Advice on Small Business Phone System ?

Edwards Finance > Phones

Q. Why do businessmen spend hundred's of thousands of dollars on building/remodelling new offices (oak paneling, marble lobbies, Herman-Miller furniture, flat computer screens, etc.) then get a case of the "low-budget cheapies" when it comes to telephone systems? I just don't get it ... sales are the most frustrating part of my job.

A. If you are going to use an answering machine, just wire it in front of the phone system. This will allow you to turn on/off the answering system at night. For the fax, get a fax detect box. I suggest ComShare but there are many others. This will allow you to share your line with your fax machine. GL finding a system. Panasonic's are about the easiest systems I have seen to set up for your application. It's because the 125-year history of telephony has resulted in such a degree of ubiquity, reliability, and simplicity to the user that phones and much of the world's telephone infrastructure are seen as being as dependable as dirt. To many people -- especially, I'd venture, those of the "business suit" and MBA persuasions -- "dependable as dirt" has been "misconscrewed" as being the same thing as "cheap as dirt", "simple as dirt", and "respectable as dirt". It's an exasperatingly perverse form of flattery, actually. At least, that's what I tell myself to keep me from beating somebody's head against the floor (mine or theirs)... 8^O Very good point. I sell telephone systems to small businesses and the old phone systems were so reliable that the users assume that they will last forever. Some "bosses" still say they hate VM and don't want any form of AutoAttendant even though, when properly configured, it can provide better service than a human who answers, "XYZ company, please hold", when all you want to do is get back to the person sitting at their desk waiting for your call. Makes for a tough sales situation. Also, I started to sell LD service and am amazed at the number of people who just accept $10.00 monthly fees from AT&T LD so that 20 or 30 minutes of LD winds up costing 90 cents a minute. Some businesses even keep paying the minimum monthly fee long after they stopped using AT&T. Most people have no clue as to what they are actually paying for their phone services. Our office phone system is 11 years old (NEC Electra 824) and has never skipped a beat. There hasn't really ever been a reason to upgrade; as they say "If it aint broke, then don't fix it". Regardless, I'm thinking of taking it out and putting in something a bit more modern anyway (either a Nortel or Panasonic system). We had auto attendant on a parallel system for a while, but customers hated it so we took it off.

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