Most businesses today have a website. Even the smallest companies do. But when a customer wants to take the next step, the cracks can begin to show. They lead their mouse down past the marketing jargon, past the smiling white teeth… down to the bottom of the page. There lies the Achilles’ heel of the lone wolf or small business. The company phone number and, more specifically,  the system behind it. If you want people to become clients and part with their money, they have to have confidence in you as a professional supplier. They don’t know you. Anything you can do to reinforce that confidence will result in more sales, and of higher value. Seeing a mobile number, or calling a number which is obviously a single BT line, will have the opposite effect. So what is the solution? For bigger operations, it isn’t difficult to sustain the magic of marketing on the phone. Customers expect to be welcomed by an impossibly cheery lady with a trendy accent and excerpts of Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik while they wait. They don’t expect the crackled, disjointed automated message you hurriedly put out in a spare moment. Your website could be as professional as the next, but in telecommunications, you might be firing a pea-shooter compared to the big corporations with call centres abroad and state-of-the-art technology. For customer confidence from the beginning right through to the end, a professional phone system is therefore vital. David deserves more than a slingshot to fight the Goliath. He might prefer a bazooka. We would suggest a VoIP system. Cisco VoIP systems have been used by large organisations for years. Watch any BBC drama and the set will be festooned with Cisco Handsets. They offer a much wider range of facilities than a standard landline or a small PBX. (A PBX is a traditional office phone system). But competing with larger companies doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg.  Internet Phone Systems have very low start-up and running costs. Cloud based systems level the playing field and give start-up businesses the professional sheen they need to sustain customer confidence. Find out more about Hosted VoIP systems on our website. Professional marketing messages and on-hold music are just the start – VoIP phone systems offer a host of features to convey the right image, whatever your size. The auto-attendant feature on Cisco Phone Systems allows calls to be directed to relevant departments based on the enquiry. It doesn’t matter if you’re just one pair of hands and a laptop – in the eye of the beholder, your homestead can become the Sales Team, the Technical Support Office or the Executive Assistant's desk at the punch of a number. When the phone rings you’ll see what the call is for and know what to expect. Auto-attendants, or Virtual Receptionists, allow the self-employed business owner to become their very own one-man-band. And it allows a small team to work as efficiently as a large corporation. To gain a competitive edge small businesses can’t leave their clients tapping their toes. Advanced call routing features on VoIP phone systems ensure you never miss a call. Numbers can be redirected to any available employee automatically if the first person isn’t available. So whether you’re at home or in the office, you’ll never miss a lead. Voicemail-to-email functions ensure you can always get back to clients from your mobile phone. They don’t need to know you are out of the office. You don’t need a call centre to compete with the big boys. VoIP or SIP technology also allows domestic and international numbers to be directed to the same phone system. You can publish numbers for London, Manchester and Edinburgh to assert a national presence - or go further afield. International calls will all go down the same funnel, toward your humble desk phone in a quiet corner of the office. But now you’re more than just a small business. You’re a multinational corporation with a international appeal. No business should underestimate the power of marketing. The ability to assert a professional and authoritative image goes beyond taglines and webpages – and now companies of all sizes can harness professional internet phone systems to maximum advantage, increasing both the volume and calibre of their clients. A peacock is only as good as its feathers – and now you can strut with the alpha males without sacrificing the personal touch you’re known for. You can order a VoIP phone system online for as little as £2.99 per month per connection here. GRiP Communications are a UK based VoIP Service provider providing high quality affordable business telephone systems to organisations with one phone or many. All you need is an Internet Connection. For more information on how VoIP works go to: https://gripcom.co.uk/how-voip-works To order a VoIP system online or chat about your requirements visit us at: https://gripcom.co.uk