February 21, 2022

Do You Know About These VoIP Advantages & Disadvantages?

To understand what VoIP can do to your business, you have to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of using it over other phone systems. So what are the main pros and cons?

Benard Kiplangat

Content Writer

Reading time: 4 minutes

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is one of the most revolutionary technology for business communications. It is a highly developing internet-based technology that allows businesses and individuals to make voice calls online.

Chances are, you probably already know what VoIP is and have probably used it before — think WhatsApp, Skype, and Viber that allow you to make calls over the internet.

Even though the benefits of VoIP phone systems far outweigh the disadvantages, knowing both the bad and the good can help you make a more informed decision.

This article will help you weigh both the advantages and disadvantages of VoIP, so you can decide if it’s the right choice for your business. Let’s dive right in!

Advantages of using VoIP

More affordable

A major advantage of VoIP over other phone systems is its affordability. VoIP presents lots of cost-saving opportunities — from the initial set-up costs, to the indirect and recurring expenses, your business can enjoy better services at a much lower cost.

VoIP phone systems are usually charged on a subscription basis, where all features are already covered in the pricing plan selected. You get to enjoy a significant reduction in the cost of calling because VoIP has lower calling rates for international and long-distance calls compared to other phone systems.

Furthermore, you don’t have to invest in bulky hardware since VoIP is usually on the cloud — so your reps simply need a stable internet connection to make calls from their computer, laptop, or mobile phone.

Easily scalable

Another great advantage of using a VoIP phone number is that it adjusts itself to the current demands of your business.

While you can share your number with as many users as possible, you can also have as many phone numbers as you need without limitation. And all you have to do is pay a little extra to upgrade to a plan that suits your current situation.

VoIP systems will also let you access advanced call functionalities like lead routing, call recordings, conference calls, auto-cold calls, and many more. These functionalities will allow your business to tap into more possibilities as you grow further.

More so, you can toggle on preferences to scale up or down on any advanced feature whenever your business needs it.

Greater flexibility

With VoIP, employees no longer have to stay at the office to call or receive business calls because your VoIP numbers are not tethered into your office. Therefore, your staff will always be connected wherever they are as long as they have internet access.

This makes remote working options possible for your business workforce at no extra costs. Unlike traditional landlines, you would need to buy, set up, and configure the new phone system hardware, which may take days or even weeks to function.

Easy to install

Unlike traditional phone systems that require a local phone company to set up and install a physical PBX system within your office premises, a VoIP system is much easier to install.

All you have to do is download an app or work with your VoIP software provider to port over your existing business number.

No hardware needs to be installed, which can be challenging to manage since the phone company technicians need to be physically present.

Ease of use

Forget about the desk phones that you had to do a lot of memorizing to maximize their features.

Operating a VoIP phone system is very easy because many VoIP platforms have extreme user-friendliness, and everything is intuitive! Users don’t have to worry about steep learning curves, and even those who aren’t tech-savvy won’t face much difficulty. 😊

Disadvantages of using VoIP

As with all things in life, there are always pros and cons. While we ditched traditional telecoms for better phone systems like VoIP, here are some of the disadvantages of using a VoIP phone system.

Full reliance on the internet

Despite having all the communication functions and advanced call features of a VoIP phone number, it won’t work if you don’t have internet.

The strength of your internet connection is also a significant factor that determines the voice quality of your calls. That means a poor connection can make your calls unclear or delayed.

Other common internet-based problems that may affect your VoIP call include latency and jitters. This might be because of a poor internet connection or a poor internet infrastructure.

This can lead to reduced customer satisfaction or a breakdown in internal communication. Here’s what you can do to reduce the chances of this happening:

Use a reliable internet provider
If you used shared internet, dedicate some network solely to VoIP
Use devices dedicated to VoIP services like routers that focus on their packet transmission to others in the network.
Use fail-over services to switch from your VoIP call to a mobile phone number when the internet connection is lower or unavailable.

Susceptibility to cyber attacks

Security is paramount to internet communications. The possibility of hackers listening, distorting, or forwarding your calls for malicious purposes should be taken seriously.

A small handful of providers have not yet implemented stronger security measures to protect their private VoIP calls from getting breached during transmission.

Fortunately, most VoIP vendors use high-level end-to-end encryption strategies to ensure that your data is always secure from intruders. Be sure to do your due diligence and find the best VoIP service providers before committing.

Not suitable during emergency situations

All VoIP phone systems are not suitable for emergency calls because internet connectivity is simply not as reliable as traditional landlines in emergency situations.

Especially if you’re using non-fixed VoIP phone numbers, these numbers aren’t limited to any geographic location and are not tied to any device.

As emergency responders may use the caller’s phone number to track down their physical location to better dispatch emergency services, this is simply not possible for non-fixed phone numbers.

Is VoIP worthwhile?

Weighing the pros and cons we’ve mentioned above, it’s safe to say that VoIP is definitely worth investing in!

While VoIP isn’t a perfect system, the benefits far outweigh its drawbacks and it can take your business to the next level.

Advantages like more flexibility, more growth capacity, and more accessibility, all within an affordable cost range can propel your business towards success, especially if your business focuses on call-driven lead generation activities.

Here at Novocall, we’ve been helping businesses achieve their calls with our business phone system. Give Novocall a try today to see what we can offer!

Benard Kiplangat

Ben is a content writer at Novocall.

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