Need small business phone services? Dialpad gives you a lot more than just phone calls. It comes with video conferencing, instant and SMS + MMS messaging, and even a fully integrated contact center platform (if you need it). Book yourself a product tour to see how easy it is to use!
Running a small business can be hectic.
For many people, setting up a business phone line is the last thing on your mind. You’ve been okay so far taking incoming calls and text messaging clients on your cell phone, haven’t you?
But if you find yourself taking calls from clients way past business hours—or trying to find that one really important text thread with a customer without any luck—it might be a sign that your small business needs a proper business phone system.
But how do you choose the right phone service for your business?
A small business phone system is essentially a communications setup that's designed specifically for a small business to make phone calls in addition to other features like call queues, call forwarding, and call routing.
Traditionally, these would be PBX phone systems, but today, VoIP phone systems that enable phone calls over an Internet connection are becoming more and more common.
What's key here is the communication needs of small and growing companies are very different from global corporations and residential phone services. That’s because of things like the volume of communications they have on a regular basis, the types of interactions they have to handle, and so on.
Today, a small business phone service is often much more than just a "phone service." In many cases, it's a full-fledged communications platform that lets you communicate in a variety of ways including outbound and inbound phone calls, instant and SMS messaging, video meetings, and sometimes, it even has contact center functionality!
Make crystal-clear voice calls from the cloud from anywhere with Dialpad's global voice network.
Send SMS / MMS texts, and group messaging across all connected devices.
Launch video conferences and conference calls from any device.
The best business phone services should let you easily keep your existing phone numbers if you want. With Dialpad, you can get a free local phone number with your plan or port over your existing numbers if you want—right in your online dashboard.
Not always at your desk? No problem. With Dialpad's call forwarding, you can add your mobile phone number, a colleague's number, or even a landline into your online dashboard with two clicks and all of your calls will be automatically forwarded!
Dialpad's Voice Intelligence (Vi) feature is an AI that we built ourselves—and it can not only transcribe calls in real time, but also pick up on keywords and phrases to help with call coaching (which will probably be more useful if you're managing a contact center or call center).
Caller ID is a must for your business VoIP phone system. With Dialpad, you can choose which caller ID profile you want displayed when you call someone. (Fun fact: You can also dial *67 before your recipient's number to block your caller ID or *87 to unblock it.)
Ever wish you could just skim all of your voicemails instead of listening to them? Dialpad's visual voicemail feature transcribes your voicemails (there's that Vi again), so you can read them when you're busy in meetings and can't listen to the audio.
Change your call routing options anytime in Dialpad, and easily make call transfers to your colleagues right from your call screen. Like almost everything else in Dialpad, it's easy to do on your own without IT help.
The biggest benefit of a VoIP phone service should be that it's easy and fast to set up. With Dialpad, you can sign up for an account and start using it on the computers and mobile devices you're already using—in minutes. Want to set up a desk phone or office phone? That's easy to do too.
Dialpad’s apps work across iOS, Android, Mac, and PC. And if your clients or prospects don’t want to download the app, they can still join your meetings from a web browser. Even you, the host, don’t have to use the desktop app to host a call—just log in on your web browser.
Even Dialpad's most basic plan lets you talk, message, and meet—all in one intuitive app—making it perfect for budget-conscious business owners. Book a product tour to get a personalized walkthrough!
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Business phone services and cloud communications may sound like they’re too expensive or complicated for a small business, but often, that's not the case.
(Of course, if you’re a one-person business and you don’t have too many communications needs, you might be able to get away with just using your cell phone.)
The question here is: How do you know when your small business is ready to move on to an actual business phone service provider? Here are five questions to ask.
If you’re just one person, you probably don’t need to talk to many other people other than your customers and prospects.
But if you’re hiring salespeople, customer support agents, and more, then it’s probably time to start thinking about a business phone system. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone systems are great because they run over the internet, and are an affordable way for small business teams to do everything from conference calls to team messaging.
With Dialpad, for example, you can get set up with a new business phone number or phone line in minutes:
Download the desktop or mobile app (Dialpad works across PC, Mac, iOS, and Android), and you’re all set.
If you’re using a traditional phone system or just your personal cell phone number, you may be getting calls from customers and clients at all hours of the day.
