12 Benefits of VoIP for Small Businesses
VoIP is a technology that enables voice communications to be carried over an Internet Protocol (IP) network such as the Internet, instead of traditional circuits-based telephone lines.
It works by converting the sound from analog to digital format and then sending it over the internet. The receiving device converts the digital signal back into an analog signal so that you can listen to it.
Benefits of Using VoIP:
1. Cost-saving
Businesses, big and small, try to reduce costs in every possible way they can. This makes them more efficient and competent. With free calls all over the world, you can save up a lot and target international clients at the same time! Statistics show that you can lower your cost of making local calls by up to 40% by using VoIP telephony.
2. Better customer service
By providing better customer service, you have already begun growing your business. This is made better with VoIP telephony. You can use the features of VoIP to market your business, build a positive brand image and provide seamless customer service. Taking advantage of features like call waiting and forwarding, your customers will have a better impression and experience.
3. Better Use of Bandwidth
One of the little-known benefits of VoIP is that it makes for more efficient use of your existing bandwidth. As roughly half of the voice conversations are made up of silence, VoIP continues to fill those information gaps with other data from other bandwidth consumers to make better use of your resources. What’s more, is that VoIP allows for compression and elimination of speech redundancies to further improve efficiencies.
4. Confidentiality Protection
With the increasing number of cyberattacks and data breaches, it is becoming increasingly important to protect confidential information. One way is to use a software that masks your IP address.
There are many reasons why you should use this software. It can help you avoid identity theft, prevent data breaches and make sure that your private information stays safe.
5. Higher productivity
As VoIP saves both costs and time, it can be easily concluded that this system has better productivity and efficiency. VoIP reduces communication costs and reduces travel cost, training cost, operations cost, hardware and software costs, and switching costs is very low. With lower costs, productivity is boosted.
6. Scalability
When you start a small business of your own, one of your main aims is growth. By investing in the right technology from the beginning, you are already a step towards fulfilling this aim. With a growing business, you will have more employees and thus will require more hardware. Fortunately, with VoIP, no additional software is required and you can use a softphone on your computer as a means of hardware. This is also very cost-friendly and barely any hardware upgrade is needed.
7. Increased Functionality
VoIP technology comes with improved and better functions. Other than the typical call waiting and call forwarding, there is call routing. With this, you will never miss a call. If you are traveling outside the premises, you can still receive calls if you just carry your phone. All you need to do is stay connected to the internet.
8. Receive faxes and voicemail
With VoIP telephony, you can receive your faxes directly in your email messages free of any charge. Furthermore, voicemail notifications are available for email messages. This will allow you to save time and stay organized with everything stored in one place.
9. Assure Business Continuity
Whether you’re closed for a day or a month, you can continue business as usual using VoIP business telephones. Simply route calls to cell phones, tablets, desktops, or laptops to keep your teams and customers connected. Regardless of the situation, your callers get the support they need, and your teams can keep working from any location or device with an internet connection. Plus, you can set custom, automated messages, so callers stay updated on your latest status.
10. Conduct Business from Anywhere
Can’t make it back in time for a client meeting? Need to close your office temporarily? You don’t need to miss important calls or conferences. Instead, cloud-based systems give everyone the flexibility to conduct business from anywhere.
An easy-to-use business application turns any smartphone into a VoIP business telephone. You can make calls or send text messages to clients without disclosing your cell phone number. On the recipient’s end, they’ll see your business number on their caller ID and know it’s not a spam call.
11. Highly Reliable
One of the most common (and inaccurate) objections to VoIP is that if a business finds themselves without internet for whatever reason, they’d be without a phone as well. One of the benefits of VoIP flexibility is that in the event of an office phone going down due to lack of network, calls can always be forwarded to mobile phones and other devices. That also means weather issues and power outages no longer present the risk they once did.
12. Easy Integration with Other Business Systems
Your business likely utilizes various other systems and technologies to enhance your operational efficiencies. VoIP easily integrates with a wide variety of existing business systems.
That means you’ll realize all of the benefits of VoIP without requiring modification of your existing applications or IT infrastructure. For example, outbound calls can be placed via Outlook or other email systems and customer records can even be viewed during the inbound call with said customer.
CONCLUSION
The fact that VoIP technology is using IP does not mean that it cannot be secured. To defeat VoIP security threats, a well-structured plan needs to be devised. The plan should include voice encryption, authentication, voice-specific firewalls, and separation of data and voice traffic.
