4 Benefits of Adding VoIP to Your WISP Offerings

Wireless Internet Service Providers are on the cutting edge of major industry upheavals. The way people, organizations, and small businesses access and use the Internet is constantly changing, and the tumultuous business changes seen through COVID and the shift to remote work are continuing. The WISP industry is expected to grow 6.8% over 2023 alone (even during these past several months of economic uncertainty), and business applications make up over 50% of the WISP market. 

But all of this growth makes the industry incredibly competitive. To stand out from the crowd, WISPs must differentiate themselves—by geography, by USPs, by service levels, and by added services. For busy B2B clients who don’t have the bandwidth, resources, or budget to contract with multiple different service providers for every layer of their wireless ecosystems, added services are particularly crucial: if you can offer prospective clients everything they need so their employees can flip on the Internet and get straight to work, you’ve become invaluable.

But choosing which additional services to provide, who to partner with, and how to ensure this new complexity works in your business’s favor is vital. Let’s take a look at why Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) is one of the most advantageous routes a WISP can take by examining the importance of communication for your business and the advantages UCaaS and VoIP solutions can provide your company.

How WISPs Are Providing Must-Have Communication Solutions to Customers

Today, virtually every business needs a wireless connection to do business, whether they’re a small startup in a coworking space or a rural farmer far away from good conventional service. WISPs play a vital role in making that happen. At their core, WISPs ensure that users have reliable Internet that has minimal outages and lags, ensuring both business continuity and frustration-free internal communications. But businesses also need WISPs to provide more than simply connectivity, and organizations like yours are doing that through:

• WISP software that makes managing all aspects of a wireless network simple, even for business operators who are unfamiliar with networks
• Scalable network service packages that allow for easy expansions and changes that meet seasonal or on-peak/off-peak needs
• Friendly, personalized service that makes managing a wireless network much less stressful and overwhelming
• Network security options and recommendations so businesses can navigate rising phishing scams, malware, and other online threats

All of these layers of service and functionality support real-time communication and efficient business operations. When you give your clients more than just wireless internet, you become a core fixture in their business plans. You’re facilitating instant messengers that need a constant connection, telephony systems for client calls and internal meetings, and a complex web of CRMs, integrations, and business tools where work might be happening 24/7. 

But while your WISP business is providing that solid ecosystem for communications, you might not be providing the platforms for those communications. That’s where UCaaS comes in. 

Related: Finding Your Perfect Match: Evaluating UCaaS Providers for Optimized Business Communication

Unified Communications as a Service is a cloud-based platform of communication solutions in multiple key formats or functions: telephony, audio or video meetings, mobile communications, instant messaging, and business tools that incorporate communication channels like comments and notes. 

But UCaaS isn’t just the different programs where these communications take place. Instead, it’s a cloud infrastructure managed by a service provider that provides storage, equipment, tools, and meta systems for monitoring usage and gathering data. By providing UCaaS, you’re doing more than creating a sturdy toolbox for your clients—you’re filling it with the tools they need every day. 

Add UCaaS to Your WISP Catalog of Services

As your WISP company evolved over 2023 or will continue to evolve over 2024, you may have added to your catalog of services. Instead of simply offering the data and connection, you started offering security solutions, either through a business partnership or as a white-labeled service. You might have added in clear reporting dashboards, managed IT services, or email and hosting. You may even offer VoIP, only to notice that your customers have started looking for something more. Here’s how we’ve seen WISPs thrive by offering UCaaS in their catalog of business services:

1. Creating Enterprise-Level Packages of Solutions for Every Unique Business Customer

Technology has given every business the ability to substantively compete with major industry leaders, but that means your largest and even your smallest customers expect enterprise-level solutions. Even a three-person company may need comprehensive telephony coverage, robust video conferencing solutions, and completely mobile-based communications. By offering UCaaS, you can give them enterprise-level capabilities and services. This, in turn, helps your business:

• Be the go-to solution for a wide array of businesses
• Simplify your clients’ search for the business communications they need
• Ensure you’re never the limiting factor on easy internal or client-facing communications

2. Making Sure Your Company Is Offering the Flexibility and Scalability Today’s Businesses Need

The advantage of offering a versatile communications solution like UCaaS is that it’s already designed to be incredibly flexible. You may have clients that primarily operate through instant messenger and business operations tools, or you may have sales clients that need video call capabilities that will never fail them. By incorporating UCaaS into your services catalog, you can help your clients create extremely personalized communications plans that fit their budgets and business needs. They—and you—are never shoehorned into service packages that include too much or don’t offer enough.

Related: How the Right UCaaS Phone System Provider Can Impact Your Clients

But this need for flexibility doesn’t just apply to different tools. Your clients will also change in size over time. They will need more licenses during peak seasons, fewer during the slow seasons, and the reassurance that you can make those changes for them.

3. Staying on the Cutting Edge of Communications, Security, and Tech Conversations

UCaaS is quickly becoming the business default for every size and type of organization. Your customers are already asking about it or are asking about the concept of it without necessarily knowing the acronym. When you add it to your catalog and start having customers who see success with your UCaaS solutions, you become an authority on the subject. You can:

• Discuss how UCaaS offers better cybersecurity and walk your clients through the practical implications of protected vs. unprotected communications channels
• Gather insights into how businesses collaborate in modern work contexts
• Answer the questions your customers have about online communications, whether those questions are complex and detailed or confused and overwhelmed
• Avoid falling behind on advancements in digital communications

4. Preventing UCaaS from Being a Gap in Your Next SWOT Analysis

Adopting UCaaS and offering it to your clients offers several benefits. Conversely, failing to offer it can put your business at a competitive disadvantage. When you run strategic SWOT and competitor SWOT analyses, see what quadrant UCaaS fits into. If other WISPs in your market are starting to offer UCaaS or in-demand services that aren’t in your catalog, this can put pressure on your pipeline—and even lose you clients over time.

However, it’s important to choose a white-label VoiP provider that won’t be a barrier to your business growth. Overly restrictive pricing lines and limited freedom to create product bundles may leave you with UCaaS offerings that cost too much and don’t provide your clients with real value. 

See Where UCaaS from SkySwitch Fits into Your Business Offerings 

By offering your clients the communication and collaboration tools they need in a personalized package that slots neatly into their other services, you’re operating in the customer retention Goldilocks Zone. Now, your customers can grow, increase their communications channels, and not worry about a cumbersome array of cloud-based software from multiple different providers.

You’re providing convenience, simplicity, and solutions. And SkySwitch wants to help you do it. That’s why we offer incredibly versatile UCaaS infrastructures with flexible white-label and repackaging options. Reach out today to learn more about how UCaaS and WISPs fit together.