In business, your growth potential can be limited by your inability to truly connect and engage with your customers. Business leaders have had to quickly learn how to adapt to a world with a global pandemic that makes communicating with customers extremely difficult. The obstacles have forced leaders to rethink the importance of modern communication and their own path forward in a rapidly changing environment.
This rethinking led to many business owners to determine that on-prem PBX systems were not designed for employees who need to work from home. So, if you’re starting to wonder if your PBX is failing your company, here are three early warning signs that a switch may be necessary.
Setting for Below Average Call Quality
Your phone system should not get in the way when speaking with a customer. The conversation is meant to be smooth, clear and effortless. If audio is being distorted or cut off by an outdated on-prem PBX system, it hurts your chances of being able to provide a positive customer experience.
Now, what if the call quality is so poor that the call drops? The likelihood of a prospective customer answering the phone when a sales agent (for example) calls back are slim. Dropped calls are also very frustrating for employees, whether a sales rep or a sales agent who lost an opportunity because of a faulty phone system.
If this all sounds way too familiar, it may be time to upgrade to an easy to use, stable modern solution with crystal-clear call quality.
Experiencing a Painful Transition to Remote Work
Without the appropriate phone system in place, remote workers could be forced to use their personal phones to maintain a high level of customer experience. This comes with many issues including an inability to track calls and the issue of revealing the agent’s personal caller information. Fixing this issue involves an inefficient IT process of installing switches, potentially securing additional user licenses, and configuring VPNs to make an on-prem PBX work from outside of the office- which can get extremely complicated.
Using personal devices also comes with a sharp increase in security risks. When business is conducted on systems outside of your network, this presents vulnerabilities and could result in a compromise of business-critical information. If you think there could be weak points in your network’s security, it might be time to think about abandoning that legacy architecture for a cloud-based solution.
Lacking True Unified Communication and Collaboration Features
With so many avenues of communication today, many people prefer a method outside of the standard phone call. Customers may prefer to communicate through text or chat. If you’re not catering to that audience, a competitor could steal that opportunity by utilizing a more robust phone system with popular communication options.
Your team could also benefit from having a diverse arsenal of communication tools, especially during this time of working remote. Being able to see each other through video chat or send a quick, short message through SMS chat can build a sense of togetherness during this troubling time where we all feel so far apart.
A unified communications solution could be further enhanced by introducing collaboration tools on top of the solution. This addition allows for employees to work directly with each other by sharing files or conducting meetings with screen share to work on projects together at the same time.
Phone Vendors Are Leaving On-Prem Behind
On-prem PBX systems are soon to be a relic of the past. It just doesn’t make sense for phone vendors to pay attention to a technology that doesn’t work in today’s remote work-driven environment. Phone vendors are also dedicating fewer resources to maintaining these systems, which results in very limited support for technical issues. In addition, R&D efforts are now being allocated to newer cloud-based technologies
If you are experiencing a phone system with the limitations we have discussed today, then it might be time to start looking at cloud-based phone solutions. A cloud PBX also comes with the benefit of being able to easily scale up or down and easily integrate 3rd party apps, depending on your business’s exact needs at any given time.
Migrating your phone system is no easy task and there is not one solution that works for every business. If you are looking for a partner to help you with the process, give us a call!
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Suellen Meyers: December 21, 2023
