The Right Business Phone System For Your Company

How Does A PBX Telephone System Work?Your business telephone system plays a huge role in the daily operations of your company and is therefore plays a big part in how smooth your business runs. Business grade phone systems can range in price greatly depending on your needs. the price reflected usually has more to do with the number of phones you require, and of course the features that you want in your business phone system PBX.

What features do you need in a PBX phone system?

At first glance many telephone system features may not be necessary at the moment. Keep in mind that it is better to buy the phone system with all the belles and whistles than it is to not buy it and wish you had a year later. You may find yourself in need of a feature you didn’t think about down the line. So make sure if you decide to skip some features that the system can upgrade later easily without too much hassle on your side. So make sure if you decide to skip some features that the system can upgrade later easily without too much hassle on your side.

Common PBX phone system features

Shoretel 655 005 VoIP Business Phone SystemThese are just a few of the more common features found on a business class phone system. Every model is a little different so make sure you talk to the sales staff and ask any questions you have.

    • Auto attendant is one of the most used features out there. you wont find many phone systems that don’t come standard with an auto attendant feature. The auto attendant takes the place of a traditional receptionist in your office and presents your callers with a list of options to help route your inbound phone call. It also allows you to dial your third parties extension and be directly connected.
    • Telephone conferencing will let you place two or more phone extensions into the same party conversation. This is a very handy feature for any business that holds phone conferencing with clients or staff. It is extremely common for two people. If for any reason you need more than the standard 2 people involved you should ask how many people the phone system your looking at can conference at one time. Also it is important to note that many of the phone systems will not allow conferencing with outside lines. Make sure you ask about this too if you require the ability to add outside parties to your conference.
    • Automated Directory is a feature that will allow your callers to access a directory of employee extensions. This is a very handy feature and can increase client conversions.
    • Voice Mail is another common feature you won’t want to be left without. Voice mail allows messages to be left when your employees are away from their desk or after hours. Many phone systems will allow separate third party voice mail This may save you a large amount of money over time.
    • Call Hold is a pretty basic feature allowing you to place your callers on hold while you do something. This is a feature that almost always comes standard.
    • Call Forwarding allows users to forward their phone calls to the extension of tehir choice or even voice mail for a short time.
    • Speed Dial allows you to save numbers you want to call with the push of a button. This is also a feature that usually comes standard.
    • Redial is another feature that comes standard and allows you to easily press a button and dial the last number dialed by that phone.
    • Paging is a cool feature that allows you to use the phone system as an intercom that plays out among all of the phones in your building.
    • Music On Hold is a feature most companies use a lot. This is not standard with all phone systems but can really help to increase customer satisfaction and conversions. Your customers are more likely to hold during busy times if they aren’t having to listen to dead air. You can choose to play a prerecorded message, or music to the people waiting on hold.
    • Back Up Power is something that you should give a lot of consideration to in the event of a power outage.

Advanced Business Telephone System Features

A few advanced features will add a ton of value to your phone system. There is a big cost jump with some of these advanced features though. In the end it is likely worth it as they will bring a large amount of added customer service benefits. Not to mention the time saving benefits they will also carry with them.
    • Remote Location will allow you to setup extensions forwarding to outside telephone lines. This is very handy if you want to forward an extension to a cellular phone, or even another address across town.
    • Find Me and Follow Me allow your employees to forward their extension to another phone whenever they want. This can be everything from a cell phone, home phone, or even a voice mail box.
    • Computer Telephone Integration(CTI) gives you the ability to have your phones connect to your computer network. This is a great feature and allows your company software to be integrated into your phone system. This is a huge benefit to call centers or other organizations that rely heavily on software integration. Many companies use this feature to gather information from their users. For example you call your satellite provider and a recorded voice asks you to type your phone number in. This gets processed and your account info is brought up before the technician even begins talking with you. This is a huge time saver and reduces the error rate as well. This is one of those options that will increase your costs substantially but also bring huge benefit as well.

How Big Does My Telephone System Need To Be Exactly?

Ask yourself where you want phones in your building, you cant just say i have 40 employees i need 40 phones. you will also want to place phones in other places like the conference room, break rooms and so on. Here are a few examples of the locations you will want to think about placing phones in.

    • Offices
    • Every Cubicle
    • Your Fax Machine
    • Your data terminals and credit card processing station
    • Warehouses or loading docks
    • Conference rooms
“ Ask yourself if you want some phones in other areas of your building, like hallways, entrances, waiting rooms, and other public areas. It is a good idea to get extra phones so you can easily replace damaged phones without having to order them and wait.

Now it is time to think about your maximum call load. How many lines do you need to handle your busiest calling times? And for that matter where do you want your call load to be in the future. You will want to make sure you have room to grow. Add up the total number of incoming and outgoing phone calls you want to handle and that will give you the number of trunks (phone lines) you will need to get. you will most commonly find trunks coming in 12, 16, 24 and 48 line packages.

The better the phone system the more expansion slots it will come with. Make sure your system comes with enough slots to keep you covered well into the future. Many companies will grow 30-40% over their lifetime easily, so don’t be shy on this or you’ll find yourself having to buy a whole new phone system. Your phone system won’t all of a sudden shutdown, but when people call you they won’t get through. They will get a busy signal and you will likely lose that sale.

Finding a Phone System Dealer Is Not Difficult

We recommend Birns Telecommunications Inc. They carry a nice variety of business phone systems and have experts on staff ready to answer all of your questions. Birns Telecommunications offers a great cloud based PBX that can fulfill the needs of even the largest companies, and save them a bunch of money. Ask Birns about their price match savings program and save even more. Just ask around, Birns Telecommunications has been in business for a long time and is a trusted leader in business phone system installation and sales.