PBX - Why and how to choose one for your business

Better communication

Be it the comfort of dialing a colleague sitting several rooms away or quickly redirecting a needful caller to the right department, a PBX works like a patch of tempered chocolate—smooth, perfect and bang on. PBX helps the internal communication within your organisation fall in place with very minimal constraints.

Since a PBX can be customized to accommodate as many users as possible, you can have your entire team connected well w.r.t calls that come in and the ones that need to be transferred.This kind of neat communication would eventually give your customers a well-rounded experience consistently.

Contextual conversation

Except for the dear old radio and possibly a bunch of classic records, no one likes to explain themselves over and over again. And when it’s a customer who calls you up, they sure are desperate for a quick solution. But there is only so much that one can do with a bunch of traditional phone systems. That’s where a PBX helps each agent in your team be in sync with every other customer call that’s comes in.

With being able to access contextual information through power features like call recording and automatic call logs, a PBX nails it in terms of taking the customer experience a notch higher than usual. This not only saves so much time but also makes your customers delighted with how you work.

Professional semblance

Be it a first date or a first hello with a customer on call, the first few seconds define a lot on how their relationship with your brand builds on. It’s always classy to come by as a brand that’s professional in handling your business. With a well fitting PBX to support your customer interactions, you don’t have to worry about being all over the place.

Missing out on calls, messing up with unorganised call transfers and long wait times can be thrown out of your system with the smart features of a PBX—call routing, conferencing, auto receptionist, and call back options to name a few. This way it becomes easier for you to replicate good customer experience often and with style. This will keep your customers coming back to you your brand for a long long time.

Long-term cost saving

A PBX phone software is more or less like a good old bottle of wine. You’ll see its effect add up most, over the long run. Even though the initial setup might be a little daunting in terms of adapting to change and all the work involved, it is a one-time investment. With a fully functional PBX in place, your employees can work with a specific number of shared phone lines as against the traditional ones that demand a separate line for each employee.

Also, with a traditional phone system, every call made—even if it’s to a colleague working right across the floor, the call goes all the way to the local exchange before connecting through and is treated as a brand new costing you plenty. But, for a call made through the PBX, you’ll not be charged at all. This way you get to save big, both in terms of hardware and resource.

Smart resource utilization

On what would you like seeing your call center agents invest their time? Looking up directories and call log sheets to spot the right phone numbers to dial up, or get down to business, pick that call up and sweep your customers off their feet with some really good quality support. Well of course, it all comes down to business at the end of the day.

So making use of the right technology (a good PBX) to minimize all the manual work and creating the right environment for your phone team is important. This eventually helps them focus more on a call and its quality rather than being worked up with logging calls and other operational tasks. Make the right use of every resource at hand and leave the rest for the PBX to take care of.

Streamlined call management

With a PBX cloud system in place, you have the luxury of knowing the number of calls that step in and out of your business phone system without having to wait till the end of the month for your bill. More frequent analysis of call volume in a PBX gives you the possibility of reorganizing your entire phone team to work better.

With this analysis you’ll also get to know the busiest line from the leaner ones. You can now move some of your agents to the lines with more demand. This way you can ensure a healthy work environment where no single agent is over or underworked. This way you can very cautiously streamline your call center operations.   

Traditional on-premise PBX

What is it?

Being the first PBX to come into use, these systems “traditionally” use the age old landlines to facilitate business calls. You can think of them as the Netflix and chill type who love to be glued to the work desk. Meaning, these PBX systems are fitted to your work desk and can’t be moved around or answered from where ever you wish to.
 

What are its pros and cons?

Even though these PBX systems are the best in terms of reliability and voice quality since they have dedicated phone lines, they have their drawbacks. These PBX phone systems involve a good amount of hardware, wires and physical labour to operate with. Hence, their maintenance, set-up and configuration costs are mighty.
 

So, what’s the verdict?

If your business has already been using an on-premise PBX and are comfortable paying the expenses that come with it, you can continue using them. But for someone looking to move to a PBX newly, it’s better to opt for ones that are easy to set-up and maintain.

IP PBX

What is it?

These are PBXes that don’t use much of hardware but still use a physical phone or a software to carry out their call center operations.

What are the pros and cons?

The best part about this type of PBX is its flexibility in being able to connect over the internet and do all this from your company’s computer network. You don’t have to invest in a separate provider like in case of a traditional PBX. Also, since this allows you to operate over a single provider, your billing and licensing concerns are simplified.

So, what’s the verdict?

These systems are ideal for a team who needs a physical phone as a matter of habit and convenience and yet want to save big on the cost and step back from the responsibility of maintenance and upkeep.

Hosted PBX

What is it?

Now, this PBX is the most forward and most recent of PBXes where there is zero hardware and installation required. The whole PBX setup is hosted virtually over the cloud.

What are the pros and cons?

You don’t have to worry about the bulky hardware or the complexity of an on-premise system tying you to your desk. You have the freedom of working from the comfort of where ever you want. All you need is a laptop with good internet connectivity. All the data and operations are maintained by a third party provider and you won’t be responsible for upkeep and maintenance.

So, what’s the verdict?

This is a very convenient and low cost option that’ll make your whole call center experience elegant and convenient, helping you focus on the more important things. And especially if you are a small business who really don’t have to worry about the call load and team size, this is your best bet.