Phone system for a small business. Some questions?

Edwards Finance > Phones

Q. I got a second line in my house. I would like to hook it up to a multiline (2 or 3) phone system so that when people call the company number they can get a voicemail saying, if you want X then press 100 and if you want Y then press 200 and so on. How do I do it? What kind of bare minimum phone system do I need for this? Do I need a different type of line for this?

A. "Press 1 to leave a message for accounting, press 2 to leave a message for sales.... " If that's the case, search for "modem voicemail" (w/o the quotes) on google. There are a lot of s/w packages out there. In fact, many modems come with a free voice mail system of some sort. If you are looking for a system that will ring different phones throughout your house, such as "Press 1 for the kitchen, 2 for the dining room.... ", and then have the system ring that phone, I think you need a regular phone system. Last I looked, phone systems were five grand and up. I am looking for a system where it would say something like, "You have reached company X. For Person A, dial 100, for Person B dial 200.." and so on. So for something like that you are saying it'll cost over $5000. I saw EBay auctions where multiple phone lines are available under $500. Can you tell me why it would cost so much? My phone company tells me that I might need a PBX and it'll cost over $500. So if I buy a phone system and get the PBX thing from my phone company, will it work? The last thing you want in your business is automated phone systems!!!! What you want is a friendly voice to answer that phone and handle it with great care and courtesy even if it bothers your programming or whatever else you are doing. There is nothing, believe me, NOTHING, more important that a customer calling you for information or whatever. On the heels of Wayne's response, in addition to the hellacious run-around I got today on an automated phone system, I have to say that getting an automated phone system is something to avoid. Certainly, trying to "look" like a big company by implementing a system like this is a big mistake. Not that it PBX or buying a system matters, since voice mail will do the trick for you. I don't know what the current offerings are. I still recommend you search google -- or maybe ebay -- for a modem/voicemail combination. I find it less than warm and caring when I call a business and a hurried, harried, or curt sounding receptionist switches me off to an extension. The point about a friendly and courteous voice is taken, but it takes management resources to find and keep that person. We've found our resources are better used elsewhere. Much more important to our business is that we can be reached quickly and easily. When we are here, we answer our extension. When we are out, we are alerted within one minute as the automated system forwards voice mail to our cell phones. And we make our cell phone numbers widely available.

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