Choosing a telecoms provider can often be a long and difficult process. There are many factors you need to take into consideration before you make the switch to a new telecoms provider. In this article, you will learn what to look for in a telecoms provider and how to vet a telecoms provider, so you have the best chance of getting your money’s worth.
What are Telecoms?
Telecoms, or telecommunications, is often used interchangeably with ISP (Internet Service Provider) and used to refer to the services provided by companies that give you access to the internet or install phone lines. This article will only be covering phone systems/line rental, because that is what telecoms is supposed to refer to. Read our guides on broadband and internet connectivity if you are not looking for telecoms.
What are the Differences Between Business and Residential Telecoms?
The most basic telecoms packages for businesses differ mainly in care level and features when compared to residential telecoms. For example, Ballscoigne business phone lines come with Care Level 2 by default which means any problems with the line are fixed before they would be had a residential line been installed. Business telecoms solutions usually apply to different situations that you would not find in a home – 30 simultaneous calls on one line – for example, would very rarely, if ever, be necessary in a residential environment.
Business telecoms phone lines also need to be installed in the correct locations for your business. You wouldn’t want the socket to be placed behind a radiator, or on the wrong side of your office. Home owners would not get quite the same level of say as to where their sockets must be installed, partly due to engineer time constraints.
What Should You Look for in a Business Telecoms Provider?
Reliability
Arguably, the most important factor in deciding upon a business telecoms provider is reliability. It doesn’t matter how good a deal you got if your telecoms provider doesn’t actually provide! Could your business survive 10 minutes without a phone service? How about an hour? Or a day?
Customer Support
Regardless of your knowledge of phone systems, it is important that your business telecoms provider can give you all the help you require. While they will probably tell you to go to your IT team to set things up how you like it, it is vital that they give you service updates, help you if you are not receiving a dial tone, and help with any other technical issues you may be having.
Customer Portal
This one is more important than you may think – having a customer portal which tracks your call usage is so handy when you are on a budget. It’s great when your employees have quotas to meet and you need to be sure they are meeting them. Whilst not a replacement for in-house call monitoring software, it is an excellent “official” log of all your calls.
Scalability
Can your provider accomodate your business’ growth? Can they install new lines or channels for you? If not, they may not be worth going with.
Security
It is so important that your business telecoms provder has some kind of fraud prevention system in place. If not, you could be liable to front massive, fraudulently generated bills, which might sink your company. Ballscoigne sells award-winning Emsisoft Anti-Malware to help protect your business from malware and hackers.
Range of Services
After you switch to a new telecoms provider, it is likely you will wish to embrace their broadband packages too (particularly if you switch to Ballscoigne!). A business telecoms provider which does not have broadband services may not be worth investing your money into, especially if broadband-only deals in your area are especially poor.
Price
Price has purposely been left until the end. Price alone cannot tell you how good a provider is, nor does it determine your profit margins; but it is certainly one of the largest factors in choosing whether to switch business telecoms providers. First, check to make sure the provider you wish to switch to has all the features you need, then look to the services you may want in the future, and finally look at the price.
Ballscoigne’s standard rate charge is only 4p a minute. That’s 16p cheaper than BT, 19p cheaper than Plusnet, and 17p cheaper than TalkTalk. To put that into perspective, if you spent 3 hours of 1 month making calls to local UK numbers at 20p a minute, you would spend £36 with BT. With Ballscoigne, you would only spend £7.45!
How Does Ballscoigne Compare?
Ballscoigne has truly unbeatable prices when it comes to business telecoms. We have excellent business broadband deals as well, and to complete the package, we even offer anti-malware software for your business.
Call today to see how Ballscoigne can transform your telecoms.
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