Business Phone Features | Expert Market

Q: What is a hosted PBX telephone system?

<strong>A hosted PBX telephone system</strong> is entirely reliant on the internet. All the processing and data collection happens over the cloud and on your supplier’s server, so this kind of system is virtually responsibility-free.

Q: What is a self-hosted PBX telephone system?

<strong>A self-hosted PBX telephone system</strong> is hosted on your own server within your office. This kind of system relies on self-maintenance, and unless you already have a traditional PBX system installed, the setup is very costly.

Q: Why is choosing the right telephone systems features important?

Building the right elements for the perfect business communication ecosystem is crucial. Choosing the right features ensures communication between staff is efficient, and so better collaboration is enabled, leading to more productivity. Keep in mind that your business' growth depends on these factors to thrive and survive. Your customers also get a better experience when they call you if you have the right inbound communication features, which fosters good customer relationships and customer loyalty.

Q: Can telephone systems features change in functionality depending on the nature of my business?

Whether you’re choosing features for a corporate-sized business or a small business, these features can be customised depending on how your business needs them to function. For example, for a larger business, an auto attendant can become a multi-level auto attendant system with a more extensive submenu for directing where calls should be routed.

Q: How easy is it to switch telephone system providers?

There are important factors to consider before making the switch, but yes, it is easy to change telephone system providers, especially if you’ll be using your existing network cabling, because there’s no need to pay for additional cable charges. Many phone system providers will allow you to use your existing or old business number, and you can even use your own handset. It’s just a matter of finding out what the migration process is for the new provider you’re switching over to. Most of the time, onboarding support is offered, so you won’t have to worry about getting started with the new service provider.

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When it comes to business telephones, there are a lot of features to get your head around. We’re here to explain these features and show you how they can help your business.

An intelligent phone system is considered an essential investment for any ambitious, fast-growing business. It’ll help you provide a better level of customer service and make life easier for you and your employees.

VoIP telephone systems are by far the most intelligent phone systems. They’re packed full of features. This is largely down to their connectivity, both to the internet and your local area network (LAN).

▶ Read more: The best VoIP telephone systems

Standard VoIP features

Communicating in the digital age goes beyond making and receiving calls. Business communication has evolved into a web of calling features that offers solutions not only for exchanging ideas, but for overcoming possible challenges, too.

This is why phone system providers design their voice over internet protocol (VoIP) service with telephone system features that you can customise to fit your business needs. There’s a reason that, in 2019 alone, over a third of UK-based companies switched to cloud-based phone systems.

Whichever VoIP service provider you opt for, it should include great standard features that are essential to call quality and customer experience. These are:

Call forwarding – forward the call onto another person’s phone
Call holding – keep a caller on the line
Encoding and decoding software – shrink, then unwrap call data so it’s processed faster
QoS (quality of service) – prioritises call/audio data over other data types to ensure high quality calls
Faxing – you can send faxes digitally these days, too

Additional VoIP features

In this handy guide, we’ve highlighted the additional VoIP features you should be looking out for. Select any of the menu options to fast track to that particular feature.

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Voicemail

Voicemail as a function is nothing new. However, thanks to VoIP, it’s now been taken to a whole new level.

VoIP phones are capable of taking voicemail messages, converting them into sound files, then sending them over to you in an email.

This makes catching up on your missed calls far more convenient than dialling. Plus, you can access your voicemails from any device, anywhere there’s an internet connection.

This feature is offered on all of RingCentral’s plans, starting with its most basic plan, Essentials, for £7.99 per user, per month. You can listen to each voicemail message, or you have the option to receive it as text through email. You can also assign different recipients to get specific types of notifications, such as directing missed call notifications to be sent to your secretary.

Call monitoring

Ever wondered what really happens during a phone call with your customers? Now, thanks to call monitoring, you can find out.

Tap into phone calls so you can see who’s delivering a high standard of customer service, and who needs additional training.

Collect heaps of data; find out who takes the most calls, who makes the most calls, and who spends the longest time on the phone. Then use these variables to assess performance.

A call monitoring feature is available on Nuacom’s Call Centre plan, which costs £29.99 per user, per month. For security purposes, you’ll need to set up a custom code to activate this feature. Once the custom code has been keyed in, you can monitor and listen to each team member’s live calls.

Call distribution

Call distribution is an intercepting feature that diverts the call to the right person within a business telephone network.

This is a particularly good feature for businesses that experience high volumes of calls. Why? Because call distribution software can divert calls to contact centres when all the lines are busy.

This means you’ll never miss a call again. Gain more customers, retain more customers, and keep employees from being overwhelmed with calls.

Call forwarding or call distribution allows you to be reachable wherever you are, and 8×8 offers this on all of its plans, starting with the Express plan for £10 per user, per month. With 8×8, you can customise your own call forwarding rules so that when a call comes in, you can direct it to any extension or specific person.

Automated attendant

An automated attendant not only frees up time for your employees, but improves the customer journey, too.

Employees don’t have to spend time figuring out what the customer needs before forwarding them on to the right department. Customers can call up, listen to the options, and dial straight through to the person who can help them.

You can also set up an auto-attendant, which updates customers on which position they are in the hold queue.

A virtual assistant, or automated attendant, is included on all of Dialpad’s plans, starting with the Standard plan at £12 per user, per month. This feature allows you to take incoming calls even when you’re unavailable, so you’re unlikely to miss a business opportunity. An automated attendant can take incoming calls without the need for an operator, automatically transferring calls to the right department or person.

