Picture a normal day at the office. The creative team is pitching their latest idea to the client in a conference call, the HR manager is conducting an initial phone interview, salesmen are closing deals and the receptionist is transferring important inquires. All these tasks are moving your business forward and keeping the lights on. Now picture the impact of your phone system failing to your business. The creative team loses the client because their pitch was disrupted by the phone failure, and the potential employee is thrown off by the lost call and reconsiders their interest in your company. The salesman loses the contact and sale, and when potential customers call reception and are met with the message “This line has been disconnected” they move on to your competitors, assuming you didn’t pay a bill or are out of business. Your phone system keeps your business thriving, and the impact of the system failing can have lasting effects. 

Why, then, do so many businesses hang on to archaic phone systems? The threat of failure increases as systems age, yet replacing PBX equipment is not only cost prohibitive, retraining employees on new systems can create decreased operational efficiency, substantially. Unfortunately many businesses have to abruptly select and transition to a new service when old equipment fails, leaving their business in chaos. It is crucial to have a backup solution that can be turned on immediately without having to re-train employees on the fly. Here are risks to consider when deciding on backup for your phone systems:

Loss of Revenue. If the phone system goes down, revenue also goes down. Whether the system is down for minutes, hours or days, this is precious time that revenue and growth is put on hold. To fix the system also costs IT time and pulls your employees away from other work. 

Loss of Customer Faith. It doesn’t take a customer long to make the correlation between a failing phone system and a failing business. If customers can’t reach customer service or talk to their sales rep they become frustrated and ultimately lose faith in your business’s ability to provide them with solutions. If your HR team was in the middle of a crisis communication call and the line goes dead, imagine how the client will react to this failure. 

Loss of Reputation. Reputation is key, no matter the industry your business is involved in. Reputation attracts new customers and keeps current customers loyal. If your business is unreachable for hours or even days your reputation in the industry is sure to be effected. Would you think of a business as reputable if you couldn’t contact them? 

Loss of Employee Production. Having productive employees is the beating heart to your business. How can employees be productive when their means of communication are out of service? When employees lose productivity, your business loses money and vital time. If employees can’t be productive during their work day, you’ll find they’re not pleased to work overtime to make up for system failures. 

Phone system failure impacts your business’s ability to grow. Just as you have backup and recovery plans in place for your data network in your Business Continuity Plans, so should you consider your voice network in Disaster Recovery Planning. There are plenty scenarios and things that can go wrong if your phone system goes down and AltiGen Communications has the advice and solutions you need to ensure that never happens. 

Learn more about SIP Trunking for business continuity HERE.