Essential Information Regarding Small Business Managed Phone Services

HRCT provides managed phone services for small to large size companies. Contact us today to discuss your small business phone needs.  
If you own a small business, you may not know where to turn for affordable phone lines that won’t let you down. HRCT understands your needs and is here to work with you, so you get the best system within your budget. Learn how many business lines to get for your organization and how other SMBs set up their phone lines.

How Many Phone Lines Do You Need?

Don’t overthink this. Step back and consider, for example, your basic needs. You should have a dedicated phone line for your business that customers use to reach you. Now, think of the bigger picture. You can use the same line for incoming and outgoing calls, but how many numbers do you need? Follow this process to find out:

1. Compare the number of employees you have now and how many you might need in two years.
2. Consider the size of the company and your industry, For example, restaurants need at least two numbers, whereas medical clinics need five or more.
3. Pull out your budget, financial forecasts and cash flow statements. Use an annualized calculation to determine how much you can afford to spend on phone lines.

Use this information to make a smart purchasing decision. Make sure to formulate a list of questions, such as whether a provider charges activation fees, service level agreements, and available sign-on bonuses, if any.

How Do Other Small Businesses Set Up Their Phones?

Here is what works for businesses of varying sizes across different industries:

• Professional Office. This includes legal, accounting, staffing and other professional offices with 10-150 employees. These businesses tend to need at least ten business phone lines. This accounts for faxes, sales calls, online collaboration, and teleconferences.
• Small Office. Small office/home office (SOHO) businesses typically look for the cheapest options that meet their needs. These business owners work on their own or have a few employees an only need one phone line.
• Retail. Retail shops may have up to five employees. Customers may call for information and staff members may need to make phone calls too. In this case, two phone lines should suffice. Also, you can have two receivers on a multi-line phone.
• Healthcare. Medical offices almost always involve a ton of communication. Patients call to make appointments, discuss bills and get test results. Healthcare workers call patients for appointment reminders and may call vendors and pharmacies to conduct their business. That’s why they need at least five lines.
• Hospitality. Restaurants, hotels, and bars do well with a 4-line phone system to deal with orders, customer service and reservations.

Hopefully, one of these models mirrors your own business to get you a good example to work with.

What Are HRCT’s Managed Phone Services?

HRCT provides managed phone services for small to large size companies. Here are just some of the services available to keep your phone system running optimally:

• Managed Services
• Hosted – VoIP
• Telephone and IT cabling and wiring
• Unified Messaging Solutions
• Hospitality, Hotel/Motel systems
• Business Telephone Endpoints
• SIP Trunks
• Variety of Products and Services
• Computer Telephony Integration

Contact us today to discuss your small business phone needs.