How to Choose an Office Phone Answering Service

In an age where our daily work and activities revolve around smartphones and tablets, it’s important for businesses to choose the right phone service for their office. There are a lot of factors that go into deciding which phone service is best for your business, so we’ve created an easy reference guide to help you determine what your business needs to keep up with demands, service and customers.

What are the Options for a Phone Answering Service?

An office phone service should serve to create less stress and easier usability than whatever current system you’re using. Usability goes both ways as far as its purpose in serving you, and your customers. Phone systems that your business might use in the office are landlines, mobile devices, self-hosted VolP, cloud-based VolP, and virtual phone services. All these system solutions offer valuable operational functions for various purposes.

To determine which option best serves your business, identify the following:

• Document your call volume, and ask yourself how likely it is for your call volume to change.
• How fast is your internet connection, and does it allow VolP systems to efficiently operate?
• Who is generally responsible for answering your business phones, and is this likely to change?
• What features are you looking to add to your office phone service that you don’t currently have?
• How often will you spend working remotely?
• Does your business have many office locations?

Your answers to these questions will determine which type of device is designed for your business. If you and your employees spend most of your time away from the office, then an office landline is likely not going to be your best option because it is not portable. Many modern businesses demand flexibility, which is why mobile devices are an excellent option for your business if you operate by having all your employees trained with customers and on the phone.

One other option for your business is a telephone answering service, which acts as a virtual receptionist to answer calls, forward calls, handle customer questions and complaints, and schedule appointments. The flexibility of a telephone answering service eliminates the time you spend answering phones and replaces it with a more productive system in getting things done for the business.

If you’re like many small business owners, your work is the most important thing you do to put food on the table. Effectively managing your business takes a lot of work, but choosing the right phone service for your office could be the solution to getting the most out of your clients, opportunities, and communication with customers.