The Underlying Benefits of Using a Business Phone System

A business phone system can be defined as “a system where businesses use multiple telephones in an interconnected fashion that allows for features like call handling and transferring, conference calling, call metering and accounting, private and shared voice message boxes, etc.”

Business phones or VoIP phones are a great tool to facilitate your business communication needs. Business phone systems help manage large call volumes. With a business phone in place, you can route all the incoming, outgoing, and internal calls through a unified platform.

Read more: 7 Reasons for a Small Business to Adopt Cloud Business Phone System

Modern business phone systems come with multiple features to simplify communication management for the organization. From call recording, forwarding, and rerouting multiple calls to voicemail, IVR messaging, and automated call functions, you can benefit a lot from a reliable business phone system. Here’s everything you need to know about business telephone systems to help you make an informed decision.

Different Types of Business Phone Systems

A business phone system can make call management incredibly convenient for your employees. At the same time, it helps the caller connect to the relevant department immediately to address their concerns. You can make and receive calls from your PC, laptop, tablet, or smartphone by using the business phone system, using a dedicated phone number for your company. The business phone system is a vital part of customer management today. Here are some of the examples of business phone systems. 

1. PBX Phone Systems

PBX or Private Branch Exchange phone systems allow you to make and receive calls over the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) via circuit-switched telephony. In other words, PBX phone systems use physical copper wire networks to transmit voice communication as analog signals. In general, PBX phone systems are classified into two categories: on-premise and cloud-based PBX systems.

On-premise PBX phone systems employ bulky hardware that includes physical wires, PBX servers, and specialized phones. The system uses a trunk line with internal telephones, enabling the user to communicate within the network without using any external lines. This makes on-premise PBX phone systems an excellent choice for external as well as internal communication. However, many businesses choose cloud-based PBX phones instead of on-premise systems due to their infrastructure and maintenance expenses.

Cloud PBX phone systems employ a web-based cloud telephony platform to give you all the features you can expect from an on-premise PBX system. However, they do not require any specialized hardware, as seen in the latter. You can route the calls to your employees’ cell phones or the usual business line to facilitate communication. Apart from that, cloud-based PBX phones also offer additional features like call switching, access control, and better flexibility and visibility into the platform.

Read more: 5 Ways an Integrated Cloud Platform is Beneficial for Your Small Business

2. VoIP Phone Systems

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone system enables you to make and receive calls using the IP network. VoIP phones transmit voice communication and other types of multimedia communication over the internet using packet-switched telephony. Thus, it helps avoid the usual problems of a traditional business phone like voice breaking and call drops. A VoIP phone system will also be interfaced with PSTN using specialized adapters to route calls via PSTN if required.

Just like PBX phones, VoIP phone systems are also classified into two types: on-premise and cloud-based VoIP systems. 

On-premise VoIP phone systems, also known as IP-PBX phones, are very similar to on-premise PBX phone systems in terms of architecture. The main difference between them is that a VoIP phone system uses a VoIP server to route all the incoming and outgoing communication instead of using a private branch exchange. In addition, it requires VoIP-enabled phones to make and receive calls instead of usual phones.

As all the communication is sent and received over the internet, a VoIP phone system is much more cost-effective than an on-premise PBX phone system. Moreover, you can also use VoIP phones to transmit multimedia communication, which is impossible with PBX phones. Still, as on-premise VoIP systems require investing in infrastructure similar to PBX systems, most businesses prefer cloud-based VoIP phones rather than having an on-premise system.

Cloud VoIP phone systems function just like on-premise VoIP phones but without needing any specialized and bulky hardware. There is no hefty cost of installation involved, as the VoIP provider will be responsible for managing the infrastructure on the cloud. You only need VoIP-enabled devices to make and receive calls. There are also options to pay as per usage when you go for cloud VoIP phone services, which further help keep the expenses in check.

Read more: 8 Ways Cloud Automation Significantly Improves Your Legacy IT Operations

Benefits of InfinCE Business Phone System

With the InfinCE business phone system, you can have a dedicated phone number for your company to protect your privacy and keep work and personal phone numbers separate. When you make a call, the receiver will see the caller ID of your organization instead of a private number, which is a valuable asset to affirm the reputation of your business in the industry. Besides, you can also choose from local phone numbers and toll-free numbers to suit your needs with the InfinCE business phone system.

