Sales Director
If you're in the financial services sector, a good phone system is more than a luxury; it's essential. A high-quality phone system can help you improve your customer experience, comply with regulations and get more from your people.
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The good news is that upgrading your phone system has never been easier. A cloud-based phone system brings you a whole raft of new features you can't get from traditional phone systems or are cost prohibitive.
In times gone by, you would need to pay for a super-expensive phone system and various upgrades to get many of the features that are now just part and parcel of your monthly subscription.
These new capabilities are tailor-made to help financial services companies do business better. VoIP can help you win clients faster and create a better customer experience. It makes compliance much smoother. It also boosts performance inside your teams through more effective communication.
In this article, we'll look at VoIP and how it works. Then, we'll examine the benefits a VoIP service brings to financial services companies like yours.
VoIP stands for 'Voice over Internet Protocol'. But all you need to know is that it means phone calls over the internet rather than phone lines.
The great thing about VoIP is that it's simple to use. Rather than paying a bill to your telecom provider based on usage, you pay a monthly subscription to your VoIP provider. VoIP phone systems are hosted in the cloud, with no need for racks of hardware in your office.
When you install a business VoIP phone system in your company, you'll get a softphone app on your computer where you can make and receive incoming calls. It's the same underlying technology we regularly use on solutions such as Skype, Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
A VoIP system has the edge over traditional phone systems for three reasons:
A high-quality VoIP system can bring many benefits to companies operating in the financial services sector.
Here are seven reasons why a VoIP solution is a must for financial institutions, accounting firms, insurance agencies, financial advisors or any other business offering a financial service.
It's likely that many in your team are not in the office every day anymore. But, with a traditional telephone system, running a distributed workforce in different locations is challenging. Your team probably need to use their mobiles, with a confusing array of different business phone numbers.
With a VoIP phone system, your team can make or receive calls wherever they are, through a desk phone, computer or mobile devices. You only need to give out one number, and there's no need for particular handsets. A softphone app does it all.
Because VoIP lives in the cloud rather than on hardware in your building, your team have access to all your solution's features wherever they are. Now, your team can do everything they used to do in the office as long as they have a stable internet connection.
In today's world of work, we use many different communication tools to keep in touch with each other. Many businesses use different platforms for video meetings, conference calls, team messaging etc.
A high-quality VoIP service will bring all these capabilities and more into one platform (often called unified communication), so your team can stay in touch and collaborate wherever they are in the world. This seamless communication could be invaluable for companies running, for example, multiple financial advisors or insurance agents across the UK.
You'll also find extra valuable features on your VoIP system, which would be unheard of in existing systems, such as CRM integration, file sharing and an automated receptionist.
A sound VoIP phone system will revolutionise how your team works if you're running a call centre as part of your financial service business.
With built-in call centre functionality, VoIP systems bring you:
Dealing with incoming calls is one of the essential VoIP features. After all, if potential clients can't get through to your business, they may never come back.
VoIP phone systems allow you to deal with calls however you wish. For example, you can set up 'hunt groups' that route calls into one telephone number across a network of other numbers.
Suppose you had a team of financial advisors. In that case, you could set up a hunt group that would direct incoming calls to a different financial advisor each time, equally distributing incoming leads. It keeps all your financial advisors happy while ensuring no potential lucrative clients slip through the net.
Part of providing top-quality service for your clients is quickly getting them the help they need. When customers call your company, they don't want to be passed around to endless numbers of people before they find the information they want.
A VoIP system is excellent at helping your clients get to the correct department quickly and without stress. One fantastic feature is the auto attendant or virtual receptionist, where you can set up multi-level menus that help your customer find the right department without anyone else having to help them.
For example, if you're an insurance company with several offices and insurance agents across the country, you could have:
Alternatively, you could structure your menu with different numbers for sales, claims, etc.
You can also create custom hold music to help your customers if they wait to speak to somebody. Many financial services companies use this feature to convey useful messages to their customers.
Strict compliance is one of the most critical parts of the financial services sector - and one of the biggest challenges.
Call recording is essential for finance companies to ensure people do what they say and settle disputes. However, call recording was difficult with traditional phone systems, requiring a lot of hardware.
VoIP makes call recording simple. It happens automatically, and everything is stored in the cloud. It's easy to access the files to go back over what was said. You can also use call recordings for training purposes. It's no surprise that many financial institutions regard call recording as one of VoIP's most valuable business tools.
Most VoIP phone systems work out much more affordable than traditional telephone systems. VoIP providers typically offer packages with free minutes as standard.
Our favourite VoIP solutions - Gamma Horizon and 3CX - offer thousands of free domestic call minutes monthly for each user in your team.
You may also find that VoIP helps you trim costs in your business. For example, if your staff can stay connected and work anywhere with internet reception, do you even need an office? Instead, let your virtual receptionists maintain your presence.
As you can see, VoIP can bring several significant to your financial services organization.
However, you need to know that in 2027, BT plans to turn off its traditional ISDN and PSTN phone networks. As a result, all companies that want to keep their existing landline phone numbers will need to move to a business VoIP service.
Let your VoIP solution future-proof your finance company and get the edge over your competitors.
Gamma Horizon is tailor-made for companies of any size who want a hands-off, fully managed, feature-rich VoIP business phone solution. It's a cloud-based platform compatible with handsets and headsets, with softphone apps for computer and mobile devices.
Horizon has all the features a financial service company could ask for, including the ability to make and receive business calls on your mobile phone. No longer are your financial advisors tied to the office.
Horizon also offers call recording to keep track of all your calls for training and compliance purposes. You can also set up video conferencing, instant messaging, CRM integration and more.
3CX is ideal for larger companies (20+ users) that need more flexibility from a VoIP solution. 3CX is more than a VoIP provider; it's a customisable telephony environment. You can create a VoIP system that matches your unique needs.
Features you can set up include live chat and talk, video conferencing, auto attendant and call recording. 3CX is also compatible with any handset, so it's easy to migrate to 3CX from your existing system.
3CX is excellent for financial companies running call centres, with features including the ability to access customer data, listen in and hot desking.
BOnline is a VoIP provider offering affordable internet calling solutions to small businesses, startups and freelancers.
Its mission is to make running a VoIP solution as simple as possible, allowing you to manage your entire phone system - and all its features - from one dashboard.
For one-man bands such as independent financial advisors or insurance agents, a solution like BOnline allows you to serve your customers anywhere in the world.
You know the benefits of bringing VoIP into your financial services business, but what kind of solution is right for you?
T2K has been helping companies like yours navigate the fast-moving world of business telecoms for more than 25 years. Our expert team will recommend the best VoIP system for your requirements. Talk to us about your company and what you need.
We pride ourselves on giving all our customers a genuinely personal service. So, for a plain English conversation about how VoIP can make your business work better, it's time to talk to T2K.
Having worked for T2k for nearly 25 years, it's fair to say that Lee is an expert when it comes to all things telephony and business communications. Overseeing the commercial side of the business, he has helped the company evolve and grow through the decades. In recent years, and with the advent of VoIP and hosted telephony, Lee has made sure that T2k is at the forefront of technological developments. With a firm interest in helping businesses navigate the world of telecoms, Lee is responsible for the majority of the content on this website.
