Taking the time to choose the right telecoms provider will save your business thousands, but with so many providers promising the best deal in town it is often difficult to make a decision. Here are 6 tips to assist you with finding the right telecoms provider:

1. Find a single supplier for all services. Your telecoms provider should work closely with you to design the perfect telecoms solution for your business and some can even provide one simple monthly bill for all products and services. This will ensure your bill is easy to read and you have a firm grasp on outgoing costs.
2. Broaden your horizons. Look for a telecoms company with a wide product range and the ability to pick and choose the right solutions for your business.
3. Remember price and product quality are equally important. Choose a low cost provider but ensure you don’t skimp on quality, otherwise you might end up forking out more in the long run.
4. Build a relationship. Most suppliers will host reward systems for loyalty, reap the benefits of this and save your business money.
5. Trust the experts. There are lots of options open to businesses looking for a telecoms provider so it’s worth taking the advice of experts. Look for things like ISO quality standards and business and industry awards.
6. Do your research. The internet has everything at your fingertips, and this includes reviews of products and discussions. Forums are a great source of information and provide the opportunity for you to voice your own questions or concerns.

For those businesses that use UK 0800 numbers for marketing, the Auto-Attendant facility is a valuable tool for managing incoming calls effectively and providing a high level of customer service.

First and foremost, because 0800 numbers are a UK Freephone number, higher call volumes are generated when the number is marketed correctly.  It has been proven that businesses marketing a free to call number will achieve at least double the volume of calls compared with businesses using chargeable numbers. The Auto-Attendant solution provides management incoming calls of a higher volume.

The setup of an Auto-Attendant solution is quite simple.  The Auto Attendant provides the customer who is calling the business with a recorded welcome message, immediately after the caller is presented with a series of department options.  For example, press one for sales, press two for customer service, press three for accounts and so on.

Companies of all sizes benefit from the Auto Attendant solution for inbound call handling.  The benefit of Auto-Attendant for larger companies is that the feature allows businesses to manage calls to the correct department in and out of office hours, with multiple departments the caller is satisfied to speak with the right staff member with a simple press of their telephone keypad.

The benefit for smaller businesses using the Auto-Attendant solution, is that the professionally recorded welcome and options message creates a great first impression, making the business appear larger and more established than it is. Auto attendant can be configured to be answered at the same target number, but the caller builds up their own image of multiple departments.  Customer relationships are often improved with such measures, with the customer speaking with the business owner who specializes in all areas of their business.

A further upside of using this call management feature is that it allows business owners and staff to route calls to either their landline or mobile phone.  This call routing function means that even if the business is expecting an important call, they can leave the office and still be able to answer the call at any time.  The number missed calls is reduced drastically.

The freephone 0800 numbers offered by some providers, often come without a connection fee, which helps to justify the extra cost incurred by the Auto Attendant feature. The rate for such a feature will vary from one telecoms provider to the next.  Because Auto Attendant allows businesses to save the money, i.e. reducing the cost of separate phone lines for multiple departments within the business, the whole endeavour can be looked at as a great money saver.

ISDN stands for Integrated Service Digital Network. It’s used for sending voice, video and data over telephone wires – digitally.

With ISDN, you get a high-performance service, with almost instant connection, crystal clear voice quality and fast data transfer at a rate up to 128 Kbps (128,000 bits per second) compared with only 56 Kbps for analogue.
When you use ISDN, you can send and receive calls to all telephone subscribers, whether they use analogue or digital equipment. To use the traditional copper phone lines for your ISDN service, you need to be within about 3.4 miles or 5.5. kilometers of the local exchange. If your building is further away, ISDN may require repeater devices or fibre optic cables to be installed.

Depending on the number of phone lines you have, you’ll need ISDN2 or ISDN30.

ISDN2 (also known as Basic Rate Interface or BRI) ideal for offices with 2-10 phone lines where you can attach up to 10 digital devices; Each ISDN2 line carries a pair of channels, one line costs about the same as two analogue phone lines.

ISDN30 (also known as Primary Rate Interface or PRI) suits offices with more than 8 phone lines, and wide-area networks (WANs) linking two or more offices; Each ISDN30 connection provides between 8 and 30 independent channels, which can be combined if you want to do anything that uses a lot of bandwidth such as high-quality video conferencing or transferring large data files.

Before ISDN, voice calls and dial-up modems used analogue signals that had time lag, line noise and distorted quality. You couldn’t use the phone or fax at the same time as being online.