If your office's current phone system is not serving your business's needs, whether because of its inability to handle an increase in call volume or a lack of features, you may be considering replacing the system with a new one. However, you may not be quite sure where to begin in the decision-making process. If this is the case, ask yourself the following questions to help you get started with choosing a new phone system for your office.

1.  What Types of Calls Does Your Business Currently Handle?

When trying to decide on the system that your office needs for its phones, first, think about the types of calls that your business currently handles. Do you primarily have incoming calls from customers asking about their accounts or ordering products? Are your calls mainly for employees to communicate with each other? Or, are your calls a combination of both of these types?

If your business handles mostly incoming calls, you may need individual lines to each of your employees that the calls will directly be routed to when the customer calls in. This helps eliminate the need to have the client placed on hold and decrease the risk of having their calls dropped. You may also want to consider installing an automated messaging system.

If your office phones are primarily for inter-employee calls, each person will need to have extensions. You may also want to set up features such as conference calling, call waiting, and voicemail. 

2.  Do You Need Your System to Sync with Smartphones?

Another question you should ask yourself is whether or not you need your system to sync with employee smartphones. This feature is useful if many of your employees travel on business or even work from home occasionally.

If you would like to have this feature, many services provide apps that are directly linked to your office's system. During normal working hours when an employee is in the office, they can use the phones at their desks. Then, they can use the app to switch over to their smartphone so that they can take calls while away from the office.

Asking yourself the above questions can help you begin the process of choosing a phone system that is a good fit for your business. Contact a service that provides office phone systems for further guidance on making your choice. They can discuss with you all of the available options for each type of system.

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