VOIP: What to Consider Before Making the Switch

Is your company considering a new telephone system? If so, you may have heard the term VOIP a lot lately. It stands for VoiceOver Internet Protocol, and it’s a fancy way of saying that, with a VOIP system, phone calls are transmitted via the Internet, rather than over traditional telephone lines.

For companies with two or more locations, VOIP may be a good choice. The calls made between offices are not metered, so the cost of those calls is lower; and communication between employees in different buildings - and different states, for that matter - is virtually seamless.

But if you like the marketing and customer service benefits that On Hold Marketing provides for your callers and your company, you have a few things to think about before making the switch to VOIP.

The Bandwidth Issue

Bandwidth is defined as “the transmission capacity of an electronic communications device or system” or “the speed of data transfer.” When it comes to Internet connections it’s often referred to as “the pipe.” The wider your pipe, the faster digital information can travel in and out of your building.

When buying a traditional telephone system, you need to know how many phone lines your business requires at any given time. If your 50 employees each make a few phone calls per day, you might get by just fine with 10 or 15 lines. But if your staff of 50 is literally on the phone all day, you may need 55 or 60 lines.

When purchasing a VOIP system, you won’t be concerned about phone lines, but with bandwidth. Every call between your VOIP main location server and the branch locations will eat up bandwidth. If your “pipe” isn’t big enough to handle both your call load and your Internet needs you’ll suffer with call quality issues, including echo, slapback, and “broken” conversations.

An Important Difference Between Phone Conversations and On Hold Marketing

With VOIP, the audio information that is your phone conversation doesn’t flow from point A to point B in a smooth, connected stream. Instead, it’s broken up into digital bits and pieces that pass back and forth through your Internet pipe. The natural pauses in your conversation serve as break points.

But On Hold Marketing consists of voice and music, and music doesn’t typically contain pauses. Because it’s a continuous source of sound that can’t be broken up into bits, On Hold Marketing requires more bandwidth of your VOIP system. If that’s a problem for you, read on.

The Benefits of Keeping Your On Hold Marketing Systems

If you decide to go with a VOIP system, you may want to keep the On Hold Marketing equipment you already have in place. When your On Hold Marketing productions play from a dedicated OHM system at the branch location – not through the main server of your VOIP system – they won’t require nearly as much of your VOIP bandwidth.

Keeping dedicated On Hold Marketing systems at each location also allows you to stay more flexible. You can target your on hold content to local callers, promoting each location’s products and services, and announcing local sales, events, hours, personnel information, etc. Is one location shutting down briefly to re-tool or move across town? Do a few branches close for inventory at the end of the year? Keeping On Hold Marketing systems at each location lets you put the word out to only those callers who need that information.

No Streaming

Many VOIP systems allow you to store your On Hold Marketing content on the VOIP server, but they may not give you the ability to stream individual messages. That means that, every time a call is placed on hold, the caller hears the same messages in the same order. That’s not good for on hold applications, especially for frequent callers. After all, one of the benefits of dedicated On Hold Marketing systems is that you’re practically guaranteed your callers will hear a wide variety of messages about your company.

Is an I.T. Person Required?

If you just have a VOIP system, you’ll probably need a member of the I.T. department to load your new On Hold Marketing updates. Timely uploading to your system may be a problem if I.T.’s priorities don’t align with those of the Marketing department. And if your I.T. tasks are outsourced you’ll pay hard dollars for each upload. But, if you keep your dedicated OHM system in place, you’ll continue to receive content updates remotely without human intervention, just as you do now.

Finally, representatives from a few companies have told us that their VOIP system does not accommodate On Hold Marketing. Fortunately, that’s not true. Some may require an additional adapter, VOIP system equipment or programming, but any company with a VOIP system can enjoy the benefits of On Hold Marketing. Please let us know if we can answer any questions for you.