CHOOSING THE RIGHT PHONE SYSTEM
FOR YOUR BUSINESS

In today’s business world, the options for business phone systems come in many different forms, from remarkable, to not so good. Here are some of the options that seem to cross the minds of business owners considering implementing a new business phone system.

THE LIKELY OPTIONS FOR TELEPHONE SERVICE FOR YOUR SMALL BUSINESS:

1. Personal cell phone doubling as a Business Phone Line
2. Cell Phone that’s strictly dedicated to your Business
3. Regular Home Phone Service Doubling as Business Phone
4. Dedicated Business Telephone service through your Local Telephone Company
5. VOIP Telephone service through local providers or Cable Companies (i.e. Comcast, Charter, AT&T or another carrier in your area.)
6. VOIP Service through a National Provider
7. Low Cost National VOIP Service (Skype, Yahoo!, etc)
8. Professional Virtual PBX
9. Traditional PBX / Switchboard
10. Live Answering Services

Here are some Key Things you’ll have to consider when choosing a Telephone System.

1. Upfront Cost: Includes things such as the cost of the actual telephone(s), deposits, and other miscellaneous startup fees.
2. Monthly Cost: Generally includes the of monthly telephone service
3. Features: Includes items such as Voicemail(s), Extensions, Dial by Name, Directories, Ability to Transfer Calls, Internet Fax, Email Fax, and other items that businesses often need)
4. Credit Requirements: Whether or not you or your business will likely have to undergo a credit check to start your service.
5. Call Quality: Whether or not the call quality is excellent, good, fair, or poor.
6. Reliability: Includes whether or not the telephone system is prone to crashes, dropped calls or lapses in service.
7. Customer Service: Includes the the ability to access customer services, quality of customer service when questions need to be answered or problems need to be fixe. Hour os customer service.
8. Scalability: Includes whether or not they small business telephone system that you initially purchase is designed to grow with your business and the relative ease and cost of scaling up or down.

HERE’S HOW EACH OF THE OPTIONS STACK UP AGAINST ONE ANOTHER IN EACH RESPECTIVE AREA.

Upfront Costs - Ranked from Least Expensive to Most Expensive

1. Low Cost National VOIP Service (Skype, Yahoo!, etc)
2. Professional Virtual PBX such as Ringcentral
3. Personal cell phone doubling as a Business Phone Line
4. VOIP Service through a National Provider such Vonage, etc.
5. VOIP Telephone service through local providers or Cable Companies (i.e. Services like Comcast, Charter, AT&T or another carrier in your area.)
6. Cell Phone that’s strictly dedicated to your Business Company
7. Regular Home Phone Service Doubling as Business Phone
8. Live Answering Service
9. Dedicated Business Telephone service through your Local Telephone
10. Traditional PBX / Switchboard

Monthly Cost - Ranked from Least Expensive to Most Expensive

1. Low Cost National VOIP Service (Skype, Yahoo!, etc)
2. Professional Virtual PBX such as Ringcentral
3. Personal cell phone doubling as a Business Phone Line
4. VOIP Service through a National Provider such Vonage, etc.
5. VOIP Telephone service through local providers or Cable Companies (i.e. Services like Comcast, Charter, AT&T or another carrier in your area.)
6. Cell Phone that’s strictly dedicated to your Business Company
7. Regular Home Phone Service Doubling as Business Phone
8. Live Answering Service
9. Dedicated Business Telephone service through your Local Telephone
10. Traditional PBX / Switchboard

Features – Ranked for Most Features to Least Features

1. Traditional PBX / Switchboard
2. Professional Virtual PBX such as Ringcentral
3. Live Answering Service
4. Dedicated Business Telephone service through your Local Telephone Company
5. Cell Phone that’s strictly dedicated to your Business
6. Personal cell phone doubling as a Business Phone Line
7. VOIP Telephone service through local providers or Cable Companies (i.e. Services like Comcast, Charter, AT&T or another carrier in your area.)
8. VOIP Service through a National Provider
9. Regular Home Phone Service Doubling as Business Phone
10. Low Cost National VOIP Service (Services Like Skype, Yahoo!, etc)

Credit Requirements – Ranked from Most Lenient Credit Requirements to Most Strict

