IVR phone system for small business

[Rollin]

I need a 'press 1 for this, press 2 for that' type phone system at work to help reduce call volumes to our reception. I know very little about these systems.

I just need the phone to be answered and maximum of 4 options given. Nothing more complicated than that unless I can be shown the benefits of any extras.

Some of the options chosen would direct to recorded information.
When someone is listening to any recorded information, does this stop other calls coming through?

We have a decent broadband connection, but it's not fibre.
We have very low internet use, limited to cloud back ups twice a day.

I have spoken to a BT salesman who is sending a quote but I assume we can use other providers through our existing broadband connection?

What other pitfalls should I be looking out for?

[Jordie Barretts sock]

Speak to bOnline for a Voip set up.

BT is horrendously expensive and the customer care non existing.

My system works well on a 4G sim card Internet.

[dazmanultra]

We've used Voipfone in the past - https://www.voipfone.co.uk/
Quite a good number of options for routing/queuing calls etc.

The service you're looking for is what's called a hosted PBX.

[Rollin]

Thanks

BT have quoted 45+vat per month for 2 users, 500 minutes on each user.

42+vat per month for broadband and 4g backup

Will do some shopping around as have no clue

bOnline looking better already

Edited by Rollin on Wednesday 31st January 12:55

[pek66]

Our voip system costs £8.90 per user per month and £38 per month for a fast broadband line. I think its also 500 minutes per user (pooled) but we've never exceeded the allowance. They supplied 3 IP phones so it works like a traditional business phone system.

[Rollin]

pek66 said:

Our voip system costs £8.90 per user per month and £38 per month for a fast broadband line. I think its also 500 minutes per user (pooled) but we've never exceeded the allowance. They supplied 3 IP phones so it works like a traditional business phone system.

Thanks

bOnline have offered broadband, 2 users, unlimited calls for 34.95 +VAT for first 6months, the 40.95 +VAT for second 6 months.

Do you get latency on voice calls? It really bugs me. Is that down to the broadband connection or the VOIP supplier/software I wonder?

[Jordie Barretts sock]

I certainly never have. Clear as a bell and no issues.

[M1AGM]

Rollin said:

Thanks

bOnline have offered broadband, 2 users, unlimited calls for 34.95 +VAT for first 6months, the 40.95 +VAT for second 6 months.

Do you get latency on voice calls? It really bugs me. Is that down to the broadband connection or the VOIP supplier/software I wonder?

That is a good question and will depend on the circumstances. You say you have a broadband line, how fast is it up and down? And how much internet traffic is being consumed by general browsing, BYO devices (phones) eating up bandwidth etc.

You may be fine but what can happen is in a setup like the one I suspect you are in, you could be on the phone and barry in accounts decides to watch iplayer in his lunch break whilst someone else iphone is downloading an update/app, whilst someone else is sending lots of pics via whatsapp on your wifi, then the bandwidth gets eaten up. If you happen to be on a call at that moment you may experience 'robotic' voices which is the data packets not being able to get through in a timely manner. There are ways to mitigate this by using a router/firewall with bandwidth rules (to reserve enough data for voice at all times) but it isn't a common feature on SOHO devices last time I looked (we dont do SOHO work so I may be out of date on that).

Or it could be the VoIP provider, but that is unlikely unless they are having a problem. Or it could be your broadband line having issues. So no fixed answer as it depends on circumstances.

You really need to know the speeds your internet connection runs at to determine how best to use VoIP.

[Rollin]

Thanks for the info.
We have about 18 down and .85 up which I have now been informed has the risks you mentioned.

We are now being advised to go for 4G or 5G for the broadband.

[M1AGM]

Another option would be to have a second line just for VoIP.

I’d be nervous about using mobile data connectivity for my business comms. Fixed line/cable of some sort is imo always preferable.

Just in case, have you checked with the ISP (BT?) that the line you’ve got is running at it’s best speed?

[NickZ24]

Zadarma is quite neat.
https://zadarma.com/en/

[gotoPzero]

Used voipfone for 15 years when I had my business.

Had a lady from Oxford (IIRC) do the voice over for me via Fiver.

Then used a free MP3 editing software to put it all together.

I got extra phrases done to include things like bank holidays, xmas etc.

Also just reading a list of numbers and stuff.

You can have it up and running in a few days tops. If you did your own "press 4 for accounts" stuff then you can prob have it going in 10 minutes.