Small Business Telecoms Discussion Area

Savvy_Sue

I cannot help much, but ...

pocket8s wrote: »

i need to be able to put callers on hold and would like music playing?

Must you? Few things make me madder than Phone Muzak: tinny and ghastly at the best of times, worse than that for anything more than 30 seconds.

How long will people be on hold for? If it's up to a minute, surely better to put them on silent (if you have to). If it's over a minute, why not phone them back? Yes, I know it costs you more, but what price decent customer service?

I hope someone else can help more with the other questions ...

woottonite

I am the owner of a payroll company and have been in the same premises for 6 years. During that time I have been receiving an ever increasing number of unsolicited sales calls on the office number, despite it being ex directory. I also have a local voip number on our internet site. Anyone who calls on that number trying to sell something is told that we can only handle payroll enquiries here, and no, we can't provide another number. The business is shortly moving into new premises with a new phone number and I was wondering what I can do from the outset to prevent the sales calls. It crossed my mind that if I bought an 09 number and used it when making enquiries or ordering things online - instances where you have to give a phone number or you cannot proceed any further, would that deter unsolicited callers do you think? Any ideas much appreciated

grantd

I'd encourage people to consider an internet based phone for a small business. Chances are you'll be moving premises at some point and this will really reduce downtime and costs.

RedBern

buglawton wrote: »

This co that I've dealt with for years has a Chip & Pin machine that works on the mobile phone system:

http://www.adelante.co.uk/product%20pdfs/Chip&Pin.pdf

I'm involved with a social enterprise and we've been approached by a company offering a chip and pin that works with a sim cars. What sort of price is reasonable for these, is there a monthly fee plus percentage?

buglawton

A call to Adelante or fill in their online form should answer the questions... I remember shopping around those years ago and Adelante was the best priced deal at the time.

stphnstevey

buglawton wrote: »

Here's my halfpennyworth:

ONE

Get Skype Unlimited Country for unlimited UK landline calls at any time for around £4/month.
Or Unlimited World at around £8.

These beat any inclusive plan or other VOIP offering. You can even use the international part via the inclusive mins on your mobile as there is a Skype 0208 access number. You can convert any Android or Nokia Symbian phone into a WiFi Skype one with a bit of free software or use a computer (hands free, works very well) to make calls. Many people advocate other VOIP services - they are all complicated and need a tech savvy installation. Skype is a doddle.

Hi - Can you give any more information or link to Skype that explains how to use the 0208 number please? Do you just phone the number and get access to Skype account? Do you pay the cost of the 0208 number and the cost of Skype call?

Also, do you know of any fax to email services?

Thanks

buglawton

For fax to email I use Sundial Telecom, for email to fax I use Soho66.

As for calling via Skype/0208, it works in a similar way to 18185, see:
http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/features/allfeatures/skype-to-go-number

...then log into your Skype account and look for Skype To Go

dwilliams_2

Businesses should definitely be looking at VOIP these days and prices are dropping considerably on calls. Businesses can make massive savings. Maybe they can do some sort of VOIP comparison on here.

Many of the VOIP companies are charging line rental or per channel costs. In the early days of VOIP there was no such thing. Its only because punters constantly asked "How much is the line rental" that they realised that people were USED to paying it and would not quibble.

A few providers are starting to become less greedy now. Surevoip.co.uk are no longer charging line rental but their costs are still quite high. Anything over 7p per minute to a UK mobile should be considered too much.

At siptrunkingprovider.info you can get UK mobile at 5p per minute and inbound geographic numbers for 75p per month, no contract or line rental.

If you have a half decent broadband connection, VOIP is definitely the way to go. We have been using between 15 to 25 users (small sales office) for nearly two years now and its been near as dammit flawless. Phone bill dropped from will over a grand a month to just under £500

buglawton

ever since my employer moved to 100% voip, call quality and continuity got worse. Ironic that from home we can chat inter-continentally in hi-fi sound, even good video, via Skype or MSN.

jimloxley

Hello MSF,

Been a fan of these forums a long time and decided it's time to make an account and start posting. Figured small business telecoms would be a good place to start.

I use Skype Business. They charged me around £50 for the year to have my own London-local landline with free unlimited calls to landline numbers. The quality is easily good enough to get by and mobile/0845 numbers are a reasonable rate. 0844 numbers won't work though so, if you dial them a lot, that is an issue.

Hope this helps someone.

Jim