For any modern business, communication is vital. You need to be accessible to your customers at all times, and to be able to speak to your workforce, suppliers and sub contractors when necessary.
Therefore, when it comes to business phone contracts thorough research is essential. The last thing you need is to have signed a two-year contract with a telecoms provider who later proves unreliable. You only have to fail to ring a customer back once, to end up losing them for good.
Fortunately, finding a good provider is not too difficult. You just need to take a common sense approach and follow the guidelines we have outlined below.
☑ What is included in the cost?
The biggest mistake business phone buyers make is not to double check what is included in the contract. It is never wise to assume that things like onsite support are included as part of you VoIP contract, just because that was what your last provider did. You always need to double check to make sure you are covered in an emergency without having to pay extra.
Most companies that provide mobile phones as part of the package will offer you extras like free minutes and texts. On the surface, this may sound like a good deal. However, if you have to pay more per month for that particular contract and rarely end up using all of those free texts that deal could be a false economy.
☑ Check the level of support offered
This leads us nicely into the next item on our checklist – support. You need to know what level of support is offered. If you are in business, it is always wise to look for a firm that includes 24/7 support as part of the deal.
This is the case even if you normally only work during the day. You never know where your business will go in the future. For example, if you expand quickly, or get a big customer on the other side of the world you could easily find yourself wanting to make important phone calls in the middle of the night. In that situation, if your phone system goes down you are going to want it to be fixed straight away, even if it is nearly midnight.
☑ How flexible is your contract
When you run a business, you never really know what is going to happen next. If you are lucky, demand will be strong and you will grow fast. On the other hand, market forces may mean that you suddenly find yourself having to downsize.
Either way you are likely to want to change the type and amount of business phones that your business uses, at some point in the future. It is important to check that the contract you are signing does not tie you down too much, or for too long. You want to be able to switch contracts easily, should you need to.
If you feel you need more guidance about any of the above checklist items just click this link.