How to Choose Your Next Business VoIP Provider: 9 Essential Questions

Upgrading your legacy phone system and landline services to VoIP is a major decision for any size business across any industry. The key benefits of VoIP phone solutions include cost savings, scalability, mobility, reliability, and if designed and implemented correctly, these solutions can elevate how your organization communicates.

Choosing the right VoIP provider to expertly design, implement, and empower adoption is just as important as ensuring the capabilities, cost, reliability, and security align with your business goals.

Our team at Recent Communications has been fueling how small and midsized businesses and nonprofits communicate since 2000, and in most cases, choosing a business phone provider is more about the company and less about the solution.

Want to ensure your next business VoIP provider is the right fit to support your organization? Ask these 9 questions.

1. How will you collaborate with our existing technology vendors and staff when designing and deploying VoIP solutions?

A seamless VoIP implementation requires close collaboration between your provider, internal IT team, and existing technology vendors. Your VoIP system must integrate with your internet service provider, network infrastructure, and with VoIP phone calls being real-time, call quality must be a focus.

• How will you approach collaboration?

• Will you coordinate with our IT resources to ensure proper bandwidth allocation, firewall configurations, and Quality of Service (QoS) settings?

• Do you collaborate with our partners on the network design, or do you have a standard procedure that can't be adjusted?

A good provider should conduct a thorough network assessment and work closely with all of your vendors and internal teams to expertly configure and test prior to the installation date to ensure a smooth transition.

Thinking about going with your IT provider for VoIP? Be sure to understand their knowledge and ability to deliver a well designed solution that supports how your business wants to communicate now and in the future.

For many IT companies, adding VoIP to their offering is a way to retain clients and keep 'sticky', but if this is not their core focus and they do not have expert resources dedicated to these solutions, it may not be best to "put all of your eggs in one basket."

2. Do you manage the complete number porting process?

Number portability is critical when switching phone providers. If businesses could not keep their established phone numbers, no one would ever change providers.

A reliable VoIP provider should handle the entire number porting process, ensuring a seamless transition with minimal downtime.

• What's the expected timeline for number porting?

• What information do I need for porting our numbers?

• Are there certain dates/times to port?

• Will there be any potential disruptions?

• Do you offer call forwarding or temporary numbers if needed?

• What about our fax line?

It's rare, but there are instances when phone or fax numbers can not be ported to a new service provider. Be sure to understand this during your provider evaluation process.

3. Do you help design call flows and automated attendant scripts to support optimal caller experiences?

An optimized VoIP system is an opportunity to improve customer interactions, deliver on ideal first impressions, and enable remote and hybrid teams to seamlessly connect.

Well-structured scripts and call flows ensure that calls reach the right department or individual quickly and efficiently, causing little frustration for the caller.

• Will you help design intelligent call routing, queue management, and automated attendant scripts?

• Do you offer professional voice recordings for greetings and menu prompts?

• Are there any AI-driven solutions to enhance customer self-service?

A provider that offers guidance and best practices can help improve caller satisfaction and streamline business operations.

4. Is on-site installation offered, and how do you ensure a smooth transition?

Many small and midsized businesses and nonprofits do not have dedicated experts to provide a seamless phone solution transition. This is when the VoIP provider can shine.

Understanding the approach to implementation is key. Many big name VoIP providers do not offer on-site installation with professional services if under a certain 'user threshold'. Other times, you must pay thousands of dollars for those resources to be on-site.

Many smaller regional VoIP providers will offer on-site installation with a team of expert engineers.

• Do you offer on-site installation?

• What does the install process look like

• Do you provide network assessments, hardware setup, and hands-on testing?

• If installation is remote, do you offer step-by-step guidance and live support?

• How do you minimize downtime and provide post-installation monitoring to quickly address any issues?

Whether your business is okay with a box of phones shipped to your office to 'simply plug in' or you value a hands-on approach to installation, a structured and well-managed transition is essential to prevent service disruptions.

5. What do the training options and resources look like to ensure understanding and adoption of the new solutions?

Adopting a new VoIP system requires user training to maximize efficiency. Employees need to understand how to use new features such as call transfers, conferencing, and mobile app integration.

With hundreds of features offered, employees need to understand how their unique system works and how best to utilize the technology.

