Do Your Customers Need Enterprise Voice Communications?

Modern businesses are struggling to maintain haphazard or disconnected communication systems, and traditional business communication tools aren’t up to par. Separate systems for phones, email, online portals, and other channels give customers choppy, inconsistent experiences, and this setup stops companies from providing seamless or holistic support. That’s why businesses of every size are adopting enterprise voice communications solutions.

Options like VoIP are expanding and are expected to reach $354.7 billion in value by 2032, and the overall UC market is going to grow 10.2% each year. Companies can read this as a sign that UC trends are here to stay and that it’s time to upgrade their communications so they don’t get left behind.

Enterprise voice communications resellers should also respond accordingly to grow their businesses. Offering robust UC options, making it easy to see the benefits, and customizing your products to anticipate the coming trends are just the beginning. It’s just as important to analyze your customers’ needs regarding communications and meet demands as they arise.

What Is Enterprise Voice Communications?

Enterprise voice communications uses technology to transmit speech rather than relying on text messaging, email, or video collaboration. Historically, most companies had little choice but to pay the high cost of installing a private branch exchange (PBX) system in their central office to ensure connectivity. While this technology was initially developed to make voice communication more efficient, the features aren’t all that enterprising by today’s standards.

As consumers embrace multiple forms of digital communication, many business owners are doing the same. With live chat, video conferencing, and automated messaging services dominating the workplace, far too many companies are still relying on multiple applications just to keep up. Over time, most will eventually realize their efforts aren’t very efficient or cost-effective. 

Taking on the role of a reseller offering unified communication as a service (UCaaS) gives you the ability to provide digital enterprise voice communications. These solutions give your customers the flexibility to make and receive business calls from any digital device while reducing their overhead costs.

How Could Offering Reseller Services Benefit My Customers?

By understanding what enterprise-level voice communications are and having experience in this niche, you can visualize the benefits that companies like your clients can gain by adopting new communication systems. 

Related: The Importance of Effective Voice Calling in Business

However, your clients might not understand these benefits immediately. Either the advantages are too abstract or they don’t directly address a business need to seem worth the upheaval. That means your first responsibility as a reseller is to lay out the advantages of making the switch and being able to readily spot the indicators that your clients need enterprise voice communications to gain the big impact they’re seeking.

Signs Your Existing Customers Need Enterprise-Level Voice Communications

It’s not always obvious to businesses that enterprise communication systems can solve problems within their organization. Stay vigilant when looking for these common signs your clients need an enterprise voice upgrade:

• They have lost customers because of inconsistent customer service experiences or having to repeat steps. This indicates their communication system isn’t capturing all the right details or allowing for a smooth experience.
• Internal data and information are hard to find. When companies have multiple communication channels through disconnected third-party software, it’s difficult to find anything. Even experienced employees need to remember where they put information or manually search across channels.
• Remote and hybrid employees have a measurably worse experience. Organizations that can make remote work succeed can win over more employees and maintain a happier workforce. But poor internal and customer-facing communication tools mean that remote employees can’t be as productive. Their results are lower than their in-house teammates, and that makes the remote work experience look like a failure. Adopting VoIP and UC is the solution.
• There are patchy systems, and scalability is difficult. Small and mid-sized businesses have a lot of fluctuation in demand, workforce size, and network factors. Conventional communication tools make it hard to scale up or down throughout the months, but VoIP is designed to easily scale by modifying the number of SIP lines or adding new digital resources.

If your clients mention or indicate these problems, even in passing, you have a great opportunity to introduce enterprise voice communications as a solution and win their loyalty.

3 Advantages of Enterprise Communications Your Clients Need to Know About

Many signs that your customers need more robust communication options are clear indications that something is holding their businesses back. Good resellers don’t just solve their clients’ existing problems—they proactively assess their future needs and opportunities to grow or excel.

Look past the limitations in your clients’ existing communication strategies and resources that are becoming a barrier. Then, see where enterprise-level services can streamline business growth, increase productivity, or pave the way to unanticipated success.

Advantage 1: Virtual Enterprise Voice Reduces Overhead Costs

With so many businesses still relying on outdated phone systems, you likely have numerous customers paying steep fees for limited service. While you might initially get some resistance from business owners who feel they “need” a wired telephone system, it’s much easier to overcome those initial objections when you’re offering a time-tested, reliable alternative to legacy services. 

Show your customers how much they could save when they’re not paying for additional lines they don’t need, features they rarely use, and the high cost of maintenance and repairs. Then, let them know that all they need to get started is a high-speed internet connection, a VoIP-enabled phone system (or low-cost analog/PRI adaptor), and a service provider willing to help them get from where they are to where they want to be.

Advantage 2: Virtual Enterprise Voice Helps Businesses Maximize Efficiency

In addition to reducing communication costs, the services you provide as a UCaaS reseller also help your valued customers increase overall efficiency in several ways. 

