features and functionalities. These features help business teams handle a high volume of customer calls and enhance their productivity.
1. Call Queues
When there is a high volume of incoming calls, call queues can help accommodate callers into a virtual queue. While doing so, this feature helps communicate the expected waiting time to the callers. Informing them of their position in the queue helps weed out frustration from long queues.
When callers feel heard, they are more likely to wait than to abandon. So, call queues have turned out to be an important business phone system feature for customer support and sales teams.
2. Voicemail
Voicemail has become a key business phone system feature for it helps ensure that you are available 24/7 for your customers. Sometimes, when long holds get frustrating, voicemail comes as a savior. Customers can turn on the voicemail and send their notes without waiting for the agent.
Callers prefer to use voicemail as it helps communicate their concerns and service requests without interruption. It also helps businesses handle peak-hour traffic without investing in additional agents or infrastructure.
3. CRM integrations
Given the intensity of competition prevailing in the marketplace, businesses must leverage possible opportunities to improve their efficiency and enhance customer support. Though there are standalone applications, juggling between them constantly is a waste of time and effort.
The best business phone systems take the extra effort to establish integration with CRM and sales applications. For instance, CallHippo with its advanced business phone system features integrates with popular CRM platforms like HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho, etc.
Having a phone system integrated with the CRM helps access customer data, analytics, and conversation history in one go.
4. Powerful Analytics
Analytics is a powerful business phone system feature that helps take stock of the functioning and performance of customer support teams. It helps business teams decipher the volume of incoming business calls, agent performance, first-contact resolution rates, call abandonment rates, average queue time, peak-hour traffic, etc.
Call analytics and metrics quantify caller sentiments and agent performance to help businesses promote informed decisions. For instance, by evaluating the volume of incoming calls at any point in time, the business can make appropriate staffing decisions to handle a high volume of calls.
5. IVR
IVR (Interactive Voice Response) is an automated system that allows businesses to interact with the caller using a pre-recorded menu. Based on the input received, it then offers the needed information in the case of basic queries and navigates the caller to the right agent if it is an advanced request.
For instance, businesses can use IVR to automate some of the common tasks,
- Account information
- Bill payment
- Account balance inquiries
- Product information
- Feedback and surveys
- Reset PINs or passwords
Having an IVR system adds a professional image to your business, improves agent performance, and promotes 24/7 availability. It must also be united that IVR offers 74% self-service resolution and is the highest among all other channels.
6. Power Dialer
The power dialer dials the next phone number in the queue right after you hang up the current call. It has become one of the important business phone system features as it helps enhance the efficiency of outbound calls. Studies show that agents are 60% more productive when they use power dialers rather than manual searches.
The power dialer can be programmed to automatically jump to the next number in the list if the call is not being picked up or the line is busy. This helps improve the agent’s productivity and minimize idle time.
7. Call Monitoring
Call monitoring features allow supervisors and managers to monitor live calls and offer silent instructions to the agent or barge in directly if needed.
Live call monitoring helps improve first-contact resolution rates and customer service quality. It also helps managers offer guidance and support to agents whenever needed.
8. Call Recording
Call recording allows you to document and archive all inbound and outbound conversations. It helps monitor agents’ performance and plan training and support if needed. With records of the real-time conversations, they can serve as references for compliance and dispute resolution.
As the recordings carry direct customer conversations, they have become crucial business phone system features in understanding customer expectations.
9. Auto Attendant
Auto attendants work as dedicated receptionists and help businesses direct incoming calls to the right agent automatically without the intervention of a human operator. The best thing about auto attendants is that you can customize the entire call flow to your business needs.
A well-optimized auto attendant helps improve customer service as they can get their queries resolved without long waiting hours.
10. Sticky Agent
Sticky agent is another evolving business phone system feature. It allows callers to connect with the same agent who has engaged before. When a caller calls the customer support team for the first time, chances are that he/ she will report all the concerns and problems to the agent. The sticky agent feature helps connect and engage with the same agent who is familiar with the concerns.
A sticky agent reduces the time and effort involved in repeating the same information. It helps resolve customer queries in a quick span of time and improves customer satisfaction.
11. Call Forwarding
The call forwarding feature allows businesses to divert incoming calls to another number or device without letting the caller know. This way, you can be available for your customers 24/7, no matter if you are busy or away, and unavailable to take up the calls.
With the call-forwarding feature, you gain better control over your time. If you are in the office and looking for a quick bite or a break, you can do so without carrying the guilt of missing customer calls. You can direct the incoming call to multiple numbers, departments, extensions, mobile devices, desk phones, etc. simultaneously or sequentially.
The call forwarding feature helps ensure that all the incoming calls are answered and you don’t miss out on important phone calls.
12. Call Routing
Call routing is one of the advanced business phone system features that help connect incoming calls to an agent or department based on pre-configured criteria. It not only helps streamline the high volume of incoming calls but also directs them to the agent who is most qualified to solve the customer’s problem or request.
Businesses can define time, location, agent skill, customer data points, etc. while determining the criteria for call routing. For instance in skills-based routing, the business phone features direct the caller to the agent who has the skills and competencies needed to address the customer’s request.
On the other hand, with time-based routing, the caller is routed based on the agent’s time zone and work hours. Intelligent call routing feature helps elevate customer experience and reduce call waiting times.
13. Call Logs
Call logs record vital information like caller ID, date, time, duration, status of request, etc. It helps analyze agent activity and track the call flow. In case the customer comes back with a query, the details in the call logs can serve as a reference.
By aligning the call metrics with call logs, managers can gain an extensive, 360-degree view of customer interaction. The call recordings are mostly attached to the call logs, so you can have a comprehensive understanding of the conversation history.
You May Also Read : How Much Does a Business Phone System Cost? [2023 Pricing]
Business Phone System Cost
The cost of a business phone system can vary widely depending on the size of the business, the features included, and whether the system is cloud-based or on-premise. However, most small business owners can expect to budget between $15-$50 per user per month for a basic cloud-based phone system.
CallHippo, a prominent player in the virtual phone system market, provides a range of plans to accommodate diverse business needs. The Basic Plan from CallHippo is tailored to cater to the essential communication needs of small to medium-sized enterprises, and it costs $0 to start.
Despite its affordability, this plan doesn’t compromise on key features necessary for effective business communication. Some features include click-to-dial, global connect, teams, voicemail, SMS, smart switch, forward-to-device, and more.
Upgrade Your Business with CallHippo’s Phone System Features
CallHippo is one of the robust business phone systems with 50+ advanced features that help streamline customer support operations. It can be integrated with several CRM and sales tools so you don’t have to switch between multiple apps in the process.
CallHippo offers different types of business phone numbers including international, toll-free, local, or vanity numbers. It has sophisticated features including a power dialer, time zone expert, smart call forwarding, real-time dashboard, robust call analytics, live call monitoring, call transfer, etc.
The best thing about CallHippo is its affordable pricing. It has a free plan and three other plans with wide-ranging business phone system features. It can be set up in just three minutes of your time and is appropriate for businesses intending to streamline customer communication.
Conclusion
Cloud-based business phone systems are increasingly in demand for their ability to reduce communication costs, streamline high call volumes, and enhance customer satisfaction. There are several VoIP providers in the market, so you must carefully evaluate their business phone system features and choose one that aligns with your business requirements.
Updated : October 29, 2024
Supriya Bajaj is a senior content developer with immense experience in the VoIP telephony domain. With a deep knowledge of VoIP systems and emerging technologies in the field, she provides insightful and targeted content. Known for simplifying complex topics and her thought-leadership articles, Supriya delivers actionable content for both technical and non-technical audiences.
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