Small Business VoIP Features Explained
Switching to a VoIP solution for your small business is a great way to reduce costs. There are also many additional VoIP services and add-ons that come with your small business VoIP solutions. Let’s take a look at some of the common ones that are offered by providers today.
Voicemail
Voicemail is a feature that answers the phone for you if you don’t take the call or are talking to another person. With a VoIP account a message can be left by the caller and saved in the account holders mailbox. This is similar to email except the messages are stored in a sound file rather than text. With VoIP voicemail multiple callers can leave messages for you at the same time. You can check for messages by dialing a number or be notified of the message via cell phone or email. Messages sent to your email are usually in the form of a .wav or .mp3 file and can be saved on your computer or forwarded to friends or colleagues within your small business. This is a more flexible solution than tradition voicemail.
Call Blocking
If you don’t want to receive calls from a specific number you can add it to a list and they will be refused access. This is a good solution for privacy protection and means you don’t need to change your phone number to avoid unsolicited calls.
Call Waiting
This feature alerts you if are on the phone and another call comes in. You have the choice to answering the call or letting it go to voicemail.
3-Way Calling
This is similar to a conferencing solution but only allows for three people to be on the call at one time. Whilst talking to someone you can call another person and invite him / her to join the conversation. This is a very useful feature for small busineses.
Local Number Portability
If you need to keep your current phone number but wish to switch to a small business VoIP solutions this feature will allow you to transfer the number over. As a small business, you won’t need to change your marketing material and your customers can continue to contact you using the number that they already know.