4 Questions to Ask When Looking for a Business Phone Service

If you’ve ever shopped for a phone plan for your business, you may find the options mind boggling. How do you wade through them and find the right one for your business needs?

“A good place for businesses to start is to think about how they communicate internally, as well as externally with prospects and customers,” says Holly Hinze, Senior Director, Project Management Voice Services, for Spectrum Business. “That allows them to visualize their ideal voice communications solution and seek out one that meets their unique needs.”

Here are four of the most important considerations when looking for a business phone service:

1. Is it designed for business?

If you and your employees work from home, you may be tempted to rely on residential phone service. But a business phone service provides unique features specifically designed for business phone users. These features can provide benefits like improving your customer experience and reducing your caller hold times.

Spectrum Business Voice, for example, offers more than 35 advanced features, many specific to business needs. Auto attendant, for example, allows you to record a greeting and create a menu that will direct callers to the right person at your business. Business Voice customers can also add a toll-free number.

2. What features will your business need and use?

Consider what type of functionality your business will need and use. Every business operates a little differently. Relevant considerations include:

• Does your team work remotely and need to have calls transferred to a home or mobile number? (If so, call transferring will be important.)
• Are you concerned about missing important business calls? (If so, a feature like call hunting—which puts calls through a sequence of numbers until someone picks up, can be helpful.)
• Would it help to have your voicemails emailed to you? (Then look for a feature like Voicemail to Email—which automatically emails you an audio file of all voicemails.)

3. Is it scalable?

If you expect your company to grow, make sure any business service you choose is scalable—meaning you can easily add lines and potentially extra features as your company grows or changes. You shouldn’t have to worry about switching phone services when your company is in growth mode.

4. What level of customer support does it offer?

If you have issues or questions about your phone service, you probably don’t want to have to wait for customer support. Look for a service that provides around-the-clock, readily available support.

Spectrum Business Voice provides 24/7 U.S.-based technical support, as well as online guides to help businesses maximize their phone functionality.

Whatever you decide, be careful about choosing a phone service completely on price—as when you choose the lowest-priced provider, you may be getting what you pay for.

Spectrum Business Voice includes more than 35 advanced business calling features starting at just $19.99 a month. To learn more, contact us at 855-299-9353.