The Customer is King.
This business maxim has and always will be true.
When businesses start booming, the first thing to start lagging is customer service, which is quite a shame since word-of-mouth about poor customer service could kill a business overnight.
Even though email, social media and chat features are awesome tools to communicate with your customer, nothing beats actually talking directly with somebody over the phone.
However, in order to set up an efficient and effective customer call center for your business, you will need: a closet-full of hardware on-site, a long-term contract with a premises-based PBX provider, and a big bankroll for monthly bills and, let’s not forget, upgrade bills once you outgrow your current system.
There’s a better and more cost-effective alternative to premises-based PBX: hosted PBX.
What is Hosted PBX
A hosted PBX system delivers PBX functionality as a service over the internet (VoIP). Hosted PBXs are typically provided by the telephone company, using equipment located in the premises of the telephone company’s exchange. This means your organization doesn’t need to buy or install PBX equipment.
Here’s a more specific example of how hosted PBX works: A customer calls your toll-free or local phone number and the call is answered either by your receptionist or an automated greeting. You can even have multiple receptionists in different geographical locations answering your incoming calls. If the receptionist is not available and an automated greeting answers the phone call, customers can choose to dial an extension, a specific department, listen to product information or use the dial-by-name directory.
Benefits of Hosted PBX
One of the great benefits of a Hosted PBX system is that employees can be working in different geographical locations. For instance, an employee working from home in New York can transfer a caller to technical support which is located in Toronto, Canada. Employees can answer calls from their cell phones, on a laptop, from their home or anywhere with a traditional landline or internet connection for business voice-over-ip.
Major cost benefits are:
- Hosted PBX services slash support costs, as there are few differences in setup and administration for any user, no matter what their physical location
- Costs for interoffice calls decrease dramatically, as VoIP enables no-cost or low-cost calling between extensions
- Reduced cost of long-distance calls
- A lower total cost of ownership than traditional phone systems: a hosted PBX service doesn’t require the initial investment of tens of thousands of dollars
Conclusion
A hosted PBX system is a good way to save money while still getting many of the same features as a traditional business phone system. Make sure to research all the available options.
Choosing a Hosted PBX systems service provides advantages in several areas where traditional PBX phone systems are weakest. Hosted PBX delivers PBX functionality as a service, available over telephone and/or the internet.