Your customer shouldn’t have to guess their way through your phone system.

Yet that’s exactly what too many of us force customers to do. We give important clients our personal numbers, so when our business mobile phone gets lost or we switch desktop systems, they’re left out of the loop. And the last thing we want: a frustrated current or prospective customer wondering if they’ve even reached the right place.

If any of the problems above sound like your current phone system, it may be time to set up a legitimate business phone system – using a virtual phone system.

A virtual phone system allows you to create a professional phone presence without hiring new staff, paying exorbitant fees or investing in major new purchases of phone hardware.

We cover even more benefits below:

Tip #1: You Can Have a Professional Business Phone, Without the Costly Hardware

When you hear “professional business phone system” you likely imagine something like the switchboard at the mid-20^th century White House—a room full of wires and switches, not to mention trained professionals forwarding all calls to their proper places.

However, in 2019, you won’t need anything near that level of investment in hardware. Just as you carry the equivalent of a 1960’s NASA supercomputer around with you in your pocket, you can create a phone system for your company that has all the trappings of professionalism without all the bulk.

Take Grasshopper’s features into consideration:

• A toll-free number for calling your business
• Automatic call forwarding to connect a smartphone to your business number
• Automatically transcribed voicemails
• Multiple extensions so you can connect an entire team to your business number
• Vanity numbers with the new 833 prefix

A virtual phone system offers all the above and the appearance that you’re a giant office with an entire room full of switchboard operators—without the expense or the needed square footage.

Tip #2: Create a Professional Voice Greeting

If you’re a small operation and you’re self-conscious about the way your voice on the answering machine might come across to customers, you have plenty of options:

• Outsourcing the greeting. For example, Grasshopper offers Voice Studio that helps you create the impression of a much larger business at work behind the phones. You can upload multiple scripts to handle a wide variety of requests without worrying about how having your voice manage the phones will sound to customers.
• Stick to a script. If you can handle the job yourself, you can always get rid of the worry about whether the voicemail greeting is appropriate or not by sticking to a variety of voicemail scripts. Hubspot offers 25 professional voicemail scripts you can use to keep things simple.
• Keep it simple. While the goal of the professional voice greeting might be to put a good face on your company, most of the work it accomplishes will be practical—connecting the caller with the appropriate person at your business. Don’t let your voicemail greeting get too cute or go on too long before it accomplishes this central task.

Tip #3: Stay Connected While Traveling on Business

This is all well and good, but if you create a phone system for yourself that doesn’t work while you’re on the road, how businesslike is your system? It shouldn’t take something as simple as a work trip, a vacation or simply a job that requires you to be on the go, to throw the entire system off balance.

The way to accomplish increased mobility without interrupting the flow of your business phone system is to make sure that you can both call and text with your business number. If you continue to call from the same number, there’s no interrupting the flow of your work—and your clients won’t have to wonder who’s calling them.

You might also think about setting up call forwarding to another member of the team if you experience an interruption with your regular cell service during your travels (or just need a well deserved break!). If you ever lose your phone, you can make this switch easily without the customers ever having to wonder how to reach you.

Tip #4: Keep Your Existing Smartphone

iPhone X, Samsung Galaxy Whatzit—does it really matter? It’s tempting to think you need the latest and greatest to facilitate a professional business phone system. But let’s be honest: as long as your customer can connect with you, you don’t need to shell out four figures.

And a virtual phone system doesn’t require any upgrades. You’ll likely find that any smartphone these days is more than capable of handling every feature you could possibly want that a virtual business phone system provides.

Tip #5: With Poor Reception, Makes Calls over the Internet

Using VoIP or WiFi can give you some stability when you have access to the Internet. If you want to stay true to Tip #3 and don’t want call drops and other unnecessary interference to ruin an important phone appointment, you’ll find that a phone system with enabled VoIP and WiFi is worthy of your trust.

The problem: just as some spots are terrible for phone reception, you might not always have access to a WiFi hotspot. If this is a frequent concern of yours, you can always invest in a mobile WiFi hotspot for your travels—however, in most cases, traveling anywhere in the western world means you’ll have access to the Internet within the range of your local hotel lounge or coffee shop.

Making Your Phone System Work for You

A business phone system should serve your needs. In today’s fast-paced environment, a virtual phone system is a great alternative to old fashion systems.  A phone system like Grasshopper ensures you have every feature you read about here.

Still not sold on a business phone system such as Grasshopper’s? Are you afraid of making an investment that isn’t right for your business? Fear not. You can get started with a free trial today to see how neatly it fits your business needs.