According to the CDC (yes, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which tracks phone ownership in its National Health Interview Survey), the use of landlines has dropped significantly for both homes and businesses––falling from over 90% in 2004 to less than 30% in 2022. With a cell phone in nearly every person’s hand or pocket, it’s not difficult to see why residential use has plummeted. But what about at the office? Deploying cellular phones across an enterprise may not be an easy or cost-effective solution, especially for larger companies and those with call centers and high call volume. If landlines are a dying breed, where does that leave businesses when it comes to voice calls?
Enter Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP. Far from an emerging technology, VoIP has been around since 1995. But it’s gaining new interest and traction these days as an alternative to the analog phone system, in part due to vastly improved voice transmission quality—not to mention greater comfort with web-calling since the pandemic compelled everyone to online conferencing. But VoIP calling isn’t just for video chats.
Here are five reasons to ditch your business landline in favor of VoIP:
- Cost Savings––Beyond Just Reduced Phone Bills
One of the primary advantages of using VoIP for business is cost savings. Using the internet to transmit voice data is significantly cheaper than using traditional phone lines. With VoIP, businesses can reduce their phone bills by up to 50%. Those that switch to VoIP can also typically save up to 40% on their local calls and up to 90% on their international calls. Additionally, with VoIP there is no need to purchase expensive hardware or pay for equipment maintenance.
What’s more, VoIP can offer cost savings beyond reduced phone bills. Special features, such as auto attendant and call routing, can enable an enterprise to save on staffing costs and handle calls more efficiently.
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Support for Hybrid Workplaces
Rather than tying employees to a telephone that sits on their desks, VoIP can be used from any device connected to the internet. Employees can make and receive calls from their laptops, tablets, or smartphones, regardless of their location—in their own office, in a colleague’s, at home or on the road. Calls can be routed based on an employee’s availability, location, or skillset.
With VoIP, businesses can also set up virtual offices and remote teams using smartphones, which can help to further improve productivity and even reduce costs associated with physical office spaces. Having VoIP and the ability to support flexible work arrangements, like work-from-home or telecommuting, means businesses are better positioned to attract and retain top talent. That includes being able to expand their reach and support international teams and locations if desired.
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Advanced Features for Enhanced Experiences
VoIP comes with advanced features that can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of communication within a business. Standard features like call routing, call forwarding, and voicemail-to-email can improve the employee experience and the customer service process. Additionally, with VoIP’s more advanced analytics and reporting features, businesses can track call metrics and gain insights into their call center performance. VoIP also offers enhanced security features such as encryption and multi-factor authentication to protect against phone fraud and hacking.
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Scalability to Respond to Market Changes
With VoIP, businesses can add and remove phone lines as necessary to seize opportunities or respond to market changes. The ability to scale communications infrastructure instantly without needing expensive hardware, physical installation or extra maintenance also allows for the ability to downsize or reduce a business’ footprint quickly, as well as to scale geographically and have local phone numbers in multiple regions or countries to better serve customers.
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Easy Integration with Other Platforms
VoIP can also integrate with other business software and tools like email, instant messaging (IM) and video conferencing software. For example, VoIP integration with customer relationship management (CRM) software allows employees to access customer data during phone calls seamlessly. With VoIP integrated into email platforms, like Gmail and MS Outlook, users can initiate calls directly from their email inboxes. When it comes to IM, VoIP works with Skype, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Slack, so users can place both video and voice calls from within the IM interface and be more responsive to customers who may use those channels to communicate. Utilizing virtual assistants, like Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant, means users can rely on voice commands to initiate calls. For enterprises running call center operations, VoIP can integrate with AI-powered chatbots to automate customer support and improve response times.
And of course, VoIP is an essential component for video conferencing, able to support software like Zoom, MS Teams, and Google Meet, as well as digital whiteboards and screen sharing capabilities for enhanced collaboration and productivity.
Perhaps the best example of integration, however, is that by leveraging an existing data network to converge voice and data, VoIP delivered by a managed service provider enables a business to enjoy a single network, a single supplier, and a single bill for services. For enterprises large and small that are seeking simpler and more efficient operations, that might be reason enough to switch to VoIP.
To learn more about the benefits of trading a landline phone system for VoIP, go here.