• Does the provider offer live training sessions, recorded tutorials, or user manuals?

• Are there role-based training programs for administrators versus end-users?

• Is there support available when a user has a question or needs help learning the new system?

  
  

A provider that values training will help your business empower employees resulting in faster adoption and a smoother transition for your team.

6. What’s the process to request technical support or make changes to our phone system or services?

After the initial system implementation, ongoing support is crucial for maintaining performance and ensuring the technology support your communications goals.

Whether you need to update call routing, add new users, or troubleshoot call quality issues, the process should be simple and efficient.

Ask questions like:

• How are support requests handled?

• Do we email, call, submit a ticket via a portal, web chat, etc.?

• Do all staff have access to your support team or all requests need to go through an authorized contact?

• How quickly are support requests handled?

• Is there an escalation process for service impacting requests?

A VoIP provider with a well-defined and responsive support process will help ensure your VoIP system continues to meet your needs.

7. Do we have dedicated support or account resources?

With so many VoIP providers out there, how do you know what the support will like be like after the initial installation and go live?

• Will we call into a customer service department?

• Will we have to navigate a phone tree/auto attendant to provide the reason we are calling?

• Do we need to talk to several people before getting help?

• How quickly can we talk to someone?

As it relates to ongoing guidance to ensure the phone solutions are supporting your business goals:

• Will we have an account manager or someone at the leadership level that will provide proactive outreach and be available to discuss strategies to support your goals?

Before choosing a new business VoIP provider, decide if your small or midsized business or nonprofit can benefit from personalized and immediate support, or if you are okay with calling into a large call center or web chatting to get what you need.

8. What are the response times for service-impacting issues and system change requests?

In the event of an outage or system failure, rapid response times are critical to minimize business disruption.

Your provider should have a clear Service Level Agreement (SLA) outlining response and resolution times for different levels of support requests.

• What are guaranteed response times for critical issues?

• Do you offer 24/7 emergency support?

• What’s the escalation process if an issue isn’t resolved quickly?

• What are the levels of service for different types of support?

  
  

If phone calls are not a critical lifeline to your organization, perhaps immediate response from the VoIP provider is not a deal breaker.

However, if phone calls are key to the success of your small or midsized business or nonprofit, ensure the new business VoIP provider's level of service and approach to support aligns with your expectations.

9. What do your clients say about your company's level of support, expertise, and responsiveness?

Customer testimonials, case studies, and online reviews can give you glimpse of the provider's strengths and weaknesses.

• Can you provide client references from businesses similar to ours?

• What do current customers say about their support experience?

• Are they satisfied with response times and technical expertise?

• Why do customers leave to go with another business VoIP provider?

With so many options, it's up to your organization to determine the right fit business VoIP provider.

Beyond Features: Who is Supporting Your Technology?

Choosing a VoIP solution isn’t just about features—it’s about who is behind the scenes fueling the technology.

Before making a decision on your next business VoIP solution, ask these 9 questions to understand if the provider’s approach aligns with your business goals.

Could Recent Communications be your next business VoIP partner?

At Recent Communications, we understand that choosing a VoIP provider is about more than just the technology—it’s about finding a trusted partner who will support your business every step of the way.

Here's how we are different:

👩‍🏫 Consultative and educational sales experience to design the right fit solutions with a transformational partner

🕵️ Transparent and customized pricing with no hidden fees or 'gotchas’

⚙️ Collaboration with all tech resources to test and optimize network for VoIP and cloud communications

🤝 Extensive collaboration and best practice sharing to design customized solutions

🗒️ Custom staff training programs including live sessions with tailored guides, how to's and videos

🏠 U.S. based team of expert engineers dedicated to clients providing immediate and personalized support

🤩 Clients we know personally fueled by a transformational and lasting partnership mindset

Our client-focused approach and industry expertise allow us to be a collaborative technology partner to offer custom designed business communications solutions, on-site installation, tailored staff training programs, and dedicated technical support and account management.

With 98% client loyalty and our mission to build long lasting partnerships with all clients, we’re a transformational technology partner, not a transactional vendor.

Are you evaluating new business VoIP providers? Get in touch with us today to understand if we can be the right partner.

Contact:

Call: 484-998-4500

Chat: info@recentcom.com

Click: www.recentcom.com