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Telephones Almost every business will use a telephone, perhaps as their main form of communication. Telephones are available today with many different features and the prices will vary accordingly. If you are away from your business premises, then you will need an answering machine to take those missed calls: be sure that you leave a professional message that clearly identifies your company. If you share a phone between your business and personal calls, then it is a good idea to have a 'caller ID'. This way, you can answer the phone appropriately (in a professional manner for business calls) by recognising the incoming caller (if number is unidentified, than presume it is a business call). You can now also set up your home phone to have two different numbers with two different ring sounds (Providing your phone is compatible). This service is called Call Sign, and means you can separate your home and business calls cheaply without the cost of installing and renting another phone line. Simply give out the second number as a business number, and you will know straight away whether the call is business or personal. You can even use the second number for faxes, so you know not to answer the phone. Most BT phones and many other brand phones are compatible with the call sign service. Phones with LCD displays are usually compatible with caller ID. However, you should always check compatibility before ordering any service. If your phone is compatible with caller ID and call-sign then you simply pay a small monthly subscription for the services with your phone company (E.g.: BT or NTL). If you buy a telephone with lots of features, you should check whether it needs separate batteries to run those features. There are several types of phone that have very useful features, but require £3 batteries that need replacing very regularly (which can be expensive if you have more than a couple of phones). A reasonable basic telephone will cost from as little as £10, with caller id compatibility you will be looking at £14/15 upwards. A phone with answering machine built in will start from about £20, and with answering machine and caller id you will be looking at £30/35 and upwards. Cordless Telephones A cordless phone can provide you with a business phone that does not restrict you to a desk or office. You can carry it with you and take calls from anywhere in the office. This is particularly useful if you have a home office, and wish to take business calls whilst not remaining in the office. Cordless phones generally have a range of about 50-100 metres indoors, and up to 300 metres outdoors. There are many models available that give you more than one handset (normally up to 4), this means you can leave one in the office and take one with you. It is also possible for one phone to call (page) another, meaning that an employee can contact you quickly without needing to find you beforehand. There are two types of cordless phone, analogue and digital. Analogue is the cheaper type, but does not have as good a call quality and range. Digital phones are more expensive, but are better all round. A reasonable quality analogue cordless will cost from around £25 (about £40+ with two handsets). A reasonable quality digital cordless will cost from around £45 (about £80+ with two handsets). Models with an answer machine will normally cost between £10-40 more, depending on the quality of the model and answer machine. Fax / Cordless Phone / Answer Machine There are a small number of fax machines that combine a cordless phone instead of the usual corded phone. This saves you money on the cost of individual units, and allows you to use the phone without the need to remain by the unit at all times. These units also tend to come with an answer machine, combining three facilities into one product. A combined fax and digital cordless phone unit with answer machine will cost from about £150 upwards. There are only one or two models available, and future models with analogue cordless phones or no answering machine are likely to be a reasonable amount cheaper than this. Mobile Phones
It is important to buy a phone that matches your needs, there are so many different types and features available it is easy to waste hundreds of pounds on technology you will never use. Are features such as WAP, GPRS, Colour Screens, Infra-red, etc worth paying for if all you are making is a few basic calls? There is also little point in buying one of the latest 3G mobile phones. The ability to make video calls is the only real benefit (and this is only a minor benefit to a small number of businesses), and the cost of the phones and video calls is very high. Mobile phones are available on monthly paid contracts or pre-payment schemes. With a monthly contract you pay a set amount each month, you are then given a number of free minutes; any calls you make outside of or above those minutes are billed alongside the next monthly payment. With a pre-payment scheme you buy ‘top-up’ credit (e.g.: A £10 top-up card) from a shop; this is then added to the phone; when you make a call or send a message the cost is deducted from the remaining credit. If you run out of credit you can not make calls. Choosing
the right package is vitally important to getting the best value from
your mobile usage. You need to look carefully at how much you believe
you will use it, and use this as the basis for finding the best value
contract. Businesses waste millions of pounds every year because they
are using packages that are n
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You
may feel that it is important for customers to get hold of you should
you be away from the business premises. The ideal solution would be
the purchase of a mobile phone, which gives you constant availability
(unless you turn it off!) and allows you to communicate quickly with
your office, customers, or suppliers.