Does Your Business Phone System Drop Calls?

Have you ever felt your blood pressure increase when your phone dropped a call? It may have been an important client or just a friend you haven’t talked to in a while, but the result is the same – anger at the network that is supposed to keep you connected. If this is the way communications are handled in your office, it could significantly hurt your brand.

Business phone systems are often selected based on their features, capabilities, reliability and more. If the system and the company supporting it fall short of your expectations, you’ll quickly alienate those with whom you need to stay connected. This was the point of focus in a recent Stuff article provided by Kordia. A look back to the early 2000s and those who had first ventured into the realm of VoIP experienced the dropped call on a regular basis. It set the stage for a poor reputation for VoIP providers.

Even if calls weren’t dropped, the delay and warbling of the sound was enough to make the blood boil. Users also experienced annoying echoes and even strange R2D2-like gargle. They would have to ask the person to repeat themselves and if the same issue occurred on the repeat, asking a third time entered the realm of awkwardness. At that point, the parties generally had to end the call and agree to use a different system to complete the conversation. If this were a business call, how likely would either party walk away satisfied?

If the call was dropped in the middle of the conversation, how forgiving would the customer be when the company rep tried to reconnect the call? The understanding customer may allow for one more try, but many will feel the sting of being hung up on, assume the company can’t put the right technology in place to run a successful business and turn instead to the competition. It is this kind of perfect storm that can cost a business millions – the same business that sought to save thousands with the business phone system based on VoIP.

In the year 2014, VoIP looks very different for the average user and business seeking to leverage its benefits. The security and reliability of this platform has improved more than tenfold as network providers have made significant investments in VoIP. Companies see the technology as the ideal solution to reduce the cost of doing business and bolster productivity. It is quickly making traditional landlines obsolete, putting pressure on telcos to change their business model or be left out in the cold.

A few stats from Census New Zealand paint an accurate picture of this growth. In 2013, 85.5 percent of households had access to a home-based landline. In 2006, this number was 91.6 percent. Internet access at home hit 76.8 percent in 2013 for consumers, compared with 60.5 percent in 2006. Likewise, 83.7 percent of households in 2013 had access to mobile phones at home, compared with 74.2 in 2006.

Governments are also making investments in better broadband access throughout the world, not just in New Zealand. Subsidies have been distributed throughout the U.S. to shore up networks falling short of meeting expectations and to extend capabilities to the underserved in rural areas. Such initiatives are blurring the lines between home-based and corporate office environments, allowing the small business to compete at the same level of the giant counterpart, creating new opportunities that will ultimately benefit the consumer base.