Whether you need phones for opening a new office, supporting employees working from home, or it’s time to update your business phone system, we have done all of the research and tested over 25 small business phone systems to prepare the list of our best Top 5 most recommended business telephone systems. The manufacturer must be reliable, with a proven history and warranty support. Be the most affordable for a small business to purchase and maintain. Be future proof — compatible with standard analog landline telephone service or VoIP cloud phone service. Provides feature to transfer calls to a cell phone, a smartphone app, and supports mobile and home office employees. Must have the essentials: automated attendant call tree menus, voicemail to email, intercom, call forward, transfer, and music on hold.
21. Howdy, right here’s [your name]. I’m no longer powerful of a phone person, so don’t bother leaving a message. Send me an email at [email address] and I’ll receive aid to you within 24 hours.
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Recording voicemail greetings for your business or personal life requires a separate list of priorities, because they are being used for two distinct purposes and will be heard by two very different types of callers. I have a friend with two cell phones - one for work, and one for personal calls - and if you call both lines, you would never know it's the same person.
When you first launch a business, it’s possible to manage contacts with your personal phone number. But doing so is neither scalable nor professional. As your team and your business expand, the need for a business phone number becomes more obvious. That’s where a virtual phone number comes in handy. Instead of paying expensive bills for both your employees’ phones, your office phone, and your personal number, you can just opt for a virtual business number. For a reasonable monthly fee, virtual phones route calls to your cell phone, your home number or a VoIP phone number. So you can take business calls anytime, anywhere. Grasshopper is the perfect solution for solopreneurs and teams no bigger than 15 people. It has the best 800 number service for small businesses, letting you choose from 800, 888, 877, 844, 866, or 833 numbers. Available on any mobile device, it gives you the ability to tend to your clients wherever your business takes you. Read Review Special offer: Save $75 on annual plans or $15 on monthly plans GET STARTED RingCentral is another robust solution that brings more than just a virtual phone number to the table. It is a cloud-based PBX that provides state-of-the-art features like video voicemail, video conferencing, and screen sharing. These features allow you to communicate with your customers in a unique and personal way, and help you bring remote teams together. Read Review CallHippo offers virtual local phone numbers from more than 50 countries. It lets you add multiple users and make calls to receivers all around the world. Its features include call recording and forwarding, workflow automation, and detailed call analytics. CallHippo's pricing plans start at $14/user/month, and its service is best suited for small businesses and outbound calling teams. Read Review Sonetel is one of Sweden’s fastest-growing tech companies, and its virtual phone number solution is efficient, easy to implement, and very affordable. You can get a virtual phone number for free, with global call forwarding, voice responses, call queues, and much more. Apart from providing phone numbers, Sonetel lets you implement live-chat support features on your website or your business’s Facebook page. Read Review ⦿Free phone number if you use widget ⦿Offers live-chat and team-communication features ⦿Free call taking via mobile app Line2 is an excellent all-in-one solution for small teams. Its long list of features includes everything from call answering with a pre-recorded auto-attendant message to merged calling and voicemail transcriptions. The provider also makes it easy to pick the ideal virtual phone number by giving you toll-free and vanity options while ensuring all your calls are routed to the right place. Read Review ⦿Excellent call-management features ⦿Unlimited SMS and MMS messaging ⦿Toll-free and vanity numbers eVoice is another US virtual phone number provider that tailors to businesses of all sizes by providing advanced tools for proper communication without requiring users to set up additional equipment. It offers local, national, and international numbers and enables you to forward calls you can’t take to other employees. In addition to video conferencing and screen sharing features, a 24/7 virtual receptionist is on hand to ensure you never miss another call. Read Review Freshdesk Contact Center (formerly known as Freshcaller) is among the best toll free number providers out there. You can choose one of the available numbers or even create a customized vanity phone number. This system has the most robust call-center features for handling calls and monitoring employees’ work and productivity. Since it is available only on softphones, you won’t have to invest in any additional equipment. Freshdesk also boasts a free version with a few standard features. Read Review ⦿Freshworks integrations ⦿Powerful call-center solutions ⦿Free plan with limited features As one of the industry's leaders, VirtualPBX strikes a good balance between affordability and functionality. Thanks to its wide range of features such as unlimited minutes, auto-attendant, and customized greetings, this cloud-based VoIP solution can help a company of any size streamline and enhance its internal and external business communication. Try VirtualPBX risk-free with a 15-day money-back guarantee. Read Review As an all-in-one virtual receptionist system, MightyCall aggregates customer queries coming from phone calls, social media channels, and emails into one queue. It processes calls made and received via vanity, local, and toll-free numbers and lets its users organize client data in a highly efficient way. We recommend this provider's virtual phone services to small and mid-sized business owners on the hunt for an affordable way to improve their internal and external communication. Read Review ⦿Team collaboration features ⦿Visual voicemail and voicemail transcription ⦿Scalable solution The Nextiva service tops other providers since it delivers a CRM system for the price of a virtual phone service. Call quality, system reliability and its array of features are all top of the line. The company also provides non-stop exceptional customer care across different communication channels. This provider is great for scaling - as your number of users goes up, your monthly user fee will go down. Read Review ⦿Very reliable with 99.9% uptime ⦿More than 40 call-management features ⦿Sales and service CRM features Talkroute combines recently developed software-based features and traditional phone services aiming to turn your smartphone into a well-rounded business communication system. Featuring desktop and mobile applications, IVR, call transfer, menu prompts, and advanced reporting, Talkroute's solution is best suited for businesses looking for a cost-effective way to handle large call volumes. Read Review 8x8 offers an advanced set of call-handling features that satisfy the needs of small business owners wanting to set up a call center. In addition to a heap of features for communication with customers, this service also has plenty of options for team communication. The 8x8 system operates on any internet-connected device, as well as your existing traditional phones. Read Review ⦿International calling within 47 countries ⦿Desk phones for sale ⦿Conference calling
Google voice services come with voicemail, call screening, and the ability to block callers. Some advanced features are not available with Google Voice but the service is great for business owners who only need basic functions. Users of Google Voice benefit also by the following features:
The phone service provider you choose matters too. Not only will it affect the customer experience, but employee ones too.
