How can a VoIP softphone help your business?

If you hadn’t heard the phrase ‘softphone’ before Covid you no doubt will of heard of it now. Seen now, as the saviour of many businesses who had to have their staff work from home it became an essential part of working from home.

So what is a VoIP softphone?  A softphone is a type of software-based telephone that allows you to make calls using your desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile phone instead of a deskphone or cordless phone. In simple terms, with a softphone you can make telephone calls without an an actual physical telephone.

Most VoIP softphone applications have an accessible user-friendly interface. They copy the familiar desk phone experience so that you get all the usual buttons and options such as call hold, directory, extension dialling and call transfer.  Installation is usually just a matter of downloading an application from the app store or from the provider onto your device of choice.

When speaking to our customers there are typically 3 main reasons why they have decided to rollout softphones to their staff insread of a desk phone:

Flexible and Hybrid Working: a softphone application by its nature is portable. That means that wherever you are, in a coffee shop, on a train, working from home you can make and receive business calls as if you were in the office. With additional features such as presence management you can also see the status of all of your colleagues before transferring a call to them.

Reduced Capital Costs: Software is simply less expensive to buy and manage than physical hardware.  No expensive up front costs, no long term leases of equipment. Using VoIP softphones on hardware you already own is a more cost effective way of running your business.

Privacy: Your member of staff already has a mobile phone or your employees do not have company mobile phones. Just their personal ones. With a softphone app you can answer your work calls on your mobie device whilst keeping your personal contacts and information seperate. More importantly because any calls you make from the app present your work number you are not having to give your personal mobile number out and of course from a cost perspective no claiming back calls on expenses as any calls made from the app are billed direct to the business.

The benefits of a VoIP softphone for a business are clear, and the installation and use of it could not be easier but with the choice of softphones on the market how do you choose the right one for your business?

Anthony Temperton of KAT Communications says “It is very easy to get lured in with all the bells and whistles of softphone similar to how you choose a mobile phone. The most important thing is choose the platform first. You can have the fanciest softphone in the world but if the voip platform it is connected to crashes weekly or has poor quality then that is more of an issue. Get the platform right and the rest will follow.”

So once you have the platform decide on the features that are the most suitable to your business, ie voicemail, call hold, call transfer, time of day routing on calls.

For more information on VoIP softphones or to have all the features of a traditional deskphone but with that little bit more then contact our team today on 01302 260195 or enquiries@katcommunications.co.uk