Choosing the right telco provider for your business

Small and medium businesses (SMEs) simply need critical business services such as phone lines and an internet connection to work. The last thing you need is to be faced
with a network issue and chasing service providers to have the problem resolved. Rather, SMEs need to be focused on the business, not the intricacies that support it.

The role of communications has never been more important for SMEs. Email is a part of our daily lives, the office telephone is still considered crucial to nearly all businesses and we use the internet via Twitter, Facebook and other social networks, and company websites, as a shopfront to communicate with customers, suppliers
and prospects.

With a vast range of communication tools at our fingertips, and the need to be always on and available wherever we are at whatever time, having the right telecommunications service provider is essential to the success of any Australian SME. But who do you choose and more importantly how do you go
about selecting the right fit for your business? Australia offers an array of telecommunications service providers and SMEs need to ensure they partner with a provider that meets the business’ needs. Before you commit to a contract, the following considerations should be central to your decision-making process.

Where to next?

Ask yourself, how will this service strategically fit with your existing infrastructure, i.e. are you growing your business? Is your workforce deskbound or mobile or a combination of both? What channels do you use to service your customers? How many employees do you have and what tools do they need?

Businesses today are faced with needing to do more with less. What if you could get more productivity from your existing employees? Mobility could be the answer. Services like mobile email and business mobile broadband allow employees to be more productive when out of the office, minimising the amount of dead time they have whilst in transit. These solutions also allow more flexible working arrangements for your staff – ensuring business success through mobility.

When considering what mobile plan is best, SMEs should explore a capped plan that for a monthly access fee gives you additional included value to use on a variety of call types. Aggregated cap plans allow you to put mobiles in the hands of staff you may not have been able to provide with previously. These plans enable SMEs to share value across multiple services on one account and add and remove users, usually without penalty, to match the demands of your business; leaving you free to change
the make-up of your fleet. Alternatively, you may prefer having the flexibility to tailor your plan to suit your needs – in which case a non-capped plan will suit best.

Make sure you consider the credentials of the carrier and if they offer a specific business grade service. Typically, such offerings include dedicated business customer service staff trained to handle business-specific needs – such as helping you set up email at the point of purchase and handset replacement; providing you with the
confidence the carrier will understand exactly how you operate.

Ensure ongoing support and technological updates to futureproof your business for tomorrow are wrapped into the terms and conditions of your agreement before signing anything.

What about a bundled offering?

While SMEs are increasingly becoming more reliant on mobile services, the office phone continues to remain central in the daily life of a small business – speaking to clients; managing calls between branches; as well as connecting with staff on the road. Primary research undertaken by Optus in 2009 explored the needs of Australian small and medium businesses. The findings revealed that at least 98 percent of Australian SMEs have fixed lines, highlighting the reasons they should not consider their mobile needs in isolation to their fixed services.

Integrating your mobile and fixed services not only gives you the convenience of having a single supplier, but also the convenience of only having to manage one mailbox, number and bill, resulting in a single number for your customers to reach you and a unified voicemail to manage. Such bundling saves businesses administration time, reducing complexity and giving you more time to do what you need to do; run your business.

Look for a complete solution or whole-of-business offering that considers your needs and business issues at hand. These packages usually also include cost-cutting offerings and other rewards for having more services with one provider, such as unlimited calls between the fixed line and the businesses mobile accounts, providing you with savings against the bottom line.

The customer is king

Whether you’re a fleet management company or a cafe, as an SME, your customer base is crucial to business success. Typically, SMEs deliver customer service in one of four ways: face-to-face, via the telephone, internet or communication tools – or a combination of the three. Your service provider is a vital partner to ensure your customers’ needs are being met and exceeded.

It would be frustrating and potentially devastating to your business to have a system go down in the middle of the night and not be restored until the next morning. Some providers guarantee technical support service 24/7, while ensuring the people on the other end of the phone have the certification to deal with any issues you may encounter. In addition, some providers offer dedicated account management teams with several touch points and a wide network of dealers throughout Australia to ensure your service runs smoothly. This is especially important to SMEs as it offers them the ability to scale their service and products up or down depending on the needs of the business.
A provider that offers a flexible approach to the SOHO, small or medium business is a much better choice than a one-size-fits-all option; different sized businesses will always have different challenges and requirements.

Network coverage

Essential to customer service delivery is network coverage; put simply, without coverage you can’t meet your customers’ expectation for service. What is the breadth of the network service the provider is offering you – do they have metro coverage as well as regional? For SMEs, a missed phone call or email because of limited network coverage could affect your bottom line. You may want to weigh up what is more important to you, price or breadth of coverage. SMEs want to be in a position where they can take a call or receive an email on a new business deal, a customer request or issue.

Most carriers have invested in growing their coverage reach. When researching ask the telcos what level of investment the carrier is making to expand its coverage footprint into regional and remote Australia in terms of mobile and fixed line technologies; it may be essential for your business to have network coverage in Wagga or Sapphire Beach for example.

Lastly, be sure to check the range of products and services on offer – an IT services company differs widely from a hairdressing salon – make sure the service provider has a wide range of products and services to give you the best chance to find something that caters specifically to your business. Choosing the right partner will enable you to let the service provider take care of your telecommunications needs, giving you the time to concentrate on what is core to you, your business.

By Mark Bayliss

Mark Baylis is General Manager of SMB Products for Optus

Find out how Optus can help you build your business with a great range of solutions designed for business builtforbusiness.com.au .