Deciding which small business phone system is right for you can be tricky, so we’re going to recommend you give our offerings a try. Call us biased, but we genuinely think 8x8 is the best virtual phone system for your small business.
Here’s why.
If you have a small business, we’re guessing you want to keep costs down. 8x8 gives you cloud-based (in other words, virtual) telephony as part of a unified communications as a service suite. This covers more than just advanced phone capabilities. It includes video conferencing and instant messaging for teams, as well as other tools for productive collaboration.
Let’s get into the fun stuff you can get out of 8x8.
Supported by secure, fully redundant data centers, 8x8’s business phone system gives you the call quality and security necessary for professional communications. Business continuity is practically guaranteed with 99.999% uptime SLA, and we’re constantly ensuring our technology stays up-to-date on data privacy compliance via third-party certifications.
And as far as day-to-day operations go, you get everything you need out of a business phone system. This means you can engage in phone calls (both incoming and outgoing), send and receive faxes, use your business phone number for SMS, set up a voicemail inbox, and establish call management rules for business hours.
And that’s just the basics. You can use a call recording feature that you can customize for recording all or just some conversations—it’s up to you. You can choose which audio message to listen to first with visual voicemail OR just read transcripts of the messages. You can have calls routed to your personal cell phone when you’re out of the office, or simply have other
team members answering them. You can even have custom greetings for your phone line. It’s like an office PBX system, but better.
How you maximize these features is up to you.
Video conferencing is more important than ever for any small business, if only because it makes it possible to work with people even when they’re operating in different cities. With 8x8, you get to hold HD video meetings on any device. Even better, you can have up to 100 people participating in that call (more, if you choose a more expensive plan).
You can join video conferences from your phone with the same video and audio quality you’d expect from a desktop or conference room setup. It also lets you choose any background you want for your video conferences, whether you like the glamour of a custom background or like to keep it simple with a defocused background.
Video conferencing with 8x8 is 100% secure and encrypted. And, as a bonus, you also have the option to initiate the video call recording function so you can review what you’ve covered in that interaction.
Business communications aren’t limited to real-time channels like voice and video calls. A lot of the time chat—whether you’re talking 1:1 or team messaging—works just as well, with the added benefit of having automatic documentation of your conversation that you can review.
With 8x8, you can have direct messaging or group conversations with co-workers for any project. This includes sharing files and the option to flip your chats into voice or video conferencing.
And, if you happen to be working with people using other apps like Slack or Skype for particular projects, you can use integrations that let you work across those different platforms through 8x8.
While most wouldn’t expect a small business to have a contact center serving their customers, it’s certainly doable. Even with just 8x8’s virtual phone system, you can manage customer interactions. It’s just a matter of knowing what features to leverage. For example:
You can integrate it with a CRM like Salesforce
Use a multi-level auto attendant to put callers in queues that will help connect them to an employee who can provide assistance
Monitor calls in order to give guidance to team members handling customer calls
Of course, you also have the option to get a plan that covers 8x8 Contact Center solutions.