How to Find the Best VoIP Service Provider

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is one of the most in-demand communication technologies for businesses today. This year’s market value exceeds $43.92 billion and is expected to grow 40% by 2033.  It provides a substantial list of benefits for businesses of all ages, sizes, and industries. However, finding the best VoIP service provider is the key to getting the most from your service.

What Should You Look for in the Best VoIP Service Provider? 

Before diving into what makes a VoIP service provider exceptional, let’s take a moment to review what VoIP is. VoIP is the technology that allows you to transmit voice, text, and video wirelessly as digital data. Instead of phone lines, VoIP relies on a high-speed internet connection. It removes the need for landlines and outdated analog equipment and enables the use of VoIP-compatible phones, smartphones, computers, and tablets to connect people and places. 

Your business has many options when it comes to VoIP service providers. The challenge for new small business owners is understanding what sets an exceptional provider apart from the rest. It is worth taking the time to research providers’ service and feature offerings as well as their reputation with customers. After all, the more reliable the VoIP service, the better able you are to serve your customers. 

Characteristics of the Best VOIP Providers

So, what qualities make up the best VoIP service providers? At a minimum, you want to look for the following characteristics in your IP telephony provider:

• Competitive prices. VoIP services should save you money. Compare prices and services to get the best features and value for your business needs. Look for pay-as-you-go services with no contracts. All costs should be clearly quoted upfront with no hidden fees. 
• High Quality of Service (QoS). You’ll want to ensure your provider has backup systems in place to ensure that call quality and reliability remain high at all times.
• Best-in-class customer support. Look for multiple support options, including 24/7 online chat, telephone, and email.

When your business relies on connecting remote employees or multiple offices with vendors and customers, you want more than the minimum acceptable service. If you value providing exceptional communication capabilities to empower your employees and keep your customers engaged, you’ll want the best possible offering of services and features. In other words, you want the best VoIP service provider. Let’s look deeper into what that means.

Cost-Efficiency and Reliability

The best service provider will offer multiple plans to fit your business needs and budget without locking you into a contract. Look for pricing that offers a pay-as-you-go option, but be sure you don’t sacrifice reliability.

Related: What is IP Telephony and SIP?

Your customers rely on your availability. That means you should expect the highest levels of reliability from your VoIP service. Accept nothing less than 99.99% uptime or better. The best provider for your business will also provide failover and backup capabilities in the event of a service interruption.

Scalability

Your business is a living, evolving entity. You need a VoIP provider that allows you to expand or contract your services as necessary without being locked into a contract, paying penalties, or incurring additional fees. 

Security 

Cyber threats are a reality of today’s internet-connected world. The best VoIP provider will have established security practices to protect against evolving risks, as well as 24/7/365 monitoring of your services.

Best-in-Class Customer Service

The ability of your business to communicate with customers, employees, and vendors is paramount. That means you need fast, knowledgeable, and effective technical support when anything stands in the way of that communication. 

Valuable Features Offered by the Best VoIP Provider

Now that you know the qualities to look for, you’ll want to know more about what features the best VoIP company offers so that you can take advantage of the most up-to-date communications capabilities. Consider these most common options that will elevate communications across your organization.

Powerful Control Panel

When you want to leverage the power of a flexible and scalable VoIP plan, look for one with a self-service control panel. You should be able to add, upgrade, or cancel your services, as well as perform administrative tasks like reviewing call records and modifying your billing preferences.

Real-Time Call Data Records

Call Data Records (CDRs) give you valuable insight into your telephony usage. Make sure your provider offers viewing and exporting capabilities.

Widespread DID Coverage

Look for a provider with a large database of available U.S. and international phone numbers that can be instantly provisioned.

Bring-Your-Own-Bandwidth

Having autonomy over your business choices is important, as is maintaining business relationships that already work for you. Look for a provider who lets you choose your own broadband internet service. 

International Toll Fraud Protection and Nomadic e911

Safety and security should be a priority for your VoIP provider. Ensure they provide real-time international call fraud detection, automatic termination of unauthorized calls in progress, temporary auto-disabling of international calling until the threat is mitigated, and suspicious activity alerts. 

Related: What Are Call Data Records (CDRs) and How Can They Help Your Business?

In addition, most people take the ability to call 911 for granted with landlines, but some virtual phone services aren’t compatible with address detection. Look for nomadic e911 so that any U.S. DID number will automatically display an address to an emergency services operator. 

Tier-1 Redundant Network

Network redundancy is critical for reliability. The best VoIP provider will have multiple gateways across the US to eliminate any single point of failure and use only Tier-1 upstream providers for redundancy and high voice quality.

Fault-Tolerant DID Routing

Look for the ability for inbound DID call routing in the event of a primary IP-PBX failure. Your provider should be able to forward calls to a backup PSTN number if there is a call routing failure. 

Additional Value-Added Features

You may not need every available feature all of the time, but the more options available to you, the less you have to worry if you find yourself in need of them. The most comprehensive service providers offer features like the following:

• Business texting using APIs for existing workflows, integrated web, iOS, and Android apps.  
• Fax DID for sending messages and a web portal for viewing them.
• Fax-to-email and email-to-fax service. 

No Obligation Free Trial

When starting a new business relationship, it is important to know that it’s a good fit. The best VoIP providers will offer a free trial account with ample minutes of outbound calling to the contiguous 48 states. 

It’s Time to Modernize Your Business Communications

Don’t get left behind by your competition with outdated services and equipment. Today’s business environment requires access to people and information while on the go, from anywhere. Best-in-class VoIP service is how you keep your business competitive. 

SIP.US is an industry-leading provider of SIP trunking services designed to optimize your business operations. We offer fast setup, an easy-to-use control panel, reliable, flexible service at a competitive price, and a no-obligation free trial. Get started today to find out why SIP.US is the best VOIP service provider for your business.