Hi everyone! We're a construction company with roughly 17–20 users and need to replace or rework our current phone system. Right now, callers mainly navigate by extension, and we get frequent complaints from clients who don't want to wait around or struggle to reach the right person. We'd like straightforward call routing, an auto-attendant or phone tree, voicemail, queues or rollover handling, and an easy way to direct callers to the correct department or employee quickly. Some extensions are only called a couple of times per year, so we don't want to pay a fortune for rarely used accounts. We also want to avoid a complicated deployment that requires everyone to install heavy applications. Ideally, it would be simple, affordable, reliable, and usable from desk phones, computers, or mobile devices where appropriate.
3 Answers
A hosted 3CX installation, FreePBX, or PBXact could cost less over time and gives you a lot of control over IVRs, queues, business hours, and routing. The tradeoff is that you’re responsible for hosting, updates, security, backups, and troubleshooting. For something genuinely painless, a managed cloud system such as Teams Phone, Zoom Phone, Webex Calling, or a similar service is probably the better choice unless you already have someone comfortable running a PBX.
Zoom Phone is another strong fit for a small office. It’s straightforward to set up, supports phone trees and call routing, and lets users work from normal VoIP desk phones, a desktop softphone, or a mobile app. It’s also useful if you already need Zoom meetings. Pricing is generally reasonable for a company your size, but compare the costs of infrequent users and check the features included in each license.
If your company already uses Microsoft 365, Teams Phone is probably the easiest place to start. It gives you auto-attendants, call queues, voicemail-to-email, extension dialing, and the ability to answer calls from a desk phone, computer, or mobile device. It’s relatively simple to manage and can be cheaper than a traditional phone system. Just make sure you understand the licensing and have a plan for internet or Microsoft service outages.
It’s worth using a separate provider for the actual phone connectivity if possible. That way, an issue with Microsoft services doesn’t automatically take down email, messaging, and phones all at once.
A local phone-system provider or managed service company may be worth considering too. They can configure the call flows and handle problems when you’re busy, which can be more valuable than saving a little on the monthly bill.