Read more: Introduction to InfinCE Business Phone System

InfinCE business phone allows you to have a virtual phone number for your company and make and receive calls on the go, from anywhere in the world. As a result, you are not confined to your desk and can access your InfinCE account anytime, anywhere, using your preferred device. In addition, InfinCE allows you to buy additional phone numbers and add unlimited extensions. With plans starting at $1 per phone number or user per month, the InfinCE business phone system also helps you enjoy incredible cost savings.

You get to benefit from many more features when you choose the InfinCE business phone system. You can create as many IVR greeting messages as you want, assign extensions to different departments, get dedicated phone numbers for key personnel, and do a lot more to fit your needs for business communication. With multiple extensions in place, none of your customers will have to wait in a queue to get connected to the relevant department when there are simultaneous calls. That will give you a competitive advantage over others in the industry by boosting customer satisfaction rates.

Set up your business phone system with InfinCE and start enjoying smart call management features. Sign up now!  

Guide to building a digital-first small business in 2021

2020 was a year of realizations for businesses around the world. When health scares like the COVID-19 pandemic hits without warning, life’s normalcy gets disrupted beyond imagination. Companies need to adapt to new ways of working in a matter of days. For smaller businesses with little or no contingency plans in place, the pandemic was an eye-opener. Studies earlier have shown that nearly 80% of small businesses in the US did not take full advantage of the capabilities of digital and productivity tools available in the market for their use. 

Download White Paper: How a Digital Workplace Streamlines Business Performance 

In today’s digital economy, consumer behavior is directly influenced by the rapid proliferation of digital services and connected devices. There is no escaping the digital transformation realm for small businesses as the pandemic proved that digital supremacy is an inevitable need for survival and not an operational luxury for them. On this note, let us examine the top 4 crucial technology trends that a small business cannot afford to ignore in 2021.

Read more: Top 10 Ways to Set up an Effective Business Strategy in 2021 

1. Autonomous Customer Service

Once relied heavily on by customers, traditional services are moving into self-service portals wherein customers can configure and transact independently. There is a rising demand for instant and autonomous customer service. Nearly 62% of US consumers prefer talking to a chatbot while interacting with a business. AI-enabled chatbots offer instant and more data-driven support decisions to consumers when they interact. In a traditional setting, customers are forced to wait long to connect with a human support associate and explain their whole problem. Often, customers will be diverted to another department and the story of waiting and explaining repeats. With autonomous chatbot and voice assistants, most queries receive replies instantly. Also, precise data is collected and transferred to a desk executive when connecting with a human support agent.

2. Integrating Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)

It is hard to find businesses without a dedicated website today. Considering that a good majority of your potential customers find out about you from the internet, building a website is necessary for any business. But today, nearly 50.8% of global internet traffic comes through mobile phones. People browsing your website on their mobile phones expect information pages to load as quickly as possible. For this, small businesses must deploy AMP principles in their web development to ensure that every web page offers a seamless loading and viewing experience in mobile browsers. Any delays in page loads can create unsatisfactory experiences for visitors, and your bounce rates will go up if AMP is not incorporated in your web experiences.

3. Marketing Personalization

Do you know that 80% of consumers are likely to do business with a brand that offers them personalized experiences? Personalization begins from the first step that businesses take to reach out to their customers, which is marketing. Rather than shooting out mass email campaigns, sticking flyers and billboards across the city, small businesses can utilize the vast plethora of modern marketing platforms to roll out customized and highly personal campaigns to attract the right audience to their stores or websites. Customers want only the right content to be delivered to their mailboxes to make more informed decisions. Small businesses need to use AI-driven personalized marketing platforms that can quickly identify interest patterns and deploy relevant messaging and recommendations to the correct customer to convince them of a purchasing decision quickly.

Read more: Key Predictions on How Workplace Technology and Culture Will Evolve in 2020 & Beyond 

4. Seamless Omni-channel experience

Irrespective of the digital channel that consumers use to reach out, small businesses must deliver an omnichannel experience across their digital landscape. From seamless transactions to better and intelligent recommendations and improved agility in back-office administration, small businesses need to have powerful digital platforms deployed across their operations’ length and breadth. Companies cannot leave their customers lurking in the dark, waiting for information as the competition might take advantage and lure them away with better experiences.

