Whether you already have an established business or are just getting started, at some point you are going to need to think about your phones. While some business owners will opt to use their cell number as the business line (please don’t do this; see why) others will be considering a fancy office system.
That is until you are confronted with the upfront costs, old school desk phones, networking equipment & long term contracts that come with these “modern” office systems…
This is why virtual phone systems have gained popularity in recent years. Not only are there no contracts, upfront costs, or equipment to purchase but you can have everything up and running in less than an hour.
All you need is access to a web browser and either a PC, cell phone or landline!
To lean more about virtual phone systems, check out this article:
How Does a Virtual Phone System Work?
Step #1: Choose Your Business Phone System
There are many factors when selecting your business phone system. The key is to make sure you are choosing an affordable solution that not only provides the functionality you need today but will scale with you as your business grows.
A virtual phone system, like Talkroute, gives you all the features you need today at an affordable price with the ability to upgrade to higher-tiered plans with more enterprise-level features in the future.
Most importantly, Talkroute is reliable. Whether you are routing calls to a single cell phone or to team members throughout the world, you can rest easy knowing Talkroute has a 99.98% uptime record.
Step #2: Sign Up & Pick a Business Number
Choose a new toll free number, a local number or both. We also have vanity number options available if you want to spell a particular word or phrase to fit your branding.
Need more than one phone number? No problem! You can add and remove phone numbers at any time.
If you already have an established business number, we can transfer it Talkroute. There are no additional fees to port your existing phone number to our network.
Step #3: Download Our Desktop & Mobile Apps
Even though our apps are not required to make and receive calls with Talkroute, they make managing your business calls much more convenient.
Besides making & receiving calls, our apps make it easy to send and receive text messages, check your call history, and review your voice messages.
Our desktop and mobile apps are available for Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android!
Step #4: Upload or Record Your Greetings
With Talkroute you can customize all of your welcome, menu, announcement, and voicemail greetings. These greetings can be recorded directly into your online account or if you already have audio files prepared, you can upload them to our site.
If you’re not in love with the sound of your own voice, we also offer our Voice Studio service. This feature provides in-house VoiceOver services and we will professionally record your greetings for you!
Step #5: Add Users, Extensions, & Configure Settings
Next you can choose to add all of your team members and provide them with their own user accounts. You can even set special permissions for each of your users to limit their access to areas of your business phone system.
Create extensions for your departments and team members. Now your callers can get to the right person by entering their unique extension.
Talkroute includes a number of other features that you can configure such as the Call Menu, Text Messaging, Hours of Operation, Call Recording, Voicemail, Caller ID, and More..
Step #6: Starting Making & Receiving Calls
Now that you have setup your new Talkroute business phone system you can begin making and receiving calls from any phone or desktop computer!
Setting up a business phone system has never been this easy and there is no need to schedule a technician, no waiting for equipment to arrive, and no contracts to sign. You can truly be ready to start managing your business calls and messages in minutes.
Best of all, Talkroute is 100% free to try.
Stephanie
Stephanie is the Marketing Director at Talkroute and has been featured in Forbes, Inc, and Entrepreneur as a leading authority on business and telecommunications.
Stephanie is also the chief editor and contributing author for the Talkroute blog helping more than 100k entrepreneurs to start, run, and grow their businesses.