Do I want VoIP?
Discussion
I work on my own in a garage. Do want to take another mechanic on next year.
Anyway my phone goes off A LOT.
I miss so many calls due to the fact I'm under a car covered in grease and don't like getting out, taking my gloves off getting my phone rushing there and then get "you've been in an accident sir please".
Now a lot of customers just deal with my wife on her number which is great.
What I want however is a system that will ring both our phones and she can just forward me the call if I need to take it or she can just deal with it if it's a booking.
I don't have a landline but do have a WiFi hotspot.
It would be handy to have a call holding system too. I can stick a TV up with a screen so I can see who's calling not a prob.
It may sound like a minor inconvienience but it's irritating some customers as it's so difficult to try and manage 40 odd calls a day while flat out busy!
Anyway my phone goes off A LOT.
I miss so many calls due to the fact I'm under a car covered in grease and don't like getting out, taking my gloves off getting my phone rushing there and then get "you've been in an accident sir please".
Now a lot of customers just deal with my wife on her number which is great.
What I want however is a system that will ring both our phones and she can just forward me the call if I need to take it or she can just deal with it if it's a booking.
I don't have a landline but do have a WiFi hotspot.
It would be handy to have a call holding system too. I can stick a TV up with a screen so I can see who's calling not a prob.
It may sound like a minor inconvienience but it's irritating some customers as it's so difficult to try and manage 40 odd calls a day while flat out busy!
We run a Private Hire/Chauffeur company and when we bought out another company from a different dial code area we went to VoIP.
Customers ring the landline which diverts straight to my wife’s mobile, if that doesn’t answer it bounces onto my mobile, which in turn goes to a voicemail. All of our regular clients know we don’t take calls whilst they are travelling so just leave a message. A lot depends on the voicemail message you leave but we appear not to lose many calls/clients.
Customers will have no idea it’s a virtual phone either.
Hope this helps.
Edited to add: Have you thought about a voice activated headset/earpiece where you can just answer Yes or No to accept or decline calls.
Customers ring the landline which diverts straight to my wife’s mobile, if that doesn’t answer it bounces onto my mobile, which in turn goes to a voicemail. All of our regular clients know we don’t take calls whilst they are travelling so just leave a message. A lot depends on the voicemail message you leave but we appear not to lose many calls/clients.
Customers will have no idea it’s a virtual phone either.
Hope this helps.
Edited to add: Have you thought about a voice activated headset/earpiece where you can just answer Yes or No to accept or decline calls.
We use Voipfone. Its excellent.
Cost is minimal we have 4 phones in the office and one at home. All ring on the same call group but can DND / Divert / whatever.
We have an intro audio loop so customers get opening times etc whilst the phone is ringing our end. We also set our open / closed hours so when we are closed they get a message saying we are closed. Also voice mail.
Total cost is about £3 per line inc VAT.
Handsets cost about £100 each, come pre set up - PnP.
We record all calls and have a calling package so our monthly cost is about £60-£100+VAT but for a similar service using traditional telephones would be way more.
We used fiverr.com for the audio stuff.
Cost is minimal we have 4 phones in the office and one at home. All ring on the same call group but can DND / Divert / whatever.
We have an intro audio loop so customers get opening times etc whilst the phone is ringing our end. We also set our open / closed hours so when we are closed they get a message saying we are closed. Also voice mail.
Total cost is about £3 per line inc VAT.
Handsets cost about £100 each, come pre set up - PnP.
We record all calls and have a calling package so our monthly cost is about £60-£100+VAT but for a similar service using traditional telephones would be way more.
We used fiverr.com for the audio stuff.
We installed a VoIP system last year, we're an office of 10 people. The versatility of the system is great and cost have reduced slightly.
I was advised by my IT guy to always use the same provider for both broadband and VoIP as he has come across a lot of cases where companies use different providers and if something goes wrong the broadband company will blame the VoIP provider and vice versa. With one company you have one point of contact.
I was advised by my IT guy to always use the same provider for both broadband and VoIP as he has come across a lot of cases where companies use different providers and if something goes wrong the broadband company will blame the VoIP provider and vice versa. With one company you have one point of contact.
Big E 118 said:
I was advised by my IT guy to always use the same provider for both broadband and VoIP as he has come across a lot of cases where companies use different providers and if something goes wrong the broadband company will blame the VoIP provider and vice versa. With one company you have one point of contact.
Good advice but please be aware it does not apply to BT Broadband and BT Cloud Phone. I had both and the Cloud Phone was basically useless on the BT Broadband, dropping calls within seconds of starting a call and generally very poor quality. This was on a business fibre line too.The Cloud Phone worked perfectly on my home Virgin broadband. Not unreasonably BT Cloud Phone said it was the Broadband and the BT Broadband said it was the Phone and said they would come out and charge me when they found nothing wrong. Absolutely dire service from the BT Broadband, which I cancelled. The BT Cloud phone works OK although I use it mainly in the divert to mobile function.
Just as a further FYI BT Broadband will tell you that you have to have a BT Broadband account to use BT Cloud Phone and be quite aggressive about it too. This is not correct. You do need BT Broadband to use a BT voip desk phone but not for the BT Cloud App and the contracts are not linked.
One other possible consideration is that if you want to keep the number and move providers not all have the ability / licence to transfer the number at will.
Given the size of the OPs business (2 people) I suspect that wont be an issue so long as he has decent broad band.
We have 80/20 ADSL+2 and we often have 4 lines on the go plus everyone using the web and its no issue.
I think the codec they use requires about 3mb/s per line for "HD" call quality. I don't know the bit rate but its defo ok for us.
Just checked you need (at least) 128kb/s both up and down per call according to their technical guide. We have never had an issue our BB is with BT FWIW.
We have 80/20 ADSL+2 and we often have 4 lines on the go plus everyone using the web and its no issue.
Just checked you need (at least) 128kb/s both up and down per call according to their technical guide. We have never had an issue our BB is with BT FWIW.
Edited by red_slr on Thursday 14th December 12:49
Would you be looking for something like EE Pocket Landline?
They can supply a Local Landline Phone Number that is then forwarded to your EE mobile (you can have up to 10 mobile numbers) costs are around £10 to £15 a month on top of their business mobile contracts.
I'm sure other Mobile Operators will do similar schemes.
I was just looking at this 5 minutes ago as I was wanting a virtual landline number for a business I'm looking to start early next year - I thought it would add an element of credibility to the business.
They can supply a Local Landline Phone Number that is then forwarded to your EE mobile (you can have up to 10 mobile numbers) costs are around £10 to £15 a month on top of their business mobile contracts.
I'm sure other Mobile Operators will do similar schemes.
I was just looking at this 5 minutes ago as I was wanting a virtual landline number for a business I'm looking to start early next year - I thought it would add an element of credibility to the business.
if you want good broadband, and good VOIP, then speak to Andrews & Arnold - www.aaisp.net - they are not the cheapest, but you get what you pay for...
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