One of the primary reasons businesses are moving to VoIP is to save money. VoIP technology as a whole represents a more efficient means of bringing communications infrastructure to your business and good VoIP providers should pass these savings on to you, their customers.
Unfortunately, though, not all companies believe in passing on these savings. Today we’ll discuss just how VoIP can save you money, as well as alert you to some of the pitfalls in the VoIP market that can swallow the savings you deserve to be making.
Call Costs
When it comes to call costs, getting on board with a VoIP provider can offer big savings versus your traditional business phone system. We’ve made this point before, but it always bears repeating:
An international call from the UK to a US landline would cost you 55p per minute on the standard BT rate. Other telecoms like Connect in Cloud’s price for the same call would cost you 1.5p per minute – a saving of more than 97%.
Connect in Cloud’s price for the same call would cost you 1.5p per minute – a saving of more than 97%.
When it comes to domestic calls, too, a VoIP provider still drastically undercuts traditional landline service costs. With VoIP, a call to a UK landline will cost you 1p per minute, whilst a call to a UK mobile will cost you 7.5p per minute. Calls from one very well known telecom provider come in at 20p per minute for both.
If all costs came at the expense of service quality or call quality, it might give you pause, but call quality over VoIP is actually far superior than over copper lines. Not only that, you’ll also be able to benefit from the host of great features that VoIP makes possible.
Monthly Fees
With any phone provider, you pay for calls that fall outside of any included minutes on your plan and you pay a (monthly or annual) cost for this plan separately.
A VoIP phone system can even save you money on these monthly costs, meaning providers aren’t sneakily taking back any of the money they’re not making on call costs. Not only that, but providers like Connect in Cloud are cheaper even than the new VoIP offerings by big household names.
One such household name, for example, will charge you separately for your users, domestic call plan and international call plan, whilst VoIP users come with a set number of minutes (plan-dependent) included. These call plans ask you to share the minutes you purchase between all of your users – some companies give you free minutes with every user you purchase. Their service is also locked to various underpowered and overpriced VoIP desk phones which you will be required to purchase for each of your staff in order to use their platform, whilst the some platform is not locked to any product; you’re free to use the hardware you choose.
Even more unpleasant, with this well-known provider, you’ll be tied to these costs for the duration of the term of your contract. Many businesses, in order to make such a prospect competitive, will opt for a longer-term contract out of ignorance that a better alternative is available. It’s only when these businesses realise there are better, cheaper options out there, that they discover leaving their current provider would entail a hefty exit fee.
Exit Fees
If and when you decide you to leave a contract, you’ll find that the early exit fee easily climbs up to four figures, so choosing wrongly can be costly. Some good VoIP providers, by contrast, won’t tie you into a contract at all.
Instead, our flexible, monthly subscription service gives you the freedom to test our platform with only a few users on any plan you like. If and when you decide you want to migrate your entire business, we’ll make it easy for you. Plus if for whatever reason, you do want to leave us, you’ll be able to port all of your numbers away and cancel the service at zero notice. You’ll be free to use the service for the duration of the month you’ve paid for if you wish to, but won’t be charged any future payments.
Conclusion
Between call costs, monthly fees and contractual obligations, then, VoIP can save you and your business money.
Don’t be so quick to adopt a VoIP service, though, just because it’s being offered by a household name. Large, old telecoms companies are used to an income of the kind they’ve received historically. You will find, therefore, that the costs for VoIP offerings from such companies quickly inflate to match those for old analogue systems, making one of the primary reasons for moving to VoIP redundant.
What’s more, given the wealth of powerful features VoIP has to offer, failing to choose VoIP could even cost you business opportunities. Small businesses, for example, can benefit greatly from call queuing and custom audio, especially if they’re growing rapidly and their customer service team is currently understaffed.
If you’d like to learn more about the powerful features a VoIP phone system could bring to you and your business, sign up for a free VoIP trial today.
