In finance, having access to versatile, reliable, and flexible communications tools is vital. Modern business phone services have the power to provide precisely such solutions.
In the past few decades, business telephony has come a long way from uncooperative, clunky desk phones, and wire-braided PBX monsters lurking in supply closets.
Today, using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, providers have shifted to cloud-based business phone services, and extended their offers. For financial institutions, this provides a wealth of opportunities.
Streamlining Processes and Boosting Efficiency with VoIP
Since VoIP phone services are cloud-delivered, they offer maximum flexibility and scalability. While there are VoIP-enabled desk phones, these business phone services are also available as softphone apps. When an important client calls, you can pick up on any internet-enabled device: your smartphone, tablet, or desktop.
What’s more, VoIP solutions are not limited to voice calls. Many providers offer unified communications solutions that also comprise video calling, conferencing, text messaging, live chat, and email. This allows you to centralize all your business communications on one platform, eliminating the need for various other subscriptions.
In addition to these communication channels, most modern business phone services offer advanced tools to boost productivity and efficiency.
Voicemail-to-email and voicemail-to-text enable you to instantly respond to important messages, no matter whether you’re on a business trip, working remotely, or commuting. Advanced call management gives you total control over call routing, holding, and blocking.
Moreover, many offers integrate with third-party platforms, including project management, team collaboration, and customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Some of the best offers even include native analytics and team collaboration features.
Overall, the right VoIP business phone service will help you operate more efficiently and flexibly, increase your resilience, and streamline your workflows.
Finding the right service, though, is not straightforward. The offer on the VoIP market is massive, and what is included in a specific subscription varies widely. To get you started, here are five of the best business phone services for financial institutions.
1 – Nextiva
Overall, the Arizona-based VoIP provider Nextiva offers the best business telephony suite for financial institutions. It was also recently crowned the best business phone service by U.S News.
Apart from a feature-rich unified communications offer – encompassing voice and video calling, messaging, and email – Nextiva shines through its reliability (99.999% uptime), and award-winning customer service.
Nextiva also provides an outstanding set of additional tools. These range from advanced call management, over headache-saving features like find-me-follow-me and voicemail-to-email, to cutting-edge conversational AI.
Nextiva’s strongest suit is the company’s proprietary software. Its NextOS platform provides in-depth analytics, including predictive analysis, powered by machine learning. It can furnish any financial institution with actionable insights into caller behavior and agent performance.
Based on Nextiva’s own experience with a distributed workforce, it has recently released Cospace, a top-of-the-line team collaboration tool. Especially with the persisting threat of the pandemic, and the definite possibility of a return to remote work, such tools can be invaluable.
Nextiva’s Essential plan is $19.95 per user and month, with per-user cost decreasing with higher user numbers. It integrates with G Suite and Outlook. For other business platform integrations, advanced analytics, and many further features, take a look at the Professional ($20.95) and Enterprise ($27.95) plans.
2 – Dialpad
Another attractive solution for financial institutions, Dialpad convinces with an impressive feature set, and a strong focus on artificial intelligence applications.
The company’s offer includes voice, video, email, chat, and text messaging, as well as all the standard VoIP telephony features like queuing and routing. AI-powered features include automated mote-taking during calls, call transcription, and real-time sales support. Furthermore, analytics tools based on machine learning can yield in-depth insights.
When it comes to third-party platform integrations, Dialpad natively connects to G Suite, Office 365, Salesforce, HubSpot, UberConference, and Slack. Further integrations are possible using Zapier.
Pricing starts at $20 per user and month for the Basic tier. Dialpad’s full feature set – including 24/7 phone support and advanced analytics – is unlocked at the Enterprise plan, for a monthly $35 per user.
3 – GoToConnect
Formerly known as Jive, GoToConnect offers cloud-based business phone services, video conferencing, text messaging, and chat functionalities. In addition, the company provides over 80 advanced features, from custom hold music and pre-call announcements to wait time announcements and find-me-follow-me.
The platform especially prides itself on its video conferencing capabilities, which can accommodate up to 250 participants and 25 HD video feeds. Nifty additional features include one-click screen sharing and personal meeting rooms.
Furthermore, GoToConnect provides native integrations for platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, Zendesk, and Slack among others. Special integrations include Clio for billable hours and Redtail for advanced notes on calls with clients.
Another plus point is GoToConnect’s ability to insert click-to-call buttons on your website.
As for pricing: The provider offers five tiers, depending on the number of users. Monthly per-user subscription costs depend on the number of users. For 1-4 users, that’s $29.95 – once over 50 users are encompassed by the plan, a single license is only $19.95.
4 – 8×8
If you operate internationally, have offices outside the US, or are based entirely in a different part of the world, 8×8 might be the right choice for you. This provider shines in terms of global flexibility, with toll-free numbers in 110 countries, and local ones in 75.
8×8’s offer encompasses voice and video calling, HD video conferencing, screen sharing, and team messaging. Additional features include omnichannel routing and social media integrations.
Apart from offering the opportunity to centralize business communications, 8×8 also integrates smoothly into an existing network of business tools. For example, it’s compatible with third-party platforms like Salesforce or Zendesk.
8×8’s Express plan is the cheapest on this list, at $12 per user and month. However, it’s limited to a single line and basic features. More lines, features, and international options become available at $25 per user and month. Full functionalities are unlocked in the “X4” plan, at $45 per user and month.
5 – Vonage
Finally, Vonage presents another solid choice in VoIP phone services. The platform is flexible, scalable, and offers omnichannel support for voice and video calling, video conferencing for up to 300 users, messaging and live chat.
In addition, this service includes over 50 productivity-boosting tools such as virtual receptionists, as well as social media integrations. It also integrates with a number of popular business platforms, from Office 365 and G Suite over Salesforce and HubSpot to tools like Clio or Microsoft Dynamics.
In terms of pricing, Vonage’s monthly subscription starts at $19.99 per user. More functionalities become available on the Premium and Advanced tiers, for $29.99 and $39.99 respectively.