What is the best multi-line phone system for small businesses?

10th August 2019 | Robin James

Another question you could ask here would be “What is the best way to improve and streamline communications for employees and customers?” Essentially, this is where multi-line phone systems become an instant upgrade – especially for business purposes – on standard, traditional telephony systems. These older models are designed to hold a conversation between two parties – one on either end of a line. In the modern business world, you simply need more – and this is where multi-line phone systems come in.

What does a multi-line phone system offer?multi line phone systems

Imagine that you or one of your colleagues receive or make an incoming call right now. Then, another one of you needs to make an urgent phone call or is expecting one. A single-line phone system simply means you’ll have to wait. Multi-line phone systems, at a basic level, permit more than one person to be on the phone, whether for incoming or outgoing calls, at any given time.

The immediate benefits here, of course, are efficiency and productivity – if your workload requires you to be able to receive or make incoming or outgoing phone calls, you can do so without unnecessary, time-consuming delays. A multi-line phone system, therefore, could greatly increase your chance of retaining or appeasing a customer.

With research proving that up to three-quarters of customers can become “highly annoyed” when their call isn’t taken within a reasonable amount of time, a switch from a single to a multi-line phone system could make all the difference.

How do multi-line phone systems work?

While there are several different types of multi-line system, they each effectively perform the same function – giving your business the chance to take multiple calls simultaneously. For instance, you could have several phone lines connected to each phone unit, and each line could be answered individually.

This sort of multi-line phone system would usually be routed through a receptionist, who would then direct the incoming call to the appropriate person. Naturally, for a small business, this could mean hiring an extra member of staff simply to redirect phone calls (which seems to be something of a traditional solution to a modern problem – as opposed to the other way around!).

Fortunately, with multi-line phone systems from Planet Telecom, you can actually route all your incoming calls instead through a virtual switchboard. This enables your customers to get their call straight to the right person or leave a message that the correct member of staff will receive as soon as they are available.

What else does a multi-line phone system offer?

With the ability to either record your own answering messages or have your script recorded by the calm, professional tones of our staff, you can communicate with your customers even when you can’t immediately take the call. This means that, if you’re expecting a large volume of calls or have an important message to tell your customers, the virtual office assistant can come to the rescue.

Effectively, a multi-line phone system is designed to save the time of both you and your customers – with the added bonus that it can save you some money, too. Instead of calling customers back to relay a message, you could provide them with all the information they need to know via the virtual assistant.

For more information on how a multi-line phone system will work for your business, please give us a call on 0800 0886 886.