Why wouldn't I use Vonage as a business phone service?

We have a lot of customers using either VoIP hosted services, SIP trunks supporting premise-based equipment, or a combination of both, but those are primarily larger customers for whom we can deliver service solutions that provide Quality of Service (QOS) across the entire network with 99.999% uptime Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

With smaller customers and connections that go direct to the public internet (usually cable or DSL), we still try to maximize the odds of the customer having a good experience. That means dealing with business grade products whenever and wherever possible.

For example, we recommend synchronous DSL (i.e., 768K x 768K) versus "best effort" products (i.e. cable broadband or, say, 6M x 768K asynchronous DSL), but since "slower" synchronous speeds cost more than "faster" asynchronous products, that's frequently not an option -- especially when the customer is a heavy bandwidth consumer for applications other than voice. When that's the case, as it frequently is, we need to test the customer's connection for latency and jitter to determine if the connection will reasonably support voice and, if so, how many simultaneous calls are viable before degradation is likely to set in. No matter what the answer is to those questions, we want the customer to have a router that can at least provide premise-based QOS so they won't shoot themselves in the proverbial foot.

So what about VoIP service providers for the SMB space? Our first rule is simple: if the provider also plays in the residential space, we don't play with them. It's not that you can't have a good experience with some of those crossover products. You can. But with so many variables involved that we can't control, we need to control all we can, especially since the money differential involved is often pretty small. If the customer has a service issue, we want them to reach support quickly and we want the person they speak with to be someone who deals exclusively with businesses. It is amazing what a difference that alone can make relative to ultimate customer satisfaction levels.

Now, as far as which company might be the best match for a smaller customer, the fact is there are several providers out there who are very good. Unless the customer is speaking with someone pushing the only thing they have to sell, to narrow it from here would require some conversation with the customer about preferences, needs, growth plans, whether hosted or dial tone replacement is the better fit, etcetera, etcetera.

Chris,

Call quality and reliability would be the reasons that I would use a commercial class VOIP system instead of something like Vonage. Low call quality and potential loss of calls are quite acceptable with personal calls but business calls are much more important and if a call has poor quality or is dropped that can create a perception of your company based on the call.

Call quality could be an issue with any Public Internet Phone company like Vonage or even Vocalocity or 8x8. They all use the same public Internet to transport your calls - and the public Internet can be a place where voice packets get delayed or lost, resulting in 'choppy' sounding calls or dropped calls.

These providers are probably fine as a low-cost hosted phone system provider for a very small company (1-5 or 10 users). But for better call quality (and often better support) look for a local Hosted VoIP provider in your area. They should be able to get you the same features and ease-of-use you are looking for, PLUS deliver the same call call quality you have come to expect from good old-fashioned telecom.

Chris, any VOIP service is only as good as your Internet speed from the point the device is connected. I use Vonage and currently forward all of my calls to my cell. I will be reconnecting my phone directly to my modem soon though as I have High Speed Turbo from TWC's Carolina Roadrunner. If you have a T1 or better that would even increase the quality.

While I agree that all VOIP services have quality issues I have had Vonage for over 3 years now and I love it! By far the best value for the money.

There is nothing wrong with Vonage.

They even support number portability and you can select your own number.

Later you can port it to a cell phone, land line or business class server.

Presently I use RingCentral mobile. It cost as little as $14 per month and is scalable.

Presently I pay about 83.00 for several thousand minutes 4 800 numbers, 4 lines with two desk phones, 1 VOIP converter, and 1 Laptop extension.

I have configured departments, business hours, voicemail to email, and Agent availability and unavailability.

The price is right and the service is OK.

Great question, Chris, and you've gotten some good answers here. I just wanted to say that Vonage can work just as well as "business branded" offering like Vocalocity - but also just as poorly. As noted already, OTT services like these (over-the-top)cannot directly manage/control QoS. Both they - and you- are at the mercy of your Internet provider. If they don't care for that service, sooner or later you'll experience uneven performance - to put it lightly. It may never happen, but if you're a heavy VoIP user, it probably will.

As such, there's always a caveat around any OTT service, esp if your business depends heavily on landline telephony. Budget conscious SMBs will take that chance, but more savvy business operators will likely pay a bit more for assured QoS, either with a hosted or premise-based service.

Lots more we could talk about, but not here. As they say, the first one's free! :-)

Great question, Chris, and you've gotten some good answers here. I just wanted to say that Vonage can work just as well as "business branded" offering like Vocalocity - but also just as poorly. As noted already, OTT services like these (over-the-top)cannot directly manage/control QoS. Both they - and you- are at the mercy of your Internet provider. If they don't care for that service, sooner or later you'll experience uneven performance - to put it lightly. It may never happen, but if you're a heavy VoIP user, it probably will.

As such, there's always a caveat around any OTT service, esp if your business depends heavily on landline telephony. Budget conscious SMBs will take that chance, but more savvy business operators will likely pay a bit more for assured QoS, either with a hosted or premise-based service.

Lots more we could talk about, but not here. As they say, the first one's free! :-)

Great question, Chris, and you've gotten some good answers here. I just wanted to say that Vonage can work just as well as "business branded" offering like Vocalocity - but also just as poorly. As noted already, OTT services like these (over-the-top)cannot directly manage/control QoS. Both they - and you- are at the mercy of your Internet provider. If they don't care for that service, sooner or later you'll experience uneven performance - to put it lightly. It may never happen, but if you're a heavy VoIP user, it probably will.

As such, there's always a caveat around any OTT service, esp if your business depends heavily on landline telephony. Budget conscious SMBs will take that chance, but more savvy business operators will likely pay a bit more for assured QoS, either with a hosted or premise-based service.

Lots more we could talk about, but not here. As they say, the first one's free! :-)

It's important to consider how you're going to use the phones and how feature-rich of a system you're going to need, and also how much customer support you'll want access to. Vonage may work fine for making simple inbound and outbound calls. However, if your business has a high call volume, if you need more than standard features -- like instant messaging, call routing, or cell phone integration -- than it's probably in your best interest to consider a company that specializes in VoIP for small businesses. You may be able to find a more feature-rich system than Vonage that also offers better customer support. I talk with people on a daily basis who are implementing a hosted solution or looking to switch to a hosted solution and I always suggest a main selling point for them should be customer service. I speak with several businesses that have a hosted solution but they're unhappy with their customer service and they're considering paying more in order to get better support. The cost of a hosted solution from a business VoIP provider may be more than Vonage but the functionality and support could be worth the extra dollars spent.