Types of Phone Systems

To operate your business productively, you will doubtless need a quality phone system. Although email and faxes have picked up a fair share of interoffice communication, telephones have not yet become outdated. Some professionals and their clients prefer to talk by human voice rather than through a machine. Some phones can do things in ways that cannot be replicated by other types of technology. Whatever type of business you operate, even if it's just you working from home as an individual in startup mode, you will need a reliable phone system to help you carry out your duties. Here are some things to think about when considering which types of phone systems might work best with your business.

What Phone System Will Work Best for Your Business?

First, decide what your top telephone priorities will be. Do you need a message service just to record brief contacts from customers or other businesses? If so, you can get a quality message-taking program to answer incoming calls with a professional recording using your voice or someone else's. Or you may decide to opt for a message delivery system that reminds customers of appointments, delivers brief messages or responses, or provides other types of information where interaction is unnecessary.

Another type of telephone system can be used for telemarketing purposes. You can get an automated program that makes one call after another to telephone numbers on a list. When someone picks up at a number that has been dialed, the program automatically transfers the line to a waiting operator who can then interact with the person who has been called. Telemarketing programs also can collect client data and manage it for your organization to give you meaningful results.

Other types of phone systems provide interoffice communications for companies with large or multi-person offices, or those with remote locations. Intercom, conference call, and call forwarding features can help to keep staff in touch across a large region or even in other parts of the world. Some of the newer telephone systems provide additional telecommunications options that offer premium services to large-scale operations.

After narrowing ideas about the type of phone service you might be interested in, you will want to go shopping to see some of the newest systems on the market. Although you can check them out on the Internet by browsing manufacturers' and sales websites, it doesn't hurt to see and handle a system that you may want to buy. Some companies offer downloadable demonstration videos that you can watch at the store or on your home or office computer.

However, it's generally a good idea to work out a telephone system budget before you go shopping. Otherwise, you may be tempted to purchase bells and whistles that you truly cannot afford and may not need. Don't get talked into buying programs that may be beyond the scope of your business at present. Even if your operations may extend in a more sophisticated direction in the future, save that investment until you are ready for it, and stick to buying just the basics to help you get started.