Business Phone System: Complete Guide for Setting Up Phone System

Communication is the essence of any business. Time and again, communication tools have proved their effectiveness and usefulness for the businesses which is why a business phone system is an extremely critical resource to one’s business operations.

Whether you are a small startup, a medium sized enterprise or a big organization, office phone systems are a must for you. Whether you are trying to update your current solution or on a search for a new one, there must be several things going around in your mind.

One dropped call could cost you losing a big potential deal. Why let that happen? So first things first. You need to decide which type of business phone system will fit your business model. Here in this post we’ll be providing you with an end to end guide for setting up a business phone system. Let’s get started:

Types of Business Phone Systems

Traditional PBXs

These phone systems are almost a thing of the past. They ruled the business communication landscape for decades but their popularity faded as the internet entered the market. No wonder huge hardware, bunches of unlimited wires and high upfront investment are the reasons behind their lost popularity. Since these phone lines were costly, for small business owners it was hard to afford lines in abundance. These traditional landline phone systems were based on on-premise PBX servers that required continuous maintenance. Also, they offer low flexibility and control. You can read more about Traditional Phone systems here.

Self-Hosted PBXs

These systems are also called Onsite PBX solutions and as the name suggests the PBX is hosted on-premise i.e. the company’s location. These systems are somewhat advanced than the conventional telephone systems as they offer features like call redirecting, call queuing, etc. Though the initial cost of these systems also tend to be higher and the maintenance is solely borne by the company itself.

Cloud Based PBXs or Cloud Based Phone Systems

These types of phone systems are housed by service providers who are completely responsible for the maintenance as well. This means companies rely on third party infrastructure which results in lower initial investment as compared to the above two. Using a cloud Phone solution, you can stay assured that there won’t be any complicated mess of wires or huge hardware. These systems are quite the need of the hour as they offer advanced communication features for business communication. Businesses can access an easy-to-use` web based business phone system platform where all the features are present. The cost is generally paid in the form of monthly payments which makes it an ideal choice for small to medium sized companies. You can learn more about cloud based PBX here.

Why does your Business need a Cloud based Business Phone System?

Let us take a look at some of the trending statistics:

  • The cloud based telephone market size is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12% from 2020 to 2025.
  • 74% of companies around the world state that investing in cloud based phone systems is one of their topmost priorities.
  • The worldwide corporate cloud telephone system subscribers reached 204.8 billion in 2020.
  • Cloud based Phone Systems can trim 90% of the initial cost for startup companies.
  • 65% of people prefer to contact businesses via phone.

From these statistics, it is clear that cloud phone systems are the most preferred choice when it comes to choosing the right. There are tremendous benefits that a business phone system can bring to your business. Take a look at our blog post “Cloud PBX Market- Where it is Heading?” to know more.

  • Enhanced Customer Service

Can you believe that “89% of consumers have switched to a competitor brand following a poor customer experience.” Customer service becomes as easy as abc when you have a fully-functional business phone system up and running. This is because a business phone system enables you to pick customer calls just from anywhere. Also, as there are several useful features such as call forwarding and call transfer, a business phone system makes certain that customer calls are always connected to the right agents.

  • Scaling is No More a Problem

The importance of scalability cannot be overstated. It can enhance quality, reputation, efficiency, and competitiveness for a business. Successfully implementing scalability can contribute significantly in increasing your business’s profit margins. A cloud based business phone system is easily scalable as per business’s requirements. So when there’s a need to go up and down, there’s nothing to worry about.

  • Seamless Business Workflow

When communication is happening in the right place, all the business operations tend to flow smoothly. A business phone system makes that possible for you as it offers an array of features to break all the barriers to communication and make it smooth like butter.

  • Supports Mobility

Businesses can significantly benefit from business phone systems as they can take calls just from anywhere in the world. The only requirement is to have a high speed internet connected to the device. It is interesting to see that 16% of companies in the world are 100% remote. Moreover, 77% of remote workers say they’re more productive when working from home. Those employees who work remotely can easily do their work without bothering about place and time. This results in better employee satisfaction and productivity.

  • Supports Multiple Devices

A business phone system, one can make and receive calls using any device including desk phone system, cordless phone, computer/ laptop, mobile phone.

  • More Safe and Secure

Though it may appear that traditional phone systems are more safe and secure, but stay assured that cloud based phone systems are just as safe as the conventional ones. As all the data moves through the internet cloud, Cloud Technology makes use of solid and robust techniques such as encryption, network monitoring, data compliance, etc. which ensures that sensitive customer data remains safe.

How to Set Up A Cloud Business Phone System?

Now we are clear with the idea that cloud based business phone systems are the most ideal choice for businesses of all sizes. When you have got the best business phone system as per your need, it is time to get the real game on.

So you are about to set up a new phone system for your business. Stay informed that cloud based business phones require only a minimal amount of effort from your side. Reputed cloud based service providers offer easy and straightforward implementation and onboarding. The best part is that one does not need to deal with complex hardware installations. All what is required is an internet connection and an internet enabled device such as a laptop. Let’s start:

  • Tour the Dashboard

KloudTalk Dashboard

Usually, a dashboard is the first screen you get to see when you sign in to your business phone account. The Dashboard is a consolidated presentation of all the features offered by the business phone system. Just look around it and try to explore. Certainly, answers to a lot of questions that you have in your mind will be found here only.

  • Set Working Time

Who will be taking calls when an agent is on leave or when his working hours are over? Have you defined your business hours yet? Have you decided the working hours for each department? Though it might look a little boring to set working time for your business and its employees, if you do this early, you will save a lot of time later.  How? Well, there won’t be any panic about handling calls when there is a holiday or it’s simply lunch time as everything will be defined beforehand. So there will be right call forwarding and call routing thus reducing the chances of missing customer calls.

