Of all the things small businesses need, one of the most over looked are cordless 2 line phones. A lot of times, business startups are interested in saving money, so they try to stick with a cheap one line phone (and, of course, order only one phone line from the telephone company). This does keep costs down, but it has costs to the business that exceed the cost of the second line and of the cordless phone.
The first problem with using a standard one-line phone is that if you are on a call, other callers may get a busy signal or go to your telco provided voicemail service. Callers are expecting to speak with a human when they call, so if they get sent to voicemail, they may just hang up. Another reason why two lines are preferred for a small business is the ability to put a call on hold and dial out on a separate line. Why is this important? It’s important because you may need to call a vender or a freight service like UPS to get information related to a customer call. If you have only one line, you have to end the call, get the needed information, then call the customer back. In the meantime, the customer may have already called the competition to get the answers.
Now that the need for two lines has been established, let’s talk about the phone. Regular cordless phones keep a person bound to a certain area. Most small businesses don’t have a lot of people working there (sometimes the owner is the only one) and you just can’t afford having to stay around your desk when there’s work to be done in the warehouse! Rather than installing phone extensions everywhere, getting a cordless phone is a much cheaper alternative. Because you can clip the phone to your belt or put it in your pocket, the cordless phone allows you to tend to every aspect of your business without having to worry that you miss important calls.
Furthermore, if you have a cordless phone, you can stay with a customer while you look at inventory or check the shipping log. If a business has two phone lines and a cordless phone, the opportunity for growth is already there! Small business phone systems are available that allow users to forward calls, configure extensions, and have local voicemail. Once a business gets established, such a phone system would make sense to improve efficiency and communication.
Most of the time, the cordless phone can be connected to the system, allowing the cordless user to transfer calls, put calls on hold, etc. from anywhere in the building. By making the right choices with phones and lines, a business can improve its efficiency.
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