Hello! This is 1-800-PRESLEY — Yes! 1-800-PRESLEY! They say the King died 10 years ago, but we know he’s still out there somewhere. So . . . leave your name and number and tell us where *YOU* saw Elvis!
Now that you are aware of the tips to create an efficient voicemail message, the next steps would be to understand from the examples below how you can get started.
Looking for virtual business phone services? eVoice is a business phone system that acts like other business phone systems, but the difference is you can be anywhere and receive your calls using their cloud-based PBX phone line. They even offer a live receptionist service that will take your calls and provide a host of administrative services, like booking appointments, collecting customer information, processing payments, you name it. eVoice offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, which is among the longest of the services we’ve researched You can get a free, professionally recorded greeting if requested within seven days of setting up your account eVoice offers the most phone numbers available per plan, starting with three numbers on the lowest plan and up to 33 numbers on the most expensive plan A credit card must be entered to start a free trial, and from customer reviews available online, the cancellation policy of eVoice is not reliable A phone number cannot be ported or used on services outside of eVoice unless it had been ported into eVoice in the first place and requires a $40 service fee to complete Unlike many competitors, eVoice does not have an unlimited minutes plan for calls to the US and Canada. While this lowers the entry price, it can lead to a more variable monthly cost Standard Features Call forwarding Virtual answering service Advanced call routing Voicemail Custom greetings Call screening Web portal and mobile app Call queueing Pricing 11 users 30,000 minutes per month 33 toll-free or local phone numbers Unlimited extensions Inbound online faxing One user 30,000 minutes per month Three toll-free or local phone numbers Unlimited extensions Inbound online faxing Six users 30,000 minutes per month 18 toll-free or local phone numbers Unlimited extensions Inbound online faxing 10 users 30,000 minutes per month 30 toll-free or local phone numbers Unlimited extensions Inbound online faxing
Remember, your message is a reflection of you. Keep it short, professional and ALWAYS return messages.
Hardware and special-use requirements: Businesses in certain industries or with unique workplace environments will have specific phone system requirements. Identifying which features are needed will help focus the search for the right phone system for your small business.
Getting a virtual telephone number is a pretty straightforward procedure. You can start by signing up with a service provider. Then you select a country and a phone number that customers will dial to reach your small business. And you’re good to go. You’ll be able to receive calls on your mobile phone, laptop, tablet, home phone - wherever you are, as long as you have an internet connection or cellular phone line.
Users of VirtualPhone.com applaud the company for its international calling features. Some users report frustration with customer service delays. These delays seem to be especially frustrating for customers experiencing billing issues. This problem should probably be considered when deciding between this and other companies.
3. Department Wide Voicemail Greeting. This voicemail greeting should list the name of the department, the hours of operation or the whereabouts of your personnel, the protocol for following up with the customer, and another way to get in touch with the department.
Here’s a sample voicemail greeting script: “Hello, you’ve reached [name] at [company]. I’m unable to come to the phone right now. Leave your …
In addition to making sure your internet service can handle your VoIP traffic, you also need to make sure your local area network (LAN) can handle it. What makes network management tricky with VoIP is that if you simply drop it onto your network, that traffic will get processed the same as any other traffic, meaning your shared accounting application or those 20 gigabytes worth of files your assistant just moved to the cloud.
Businesses can set their operating hours – say 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. – and create that cutoff for when voicemail takes over. Incoming calls can then gain their own path to voicemail for when employees are expected to be finished working.