When there is a business decision to be made most business owners or decision makers will follow a process and complete thorough due diligence before making a commitment and this should be no different when it comes to choosing which partner to work with for your telephony.
Like it or not, telephony is still a critical communication service used by pretty much every business globally, so making the right choice when it comes to placing your business is paramount!
“36% of respondents in the Customer Communications Review rank phone calls as the top preferred communication channel, as opposed to email ranking in at 30%.”
There are some key fundamentals to take into consideration when looking to make the move that will help you make a better-informed decision and (hopefully!) choose a partner to work with for the long term.
MARKET FOOTPRINT
Probably the easiest part of the evaluation is to ask your potential provider for examples and use cases of other businesses that are either in your vertical, or, at the very least in a similar vertical. These examples prove to you that your potential provider has experience in your industry and has at least some understanding of the importance of the telephony solution they are looking to supply.
REFERENCES
Any provider worth working with should have an abundance of happy customers willing to provide a good reference. This should encompass all aspects of the telephony solution from the sales process to the ongoing support i.e. did they take the time to understand the businesses needs? Did they provide a solution that addressed those needs and alleviate any issues? Do they provide responsive customer service?
THE SOLUTION
No two businesses are the same and all have varying degrees of need and requirements when it comes to their telephony. When a business is looking to change telephony provider it is a perfect opportunity to evaluate their existing solution and explore the market for something that will benefit them. Your new provider should take time to understand your business and provide use cases and/or scenarios where the proposed solution will improve business productivity or efficiency. It’s always good practice to compile a list of questions and/or communication headaches that can be addressed as part of the solution evaluation process.
COST
As with all things, there has to be a budget in place when it comes to changing your telephony service and as you would expect there will be providers that are cheaper and those that are more expensive than others. The most important thing to make sure of is that you are comparing apples to apples and that all proposals you are reviewing include the same products and services and if not, why? Some providers will provide a comprehensive solution that will be deployed on its own network; so naturally additional hardware and services will be needed. Alternatively, some providers will assume that everything is in place and will only include the bare minimum in their proposal. There is nothing wrong with either approach as long as you are aware, understand the differences between them and more importantly why the respective partners have quoted that way.
Security & Resilience
- What anti-fraud measures does the platform have in place?
- How do you prevent unauthorised access?
- Where is my call recording data stored and what security measures are in place to protect it?
- What resilience is in place?
- Where are your data centres?
- What is the platform uptime?
If a partner can answer these comprehensively then you can be confident that they take security and resilience seriously.
BE THOROUGH & THINK WISE!
By using the above steps in your evaluation process, you can be confident that you are on the right track to choose the best telephony provider for your business. However, most businesses will make their final decision based on three elements – Cost, Quality of Service and Speed of Service. It’s therefore a good idea to bear in mind:
THE POWERS IN YOUR HANDS
Call us on 0333 150 6780, email or fill out the contact form below and a member of the team will be in touch.
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