  • Set Voicemail

A voicemail is a feature that can save you from losing precious customer calls. So when there’s a call outside business hours, having a voicemail lets the customer leave their message which you can access later. It is important to understand that a deal as good as a thousand dollars can be converted as you won’t miss the customer’s message at the very first place.

  • Decide Call Flow

What do you do when we receive a call on your mobile? Answer it, Disconnect it, or leave it unanswered. So when it is about a business call, one has to decide upon several things to ascertain that all customer calls are acknowledged and captured. Also, it is important to provide a good calling experience when someone calls your business. A few questions that you should ask yourself to decide call flow are:

  • What should happen when a call arrives for the first time?
  • What should happen if the caller wants to talk to a specific department or agent?
  • How to minimize call transfers via call routing?
  • How to provide callers with an exceptional calling experience?

Answers to these questions will help you significantly in creating a clear and correct call flow.

  • Add Business Phone Numbers as Required

Having toll-free international phone numbers or DID numbers for your business gives you the freedom to extend your business coverage to that area without being there physically and act as a local business to that area. This saves a lot of expenses that could otherwise be spent on setting up offices. Also, you can assign these phone numbers to suitable agents along with extensions so that customers can directly reach the concerned agents. You can learn more about the importance of DID numbers.

  • Create IVR (Interactive Voice Response)

A business phone system without IVR is like a desert without sugar. These days, cloud based phone systems with multi-level IVR facilities are quite popular because of their usefulness. So the next thing you can do when setting up your business phone system is to create a multi-level IVR. You can add customized welcome greetings, menu options, along with multiple levels within.

KloudTalk IVR

To create custom greetings you can make use of text to speech facility which is a very effective way to create audio for Interactive Voice Response. Here you don’t need to do much – simply enter the text that you want in audio form and the system will generate the same by itself. Of course, you will be provided with various audio tones to choose the one that most suits your business’s image. The best part is that there is no need to hire a separate professional recorder as you can do that at the comfort of your place. You can read more about IVR in this blog post.

  • Set Call Transfer and Routing

Even if you are a small business, you cannot simply answer all the calls as you have got several other jobs at your disposal. But at the same time, you certainly don’t want to miss your important customer calls. So what to do? This is where call transfer comes into action. When a call arrives at your number but you are unable to take it or feel someone else is a better fit, then you can simply move or transfer the live call to other colleague.

  • Set Call Forwarding

When you are not available to take calls from your business phone number, you can simply set your personal or any suitable number to receive that call. So the call will be automatically forwarded to the phone number entered by you. This feature is quite useful for several reasons. Firstly, whenever there’s a problem with a specific phone number or device, you can easily forward the calls from that phone number to another one. Secondly, when an agent is on sick leave, suppose for a week, and he was meant to receive some important business calls, then you can simply forward the calls from his number to another agent who is available.

  • Turn On Call Recording

It’s a must have feature for several reasons. Some of which are:

  • Enhancing customer calling experience
  • Can be used to monitor performance of the employees
  • Used as an evidence for dispute resolution
  • Know customer opinions
  • As a training material for new and existing employees
  • To check quality of the call

You can discover several other reasons to record business calls here. So it’s time to enable call recording to store recorded phone calls. You can choose the duration up to which you wish to store the recordings. For e.g.- 6 months, 3 months, etc.

  • Take a Look at the Call Reports

Do you know that one of the most useful features offered by cloud business phone systems are the reports. Call reports gives you the visibility that would otherwise be impossible to achieve. A business phone automatically generates call reports for the selected dates and provide useful insights such as key KPIs of your employees.

Getting Started with KloudTalk

With KloudTalk, you will be up and running in no time. A very basic requirement to enjoy all the benefits of KloudTalk is the availability of reliable and high-speed internet connection. All it takes is a signup and a few minutes to activate your KloudTalk account. Once done, you can customize your account and set up features.

Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how you can get started with KloudTalk:

  • Sign up for your KloudTalk Business Phone Account from here. You’ll need to fill up the form by entering the required details; hardly takes a few seconds.
  • Once done, you’ll receive an email for your account creation, from where you will be redirected to the dashboard tour.
  • After the tour is over, you will land on the main Dashboard wherein you will see all the features of KloudTalk such as Click to Call, Recharge, IVR, etc.

Click to call

This is where you can explore and customize the KloudTalk Account as per your choice. For example, if you wish to configure a click to call button (please refer the above image), then from the dashboard you can choose the create button option and customize it in terms of button name, color and shape. The very next thing you can do is to add a user to whom you wish to transfer the call through this button.

Install the KloudTalk App

Today, we know that business phone systems are not just limited to desktops, but have gone mobile as well. KloudTalk Business Phone System App is available for download on App store and PlayStore. So, by having an iOS and Android app for your business phone system, your remote employees and those on the go can easily stay connected with their phone system to take calls.

Want to Know More About KloudTalk?

Some of the interesting and useful features offered by KloudTalk are as listed below:

  • Business Phone Number for more than 50 countries
  • Multi-level Interactive Voice Response facility
  • Call Recording for all or specific calls
  • Comprehensive Call Reports
  • Intelligent Call Routing and Management
  • Click to Call buttons
  • Text to Speech facility
  • Voicemail facility
  • Working time management facility 

Have Queries?

For any type of queries and concerns regarding a business phone system and KloudTalk, kindly get in touch with us.

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One response to “Business Phone System: Complete Guide for Setting Up Phone System”

  1. […] phone system works on third-party software, thus reducing costs and offering advanced features. Studies say that 74% of companies are investing in cloud-based systems globally, with the market size […]

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