What Is Hosted VoIP?
With hosted VoIP, all you need are VoIP-compatible phones. Your phone system connects through your internet connection to a provider of your choice, and the provider stores all the physical equipment at an off-site data center. Hosted VoIP has a lower setup cost and no maintenance costs, which allows you to use your IT resources for more important tasks.
What To Look For In A Provider
If you do decide on a hosted VoIP solution, the next step is choosing a provider. Considering the number of hosted VoIP providers in the market, the task of finding the best fit for your business can be daunting. While every business has different needs, there are certain features that any good VoIP provider offers, such as:
Business Application Integration
By far the biggest benefit of VoIP is its ability to integrate with the applications and programs that keep your business running smoothly.
For example, if your business is client-facing, your VoIP system can integrate with programs like Salesforce, Zoho or Redtail. This integration lets your employees make calls directly from the app interface, and calls can be automatically logged and reviewed to monitor customer interaction KPIs.
If your business has a lot of remote or traveling employees, try to find a hosted VoIP provider that offers integration with iOS and Android as well. That way, your offsite employees can tap into your phone system and business numbers via the app, negating the need to purchase and pay for work phones for each employee.
Call Routing
Nothing is more frustrating to a customer than when they can’t get anyone on the phone. With hosted VoIP, you can minimize that risk. Some VoIP providers offer a “find me/follow me” feature, which allows users to route incoming calls to multiple phones in a predetermined sequence. With this feature, if a customer can’t reach the employee they’re looking for on their desk phone, the call can be routed to that employee’s cell, then to another member of the employee’s team.
Easy-To-Use Interface
Setting up and
customizing your VoIP system should be an easy process, and a good provider
will make it as easy as possible to use their platform. Some providers even
offer a visual dial plan editor, which lets you to control and update your system in real time from any internet-enabled device.
Secure Calling
If your business is in a regulated or compliance-heavy industry, secure calling is a must- have feature. Good hosted VoIP providers offer encryption as a feature (provided you have the right equipment), so you can rest easy knowing your sensitive business data is secure.
Multiple Data Centers
The quality of VoIP calls has improved dramatically over the years, but to guarantee quick and stable connections, you need a provider with multiple data centers. The more data centers a provider has, the quicker your calls will be routed to the closest one on both ends, which helps mitigate lag time and improves overall call quality.
Call Analytics
As with any other area of your business, analytics can help improve the efficiency and quality of your telephone encounters, and a good hosted VoIP provider will offer call analytics as part of their service. With call analytics, you can track abandoned or unreturned calls and see when your business has its peak call volume, which helps you ensure you have enough staff at those times to handle all inbound calls.
Depending on your industry, there are other features that may be valuable to you. If you’re in the healthcare industry, for example, you might want to use a hosted VoIP provider that offers fax to email and virtual fax services. If your business is an enterprise organization with multiple of global offices and a lot of inbound calls, dial-by-name services can be useful.
There you have it: everything you need to know about hosted VoIP. If you need help with deciding whether hosted VoIP is right for your business or with identifying the right hosted VoIP provider for you, contact us and we’ll set up a time to discuss your needs.