How Cloud Communication Helps Small Businesses To Compete With Big Enterprises

 

Cloud communication is a great way for any small business to keep up with the competition. 

The features and benefits that cloud solutions offer small businesses make them eligible to access and use the same enterprise-grade features that a large business has; without burning a hole in their pockets. 

As far as we are concerned, there is no reason a small business shouldn’t benefit from the same amazing features as big businesses do; and at Acefone we are dedicated to supporting businesses of all sizes to make the most of their cloud communication systems.

This article will explore how cloud communication helps small businesses compete with bigger enterprises.

Access to enterprise-level features

With cloud communication systems, small businesses have access to unique features tailored to their needs. These features are either included in your cloud phone system or are added at a small cost, and can do wonders for your business. 

One of these amazing features is a virtual assistant. Virtual assistants or virtual receptionists will take calls on your behalf and redirect them to the most suitable agent. They can also attend to calls when you are not available and will forward any messages to your email address when you are ready to catch up. 

This feature is perfect for small businesses who are not always available to take calls, could be working on a job or out pitching to clients. With a virtual assistant in place, you don’t need to worry about missing out on a customer, and your business looks highly professional too.

How many small businesses do you know with their own call centre? Not many, we would assume! 

Your small business can operate a hosted call centre to deal with queries, at a low cost and with minimal effort. Due to the flexible nature of cloud communications, you can hire remote workers anywhere in the world to monitor the phones when needed, and can always have someone online to take the call.

Having the ability to set up a call centre remotely and agents dealing with enquiries for you means that you will be able to focus on building your small business. In the meantime, having this level of customer service in a new business will leave customers with a professional impression of you, and they will know you invest in their satisfaction. 

Call centres and assistants are normally associated with large businesses, but any small business can compete with easy access to these amazing services with cloud communications. 

Customise your phone number to suit your needs

With cloud communications, you can customise your phone number to suit your business. If you are wanting to appeal to local customers in different areas, you can create a regional number for each location too. 

This means customers will dial a local number local and will be connected to whichever device you are working on. Customers are more likely to trust a local business, and many customers will actively seek out businesses in their area to support. 

If you want to appear larger and more established, then a national number might be the right choice for you. With cloud communication systems you can create an 0800 number that connects straight through to your chosen device. 

Customers will only see the free phone number, and will associate this with a large or well-established business—great for your business’ reputation!

Another way to boost the reputation and make your business memorable is to use a vanity number. Such a number will use alphabets instead of digits which make your company very recognisable to the customer. An example of a vanity number is 0800-GIFT-SHOP.

Normally, 0800 or 0808 numbers are used in large enterprises but with a hosted phone system these numbers are readily available to small businesses as well. Another benefit to both business and customer is that 0800 and 0808 numbers are free for the customers. Thus, when a customer calls your business, they are not spending anything, exactly what they would experience with a large and established organisation. Instead, you are charged for the call. 

Often a tell-tale sign of a new or small business is the phone number being a mobile number. This can potentially put some customers off, as they may not completely trust that you are an established brand. Customising your phone number puts an end to this, without you having to invest in costly telephone equipment.

Keep communications clear and connected at all times

Sometimes, as a small business when you are accepting calls you might be on the move or at a job. If this is the case, you may experience a poor connection and lose a customer as they can’t communicate with you clearly. 

A cloud phone system will keep your business connected no matter where you are, as long as there is an internet connection. Even with low bandwidth, you can work from anywhere in the world and connect to customers with crystal clear communications. With 99.99% uptime, your hosted phone system will run 24x7. And if anything does happen to your phone system your provider will have you up and running in minutes so you don’t miss a thing.

If you are a small business, you may not have a permanent location. This is where a cloud communication system comes into its own! You can use any device you like with an internet connection and can connect to your phone system with ease. 

You can make and receive calls, log customer information, access call reports and so much more all on one easy online platform. This flexibility is perfect for small businesses who need to be out of the office, and who don’t have office-based staff present at all times - you can go where you need to go without worrying about your phone system not being able to keep up.

Moreover, as a growing business, you might have to expand your office more than just once. With the scalability that cloud solutions offer, you can expand or relocate as many times as you want and your phone system will be ready to use after just a few minutes of setting up.

The flexibility, scalability, and reliability of cloud communications mean that small businesses can keep up with the technology and quality of communication seen in larger businesses. There is no longer any need to miss calls when out on jobs, as you can simply connect from anywhere on any device! 

Cloud communication is cost-effective

A big factor for small businesses is their budget and cloud communication is very cost-effective. As you are not making calls over a traditional phone line, but over your internet connection the cost of calling is much lower—and with Acefone you can create a plan tailored to your business, so you never pay for anything you don’t need!

With the flexibility in the costing of cloud communication, no longer is it just reserved for large enterprises. Cloud communications are accessible to any business of any size, whatever their budget and requirements may be.

Small businesses may have more concerns about costs and want to keep their spending under control with tighter margins. With customisable plans, it becomes very simple, and businesses can use the online portal to see details on call costs, the number of calls made, minutes remaining from their plan and so much more. These unique features of cloud communications alone are worth a lot to any business, but with the low costs associated with them, any business large or small can benefit significantly.

Keep your business competitive with cloud communications

If you want to keep your small business up with (or even beat) your larger competitors, cloud communications are a great step towards making this happen. With the long list of remarkable features tailored to your business requirements and the flexibility to work how and where you need to, hosted phone systems could hold the key to taking your small business to the next level.