By using a hosted phone system, your team gains access to the advanced features of VoIP telephony and the flexibility of a virtual calling solution that can be used from anywhere. Additionally, your customers will experience the advantages of a hosted PBX due to the implementation of advanced call routing strategies and CRM integration. To understand how a hosted phone system differs from your current premise-based landline, read on to discover information about hosted PBX functionalities, benefits, providers, and more.
A hosted phone system is a cloud-based VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) solution that is hosted by the provider at an offsite location instead of being located on the premises of the business that uses it. Hosted phone systems are also known as Cloud PBX, Virtual PBX, or Hosted PBX. The acronym PBX stands for Private Branch Exchange, which is essentially an internal phone network that is designed to reduce the number of phone lines a business needs to purchase from a telephone company.
Let’s compare On-Premise PBX, which uses landline telephones, to Hosted PBX, a cloud-based VoIP phone platform.
On-Premise PBX sends and receives calls through the traditional PSTN network’s copper wiring. The phone system server and other equipment are hosted on the business premises, and the business is responsible for operating and maintaining the hardware.
On-Premise PBX requires a high upfront cost, an in-house IT team, and cannot be used outside of the physical office space.
Hosted PBX sends and receives calls over the internet using VoIP communication. The server is managed by a third-party provider in the cloud, not on the business premises.
Small businesses don’t have to maintain their hardware, can avoid the high upfront costs of purchasing their phone system, and have access to their business phone system from anywhere with internet access.
A hosted phone system operates by utilizing the internet to transmit voice data, rather than the traditional copper wiring of the PSTN.
Essentially, hosted options rely on a cloud PBX system that is hosted by the PBX provider. The cloud is stored on offsite servers in the provider’s data centers and points of presence. When a user initiates or receives a call, it is routed through the virtual PBX system.
The voice data is then split into multiple small data packets and sent over the internet (VoIP) to its intended destination. Once the data packets reach their destination, they are reassembled in the correct order so that the recipient can hear the audio and continue the phone conversation as if they were in the same room as the original speaker.
The diagram below provides a visual illustration of how VoIP and hosted phone systems operate.
Switching to a hosted phone system provides a multitude of advantages, with access to advanced communication features being the most significant benefit. In addition to substantial cost savings, these features offer numerous benefits for both your team and customers.
Below, we will highlight the most critical advanced features and explain how they can enhance your business operations.
Call forwarding is a hosted phone system feature that, if an agent does not pick up when the first number is dialed, automatically directs the inbound phone call to several pre-programmed telephone numbers – without disconnecting the call.
This feature allows for a new level of team member mobility, increases first-call resolution rates, and improves the customer experience by preventing them from having to make separate phone calls to multiple numbers for the same agent or department.
Admins can set custom calls forwarding rules, such as forwarding calls to another number after a certain amount of time or a set number of rings or sending the call back to a pool of available agents if the first one doesn’t pick up.
Agents are now reachable from anywhere and across multiple devices. Calls can be sent from agent desk phones to smartphones/mobile phones to home phone numbers, voicemail boxes, or even to another agent.
IVR (Interactive Voice Response) is a hosted phone system feature that lets admins create automated message prompts and recordings that callers hear when they dial your business phone number.
Instead of connecting to a live agent immediately, IVR helps to collect essential caller information like contact information, the reason for the call, desired department/representative, etc. The IVR system then uses an auto-attendant to route calls to the proper agent according to the caller’s response.
Many IVR tools allow for both spoken and dial pad touch-tone responses, using Natural Language Processing to properly direct the call.
In many cases, IVR allows for such a high level of customer self-service, that callers may not even need to speak with a live agent.
For example, IVR lets callers:
Call routing works with the IVR feature to send calls to the best available agent based on a caller’s answers to IVR prompts, the client’s status with a business, or according to other pre-established criteria like agent behavior.
Call routing’s main goal is to ensure callers are connected to a representative with the proper training to assist them with a specific need, as opposed to a random agent who may or may not have the skill set to help them.
Call routing offers major benefits to businesses and customers, including:
The call recording feature not only records phone calls between agents and customers, but it also transcribes them.
These recordings and transcriptions can be shared via email, but are most often stored in a searchable database with audio and written files. Recordings and transcriptions can be searched/organized by date, keyword, agent name, and other filter criteria.
Admins can set recordings to delete automatically after a set number of days or can purchase additional cloud storage to hold onto them for longer.
Familiarize yourself with local call recording laws to avoid legal and financial penalties.
Call recording and transcription offer numerous benefits to your business, including:
One of the biggest advantages hosted phone systems have over traditional office phones is the customer and agent behavior insights that real-time and historical analytics offer.
These reports offer insight into department-wide, company-wide, and individual agent behavior, allowing admins to monitor productivity, address workflow bottlenecks, and identify peak call times to optimize agents.
Most phone systems will come with numerous pre-made report templates as well as customizable options. Admins can even schedule automatic reports to be generated and sent out at set intervals to monitor key KPIs and analyze benchmark progress.
Essential metrics to monitor include:
Finally, any quality hosted phone system will be able to integrate with popular third-party business communication and collaboration tools.
The goal here is to prevent team members from having to constantly switch between applications throughout the workday. Integrations allow agents to access everything they need within the same dashboard.
Key integrations include:
If you’re seeking to reduce telecom expenses, enhance business communication features, and implement a mobile and flexible business phone solution, hosted phone systems are a viable option for any team.
These systems are particularly popular among outbound contact centers, customer service providers, and eCommerce shops. Telemarketing companies utilize hosted phone systems to expedite lead list penetration and direct qualified leads to available salespeople.
Tech companies rely on these systems to automate basic customer support requests via IVR and AI-powered Natural Language Processing. E-commerce shops use virtual phone platforms to furnish order/shipping updates, automate payment collection, and dispatch SMS messages to notify customers about upcoming promotions.
Are you ready to migrate your communication system to the cloud?
Your customers despise being put on hold. According to research, the number one thing that customers dislike is being put on hold. However, there is a smart and affordable solution to reduce, and sometimes eliminate, the need to place customers on hold: switching to a VoIP phone system. In the following text, we will highlight the 5 ways that a VoIP phone system can reduce or eliminate putting customers on hold.
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