Five Phone Features That Don’t Belong On A Business Phone Line For Business Efficiency

With modern technology, any business can appear to be much larger than it actually is. The right phone features can give your business the professional image you desire.  Some phone features are more appropriate for residential phone service, or mobile phones, and have no place on a phone line used for business.

Phone Features that Don’t Belong on a Business Phone Line

Let’s discuss five phone features that are best avoided to optimize your business phone system for maximum productivity and professionalism.

Call Waiting

Nothing makes an existing or prospective customer feel less important than Call Waiting.  Hunting or Voicemail are much better ways to manage multiple calls.

Anonymous Call Rejection

Why would you care if one of your customers or prospects blocks their number?  Blocking calls is like locking the door of your business during business hours.  Expect to receive sales and even crank phone calls; that are a fact of life if you own a phone line.  Don’t like sales calls?  Do you have salespeople calling on businesses?

Residential Voicemail

If you work out of your home and use a residential phone line instead of a business line, make sure a chime doesn’t precede your voicemail greeting.  Some phone companies include that with residential voicemail.  It’s often possible to have the chime removed by calling the provider’s repair department.

Last Call Return

Do you want your employees wasting time *69ing callers?  It’s possible that a prospective customer called to store your number in their mobile phone or started to call your business and then had to attend to another matter.  Calling them back would only put the caller on the defensive and probably keep them from calling back in the future.

Answering Machines

It’s not a phone feature, per se, more of a device, but still has no place in a business trying to portray a professional image.  An answering machine is the phone equivalent of an AOL email address.  If you want prospective customers to feel like they just called 1988, use an answering machine.  One word of warning, an answering machine can make your business appear cheap and any potential customer would be primarily focused on price.

When it comes to a business phone line, less is often more. While some phone features may seem useful or fun, they can actually detract from the professionalism and efficiency of your communication. So, avoid unnecessary features when you choose your business phone service. If you would like to receive more information on CarrierBid telecom consulting services, please complete the form on the right side of this page.