Business phone systems can be simple or complex, depending on the number of lines and desk units to be installed. With a little forethought, purchasing a business phone system can allow you to have an expandable platform that is easily capable of handling the growth your company may experience. Many business phone manufacturers make equipment that is only useful within their product line. For this reason, it is essential to examine what products are offered to make sure that your needs will be met both today and several years down the road.
If you are replacing a business phone system, you may not be able to utilize parts of your current system for an upgrade if your current equipment is outdated or no longer manufactured. Some business phone systems are only expandable so far, with the number of lines being limited. For cost purposes, it is always more cost effective to upgrade an existing system than to completely replace your system, but be especially careful when doing so. Find out all the information you can on your current product line and make sure that it can be expanded even further should the need arise. Many business phone equipment retailers and wholesalers offer used or refurbished equipment that small business can use to avoid having to completely replace their existing hardware. The most important time to consider the future for your phone system is during the initial purchase.
Equipment that is time tested and offers several options for expansion may be more expensive than some of the cheaper options available, but the savings you will experience in the long run can eclipse whatever many you may save now by a substantial amount. Just as a desktop terminal and server system for a business is a serious purchase that merits future needs considerations, a phone system is no different. Do your homework and you can get a business phone system that will meet your business needs for many years to come.
Replacing and Upgrading Business Phone Systems
The Market for Used Business Phone System Equipment
Business phone systems and the companies who sell them exist in a world all their own. The competition is stiff, with several different retailers and wholesalers carrying the same brands. The competition for used and refurbished business phones and business phone systems is even fiercer, as many companies are searching for equipment that can be used to expand their current system. Often, phone and phone system manufacturers engineer their products so that they aren't universal and will not work with a variety of other products.
This can be a poor selling point for buyers of new business phone systems, but if a company already has a system such as this in place and wants to expand, they have little choice but to use the same equipment. This is the reason why there is such a market for used business phone equipment. It is always much cheaper to hunt down a handset that is compatible with your system than it is to replace the entire system every time you need to add a few phone lines.
Additionally, so many businesses are ill prepared for purchasing the right phone system for their particular needs that they often end up replacing the system in a relatively short time. The old equipment can then be sold or refurbished and sold. Often, wholesalers and retailers will give discounts for new systems if they are able to take the system it is replacing as a "trade in". New and even used terminals, KTX add-ons and PBX equipment can be a major expense.
It is often necessary to find out how much it will cost to expand the type of system you have, when possible. In many instances, purchasing a slightly larger system than you what you currently need can save you money as down the road, even used equipment may cost more than what you would have been able to pay for brand new.
Yellow Pages Advertising New Business Generating Phone Calls
Yet many small business owners are unsure about how to get the most out of their Yellow Pages advertising. is that business owners shell out more than 11 billion dollars every year on Yellow Pages advertising... Remember, effective Yellow Pages advertising design has only one objective: to bring you new business by generating phone calls. If you've got a local business, make no mistake about it: Done well, yellow pages advertising, while competitive and "tricky" ... Place your business under the Yellow Page advertising spotlight and listen to your phone and cash register sing!
Remember, with Yellow Page advertising you are at a much different point in the sales process the close. Clever headlines can be extremely effective early on in the sales process, but statistically speaking, they don't generate huge Yellow Page advertising response. He is also adamant on the importance of setting an advertising budget before talking with the Yellow Pages sales rep. In all reality, it's just best to ignore any advice your Yellow Pages advertising sales rep might give you.
While the purchase of other advertising media can often be simple and straightforward, the same thing cannot be said about yellow page renewals. If a media, such as the Yellow Pages, loses its effectiveness, I'll shift my client's advertising dollars to a more that is more effective. Finally, consider eliminating your advertisement in the Yellow Pages and placing your money in a more effective advertising media. The Yellow Pages medium provides a powerful return on investment for advertisers and can serve as the cornerstone of an integrated advertising media mix.
If you're advertising now and don't think you are getting the response you should be, talk with your Yellow Pages representative. They may even make the leap and assume that they aren t getting any calls from their Yellow Page advertising program at all. I get calls every week from lawyers saying they're not getting calls anymore from yellow page advertising. I get calls every week from lawyers saying they're not getting calls anymore from yellow page advertising.
http://www.advertising-internet-online.com/advertising-page-yellow/
Customer Service for Business Phone Systems
Working in a law office often means long hours and late nights, especially doing probate work. Getting in before seven A.M. and staying until well past business hours, I assumed that I would always be available for whoever might call me. Recently, my office switched our business phone system and I started to notice a drop in the number of calls I was receiving each day. It was such a change, in fact, that I was able to get my work finished much earlier than usual. I never considered that it could be our phone system and simply chalked it up to good luck. Little did I know that I was missing several calls from important clients who had almost all left voicemail messages that I hadn't been receiving. A couple of weeks after he new phone system was installed, I ran into one of these clients while in court, who kidded me about being too busy to get back to her. It was then that I realized there must have been a problem.
The next day when I returned to the office, I asked my associates if they had experienced similar problems. They hadn't, but they suggested I call the company who sold us our phones and equipment to see what could be done. I called, and within twenty minutes, the problem was fixed. Apparently, my voicemail was being sent to another place. The service representative explained in detail how to do a simple diagnostic to see if my messages were going where they were supposed to. When I found that they weren't, he explained how to change the settings to solve the problem. While I now have a lot of calls to catch up on, I am grateful that the company we went with for our new phone system provides such competent customer service. I think that in the phone business, as in any business, it is paramount to success.
Business Phone Blues
I work for a specialty after market auto parts retailer. We have no showroom, so around twenty percent of our business comes from the Internet while eighty percent comes from the telephone. We send out catalogs to those who request them or anyone who has placed an order in the last year. We also advertise in the back of automotive magazines. Needless to say, telephone sales are truly the lifeblood of our business. As of late, however, I've been wishing that weren't the case.
My company's business phone system has what I would call, the absolute most annoying hold message ever produced. My boss, the owner of the company, is a really nice guy. Unfortunately, he is a really nice guy with a very pronounced speech impediment. One day he decided that instead of the traditional hold music, he would play a repeating digital loop of him announcing our weekly specials. We are a very busy company. In fact, most days find our sales reps on the phone from the time we get in until the time we leave. As you might guess, with such a high volume of calls, many people are left on hold.
When our customers finally reach a sales rep, I would estimate that about thirty to forty percent of them do an impersonation of my boss... no kidding. The other sixty or seventy percent usually compliment us on the "funny voice" doing our ads. I've had a few who were offended by it, thinking we were trying to make fun of those with speech impediments. The thing is, almost everybody has something to say about the hold ads. I even had one customer complete an extensive order while doing his version of "the voice". Since our boss is a really great guy, my coworkers and I are less than amused on one hand, yet highly entertained on the other. My only problem is that while most of my colleagues are spread out over a huge office, my cubical is right next to the boss'. I have to keep a straight face during some fairly good impressions.
I miss the hold music.