If so, it’s time to move on from just using your cell phone. At this point, you probably need to be able to set “do not disturb” hours on your phone or just be able to block business calls when it’s time to unplug.
If you’re with Dialpad’s business phone service, for instance, you can just download the softphone app (you can still use your personal phone) and make business calls, message other team members, and even text clients, right from the app.
And of course, you can set your working hours so that any work calls you get after hours automatically get forwarded to voicemail:
Phone calls are great, but what if you need instant messaging, SMS/MMS, and video conferencing? If you think you’ll need those communication options soon, then you should look at business phone services that also come with those channels—which are usually referred to as unified communications platforms.
Instead of having five or six different add-on apps for things like messaging and video conferences, why not choose a phone service that comes with everything in one handy app?
For example, Dialpad technically gives you a small business phone service, but it’s really a unified communications platform. With what's essentially a small business phone plan from Dialpad, you get not only unlimited calls, but also built-in messaging, free video conferencing, SMS/MMS, call waiting, screen sharing, and a ton of additional features. (Did we mention you can flip your calls seamlessly between your phone and computer without dropping the call?)
A small business phone service can set you up with everything you need to create a small business call center or contact center. (In fact, Dialpad also has a fully integrated contact center platform if you need it.)
If you’re getting enough inquiries from customers that you need things like call logs, a virtual receptionist, hold music, or call routing, you may want to look into small business phone service that has these contact center features.
Let’s face it. There are definitely “free” small business phone services out there, but often, they’ll nickel and dime you on really basic features (or charge you by the minute for outgoing business calls). It’s generally better if you have a budget to work with—even if it’s a modest one.
Dialpad’s least expensive plan, as a comparison, costs $15 per user per month, but comes with unlimited calling (in your home country, the US, and Canada) and unlimited texting among a host of other cool functionality.
If your small business needs a phone system, Dialpad can give you that—and a lot more. Try it out yourself with the 14-day free trial—it takes just a few minutes and you'll be set up with a virtual business number too.
"We love the voice transcription, call transferring, international calling and mobile app functionality."
"We looked into all the major players...Dialpad came out on top in features and ease of management."
"We're able to track calls, coach new team members, track call dispositions with prospects and customers, and view reporting to ensure high call quality."
Some providers will say they "cost $0 per month" but charge you by the minute, while others might look a bit more expensive while including everything you need in one straightforward package. Then there are things like international calling rates to consider. Make sure you check the fine print!
From call encryption to dedicated support, to HIPAA and GDPR compliance, security is important and not just something that's reserved for enterprise plans—make sure your small business phone service comes with solid security standards.
Are you using Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar? What about Salesforce or HubSpot? Your phone system or communications platform should integrate with them! Dialpad has a wide range of integrations, and even an open API if you want to build your own custom integrations.
We’ve already mentioned some key considerations for small businesses when choosing a phone solution, like cost-efficiency, scalability, and functionality. But something that's user-friendly and easy to deploy is important too.
So, why get a small business phone solution with Dialpad? Because Dialpad ticks all of those boxes (and then some)!
It's a truly robust and versatile all-in-one workspace that handles all your communication needs. You can make and take calls via your office Wi-Fi, send SMS/MMS messages to colleagues or prospects, and jump on a video meeting—all in the same desktop / mobile app.
There’s no complicated installation or expensive hardware like with traditional analog systems. It takes just minutes to set up your entire office, different company departments, and individual phone lines.
All that and Dialpad still comes with a small business-friendly price tag. You can get set up with Dialpad for as little as $15 per user per month, which gives you a unified communications platform along with unlimited calling in your country, the US, and Canada—and unlimited SMS/MMS messaging in the US and Canada.
Dialpad is your all-in-one small business communications platform. Just register with your email address or Google / Microsoft 365 account, choose a virtual phone number, and fill out your info to get started with a free trial!
Traditional phone systems needed in-office hardware and copper phone lines. It was expensive, time-consuming to set up and make changes to, and just cumbersome. Today, more and more businesses of every size are doing their calling over the Internet.
Voice over IP (also known as Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP) is the technology that allows those calls over the Internet to happen.
Basically, what it does is turn audio signals (in this case, your voice) into data packets. Those packets are then transmitted over the Internet until they reach the recipient of the phone call.
When the data packets reach their destination, they’re then transformed back into the audio which the call recipient hears.