With the emergence of the digital media, regular phone lines are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. The last decade has seen a staggering amount of switch to VoIP solutions not just in businesses but also homes. People find it easier to maintain and afford than the traditional landline.

Business VoIP is not much different from Residential VoIP, if not for the higher costs. Business VoIP offers you a flexible plan that can scale up and down with your business size. You also have more traffic on your lines, so Business VoIP provides you with stronger and better service. These services make up the higher costs and annual premium that you have to pay if you choose Business VoIP.

However, if you’re looking for a Residential VoIP for your home, the following factors can help you decide:

• Number Porting: Find out if you can use your existing number when switching to VoIP. With the help of this feature, you won’t need to deal with the hassle of acquiring a new number and then communicating the change to all your clients and partners.

• Voicemail: Where landline offered free voicemail service, some VoIP providers might require you to pay extra for this feature. Look for the VoIP that is flexible, so it saves you any hidden costs that you were not aware of.

• Reasonable Cost: Don’t let them charge you for a feature that’s of no use to you. Business VoIP have certain features that cost extra. Therefore, if those services are not what you need, go for Residential VoIP and find the one that fits your budget best.

Choosing between Residential VoIP and Business VoIP is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a lot more to consider. Assess your requirements and what features your business needs. This may include (but not limited to) your desire to grow as a business, the current size of your business and even the number of hours you will be operating.

Take a look at some of the features that the big names in Business VoIP are famous for, consider these with respect to the needs of your business and then make your call. Why opt for a VoIP that offer services that you don’t need and get charged for them?

Below is a list of all the basic features you would need to run a business:

• Auto-Attendant:This is like any other call attendant when a customer calls, minus the actual person. It can include hold music, extension numbers, call transfer, and more.
• Call Screening:This feature lets you send certain calls straight to voicemail and even gives you the option to block unwanted calls altogether.
• Voicemail to Email: This is the tool that helps increase productivity as it allows your employees to check their voicemail via email. This comes with a second feature of call transcription, so you can read your voicemail on occasion you can’t listen to it!
• Find me/Follow me:This feature helps you navigate your location as the VoIP keeps track of where you are and accordingly transfers your call to wherever you are (so long as you have an internet connection).

When considering the features, think long-term. You might not need them now, but maybe a couple of years down the line, they would prove beneficial. Don’t make hasty decisions. Take all aspects into account and then sign the agreement. The more thought you give your decision now, the lesser you’d have to worry in the future.

The quality of services varies across the VoIP horizon. There’s no guarantee if they’ll offer top notch quality calls within the best price bracket. One VoIP provider will always vary from another.

However, a standard Business VoIP would be free of the following issues. If your choice of VoIP has these problems, you must consider switching:

Jitter: Glitches in speech and loss of certain parts of the conversation are a result of poor VoIP connection. This may put a wrench in smooth communication and might proof catastrophic when making business deals.

Latency: Any sort of delay in the voice traffic or a lag in transmission can not only break the momentum of the conversation but you might lose your client’s interest as well. Make sure there is no latency in your Business VoIP calls.

Packet Loss:  VoIP breaks data signal into small data packets to send it over the Internet. If there’s a delay in the transmission of these packets or if they are lost completely on the way, it can break the connection and the voice messages will make less to no sense upon arrival.

Most of these issues concern the speed of your Internet connection (Bandwidth). You can speak to your internet service provider regarding this. They’re in the position to best guide you on how you can improve it.

Choosing the best VoIP provider depends on you asking the right questions. Don’t hesitate to ask questions regarding anything that puzzles or bothers you. You can evaluate its features, cost, quality of service and customer care just by asking the right questions.

To make matters simpler for you, our experts have done a lot of the hard work, read upon the best VoIP services for both business and residential VoIP, and going over all of the important features and terms. This will give you an edge over your VoIP, who won’t be able to take advantage of you!