With the rising demand for faster and more digital-friendly experiences by consumers, small businesses should streamline their business process automation and management exercise. They need to efficiently coordinate workflows in different departments, such as finance, supply chain, logistics, HR, marketing, and sales. Additionally, they need to ensure a responsive digital infrastructure for their front-facing internet assets as well. 

Read more: How Successful Leaders Engage Employees Using Modern Business Communication Tools like InfinCE 

Using intelligent business management platforms like InfinCE is necessary for small businesses to compete in the new digital era. From building a robust digital backend for your business to setting up a roadmap for continuous success on the digital front, InfinCE can reshape your digital ambitions in the most cost-effective way possible. Get in touch with us to know more about how your small business can conquer 2021 with InfinCE Digital Workplace.

Download White Paper: The Business Value of InfinCE for Business Owners and Employees

Why automation is key to boosting small business productivity?

Most often, we realize the potential of technologies like automation when a critical situation arises. The impact of COVID-19 has forced organizations around the world to transit to a work-from-home productivity model, and many of us are able to execute remote work successfully due to automation. In this post, we’ll explore how automation in small business improves productivity and the different areas where companies can implement automation.

Related Reading: Quickly Transit to Remote Working with InfinCE

From small tasks such as electronic document signature to intelligent data processing, automation in small business offers limitless possibilities to improve productivity in the small business environment. It is important for decision-makers to invest in the right areas. 

If you are a small business owner looking to turn your workforce more productive through automation this year, then here are 4 areas you need to look at:

1. Automating Sales Workflows

Your sales team often creates the biggest customer impact zone in your business and hence is a worthy contender for incorporating automation in its daily routine. So, what are the sales processes that can be automated within a small business? 

Some examples include assigning associates for leads, setting automated response channels for incoming leads such as emails, IVR based tele-calling or any other contact channels like social media. Once a lead is assigned to an associate for nurturing and conversion, then the next area where automation can kick in is for reminders and follow-ups. Activities involved in deal nurturing and closure can be automated to make the lives of sales folks easier and ultimately improve the productivity of the whole team.

2. Project Management

Today’s workforce demands increasing flexibility in their work and may avail benefits such as remote work. When there are multiple people working on a single customer project or task, and if there are remote resources involved, then project management becomes a challenging endeavor if everything is to be manually handled by managers using spreadsheets, IM and email conversations. This is the right area to bring in automation using state of the art project management platforms. 

Related Reading: 5 Ways A Project Management Tool Can Help Your Business Grow

By enabling automated monitoring of project schedules, individual work progress, and dependency metrics for collaborative tasks, it becomes easier for managers to have a grip on project timelines and ensure that everyone is at the same pace transparently.

3. Procurement and Logistics Processing

There are several routine tasks within procurement departments in a small business that takes up too much time and effort if done manually. A good example would be invoice processing once supplies are obtained. As your business grows, these routine jobs would incur a significantly high volume of effort and can lead to highly inefficient business outcomes due to errors in manual processing. This is where bringing automation in small businesses can be a game-changer. You not only eliminate errors but also improve the speed of processing and completing redundant tasks. 

Approval workflows, scheduling, tracking inventory and vendor notifications are some of the key areas in procurement where automation in small business can vastly change the existing operational landscape.

4. HR and Payroll

Typical human resources work schedule has components that are grossly manual effort intense like payroll processing, profile and resume screening for recruitment, appraisal and performance tracking, rewards and feedback collection, and much more. Automation in any or all these areas will help the HR personnel to be more pro-active in managing employee relations while technology takes care of the manual effort in enabling the same. Ensuring that your employees are engaged is a fundamental goal that needs to be achieved for overall business success and making sure your HR team is empowered to do that via automation is hence a key focus area.

Related Reading: Tips For SMBs To Boost Growth With Increased Employee Engagement

Automation in small business is one of the key pillars for propelling companies into the next level for the coming years. As more disruptive business and market conditions continue to show its face every year, it is important for small businesses to remain competitive and allot enough core business skilled employees to handle newer challenges. By utilizing enterprise platforms like InfinCE, you can enable seamless automation across your key business units and leverage human manpower for more decisive operations. Get in touch with us to know how you can leverage the automation capabilities of InfinCE to create the next level of success for your business.