How to Choose the Right VoIP Provider

Making any kind of business decision can feel intense and overwhelming. If you’ve made the decision that you would prefer a VoIP number over a traditional landline, you may find yourself struggling with the choice of who to use for your service. After all, there are a lot of options available - how do you know which business VoIP phone service provider is right for you? 

With this question in mind, we’re sharing four things to look for when choosing your provider. Hopefully, by the time you’ve finished reading this post, you’ll be armed with the knowledge to make the right decision for your business.

1. Understand Your Company’s Communication Needs 

When thinking about your company and its VoIP needs, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

• What kind of business phone number does the company require? i.e. Is it necessary to have a local or international phone number, or a combination of the two?
• Does your company make mostly outbound calls or will it also receive several incoming calls that need to be directed to specific users? If you need individual phone numbers for each team member, that might factor into your VoIP provider decision
• Do you have more than one office location? If so, you need a VoIP phone system that you can use remotely
• Will your VoIP phone need SMS capabilities?
• Do you require video conferencing?
• Do your teams work together a lot? If so, you need a VoIP number provider that enables shared calls, transcripts, and recording

These are just a few of the things you should ask yourself if you're looking for new phone solutions for your company. Once you've determined your operational needs, you can begin looking for VoIP providers who can satisfy them.

2. Consider the Features of Each VoIP Provider

Not all service providers are the same. You need to know if the provider you are considering for your VoIP phone system for business can offer things like:

• A different VoIP number for every user
• Quick install and set up
• The ability to port your existing number
• Video conferencing capabilities
• Text messaging services
• Voicemail
• Transcription of calls and more

3. Research the VoIP Provider’s Dependability

Your company can’t afford to be offline, missing important calls. That’s why you need a business VoIP phone service that will reliably work anywhere with an internet connection. Regardless of whether your team members are out of the country or just in another city in the United States, it’s important for them to be able to check messages and connect with clients, prospects, colleagues, etc… from anywhere.

Today it’s possible to ensure the quality and reliability of services by using a real-time application monitoring solution. That way you can keep a close eye on how your VoIP apps are functioning, and find out immediately if issues arise, or if the service is not living up to expected levels of performance.

4. Examine Their Pricing and Reputation

When considering which company you will use for a single VoIP number or multiple numbers, you need to know about their pricing and reputation. Because every expense impacts a business’s bottom line, you need clear cut information on price. And, because you want to know how other people feel about the services provided, it’s important to investigate their online reputation before signing up.

Once you have filtered out many of your options, this last section will likely be your deciding factor. At the same time, don’t let pricing alone be what prompts you to choose one company over another even though pricing can weigh heavily for many business owners. 

For example, there are free options for having a VoIP number, but that doesn’t mean free options will give your business what it needs. 

• Dropped calls
• Robotic voices
• Calls that never even get through because of internet connection issues

These are just a few of the problems business owners face when choosing free options for their VoIP number.

Our advice is to write out a list of all the factors weighing into your decision, and choose the best possible option based on your findings. We hope that once you’ve gone through this process, you will come to the conclusion that Ring4 is exactly what you’re looking for in your business. Click here to learn more about our features and pricing.