1. Low Cost National VOIP Service (Services Like Skype, Yahoo!, etc)
2. Professional Virtual PBX
3. Live Answering Service
4. Personal cell phone doubling as a Business Phone Line
5. Regular Home Phone Service Doubling as Business Phone
6. VOIP Service through a National Provider such Vonage, etc.
7. VOIP Telephone service through local providers or Cable Companies (i.e. Comcast, Charter, AT&T or another carrier in your area.)
8. Cell Phone that’s strictly dedicated to your Business
9. Dedicated Business Telephone service through your Local Telephone Company
10. Traditional PBX / Switchboard

Call Quality – Ranked from Best Quality to Lowest Quality (varies greately per service provider)

1. Traditional PBX / Switchboard
2. Dedicated Business Telephone service through your Local Telephone Company
3. Regular Home Phone Service Doubling as Business Phone
4. VOIP Telephone service through local providers or Cable Companies (i.e. Comcast, Charter, AT&T or another carrier in your area.)
5. Live Answering Service
6. Cell Phone that’s strictly dedicated to your Business
7. Personal cell phone doubling as a Business Phone Line
8. Professional Virtual PBX
9. VOIP Service through a National Provider.
10. Low Cost National VOIP Service (Services Like Skype, Yahoo!, etc)

Reliability – Ranked from Most Reliable to Least Reliable

1. Dedicated Business Telephone service through your Local Telephone Company
2. Regular Home Phone Service Doubling as Business Phone
3. Traditional PBX / Switchboard
4. Cell Phone that’s strictly dedicated to your Business
5. Personal cell phone doubling as a Business Phone Line
6. Professional Virtual PBX
7. Live Answering Service
8. VOIP Telephone service through local providers or Cable Companies (i.e. Comcast, Charter, AT&T or another carrier in your area.)
9. VOIP Service through a National Provider.
10. Low Cost National VOIP Service (Services Like Skype, Yahoo!, etc)

Customer Service – Ranked from Best Customer Service to Worse

1. Live Answering Service
2. Dedicated Business Telephone service through your Local Telephone Company
3. Professional Virtual PBX
4. Traditional PBX / Switchboard
5. Cell Phone that’s strictly dedicated to your Business
6. VOIP Telephone service through local providers or Cable Companies (i.e. Comcast, Charter, AT&T or another carrier in your area.)
7. Regular Home Phone Service Doubling as Business Phone
8. Personal cell phone doubling as a Business Phone Line
9. VOIP Service through a National Provider
10. Low Cost National VOIP Service (Services Like Skype, Yahoo!, etc)

Scalability- Ranked for Most Scalable to Least Scalable

1. Professional Virtual PBX
2. Traditional PBX / Switchboard
3. Dedicated Business Telephone service through your Local Telephone Company
4. Live Answering Service
5. VOIP Service through a National Provider such Vonage, etc.
6. VOIP Telephone service through local providers or Cable Companies (i.e. Comcast, Charter, AT&T or another carrier in your area.)
7. Cell Phone that’s strictly dedicated to your Business
8. Personal cell phone doubling as a Business Phone Line
9. Regular Home Phone Service Doubling as Business Phone
10. Low Cost National VOIP Service (Services Like Skype, Yahoo!, etc)

To get the final results of our assessment, we simply averaged the score together to get the overall rankings. Drum roll please…….

OVERALL RANK	SERVICE	AVERAGE SCORE
1	Professional Virtual PBX (Ringcentral)	3.25
2	Dedicated Business Telephone service through your Local Telephone Company	4.875
3	Live Answering Service	4.875
4	Traditional PBX / Switchboard	5.125
5	Personal cell phone doubling as a Business Phone Line	5.375
6	Cell Phone that’s strictly dedicated to your Business	5.875
7	VOIP Telephone service through local providers or Cable Companies	6
8	Regular Home Phone Service Doubling as Business Phone	6.125
9	VOIP Service through a National Provider	6.625
10	Low Cost National VOIP Service (Service Like Skype, Yahoo!, etc)	6.625

*All of the the information above is based solely on the strong opinion and independent research of Nations Best Enterprises and should not be considered as a scientifically data.