Super scalability
Ease-of-use. Stress-free scalability. With a VoIP phone system, you can have both. That means you can add and remove users, phone lines, features, and even locations as and when you please. There’s no technical knowledge required to do the job either—you can usually handle pretty much everything from your online dashboard.
A quick note: 2 types of multi-line phone systems to be aware of
As you're shopping, you'll come across traditional landline phone systems and more modern cloud-based phone systems.
- Traditional analog multi-line systems (like your basic landline or traditional PBX system) have been steadily growing obsolete because they have lots of hardware requirements and aren't very remote-work-friendly. Typically, they offer a limited number of lines and have only basic switching, holding, and speakerphone functionality.
- Cloud-based multi-line phone systems, on the other hand, use Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology to let you make voice calls over an Internet connection. There’s no expensive hardware needed and hardly any of the device and line restrictions that come with traditional systems. In fact, as long as you have a stable Internet connection, you can have as many lines as you need.
Today, most companies are moving toward cloud-based phone systems because of this (not to mention they also come with a lot of advanced features to streamline your communication channels, along with the essentials like call transferring, call waiting, and speed dial).
How to set up a multi-line phone system for your business
1. Sign up for one of Dialpad's plans
Creating an account with Dialpad takes just a few minutes. Go to dialpad.com/signup and you'll be able to sign up with your Google or Microsoft 365 account, or your email address.
After you've signed up, you'll be sent to the “Clients” tab, where you can choose the type of business you have and the number of lines you want to have to cover. This will get you started with a 14-day free trial. Once that trial is over, you’ll have the choice of converting to a paid account.
2. Assign phone extensions
Once you’ve created your account, you will be able to set up your business line. If you have multiple locations, you can add each location as a separate location. By assigning phone extensions, you can make sure all phone lines have their own unique code.
3. Start making and answering calls
Now you're all set up and ready to start making and answering calls! To make a call, just open up the desktop or mobile app (or log in on a web browser) and click the phone icon. In the Connect box, you can enter the number you’d like to call or the name of the person you are calling if they're in your Contacts list.
4. Customize your call settings
Any good phone system will let you set customized greetings and ringtones, but there are also several other call settings and features that you can manage with just a few clicks in Dialpad.
From the Settings menu, click the Advanced tab, where you can do things like porting over existing phone numbers, set call forwarding numbers, and more.
5. Record and upload your own personalized greetings
To record personalized greetings for each of your phone lines, just go to your Settings and hit "Call handling & Voicemail." From there, you'll be able to record or upload a greeting: