The top VoIP phone providers will deliver excellent call quality and reliable service, helping you identify potential savings by evaluating what costs are currently associated with phone lines, video meetings and fax transmission services.
Next, determine the features your team requires and how the system will scale as you expand. Read customer reviews and compare pricing of available and included features. We are sure you want to buy the best VoIP phones so do always take into account the following.
Cost
Consider both upfront and ongoing costs when selecting a VoIP phone system for your business, including hardware installation fees. It is also important to determine how many phone lines will best serve your needs – some vendors provide discounted monthly rates if more than one phone line is utilized simultaneously.
No matter their initial cost structure, VoIP phone systems are likely to save your organization money over time. They allow employees to do away with costly cell phones while creating one unified communications platform that’s easy to manage and scale up/down as your needs change.
Finding a VoIP provider should start with selecting a plan that suits your budget and features you require. Customer support may be important too: some providers prioritize call quality while others provide timely technical assistance. Finally, ensure your current network hardware can support VoIP technology before considering additional bandwidth costs.
Functionality
When purchasing a VoIP phone, make sure to consider all the necessary functions and features you will require for optimal use. Search for devices which support team productivity while helping them meet their goals; some models even come equipped with do not disturb (DND) mode to block incoming calls at certain times of day.
Select a provider who takes customer service seriously, so that if anything goes wrong with your phone system they are there for you when needed and offer high-quality VoIP call quality.
Some providers also offer HD video conferencing and other useful features that can make business communications more effective. It is important to monitor both the speed and performance of your internet connection to ensure your VoIP phone system functions as intended – for optimum results you should aim for at least 50mbps download speed with less than 70mbps ping rate.
Reliability
Business owners and team managers sometimes worry that VoIP phones won’t provide as reliable service as landlines. In reality, however, their reliability depends on your internet connection quality – to ensure an exceptional VoIP phone experience, use Ookla’s Speed Test to monitor upload/download speeds regularly.
Keep outages and emergencies in mind when selecting your provider, too. Inquire if they offer failsafes in case your internet goes down – for instance by redirecting calls to mobile devices or another location should this occur.
Last but not least, consider the scalability and additional features of your VoIP phone before making your choice. Make sure it will work seamlessly with both existing mobile devices as well as any that may come online later. Furthermore, check if your chosen provider provides excellent customer support teams and channels of assistance for their customers.
Security
Eavesdropping and call interception present a serious risk to the confidentiality of information shared over VoIP calls, whether business strategy discussions or protected health information (PHI). Such breaches could have dire repercussions.
To protect against such threats, select a provider with reliable security protocols and networks. Look for providers offering TLS for call setup information encryption and SRTP voice packet encryption technology so your communications remain private from start to finish.
Implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) measures is another effective way of restricting access to your VoIP system. Encourage employees to use passwords that are unique and complex; never reuse passwords across accounts; update phones regularly with software versions, and consider using virtual private network (VPN) technology to encrypt traffic from remote users’ mobile devices.