Tips for Evaluating VoIP Phone Service Quotes

If you’re interested in VoIP phone service, you may have researched plans and received a few quotes from different VoIP providers, but may not completely understand your different options. That’s okay, you aren’t alone. We at America’s Phone Guys understand it may be hard determining which provider will give you the most cost savings and benefits. This is why we came up with this list of tips to help you when looking at potential VoIP providers.

Know Your Options

With VoIP, you have two options, on-premise, and cloud-hosted VoIP. With On-premise VoIP you’ll need to invest in software and hardware and maintain control over the system. With cloud-hosted VoIP, your service is managed off-site through a cloud-based service.

Check the Call Quality

Your VoIP calling should sound crystal clear with no jitter. Make sure your Internet provider will be able to give you the bandwidth you need according to your company’s call volume. America’s Phone Guys can guide you in finding the right level of service for your needs. If a customer is having a hard time trying to reach you, they may turn to your competitor.

Features

Not every VoIP provider will be able to give you every feature you desire. Write down or ask yourself what you want to accomplish with VoIP and which features are most important to you. Noting these features will help you narrow down your list of potential VoIP providers.

Read Reviews

You’ll want to work with a VoIP provider with a proven track record of high-quality service. Read reviews online. Find out about their technical support, service charges, and contact methods. Different vendors and plans may offer different levels of service, so you’ll want to keep that in mind. Keep in mind that large national companies don’t usually prioritize calls for help from their small business clientele, they are much more focused on serving their larger customers. America’s Phone Guys is here to bridge that gap for you.

Ensure Redundancy

To help prevent system failures, you’ll want redundancy. With redundancy, if one gateway fails, a call will go to a second one, ensuring you are always available at your client’s convenience.

Beware of Rock-Bottom Quotes

As is with anything else, if something seems to be too good to be true, it likely is. If you receive a quote that looks suspiciously low ask the provider about:

• Redundancy: is it offered in the plan?
• Features: are many features not included or do they come with additional costs?
• Phones: Learn what phones you’ll be receiving. Many quotes that include free phones involve phones that are very basic. They have very few buttons so you will not be able to take advantage of many time-saving features like speed dial or caller ID.

Learn About Their Installation Packages

Will the provider perform an onsite or remote package installation? When your provider installs on-site, as we do, a technician will go to your location and install all of the necessary equipment including IP phones and firewalls. With a remote installation, a third-party company will do the installation. It is important to consider what is best for your company and how much time and effort you want to put into an installation that may not be the best use of your time. If you have a smaller business and no onsite IT department, it may be beneficial to have an onsite installation because you simply don’t have the resources or time to tackle this by yourself.

If you have any more questions about what to look for in a VoIP provider, feel free to contact America’s Phone Guys. We provide VoIP service in the greater Portland OR and Vancouver WA area and we would love to help you find a business phone solution that best fits your company’s needs.