6 Ways Your Office Phone System Can Damage Your Business

6 Ways Your Office Phone System Can Damage Your Business

Phone systems are important part of business whether big or small. However, buying a multi-line telephone system is not just about choosing the right design, deciding about the price, or knowing the famous brands. You must look at the features of the phone system as well.

The best business phone systems should be secure and fit to your goals. If not, it can cause you hundreds of dollars that will become a liability to your company.

To help you analyze your situation, know some of the ways your phone system can damage your company:

1. Not reading the service agreement

Always read the service agreement before buying the phone system. You do not want to pay for something, your business does not need. You can save a lot of money from knowing the details of your contract than canceling it after noticing the irregularities. Also, know how your Voice Over IP service provider can help you in case you encounter technical problems or even phone hacking. If you cannot understand something about the agreement, just ask.

2. Hard to operate phones

Whether you are a business-to-business or business-to-costumer company, phone systems are your direct line in getting an income. So, if your phones are difficult to operate and employees are pressing the wrong buttons, or transferring calls to wrong numbers, you might lose customers. Remember, you are a business and small mistakes like this can have huge impact to your success. Be sure that phones are easy to handle and employees are trained on how to operate them.

3. Lack of voice mail feature

While most of the phones today has this feature, there are models yet to adapt. You can lose plenty of sales and business deals if you do not have a voice mail option on your phone. Not all company has employees 24/7 to answer telephone calls. If clients inquire during weekend or holidays, you have the voice mail to get their details. You can contact them after asking how you can be of service.

4. No strong password standards

Phone security is a huge threat to your company. Take an architecture firm in California for example. The company lost $166,000 because of phone hacking. It would have taken an ordinary company 34 years to run up such charges. To avoid this, require all your employees to use strong passwords. Mix numbers and letters to strengthen passwords and limit the number of people who knows master passwords.

5. Not limiting IP address of phone users

Calling from an unlimited number of IP address makes your telephone system at risk of getting hacked.  Anyone can lease a premium-rate phone number, tap into your phone system and make unlimited calls. Restrict the IP address to monitor the calls that goes in and out of your system. This way, you are sure you are not paying for calls not made by your employees.

6. Not updating with your VoIP provider

Contact you Voice Over IP provider to ask for any updates on how they can make your system secure. You can ask for a Secure Internet Protocol (SIP) trunking service to avoid any suspicious connections. A Transport Layer Security (TLS) is also a good way to level up the security. It ensures the privacy between communicating applications and their clients. Always ask how you can avoid phone hacking.

Phone systems are important part of your company’s success. Be sure you purchase the best business phone systems. If you are not careful, you might end up getting a phone system that kills your business, instead of helping it grow.