Cut your Costs this Christmas with VoIP

After what has been a difficult few years for businesses, the upcoming Christmas season could provide a well-earned boost in profits. With lockdowns being lifted, it is understandable that even though customer spending will increase, businesses still want to save money wherever possible.

Savvy business owners can ensure that their profit margins are as high as possible by looking carefully at money-saving opportunities in the day-to-day running of their businesses, but they must be careful not to cut quality too. 

To cut costs without compromising on service quality, one such option is replacing your traditional telephony system with a VoIP phone system. Even those who are already owning VoIP systems can use them more effectively to save money.

This article will explain some of the ways that VoIP systems can help cut your business’ costs this Christmas.

Save money on software subscriptions

VoIP phone systems have many different features. These features will combine together and may eliminate the need for many software subscriptions.

VoIP systems usually come with virtual assistants to answer calls when you are not available. Virtual Assistants can be purchased separately, usually through a subscription, and can be costly. 

When you add a Virtual Assistant to your VoIP system, it is much less expensive and can save you plenty of money when compared to an average subscription.

Another potential area you could save money is with instant messaging services. Your business may rely on these to communicate between staff, and instant messaging is a great way to keep everyone connected. Many companies will have some sort of subscription to an instant messaging service, and this cost can really add up.

When you have a VoIP phone system, instant messaging comes as standard. This means that you can keep your staff in constant contact at no extra cost and ensure that remote and office-based workers can work seamlessly together on any project. 

There are many features of a VoIP telephone system that are expensive to subscribe to on their own, but when combined with your VoIP phone subscription, you can significantly reduce costs while keeping the same features you need.

Save time and money on administration

VoIP phone systems can integrate with any CRM system and will automatically share information back and forth. This means that any new information is automatically added to your CRM and that staff can access up-to-date information whenever they need to via their VoIP phones.

By having this process automated, you will be able to cut costs on administrative staff. They will no longer need to repeat this process and manually input data from sales calls, and customer service staff can update addresses, etc., right in their VoIP systems.

This means that the staff is freed up to work on more important projects. 

Monitor call costs in an online portal

A massive expense for many businesses is the cost of calls. You could be dealing with customers worldwide, and your staff needs to be on the phone to sell or provide support. 

When making international calls or dealing with customer queries regularly, you may find that the cost of your business calls is starting to creep up if you have a traditional system. With call costs increasing, this will, of course, eat into your profit margins.

VoIP systems make calls over the Internet, so this already removes the connection costs and complex fees—meaning you can call anywhere in the world for a low price. You can also use the online portal connected to your VoIP phone system to keep a close eye on your call costs and check if you are within your budget.

VoIP service providers will also work with you to ensure that you have a service plan which is suitable to your needs, so you don’t pay for anything you don’t need. 

These plans are low cost and very flexible; you can change your plan as your business needs change, with more minutes in busy times and less in quieter periods so you can cut your costs quite dramatically when compared to a traditional phone system.

Save on hardware and maintenance costs

When using a traditional phone system, you will need to purchase hardware such as a desk telephone each time you recruit a new staff member. Not only will you need hardware, but you will also need to install a line for them, and this can be costly.

With VoIP phone systems working over the Internet, there’s no need for hardware and no need to physically install a phone line for new starters. Staff can use their own internet-enabled devices to connect to your VoIP phone system, via laptops, mobile phones or tablets. 

You can also add and remove lines with a few clicks in the online portal, meaning you don’t need to call an engineer or your IT team to add a new line. 

Traditional phone systems have infrastructure on-site, which often needs maintenance. This maintenance is notoriously expensive and can be a serious drain on your finances. 

With VoIP, you will be offered cost-effective maintenance packages, which can all be done remotely – so you don’t need to worry about maintaining complicated infrastructure.

Your VoIP service provider will complete updates remotely, to keep your systems up to date. All systems are backed up in the cloud for optimum security, so all you need to do is make the most of the selling opportunities Christmas time brings!

Hire Christmas temporary staff with remote access

Christmas is often a time when you will need extra staff to help deal with the influx of customers. Usually, when companies hire temporary staff, they will need to purchase a desk phone for them, maybe a computer and lots more expenses related to onboarding them.

However, companies with VoIP can hire talented staff from anywhere in the world and connect them to their phone system in a few simple steps—without the expense.

Temporary staff can use their own devices to make and receive calls on behalf of the company, and you can add their extension easily using your online portal. The online portal also gives you access to detailed statistics and information on agent performance so you can manage staff from anywhere.

By hiring remote workers, the onboarding costs are cut significantly, but you still get the benefit of an extra pair of hands through the busy Christmas season. It’s no wonder that many businesses are turning to VoIP to manage their remote workforce!

Save costs on physical premises

For businesses that serve customers but not face-to-face, such as call centers, there may no longer be a need for a physical premise. Changes coming from the pandemic mean that people are much more open to working remotely, and customers are much happier to deal with online businesses than ever before.

If your business doesn’t need a physical premise to see customers or showcase products, then now is a great time to start considering cutting back the major cost that is your physical premises. 

Between bills, rent, and maintenance costs, office premises are often one of the biggest areas of expense for businesses—but changes in technology mean they are not always needed. 

Advances in VoIP technology mean that remote working is easier than ever before. Your staff can work collaboratively from anywhere in the world and can serve customers just as well from their own homes as they can from the office.

There is no compromise on call quality with VoIP, and communications are crystal clear over the Internet. Your data is kept safe too, with everything backed up in the cloud and servers in different geographical locations to minimize any downtime.

If you are looking to cut costs dramatically, it might be time to consider whether your office premises are really even needed?

Conclusions

Cutting costs this Christmas can help you make up for some of the losses over the pandemic. Times have been tough for all businesses, so it’s essential to be sensible with your finances and make the most of the busy Christmas season.

Money can be wasted easily on unnecessary software subscriptions or high call costs, so if you’d like to find out more about cutting your costs this Christmas without compromising on quality, call our team on 1-800-346-4974 today.