1. It’s more accessible
Unlike landlines or local cell phone numbers, which only service a national, regional, or local geographic area, anyone from anywhere in the world can take advantage of VoIP services—as long as they have an internet connection and an internet-enabled device.
As a result, you can make your business available to international customers, and those from abroad can eaily connect with you as well. This massively expands your serviceable market and can make your business more accessible for prospective customers who would otherwise be unable to engage with your offerings.
2. It’s cheaper
VoIP is also cheaper than traditional phone services. Though both a basic landline and a VoIP phone service may cost around $30 a month, the difference lies in the metered component of the rate.
Specifically, for landlines, businesses are sometimes billed a per-minute rate on top of the fixed-rate monthly fee. These fees can be anywhere between $0.01 and $0.10 per minute for landline phones, which means that 1,000 minutes of call time per month could cost an additional $10 to $100.
On the other hand, nearly all VoIP services offer domestic calling free of charge, meaning that you would be charged a monthly service fee and nothing else. International calls are also more affordable, usually hovering around the $0.02 to $0.05 range per minute.
This is no accident. Unlike traditional telephones, which rely on a specific network of infrastructure to function, VoIP services can be priced far more affordably because they simply rely on the internet—infrastructure that’s already in use and widely available.
3. It’s portable
Traditional telephone services often tie a line to a specific piece of hardware. For example, your cell phone may have one number, while your landline might have another. Not only does this mean you’ll need a dedicated piece of hardware for each number, it also means that information isn’t portable across devices.
However, this isn’t the case for VoIP phone services. Because calls are internet-based, they’re not tied to a particular device, and can instead be used on (and sync to) any platform. In short, VoIP services are portable, and can allow a single phone number to be used on multiple devices at once.
For example, if you subscribe to a VoIP service, you can place and accept calls on any device that you have linked to the number. Gone are the days where you’ll need to sift through a barrage of voicemails because you couldn’t take your landline home with you after office hours.
And this isn’t the only scenario where VoIP services would come in handy. If you have multiple employees but want to have a single number for customers to call into, VoIP can also sync their devices’ call histories, allowing anyone available at the time to pick up the phone and answer inbound calls.
4. It’s more than just a phone
VoIP services offer much more than just voice call services. While they do include the basics, like calling and texting, that’s just the start. VoIP services are usually a suite of services, and these include video conferencing, group meetings, voicemail, video captioning, call transcription, and more.
Additionally, all of these services are centralized in one place, usually within a mobile, desktop, or web application. This allows you to seamlessly transition between talk, text/direct messaging, one-on-one video chat, and group meetings at the press of a button.
5. It’s software-enabled
The integrated video conferencing and direct messaging features included in most VoIP services go far beyond the basics. Because VoIP is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering, it’s usually built around powerful bundles of software intentionally built to enable and enhance real-time remote interactions.
Tangibly, this means that phone-calling features may include built-in capabilities like automatic noise canceling and audio quality enhancement—while video conferencing solutions may include screen sharing, interactive whiteboards, automatic live captions, background blurring, auto-muting, and much more.
Similarly, texting capabilities extend beyond the basics and can feature file-sharing, live file updates, text and comment threads, searchable chat histories, and more.
6. It’s multi-platform
While you may think of calling as an activity enabled exclusively by your phone, that’s not the case for VoIP. In fact, you can use VoIP services on virtually any internet-connected device with a microphone (and optionally, a screen.)
Apart from just your phone, this means that you can also place calls on your laptop, desktop computer, tablet—or even your smart home devices. Similarly, you can hold video conferences on any Internet-accessible device with a microphone and camera—which means that you may even be able to meet with someone via your security system, smartwatch, or video-enabled doorbell.
7. It allows you to multitask
Because VoIP services are multi-platform and software-enabled, you can do multiple things at once. Unlike a landline phone, which you can only use to place calls—and when you do so, only answer calls from a single person at a time—VoIP services allow you to do many things at once.
For example, you can be video conferencing with a client while updating a slide deck for a presentation you’re about to give. Or you can be calling one employee while sending another a few texts and a spreadsheet or two, something that business owners relying solely on landlines simply can’t do.
Of course, you can also call or video conference multiple people at the same time, or set custom permissions (e.g. set certain participants as speakers and others as listeners only) so that you can run meetings and provide information more efficiently.
8. It reduces the hardware you’ll need
Because you no longer need a dedicated landline or phone, you’ll be able to get rid of this extra hardware and free your desk of any unnecessary clutter. You could even go without a business smartphone and opt instead to have calls and texts exclusively on your laptop—if, of course, you wanted to.
VoIP services reduce the number of “one-trick” devices you need to have on hand and can help you consolidate all of your communication needs onto a single platform or device. Sometimes this can help save on costs as well, since you won’t have to invest in as much hardware or pay to maintain so many devices.
9. It’s more secure
Beyond notable convenience factors, VoIP solutions are also more secure. Unlike traditional telephone services, they’re immune to wiretapping—the act of connecting a listening device to eavesdrop on a telephone conversation. Because they’re supported by robust software suites, VoIP solutions can also intelligently block spam or other suspicious calls, reveal caller IDs, and prevent other malicious activity from occurring.
While VoIP systems may be vulnerable to hacking, unlike landlines, this has less to do with VoIP as a service and more to do with the security of your internet connection and router. If you are aggressive enough about securing your internet network, your phone calls, voicemails, direct messages, video logs, transcriptions, and shared files should be likewise protected from bad actors.
10. It’s scalable
VoIP services scale well with your company. If you have an extra employee, or a need for an extra phone number, simply purchase another license via your VoIP provider. Unlike landline or traditional telephone services, there’s no extra hardware you need to buy and install and no dedicated phone you have to assign (and confine) the service to.
With VoIP, simply provide license codes to your new employees and have them download a few applications, and they’ll be able to access a full suite of VoIP services using their existing devices. Not to mention, this practice is scalable—often, the more employees you add, the less the VoIP service will cost per person. Though you may still be subject to the same metered rates per minute for international calls, each additional employee will generally be less expensive than the last.
Likewise, if you want to reduce the number of phone numbers you have on hand, you can scale down just as easily. Unlike traditional phone services, which would leave you with extraneous hardware when you cancel a line, there’s no wasted hardware when you downgrade your VoIP services. Simply do the opposite by revoking access and deleting a few apps, and you’re good to go.
Conclusion
Voice over Internet Protocol services are an easy, cost-efficient, scalable, secure, portable, multi-channel, and software-enhanced way to connect with current and potential customers, employees, investors, and other stakeholders. VoIP is an efficient and convenient digital-first way of reaching others in the 21st Century, and can save business owners a significant amount of time, energy, money, and space.
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