Running a business · 10 guides
Business Phone & Telecom: problems and fixes, explained by Beau
Beau Bearden is the only business phone & telecom member of BNI Preston Center. These guides are written for a Dallas–Fort Worth reader who has the problem right now: what is happening, what to check, when to call, and what it costs.
- Your staff text clients from their own phones: what that costs you, and the fix Client texts on employees' personal phones vanish when the employee leaves, cannot be seen by anyone else and may hold confidential details. Here is what is at stake and how to move everyone to a business line. Yes, and the fix is simpler than most owners expectHow it creeps into a businessWhat the business losesWhen the texts contain confidential information
- What a business phone system really costs a Dallas office, and what moves the number A cloud phone system is priced per user, plus hardware and setup, but the real comparison is against everything you pay for today. Here is what moves the number and how to compare quotes fairly. The short answer: you pay per user, and the design sets the priceHeadcount is the biggest lever, but not every person needs a full seatA fifteen-person office, sorted on paperHardware: rent it, buy it, or skip most of it
- The power is out and the internet is down: keeping a DFW office's phones answered A storm can take out the office's power and internet, but it does not have to take out your phones. Here is what fails, how calls can reroute to cell phones, and the outage plan to set up before you need it. Your phones can stay up even when the office does notWhat actually fails when the lights go outThe North Texas weather an outage plan should expectSet up the outage plan before the storm
- The once-a-year phone system checkup: users, call flows, 911 addresses and the bill Phone systems drift. People leave, greetings go stale, 911 addresses fall out of date and seats keep billing. An afternoon once a year catches it. Here is the checklist we use. One afternoon a year catches what quietly driftedWho has a line, and who should notCall your own business like a stranger wouldWhat a year of call reports tells you
- Switching phone providers without losing a number: the timeline, week by week Planning a phone switch takes weeks; the cutover itself is a short, scheduled moment. Here is the sequence, the paperwork that moves your numbers, and the mistakes that delay it. Plan in weeks, switch in a single scheduled windowGather this before you talk to anyoneThe first stretch: decisions, design and the networkHow the number transfer works
- Setting up a cloud phone system yourself: what you can handle and where it goes wrong Creating users and recording a greeting is easy. Moving numbers, designing call flows, recording 911 locations and preparing the network are where self-installs go wrong. Here is where to draw the line. Yes, if someone will own it, but know where self-installs failWhat a capable office manager can do aloneThe jobs that trip up most self-installsA quick test: is this a project for you?
- Desk phone, softphone or mobile app: matching the device to the person who uses it Front desks still need real phones, most desk workers are better off with a headset, and people on the road need a business line on their cell. Here is how to sort your team and what each choice means. Match the device to the work, not the job titleWho still needs a phone on the deskSoftphone and headset: the right default for most desk workersThe mobile app and a business line on a personal cell phone
- Choppy, delayed or dropped VoIP calls: how to find the cause before you blame the phones Robotic voices, people talking over each other, calls that drop at the same minute every time: each points to a different cause. Here is how to narrow it down yourself before you call anyone. Most choppy calls are a network problem, not a phone problemPut a name to what you are hearingThe numbers that decide call qualityFive checks you can run yourself this week
- Before you sign with a VoIP provider: the questions that expose a weak one Every VoIP demo looks good. The difference shows up in who installs, who answers support, what costs extra, whose name the numbers are in and what happens when the internet fails. Ask these first. Ask these before the contract, not afterWho installs it, and who trains my team?When something goes wrong on a Tuesday afternoon, who picks up?What is in the monthly price, and what is extra?
- The office phone system is dying and staff talk on three apps: how to switch without chaos Dropped calls, a voicemail nobody checks and a vendor who no longer supports the hardware. Here is how to evaluate what your team actually needs and what a well-run cutover looks like. The phone closet nobody wants to openWhy the old system worked for years and then stoppedAn inventory you can do before talking to any vendorWhen patching the old system is the sensible choice