Enterprise Communications with a Small Business Cloud Phone System

If you’re a small business leader, you are used to wearing multiple hats to cover multiple jobs. From marketing to inventory to payroll to sales—it’s all a part of a typical day's work. 

But what happens when your small business cloud phone system or fax solution isn’t working right, or you can’t figure out how to connect it to another device or business solution you use regularly? That’s when having an IT staff ready to step in and fix the problem would save you time and frustration.

Thankfully, small businesses can achieve enterprise-level communications even without internal tech support by choosing the right cloud communications solution and service provider.

Three Steps to Enterprise-Level Communications for Small Business

Step 1: Move your phone and fax to the cloud

Legacy landlines are on their way out now that telecom giants are decommissioning their copper wire-based networks and charging high rates to nudge users toward VoIP-based service.

Many small business owners have responded by using their personal cell phones for business, but that isn’t a viable long-term fix. It eliminates any remaining separation between work and personal life—a common struggle for small business owners—and it doesn’t give you the integration of services you need to conduct enterprise-level work.

Moving your communications to a cloud phone system gives you access to voice and texting services with enhanced functionalities across your organization for all employees, no matter their location. Depending on the cloud phone system you choose, the service can include powerful integrations to collaboration platforms like Microsoft Teams.

Accessing your cloud phone system is also user-friendly: you simply log into a web portal on a desktop or an app from any mobile device to connect to your communication service. When you have cloud communications available through a single platform, you streamline and simplify operations for optimum ease and efficiency.

Step 2: Choose a cloud phone system that’s easy to operate, with support available when you need it

Small business owners shouldn’t need an IT administrator to help them operate their communications solutions. You need a cloud phone system that has user-friendly features that anyone in the organization can use—even the less tech-savvy ones. You also want a solution that has a simple interface with features that can be easily accessed through an intuitive dashboard.

Also, having a cloud phone system with comprehensive, ongoing tech support is non-negotiable for small businesses. Many big-name enterprise cloud phone solutions say they provide support, but what they offer smaller clients is simply an online resource library and a chatbot. For instance, more than 50% of telecom companies are now deploying AI chatbots to cover for acute worker shortages.

SMB owners need support when they need it, and that means human support to step in where online resources fall short. The best small business phone solution designed specifically for smaller companies will provide responsive assistance to match your needs and expectations.

Step 3: Look for quality of features over quantity

Some enterprise phone system carriers try to impress you with an endless list of available features. But let’s face it; sometimes less is more. Most small business owners want a fairly concise number of rock-solid features and want them to work seamlessly. And you don’t want to pay extra for features you don’t need.

The top priority is strong and reliable phone service with texting capabilities. You also need flexible features to help you manage calls when you’re on the go or things get especially busy, such as shared numbers, call routing, auto attendant and call queue. If you need fax service, you want a solution that is scalable, robust and secure so you can fax as little or as much as you need depending on the seasonality needs of your business while protecting data and meeting privacy requirements. You can also look for virtual fax capabilities so you can fax via email or on a web platform using your mobile device.

When you have a smaller set of features, you pay for what you actually use and maximize the return on your technology investment.

Main Requirement for Enterprise Communications: Reliability

Big corporations do a great job of ensuring critical business functions are always available across their organization and outward to their customers. Yes, that’s easier when you have an internal tech support team down the hall. However, small businesses can get the same level of business continuity by working with a cloud business phone provider that provides technical and consulting support to restore operations quickly.

You also need a solution with the right infrastructure to minimize operational disruptions in the first place: built-in, geographically redundant architecture; local hardware with failover or high availability deployments; and hot standby during system configurations. The right cloud-based provider will help you customize your business continuity strategy to the distinct requirements of your company.

Are you eager to get enterprise-level communications designed for SMB needs and budgets? The first step to choosing a winner is seeing it in action. Reach out to Cloudli today to see a demo of our cloud phone system.