A virtual PBX system is a cost-effective way for businesses to manage their communications while letting their employees enjoy the flexibility of working remotely.
When people think of a modern office, they often think of cubicles, one-line phones, and the dreaded headset. However, you can’t have your company’s reputation and customer service hanging by wires and located at a fixed location. In today’s customer-centric market when so many companies are operating from remote offices, more options than ever are available to help businesses achieve their daily communications goals.
The truth is, your customers aren't concerned with how you receive calls so long as you answer them in good time. Still, many companies hesitate to think beyond traditional on-premise PBX or Private Branch Exchange systems cabled into their office premises, this could be a costly mistake.
To address this, a virtual or cloud-based PBX system can save time and money and offer far more reliability and flexibility. Below we discuss why you need to consider ditching your traditional phone system and switch to a cloud-based one instead.
Cloud Hosted PBX vs. Traditional PBX: What’s the difference?
Business professionals from all industries agree: a company's phone system is a powerful force in driving increased productivity, improved communication, and greater sales opportunities. One missed call equals one missed opportunity.
In an era where remote teams have become the norm, holding on to traditional on-site PBX systems doesn’t make sound business sense. Both traditional and cloud PBX systems deliver the same results, but the latter offers far greater flexibility. They allow your team members to stay connected with your customers wherever they may be located.
Your teams can go on about their day without worrying about missing important calls when out of the office and get more work done in a shorter time.
Why Businesses Need an Office Phone System for Remote Employees
1. Shared phone system and flexibility = Productivity
The problem with working from home is that many businesses are not ready. Only a handful of companies were actually prepared to set up remote workplaces after the pandemic. In many cases, these are now hybrid companies with some team members working remotely and others working in the office or a mix of these two scenarios. Modern cloud-based PBX systems are the required tool to improve communication between physical or virtual offices and employees.
A virtual PBX or hosted phone system offers you a means of communication that is both extremely professional and easy to use and set up. The system allows you to create extensions and forward calls to colleagues' smartphones, PC’s or handsets ensuring your customers are taken care of wherever your teams are basing themselves.
With a cloud PBX system, you are able to turn on advanced functionality in an instant, need a report to tell you if you are missing customer calls? It's there. Need to listen in on a customer complaint? No problem, turn on legally compliant voice recordings in minutes. The system exists in a secure dual power environment and all features are turned on and off by a simple toggle.
All this means, you won’t have to continually monitor your employees to see whether or not they are manning their phones or missing customer calls, and you can also quickly identify where your colleagues may need additional training.
2. Phone System Security = Trust
You are working with sensitive company data. Your business depends on the security and privacy of your phone calls, so it should come as no surprise that your office phone system should have at least the same level of protection.
It doesn't matter where you work from: if your employees are serious about security and privacy, it is best to get a powerful remote office phone system with enhanced call security features.
Virtual PBX phone systems use Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol (SRTP) to encrypt your calls, so you can be rest assured that your conversations remain confidential even when your employees are deployed on the field.
Simply remember that business phone systems don’t always have to be high tech in design and operation, but they do have to be secure. So, if you are upgrading your infrastructure to adapt to the modern ways of running your teams, you should consider investing in a cloud-hosted phone system.
3. Improved Brand Reputation = Growth
If your customers or prospects are unable to get in touch with you, they certainly won’t be doing business with you. Any lack of availability from your end can cause complaints to go unheard and unresolved and may cause your brand reputation and customer retention to suffer.
A cloud PBX system will allow you to respond to your clients immediately, from anywhere that your workforce is based at that current time. This assures customers that they are dealing with a professional company, leading your brand reputation to deliver a positive impression.
In addition, hosted phone systems come with all the extras typically only found in much larger corporate phone systems. These include, but are not limited to; Virtual Auto Attendant (Push 1 for Sales, Push 2 for Service, etc.), the ability to seamlessly transfer calls nationally or internationally on one unified system for a smooth customer experience, and the ability to integrate with a wide variety of leading CRM systems for a world-class customer delivery offering.
The Future is Virtual
As more companies go remote each day, countless businesses have begun implementing a smartphone allowance to replace office phones. These virtual systems will help companies make significant savings on phone bills without chaining their employees to landlines. A cloud PBX allows you to set up a geographic or 086 business number within a day.
Businesses with offices in different cities, requiring an easy way to stay in touch with their branches, can also make use of cloud-hosted PBX systems to improve their internal communication and productivity.
Just like emails replaced faxes, hosted PBX systems have the potential to replace traditional phone systems in the coming years considering the fact that 73% of all departments will experience the remote shift by 2028.
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