In today’s fast-paced business environment, small business owners need to leverage the latest technologies to stay ahead of the competition. Virtual phone systems have revolutionised small business communications. They offer an affordable and feature-rich alternative to traditional phone systems and the need for second mobile phones, enabling small business owners to stay connected with their customers and employees from anywhere in the world.
Explore the benefits of virtual phone systems for SMEs and how they can be a game changer for their businesses, in this article.
What are SMEs currently using as their business communication tools?
The go to for most SME owners are one of these three options:
- Using their personal phone
- Using a second handset
- Using a traditional desk phone set up
What are the challenges small business owners face with these options?
Using a personal phone for business communication can present several challenges for SME owners. It can be difficult to separate work and personal calls, leading to missed calls and decreased productivity. Additionally, sharing a personal phone number with customers can compromise privacy and blur professional boundaries.
Getting a second handset may be a solution to achieving separation and privacy concerns. However, that in itself presents additional challenges. It can be inconvenient to carry and manage two phones. SME owners may struggle to keep track of which phone to use for which calls, leading to confusion and missed opportunities. Additionally, this is not a scalable solution, as your team grows, setting up phone contracts and purchasing second handsets can be a costly endeavour which doesn’t accommodate scaling up or down depending on your business needs.
What about traditional desk phone systems? They’re much more expensive to set up and maintain, which can strain the budgets of small businesses. Moreover, traditional desk phone systems are often inflexible and lack advanced features such as call forwarding, auto-attendant and software integrations, which can limit communication options for SMEs. Desk phone systems are also typically location-bound, meaning that employees cannot easily make and receive calls remotely. This can create communication gaps and limit the ability of SMEs to reach customers effectively.
What is a virtual phone system?
A virtual phone system is a cloud-based phone solution that allows businesses to make and receive phone calls using an internet connection rather than traditional phone lines. This means that there is no need for second handsets nor expensive hardware or costly phone lines to be installed. They can work on your existing phone or a computer and are accessed via an app. Virtual phone systems can be a game changer for SMEs.
What are the benefits of a virtual phone system to an SME?
- Cost-effectiveness: Virtual phone systems are typically much more affordable than contracts for work phones or desk phones. With no need for expensive hardware or dedicated phone lines, SMEs can save money on both setup and ongoing maintenance costs.
- Advanced features: Virtual phone systems offer a range of advanced communication features, such as call forwarding, auto-attendant, and business voicemail. These are typically not available with traditional desk phone systems or personal mobile phones. These features are important for growing SMEs to enhance customer communication and thereby improve service.
- Flexibility and scalability: The cloud-based nature of virtual phone systems makes them highly flexible and scalable. This is an ideal solution for growing or fluctuating SMEs because the software can be easily expanded or downsized depending on business needs. It also allows for remote hiring as employees can make and receive calls from anywhere in the world, as long as they have a strong internet connection.
- Professional image: By using a virtual phone system, SMEs can present a more professional image to customers and clients. They can use a dedicated business phone number, rather than their personal mobile phone number, and take advantage of features such as auto-attendant and call forwarding to improve customer service and responsiveness. This gives SMEs a competitive advantage.
- Increased productivity: Virtual phone systems can help SMEs to increase productivity by enabling employees to stay connected and responsive, even when they are on the go. Employees can easily manage and prioritise their communications, ensuring that important calls are not missed.
How Devyce Does It Better
Our market leading technology provides you with the perfect cost effective, smart and reliable phone system to take your business to the next level. Our solution can be tailored to your business needs from providing a virtual business phone number to a comprehensive communications stack for your customer service team.
Cost Savings
While virtual phone systems already save you a fair amount on business communications. Devyce can save you up to 70% on business communications. Our pricing plans are kept low for you because of our exclusive deal with a UK Mobile Network Operator. This means that we can provide you with a virtual business number at a much lower cost than other providers. The best part? We don’t believe in contracts. We’re confident you’ll love our service so we won’t ever lock you into lengthy contracts – you can leave at any time, at no extra costs.
Advanced Calling Features
Our advanced calling features extend to a Teams Management Portal designed for team leads at growing businesses to track and manage their team members’ calls. With access to call reporting and analytics, you can identify key areas that need attention in your call handling. Additionally, through the portal you’re able to quickly allocate/deallocate phone numbers as well as listen to calls and business voicemails across all your lines. This means your team will always be up to date with the progress of your calls and create a seamless experience for customers.
Devyce is also AI powered, offering smart call summarisation. After each call made, you’ll automatically be sent a summary of the call generated by AI technology. This improves efficiency in your business operations as it saves you time in call reporting. You’ll no longer need to manually take notes after each call so you can use the saved time for more important tasks. Additionally we offer integrations with a range of CRM softwares.
Small business owners often wear many hats, juggling multiple responsibilities such as sales, marketing, accounting, and customer service. Communication is at the core of all these activities, but it can be a significant challenge for small business owners, especially those with limited communication resources. This is where virtual phone systems can be a game changer for small businesses. By providing affordable, flexible, and feature-rich communication solutions, virtual phone systems help to bring the communications strategy of SMEs up to the standards as expected of larger, developed businesses. This makes virtual phone systems a game changer for SMEs to enhance their communication capabilities and achieve business success.
