Effective business phone systems lay the foundation for successful business communication. VoIP is a communication technology that’s been adopted by many modern workplaces, improving employee engagement, team collaboration and customer experience.

If you’re looking for a VoIP solution, you’ve come to the right place! We’ve compiled a list of essential VoIP features to help you find the right solution for your business.

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Article Roadmap

• What Is VoIP?
• Key Features
  • Auto Attendant
  • Business Text Messaging
  • Call Forwarding
  • Call Recording
  • Call Analytics
  • Call Screening
  • Call Queuing
  • Voicemail
  • Call Routing
  • Caller ID
• Primary Benefits
• Next Steps

What Is VoIP?

VoIP is a communications technology that enables businesses to make and receive phone calls using a stable internet connection. VoIP stands for Voice over the Internet Protocol, which refers to the fact that calls are connected through the internet.

VoIP services work by converting and transmitting them over the IP (Internet Protocol) network that computers use to communicate. After a call connects, VoIP converts these packets back into analog signals so they’re received by the person you’ve called.

This service is cheaper than traditional telephone lines, allowing you to connect with people anywhere in the world using devices you already have. It also comes with functionalities that regular phones don’t usually have, like call recording, auto attendant, call parking and call forwarding.

Over the past few years, many companies have turned towards cloud-based services, making VoIP an increasingly popular choice. According to a report by Global Market Insights, the VoIP market size surpassed $40 billion in 2022.

Key Features

Though the features your business needs might be different from what works for others, most businesses benefit from core VoIP features. Here’s our list of the critical VoIP features to look out for when shopping for a solution.

1. Auto Attendant

An auto attendant is a menu system that answers calls and routes them to the appropriate person or department. It’s the system you might come across when you call a company and are asked to “Press 1 for sales” or “Press 2 for marketing.”

Modifying the virtual receptionist options. Source

Using a series of pre-recorded voice prompts, it helps callers resolve their issues and get answers to queries. This reduces the need for human operators and the workload for organizations with high call volumes. And if the customer’s issue isn’t one the auto attendant can solve, your agents get a sense of their needs before they even pick up the phone.

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2. Business Text Messaging

According to a report by SMS Comparison, 90% of customers prefer text messages over direct phone calls. The business text messaging feature enables you to send and receive messages with customers, reaching them where they like to communicate most.

Composing and sending out a common text message for customers. Source

In addition to helping you provide quick and convenient customer support, business text messaging is also useful in marketing campaigns. Your employees can send targeted text messages to individual customers, specific groups or all customers in your contact list to offer discounts, promotions and other updates.

3. Call Forwarding

Call forwarding redirects incoming calls to a different number you assign. This reduces the possibility of missed calls, allowing you to answer calls from different lines or on the go.

With this feature, you can set different call forwarding rules for different scenarios. Sequential call forwarding, for example, allows you to forward calls to your personal number, or to a colleague’s if you can’t answer.

Some international companies use call forwarding to send calls to local numbers. That way, customers in each region the company serves feel more connected to the brand.

4. Call Recording

The call recording feature captures phone conversations for employee training, documentation for legal purposes and playback for detailed insights into customer interactions. Recorded files are saved in the cloud or on a local server, depending on the phone solution.

In addition to giving you more insight into the customer experience, call recordings are a great way to assess employee performance, allowing you to listen in on a typical call. This helps you identify areas of strength and weakness in your staff and improve call standards in a targeted way.

5. Call Analytics

Call analytics capture and analyze data from incoming and outgoing calls and synthesize it into detailed reports. The feature uses key performance indicators, or KPIs, like call time and idle time, to measure your company’s performance. These reports help you devise better business strategies as your company grows.

Analyzing various call metrics on the dashboard. Source

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6. Call Screening

The call screening feature filters your incoming calls, showing you who they’re from with caller ID — including details like name, number and location — and allowing you to accept, reject, escalate or direct them to voicemail.

This tool reduces spam and other unwanted calls. Employees can prioritize high-value calls and reject or redirect other ones.

7. Call Queuing

With this feature, employees can assign callers to queues based on priority or urgency instead of transferring them to a different department or having to keep them on hold. Callers are moved forward in the queue depending on the order they called in. It informs customers of the approximate time they’ll have to wait and lets your employees know how many callers are waiting.

Combining this feature with call routing ensures callers are directed to the most suitable agents, reducing both wait times and call durations.

8. Voicemail

There will always be times when you can’t take a call. Voicemail can be there for your customers even when you can’t.

Voicemail message transcriptions and details. Source

They can leave audio messages for you or your agents to check later. Advanced voicemail allows you to set up customized greetings and comes with transcription that converts audio messages into text. The system notifies agents whenever there are new voicemails, so they don’t miss out on returning important calls.

9. Call Routing

Call routing or automatic call distribution (ACD) automatically answers business calls and directs them to a specific department or agent without requiring them to dial a different number.

Customers can get impatient if they’re waiting a long time for help resolving their issues. Transferring calls to the wrong teams wastes time for both employees and callers. Automated call routing reduces abandonment rates and call hold times, boosting customer satisfaction and increasing productivity.

10. Caller ID

In a report published by Hiya, 85% of the respondents stated that they assumed calls from unknown numbers were fraudulent. The caller ID feature helps you identify spam calls, robocalls and telemarketers from potential customers.

Caller ID enables you to identify the caller in two ways: by the number and by the name. Some VoIP solutions allow you to set up an outgoing caller ID too. This ensures that your company’s name and number appear when you make calls so that customers don’t mistake your calls for spam.

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Primary Benefits

Let’s take a look at some of the ways the right VoIP system can benefit your business.

Lower Costs

Setting up a VoIP solution is much cheaper than managing physical phone systems. With VoIP software, voice and video calls are generally free. You can call using any web-connected device of your choice without expensive hardware.

Although calls from a desktop or mobile phone to a landline are chargeable, charges are minimal compared to other options and don’t involve typical fees like long-distance and international calling. Most services charge you monthly, so you end up paying only for the features you need. You also get access to more features than a traditional phone service has, at no extra cost.

Scalability

It’s not easy to predict how many phone lines you’ll need, especially if you’re a rapidly growing company. Having a scalable communication solution takes the headache out of hiring new employees, forming more teams and establishing new offices in different locations.

Most VoIP solutions don’t involve fees to add or remove users. They also don’t require much hardware, especially because VoIP softphones can be enabled on most common devices. If an employee leaves the company, you can easily reassign or remove their line.

Portability

A report by Ladders found that 24% of all professional jobs in the U.S. and Canada were remote in the first quarter of 2022. As working from home continues to rise, businesses need tools that support the functioning of remote and hybrid workplaces.
Since VoIP works with any internet-connected device, your staff can remain productive and efficient no matter where they are, easily connecting with clients and colleagues worldwide.

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Next Steps

Finding the right VoIP solution for your company might seem daunting, especially with all the competitive options on the market. Having a list of the key VoIP features you need is a great starting point for your software selection process.

If you need more help, try our customizable requirements template for business phone systems to get a clear sense of which features serve your needs best.

So, which VoIP features are most important to your workplace? Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments below!