Picking the right VoIP provider: 7 hacks from an industry insider

Whether you’re a Fortune 500 enterprise or a telecom reseller, connecting people and businesses keeps your business moving. Your VoIP provider is a critical component of this engine. Do you have the right one?

You may be stuck with legacy providers slowing down your growth roadmap or modern CPaaS providers that struggle to offer enterprise support, PSTN coverage worldwide, operational APIs, a range of services (like emergency services) or just ease of service delivery. So, let’s take a pragmatic approach to uncover how a provider change could optimize your business:

1. Global coverage

A provider that offers comprehensive global coverage ensures that you remain connected wherever your business scales. It’s worth asking yourself if your provider has both breadth and depth of coverage that matches your expansion strategy, and what regions of the world are on their roadmap.  Your provider(s) could be offering you coverage, but are they:

Reliable?  

Are you getting PSTN replacement coverage where you need it? Or are they going through a web of various resellers, making any troubleshooting a pain?

Easy to manage?  

Do they make operations like number management, porting, and regulations navigation easy or automated?

Easy to deliver services?  

Are you juggling multiple providers for coverage in a region when you can get all the coverage you need with one or two highly reliable VoIP providers?

2. Global regulatory knowledge

Find a network provider who wants to and can help you navigate regulations. Regulatory complexities differ by country, so wouldn’t you rather work with a provider that has decades of experience in compliance?  

Top markers of the right VoIP provider are:

• They are easy to work with because they are a strong link in your compliance chain. Everyone in your compliance chain needs to be compliant, not just you or your providers. While you’re responsible for your compliance, having responsible VoIP providers helps you reduce regulatory risks. 
• They simplify your access to local regulatory knowledge globally and help you understand regulations better.
• It’d be a big plus if their portals simplify regulatory admin work for you. Think, is any automation built into your providers’ portal to make regulatory compliance faster and easier?

3. Automation for efficiency

Telecom service providers that harness the power of automation offer not only convenience but also increased efficiency. By re-evaluating your VoIP services provider, you can discover those who integrate automation seamlessly into their services, speeding up your admin work, and reducing human error. Whether it’s automated billing, troubleshooting, or account management, these features can greatly enhance your telecom experience.

Need an example? Bandwidth’s local and toll-free number porting have end-to-end automation that reduces the average porting times to get numbers on your platform faster.  This can save you precious time and resources that can add up quickly!  

4. Quality of support

Is it next to impossible to get some TLC from your current telephony provider? Whether it’s a serious service ticket or just a quick question, quality support not only builds trust but ensures business continuity. If you’re losing money (and sleep) because you can’t speak to a human when you need it the most, it might be time to reconsider your “partnership.”

While customer support has been increasingly turning to artificial intelligence, the empathy that comes with a human touch cannot be overstated. Human agents are often better equipped to provide the level of care and attention that you need, especially when in a pinch. Plus, human support agents are better at dealing with more complex, emotion-filled concerns. Look for a VoIP services provider that has instilled a wholesome support culture throughout their entire team to foster a genuine connection. You’ll sleep better at night. We promise. 

5. Seamless number provisioning experience

Obtaining and managing phone numbers should be a hassle-free experience. Whether you need additional numbers for your growing business or to migrate inventory for a new client, your provider should offer a seamless provisioning process. 

Ordering new numbers should be like any other online shopping experience, giving you the power to view, select, and purchase the numbers you need, when you need them. Managing the line features should be as easy as a click of a button, with an option to automate any function. Do you feel frustrated that you don’t currently have this kind of experience? Explore some must-have automated number management features.  

6. Innovative features and services

Ask yourselves, is your CPaaS provider landing you in yet another walled garden? CPaaS and value-added reseller providers have continued to bundle solutions or build a closed product ecosystem. But this limits you when you want to build your custom communications stack and drive innovation your way. 

To differentiate your comms and hence your employee and customer experience, you need a CPaaS and VoIP provider that integrates well platform-agnostically, while accelerating these integrations for you. 

For instance, the award-winning next-generation Maestro™ Enterprise Platform. Maestro enables enterprises to easily customize global communication workflows and add state-of-the-art CX and AI capabilities. And since it’s platform agnostic, you’re not pigeonholed into only one provider’s proprietary solutions: You’re free to add the best-of-breed technologies that you already know and love.

7. Vendor consolidation

Imagine purchasing numbers from one company and then having to set up your emergency services with someone else for those numbers. 

Managing multiple providers can provide some benefits (redundancy, price savings, etc.) but at the end of the day, it’s just downright inefficient. It can ultimately lead to swivel-chairing, wasted time, and potential errors that could cost you more in the long run. 

Consolidating your providers gives you one contract to maintain, a singular customer experience, and one relationship to manage. Don’t you wish everything could be that easy?

The right VoIP services provider for your business doesn’t just remove bottlenecks, they can help you:

• lean in on your scale and growth roadmap
• differentiate your employee and customer experience
• do it all at a global scale without the telecomplexity

Can your VoIP provider do this? No? Time to reconsider.