▶ Read more: The best auto-attendant phone systems

Unified communications

‘Unified communications‘ is a term that refers to the integration of business communications services. Think voice calls, instant messaging, conferencing, mobile communication, and video, all under one platform.

Unified communications can open up all kinds of communication channels for your business. This encourages greater employee interactivity and productivity.

And because it’s all hosted on software, employees can access these communication channels from any internet-enabled device.

RingCentral’s Standard (£14.99 per user, per month) and Premium (£19.99 per user, per month) plans are among the best packages on the market, offering unlimited voice calls, SMS, call conferencing, and video features and services.

Conference calling

Conference calling is essential for internal and external business communications. It can either be voice or audio, depending on the device used.

VoIP conference calling works in a similar way to traditional phone conference calling. All lines connect to a conference bridge (or server), and packets of voice data are sent over the internet to each participating phone.

Call conferencing is available on bOnline’s Unlimited Calling plan (£13.95 or £15.50 per user, per month, depending on whether you bundle in desk phones). This feature enables you to communicate with multiple customers and staff at once with either voice or video conferencing.

▶ Read more: The best conference phone systems

IVR systems

When was the last time you called up your insurance provider or bank? All these call-heavy companies have invested in an interactive voice response (IVR) system.

An IVR system can significantly cut down the number of calls a company receives.

How? The computer is clever enough to recognise vocal responses. The system can then play an automated answer that best solves the inquiry, without the caller ever needing to take up the time of a real person. Clever!

All of Dialpad’s plans (£12 to bespoke) come with an IVR system, enabling you to provide an improved customer experience even using Dialpad’s most basic plan.

Want to receive telephone system quotes? Click on your budget to compare quotes now

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How to choose the right telephone system features

Putting together the right telephone system features to assemble a service that’s sophisticated, professional, simple, and modern doesn’t really require skill. It requires a great phone system provider that offers features that enable efficient communication for a price that suits your budget, and with satisfactory customer support available in case you need it to get the most out of your phone system features. So, even when you sign up for the right basic plan, your business gets a chance to grow and succeed.

▶ Read more: Small business phone systems

You can expect even the most basic package to include a heap of handy features that’ll help you run your business more effectively. The price of a basic plan would normally range from £6 to £15 per user, per month. The majority of suppliers will offer the following features as standard:

Auto attendant
Voicemail
Instant messaging
Call recording
Internet faxing
Conferencing
CRM (customer relationship management) integration

If you’re looking for more intelligent features, you need to upgrade your service, which will cost more. Normally, these plans will range from £15 to £30 per user, per month. Intelligent features include:

In depth telephone data analytics
Artificial intelligence software
High grade security
Multi-level auto attendant
Interactive voice response (IVR)
Call monitoring
Ring groups
Voicemail to text
API
Analytics
Helpdesk integrations

The great thing about a VoIP system is that it’s customisable. Adding a new user or upgrading your software package is as easy as calling up your provider and requesting the change, so your system can easily scale along with your business as it grows.

It’s also really quick and easy to find out how much a VoIP system will cost your company. All you need to do is fill in our form with a few details, and the suppliers that best match your requirements will be in touch with quotes.

Next steps

Our analysis of the most important telephone system features is based on in-depth research conducted by our team of business software experts. This research compares and rates the performance of eight leading phone system service providers, based on the key factors that we know to be most important to UK businesses. This extensive research empowers us to create guides for a variety of businesses. For example, those from small businesses can head to our page dedicated to the best small business phone systems.

If you need further help in finding out which VoIP provider is best for your business, visit our free quote finding tool and provide us with a few details about your business. We’ll match you with the best phone system suppliers for your needs, who’ll then be in touch with answers to your questions, and no-obligation quotes that have been tailored to you.

FAQs

What is a hosted PBX telephone system?

A hosted PBX telephone system is entirely reliant on the internet. All the processing and data collection happens over the cloud and on your supplier’s server, so this kind of system is virtually responsibility-free.

What is a self-hosted PBX telephone system?

A self-hosted PBX telephone system is hosted on your own server within your office. This kind of system relies on self-maintenance, and unless you already have a traditional PBX system installed, the setup is very costly.

Why is choosing the right telephone systems features important?

Building the right elements for the perfect business communication ecosystem is crucial. Choosing the right features ensures communication between staff is efficient, and so better collaboration is enabled, leading to more productivity. Keep in mind that your business’ growth depends on these factors to thrive and survive. Your customers also get a better experience when they call you if you have the right inbound communication features, which fosters good customer relationships and customer loyalty.

Can telephone systems features change in functionality depending on the nature of my business?

Whether you’re choosing features for a corporate-sized business or a small business, these features can be customised depending on how your business needs them to function. For example, for a larger business, an auto attendant can become a multi-level auto attendant system with a more extensive submenu for directing where calls should be routed.

How easy is it to switch telephone system providers?

There are important factors to consider before making the switch, but yes, it is easy to change telephone system providers, especially if you’ll be using your existing network cabling, because there’s no need to pay for additional cable charges. Many phone system providers will allow you to use your existing or old business number, and you can even use your own handset. It’s just a matter of finding out what the migration process is for the new provider you’re switching over to. Most of the time, onboarding support is offered, so you won’t have to worry about getting started with the new service provider.