For example, taking advantage of features like team chat and file sharing enables collaborative communication between employees from any location, benefits that are sure to pique the interest of a business owner with a hybrid workforce. 

AI-enhanced features could be a viable solution for the customer with team members falling behind on deadlines because of multiple calls regarding frequently asked questions. As a one-stop-shop for communication and collaboration solutions, you can earn your customers’ appreciation by offering the efficient tools they need on a platform they can access from nearly any digital device.   

Advantage 3: Virtual Enterprise Voice Helps Enhance Brand Image

With legacy enterprise voice communications, your customers (and their employees) can’t make or receive business calls when they’re away from the office. That can translate to a considerable number of important calls being returned from personal phone numbers. Although some workers don’t mind using their personal phones to return calls, your prospective customers might not realize how many opportunities they could be missing out on. 

A significant number of returned calls go unanswered when recipients don’t recognize the phone number. The services you provide as a UCaaS reseller give your customers the ability to appear as if everyone representing their business is calling from a central location, a definite plus for brand image. 

How Can Reselling Enterprise-Level Voice Communications Benefit My Business?

Enterprise solutions help businesses thrive, but you should also be sure that offering them is the right fit for your reseller business. Offering too many different services can spread your business too thin, and some reselling partners have restrictions and requirements that interfere with how you choose to run your business.

Related: The Future of Unified Communications: What’s in Store in 2024?

Consider these benefits that offering enterprise voice communications can bring to your business—and the steps you can take to ensure those benefits come to fruition.

• Diversify your products and services to protect your business: This approach makes it easier to shape your business over time based on emerging trends. Stay current on developing business trends and explore new revenue streams every year so you can weigh their value to your business.
• Have a modern and cutting-edge brand reputation: Your clients are looking to you for solutions, but they might also be receiving business tech news and tips. If they see a solution that you don’t offer or aren’t aware of, they might lose faith in your business. Continuously develop new product options and be aware of their pros and cons.
• Be the one-stop-shop solution for your clients: By adding enterprise voice communications to your product offerings, you can keep your clients entirely within your ecosystem. If customers step outside for adjacent services, there’s too big of a risk that the competitor will take all of their services. The more packages you offer (without losing quality), the better.
• Stay in control of your business: By proactively investigating and offering VoIP and other options, you can avoid being dragged along by market forces. Take the time to find reselling partners that will support your business, give you white-label options, and let you retain total control of the business elements.

Helping Your Customers Formulate a Communication Strategy

The needs of a company that operates mostly in-house will be a lot different than the needs of a business with a hybrid workforce or remote team. With the right provider, you’ll have the tools and training you need to help ensure every customer expressing interest in your communications services will have the workplace solutions they need for optimal success. While you might initially feel you have a lot to learn, working with your customers to implement an effective communication strategy is a lot easier than you might expect.

Step One: Discuss Their Needs

Some businesses might want a complete company-wide rollout. Others might prefer starting with a limited number of services. Either way, it’s important to identify the individual needs of each customer so you can offer the best value for their communication dollar. 

Even customers who initially choose your services for a limited number of employees could decide to add more lines and features as their team members acclimate to your platform.

Step Two: Identify Challenges   

It’s essential to ensure your customers have the connectivity they need to take their enterprise voice communications to the cloud. If your customer wants to continue using their legacy PBX, ensure their system is SIP trunk-enabled and VoIP compatible. 

If there’s no ethernet port or data jack, your customer may need to purchase a low-cost PRI adaptor, analog-to-telephone adaptor (ATA) or a VoIP-enabled system. It’s also good practice to confirm that their internet service is operating as expected.

Step Three: Focus on Features

As a telecom reseller, you should have access to numerous applications and system integrations that could boost your revenue while providing exceptional value to your customers. While it’s important to offer the tools that enable workforce collaboration, transparency is the key to building trust. Your customers should know at a glance which (if any) additional features are included in your basic service and which premium options might add to their overall cost of service.

Step Four: Offer Ongoing Support

When you take on the role of an enterprise VoIP service provider, your customers will naturally rely on your expertise as various situations arise. Some might struggle with training and implementation; others might have questions while integrating a specific solution into their workflow. To help ensure you’re providing the level of support you want to be associated with your brand, it’s important to partner with a VoIP service provider that offers exceptional reseller training and long-term support for you and your end users.

See How Offering Enterprise Voice Communications Can Benefit Your Reseller Business

With so many business owners feeling the strain of keeping their workforce connected, UCaaS is in high demand. But not all voice platforms offer the same benefits to their reseller partners. At SkySwitch, we make it easy to boost your revenue as you brand and resell our white-label UCaaS platform as your own. We have a rich telecom history, offer UCaaS platform training, and provide a system you can deploy and learn in as little as 30 days. Get started today and see where enterprise voice communications fit into your business plan.