Significance of an office phone system is not under the veil anymore. The world is aware of what wonders it can do to a business. Starting from cutting down the calling cost to operating at a global level without any qualms, it plays an indispensable role and supports success from the back-end. However, all of this is possible only if your phone system is inclusive and comes with particular significant features.  Without these features, it will be only half good and will fail to serve you as it is supposed to be.

As a small business phone system is a mission-critical tool, it is inescapable that you choose it prudently and diligently. In this article, we’ll tell you about some of the features that your phone system should have.

Basic office phone system features

Just as every tool has some basic operations without which its existence holds no value, there are some common features that your office phone system should also have. Here is a brief of them –

Call Conferencing – Business takes place in many dimensions these days. That is why your phone system must be able to connect all these dimensions over a single place. Call conferencing is one feature that makes it possible. With the help of this feature, businesses can add any third-party to two-way communication and turn it into a three-way conference. Also, if you operate from a remote location, this feature is of great help. Arranging meetings with other agents situated at different locations becomes an easy task with it.

On-hold Music – On-hold music is a key feature that you cannot ignore at any cost. It is this feature that makes the call waiting time of the caller a pleasurable experience and refrain them from hanging-up in between. Additionally, on-hold music can be used as an indirect marketing strategy. You can use promotional message at the place of default music.

Voicemail – Not every caller wants to wait for the executive to answer the call. Some prefer dropping a voicemail and then expect you to revert with the solution. In that case, your enterprise-level phone system have a voicemail facility. This feature will record the voicemail and will directly deliver it on your registered email. You can create as many voicemail inboxes as per your need and handle the traffic pretty easily.

Call Recording – No matter how observant your executives are while dealing with agitated customers, some minute details will get slipped while taking call notes. If this happens often with you, you – as a business – will fail big time to deliver great customer service. Call recording is one basic feature that every small business phone system should have to eliminate the drudgery of taking notes and save data easily.

Call Forwarding – Waiting for a call to get answered in the most vexatious thing and call forwarding feature sets your customers free from this. This feature automatically transfers the call to the next available agent when one line is busy.

Advanced office phone features

The key reason for any product’s success is the ideal blend of basic and advanced features. While basic features support the existence of a product, advanced features expand its viability and gain it an edge over others.

Here are some of the advanced features that your enterprise-level hosted phone system should have –

Global Connect – If you are a business that operates at a global level, then global connect is what you need to call your customers at the right time.  There is a time zone difference between two places, and this feature will help you know the time zone, the validity of the number, and country details. It reduces the amount of failed attempts.

Call Queuing – This advanced feature will let you answer the calls in the order they were received.  It will place the calls in a queue and distribute them according to their number. This feature is helpful to reduce the call waiting time, missed calls, and to manage the call traffic professionally.

Call Barging – If you run a call center then call barging is what you need to maintain the quality in your customer service. This advanced feature lets the administrator enter a two-way conversation between the caller and the executive at any point in time. It can be used to transfer the call to any other extension, to the concerned department, and voicemail box without disconnecting the on-going call.

Call Distribution – Call distribution is one advanced feature that your office phone system should have to route the calls diligently. Instead of forwarding the calls to a particular line, it distributes the calls based on your priorities or in Round Robin Order.

All these basic and advanced features make your office or enterprise-level hosted phone system a comprehensive tool and endow it with the ability to suffice its purpose well. So, don’t forget to look out these features while you are buying a VoIP number for your business.