Why should smaller businesses switch to a cloud phone system?

For most people in business, the only time that they ever think about their phone system has died, and they're in desperate need of that once in a decade upgrade. After Googling Fix [insert brand] PBX you give up and realise the world has some better options!

And for most, that upgrade always comes after the current one has died, sadly.

If your phone system sits in the cupboard and largely rings when you think it should, why bother with changing it at all? Well, there are many good reasons to do so and here are five that you should consider if you’re a small business with fewer than 20 employees.‍

Is this you?‍

Integrations

With cloud this, and cloud that these days, it's hard to remember where we all started. For us, phones are often a good reminder of the bad old days when no two business tools talked to each other. When we ask people in business how many calls they get from their prospects, they generally say "I honestly have no idea!".

With cloud tools that are integrated, you can share data between platforms and get really good insights into where things are going well, and where you might need to focus your improvements. Having your phone system connected to a CRM, such as HubSpot, means your calls are always logged against the right contact. You can finally answer questions like "how many calls do we need to make before we give up on a prospect?" and "how many calls are we missing?". 

Portability

For business owners like yourself, we know business doesn’t stop even when you’re out of the office. Sometimes the team has to take an extended break from the office and work remotely while a certain virus does a lap of your city! 

With a cloud VoIP system, your business calls can be taken on both your mobile phone and your laptop, no matter where you are in the world. This provides the ultimate in business continuity options when things such as COVID-19 happen, or your team decide that they work better from home one day a week.

Scalability

So you have five employees now but things are growing really quickly. You're expanding into the US and Aussie and adding new people each month.

With the good old phone system in the cupboard, you will need to buy and install new desk phones, have a technician come and do your setup and config changes and still you'll be faced with these problems each time you add a new person!

With a pure cloud phone system, you can take control of it all by adding a new user online. And once your new employee shows up on their first day, all they have to do is download an app onto their existing mobile phone or laptop. Done. Easy as!

You can easily add new employees and set them up without needing any IT support‍

Cost (both actual and opportunity)

We know this is on the top of your mind because we watch every dollar that we spend and want to make sure that we're getting value. As we like to ask, is it making the boat go faster?

With traditional landlines, the costs start to add up when you consider the costs of hardware, SIP trunks, international calls, initial set up, and the opportunity cost from dealing with tech's when you need to change any setting. More importantly, the biggest cost is the one doesn’t show up on your bill which is the loss of a business opportunity due to missed calls and call transfers to nowhere!

Most VoIP phone solutions charge based on the number users (or seats) and for additional minutes if applicable. Some services (like Cradle) offer bundled calling plans to help you control costs and even a fixed price for the whole organisation so there will never be any surprises like this one.

It’s 2021. 

Cars are driving themselves, retails has gone online with COVID changing the way we interact, and it's no time to be relying on an old-school phone system to talk to your customers. We often ask our prospective customers what they're doing to help deal with the ambiguity of the future because there are many changes that we're being rushed through right now, but a dysfunctional and hard-to-use phone system should not be one of them. It’s a worthy investment that can pay a lot of dividends today and in the future.

We designed Cradle to help small businesses connect to their customers and have them talk to the right person at the right time. And we’re more than happy to talk through any challenges that you may have!