Choosing a VoIP provider for a small business: what to ask

Choosing a VoIP provider comes down to two questions that rarely appear on a quote:

1. Who answers the phone when the system goes down?
2. How much of your setup can change once you’ve signed?

That’s because most providers offer much the same features. Call handling, voicemail, an auto attendant, apps that put your work number on a laptop or a mobile. The lists look alike because the technology underneath is similar, so comparing them rarely settles anything.

You’ll also see the same product sold as VoIP, as a cloud phone system and as hosted telephony. The questions below apply whichever name is on the quote.

Look at a few provider websites and the numbers start to blur for the same reason the feature lists do. Most of the industry works to similar standards, so the numbers won’t tell you which provider to pick.

What separates providers is harder to put in a table, and it comes back to the two questions above.

A feature list will not cover this, and it’s the thing you’ll care about most on the day something stops working. Four things worth asking are:

• Where does the support team sit?
• Can the first person you speak to fix a fault, or do they pass it on?
• When does the cover run, and what happens outside those hours?
• Who do you call if the problem turns out to be the internet connection rather than the phones?

Our support is answered from our Milton Keynes office by people who work here. Nothing is passed to a third party and nothing goes abroad. 24-hour support is also available on top of the standard cover.

Plenty of providers sell a system built by somebody else. Ask who built yours, because it decides what can be changed later and how quickly. When the platform belongs to the provider, changes to your setup are theirs to make. If not, they work within another company’s terms first.

Make sure you ask about handsets while you’re there. An open platform means you aren’t tied to one brand of phone, now or later. iNTALK runs on virtually any handset, though in practice we usually recommend moving to one of the brands we partner with rather than keeping what you already have.

Businesses change. Halfway through the term you’ve taken on a few more people or opened a second site, and the setup you signed for no longer fits. Ask what happens then, and whether it means a variation, a fresh contract, or a wait until renewal. Contract terms vary. Three years is typical for iNTALK, but it can be shorter or longer. 

Because the contract is ours as well as the platform, we can change your setup partway through rather than working around another company first, and the halfway point is normally where we’d look at an upgrade with you.

Two quotes can look alike and cover very different things. Before you compare the numbers at the bottom, find out what sits inside the monthly cost:

• Setup and configuration, or whether installation is billed on its own
• Support, and whether it comes with the system or as a separate plan
• The call handling features your team will use every day
• Adding and removing users partway through the term

Every iNTALK system comes with the call handling features a business uses day to day, rather than holding them back as paid extras. Pricing is per user per month, and it’s competitive for what’s included.

Your calls travel over your internet connection, so the connection has to be sized for them. Check how a provider works that out, and whether they do it before they quote.

The principle is the same as choosing broadband at home. The more that runs through the line, the bigger it needs to be.

We look at the call and data volume going through your business and size the line to match, so call quality isn’t left to chance.

Your numbers come with you. What matters is who deals with your current provider, and whether you’re given a fixed switch-over date or an earliest one.

An earliest date is the honest answer, because the timing depends partly on the provider you’re leaving. There’s more on that in our article on number porting.

You want a named contact and an idea of how often you’ll hear from them. Just as useful is what your own team can change without picking up the phone, because small edits come up constantly and they stack up fast if every one has to go through someone else.

Every client gets a dedicated account manager from day one, and they stay with you across anything else you take on. Reviews can happen as often as you prefer.

Six weeks after installation, someone outside your account team calls to check you’re happy with how it went.

iNTALK is the hosted phone system we built ourselves, and the one we put most businesses on. Everything from the design to the day-to-day support sits with our own team, which is what lets us answer the questions above the way we do.

It suits all sizes of businesses and organisations; there is no minimum or maximum number of users.

iNTALK has its own page, and our hosted phone systems page covers the full range we install.

What should I ask a VoIP provider before signing?

Start with who answers the phone when the system goes down, and whether your setup can change partway through the term. After that, cover what sits inside the monthly cost, how they size your internet connection, and who moves your numbers across.

Is a cloud phone system right for a small business?

A cloud system is where most businesses are heading regardless of size due to the retirement of the traditional phone network. The questions above matter more than the size of your team.

Can I keep my phone number if I switch provider?

Yes. Keeping your number is protected under Ofcom’s rules, and your current provider can’t refuse to release it because you’re leaving.

Do I need to move before the ISDN switch-off?

Openreach is retiring the old network, and migration orders have to be placed before 31 January 2027. Our ISDN switch-off page covers what that means in practice.

We have to keep call recordings. Is that covered?

Call recording is available, with the retention period set to what your industry requires. The usual options are 30 days, 90 days or 12 months, and it can be extended to seven years where you need it.

If you’re weighing up providers and want straight answers to the questions above, tell us what you have now and how your team works. Our Milton Keynes team will talk you through what we’d put in and why.

Emily Grimes, iNREACH’s Telecoms Specialist, iNREACH Comms. For more information, contact me here.