5 Reasons To Use A Cloud Phone System For Remote Teams
Written by: Hrishikesh Pardeshi, Founder at Flexiple, buildd & Remote Tools.
Last updated: Sep 03, 2024
Working remotely is becoming the new normal. The trend has expanded globally, as new technologies have successfully supported the change. Even though remote, teams can stay in touch daily, no matter where they are.
Technology that has made everyone’s life easier is the cloud phone system. It has enabled people in the field to stay in touch with the office. But, the most exciting part is that any device with a microphone and a speaker can become a part of the communication system.
If you’re thinking of implementing a cloud phone system, there are many reasons to do it. We’re going to explore five of the best ones:
- Clear centralized communication
- Scalability
- Customer experience
- Security
- No hardware on business premises
Before exploring all these points in more detail, let’s briefly explain what a cloud phone system is.
What is a cloud phone system?
Cloud phones systems operate through the internet. The service runs in the cloud through a specialized network, enabling anyone with internet access to join a call. It serves to establish simple communication for all the network members.
The system is the perfect tool for remote teams. No matter where your employees are, they can stay in touch and share business updates. That solidifies their collaborative efforts and simplifies in-house communication. The result is stable productivity.
There are plenty of companies offering cloud phone systems. You might have heard of RingCentral or Talkdesk, but there are also plenty of Talkdesk alternatives worth exploring.
Businesses are switching to cloud phone systems due to the practicality of the whole system. Keep reading to discover what the essential benefits are.
Why you should use a cloud phone system in your remote team:
1. Complete communication in one place
One of the biggest reasons to use a cloud phone system for your remote team is to keep all the business communication in one place. That means that all your teams can reach out to one another in a matter of minutes.
The best part, it’s irrelevant where they are. If you are working with remote employees who need to be in the field, you can still reach out to them. The advantage of cloud phone systems lies in their support for various platforms.
Whether your employees are on a computer, a tablet, or a smartphone, they’ll be able to answer and communicate with the rest of the team quickly.
You’ll help your employees keep communicating and collaborating effectively — keeping productivity high.
That’s not all. Phone systems are a perfect way of providing customer support. While many love using live chat, email, and other similar forms of communication, phone calls are still important.
There are plenty of scenarios that require a person who’ll provide help on the other side of the line.
With features like call forwarding, providing excellent customer support is easier to accomplish. For example, you can use the official customer support number and forward it to different customer support agents.
Why is that important? Well, you can use agents across the globe and have them ready to answer 24/7. Customers love around-the-clock customer service.
2. Scalability potential
Every business has its ups and downs. That’s why investing in excess equipment can be problematic. To put it simply, it might turn out to be a waste of resources. Cloud-based systems are incredibly efficient in these circumstances. Here’s how.
You don’t have to create your in-house phone system with a whole crew of IT specialists there just to keep it alive. Doing that can quickly incur unnecessary costs to your business.
With a cloud phone system, you outsource the maintenance part as well. Everything’s in the hands of the service provider.
Control of your needs is one phone call away. For example, if you’re expanding rapidly, all you have to do is reach out to the service provider and request them to add more users.
On the other hand, if you’re cutting costs, you can request a reduction of active users with your plan.
Therefore, no matter how big you’re planning to grow, your cloud phone system can quickly adapt to your needs. You can always rest assured that there will be no hiccups with scaling your phone network.
3. Impeccable customer experience
Offering a great customer experience starts from the moment your potential client gets to your website. You want to ensure that the design of your website is straightforward. That way, a customer can navigate while learning all the essentials of your product.
If you’re wondering what a phone system has to do with it, remember that these are software tools that pack plenty of unique features.
For example, Ringblaze supports adding a Call us button throughout the website. The visitor is two clicks away from making a phone call requesting assistance with their purchase.
Offering this option will help you provide an outstanding customer experience from the moment someone lands on your site.
That’s essential for your business’s customer retention rates. The better the buyer’s journey is, the likelier they’re going to come back to buy from you again in the future.
Another important fact is that we’re talking about modern technology with high service reliability. The high voice quality ensures that the customer will hear and understand your customer support agents clearly.
Additionally, they’ll be able to call you whenever they want, as the industry standard is 99.9% uptime — meaning that all your phones are always available.
Furthermore, you can use the system’s integration support and connect it to the rest of your software solutions. Even though your whole team is remote, you still get to centralize your client details and offer outstanding customer service through an efficient live chat answering service.
4. Security
Cybersecurity is at the center of attention these days as ransomware attacks are on the rise. When you consider that it’s only one of the many types of cyberattacks, it’s obvious how cybersecurity will become more relevant in the future.
As an increasing number of teams are becoming remote, remote employees will likely become cyber attack targets.
Therefore, running your own IT network and establishing systems can turn into a significant investment. You would have to hire an IT team to run everything. On top of that, you would need security experts to keep everything safe from intrusions.
Implementing a cloud phone system is a more secure option in two ways.
First, the service provider already has some security system in place. Let them worry about the levels of security of their system. If they’re bad, you can quickly switch to a more secure provider.
Second, you can deploy protection tools on your side, making your network more secure. A good suggestion is to set up a VPN running to isolate your network from outside attacks. Since you’re already running a cloud phone system, a cloud VPN makes a lot more sense. Plus, you’ll have security specialists constantly monitoring the VPN environment to make sure no prying eyes manage to go through the filters.
These two facts automatically grow your remote team’s security. The whole network is up in the cloud, where professionals take all the necessary measures to keep it safe at all times.
5. No onsite systems
Unlike many other tech solutions, cloud phone systems require no onsite devices.
Imagine having to run everything on your own. That would imply higher costs for the hardware. It would also require software and hardware update and maintenance. Scaling up would cause further complications. More remote offices would require additional equipment.
On the other hand, if you were to scale down your business, you would end up with unnecessarily expensive hardware that still has high maintenance costs.
With a cloud phone system, you only need your existing equipment. Once you install the software or access a platform, you can use it to communicate with your colleagues. There’s no need to invest in any additional equipment.
All of the system costs are on the service provider’s side. It works best for you and them. You get all the flexibility you need. On the other hand, the provider can offer competitive pricing due to the consistently high number of clients.
Finishing Thoughts on remote cloud phone systems
If you’re running a business with remote teams, a cloud phone system is a great solution. Covering all the communication bridges is essential for seamless collaboration and high productivity. And that’s exactly what you get with a good cloud phone system provider.
These systems are affordable, reliable and secure. They are one of the best ways to keep your whole workforce in one place, even though they are remote.