Relay Systems, Automated Systems, And Direct Line Systems: Which Business Phone Service Do You Need?

Business phone systems are essential to any company. Depending on the size of your business or company, you might choose one or more of the usual business phone services. The following systems and services are most commonly used by different sizes of companies/businesses. 

Relay Systems

Relay systems help your administrative assistants at the front desk route calls to the appropriate people in the appropriate departments. If you have multiple departments and multiple heads of departments, then a relay system is an excellent option for your company. The larger your company, the better this relay system works for you. 

Automated Systems

Automated systems can answer most of the most common questions consumers have in regard to your company. It eliminates the need to have one or more employees answering phones for basic questions about times of operation, when your company is open to the public, and specific departments that are commonly called for customer satisfaction reasons. Automated systems can also help route calls if you have the system set up and programmed to do that. Your installation technician will help you set this up so that your system does all of the above automatically and/or when a customer presses a button in response to a need mentioned by number. 

Direct Line Systems

With direct line systems, every employee has his or her own line. To contact each employee, a customer has to have the number to call that employee directly. Business cards printed with each employee's name and his/her direct line in the building helps customers make contact as they need to. This option is most popular with smaller businesses, health clinics, and law firms where only a couple of lawyers are partnered to make the firm what it is. Each direct line also has its own voicemail box and answering service so that messages are left with the correct party and never in the general voicemail box at the front desk. 

Combination Systems

Of course, you could always request a combination of business phone systems. Mid-sized companies and businesses often opt for relay-automated combination systems to help relay customer calls through an automated system and cut down on the number of employees hired to answer phones. Direct line systems can be combined with automated systems too. Customers call in and want to speak to a specific person, so the automated system asks for the direct line's extension number or the first three letters of the last person's name to direct the call to that person's phone.