Operating expenses matter for all businesses, but especially the small business.
That’s why small businesses are increasingly turning to voice-over-IP (VoIP). Not only does VoIP offer a wealth of features and better voice quality in most cases, it also saves money over traditional telephone service.
Part of the savings comes from up-front pricing. Unlike traditional telephone service, VoIP pricing is often particularly straightforward.
Here are five hidden fees that traditional phone carriers often levy but VoIP providers do not.
Equipment and Setup Fees. While both traditional and VoIP telephone service now come with many advanced features such as call forwarding, traditional phone service often requires special equipment such as an in-house PBX (News - Alert) system or setup fees. VoIP does not.
Unnecessary Expenses. Hidden in the fine print often are additional telephone fees that make the base price anything but the final price. Further, often premium features are included but at a cost, features that small businesses don’t use. VoIP, by contrast, includes these features for free and doesn’t nickel and dime businesses.
Scaling fees. Small businesses often find that telephone costs go up when their business grows, from new lines to larger service bundles. VoIP, on the other hand, delivers an easy upgrade path and there’s no difference in pricing whether the business is small or large. It is easy to scale with VoIP, not so with traditional phone service.
Maintenance and service charges. The telephone hardware in the closet of most businesses is neither cheap nor easy to maintain. Many businesses are pulled into these charges without warning, and it is just believed that this is the cost of doing business. Wrong! With VoIP, businesses can skip the telephone closet and the hassle, not to mention the cost.
Expensive upgrades. Technology changes. This can leave a small business behind unless there is a constant effort and expense to upgrade systems and have the latest technology. But with VoIP, those upgrade costs largely go away. Whether because VoIP is easy to install or because the business has outsourced its telephony to a hosted provider who handles upgrades, VoIP foregoes the expense and effort of staying current with voice communications.
Taken together, it is no wonder that small businesses are switching to VoIP. If keeping operating expenses low is a priority, it just makes sense to switch to VoIP.
Edited by Blaise McNamee