Top Ten tips for Reducing Landline Phone Costs
The Aussie Phone Brokers service helps business reduce telephone costs without reducing the quality of the telephone service.
However, many businesses are under contract with their current provider, so Aussie has put together the list of the Top Ten quick tips for Landline Phone Cost Reduction.
1: Line Rental vs. Local Call Costs
The cost of cheap local calls is usually accompanied by a higher line rental. In over 95% of businesses it is cheaper to opt for a lower line rental and slightly higher local call costs (up to 6c higher, in fact).
These costs may be easily calculated, simply remember to calculate local call costs and line rentals for ALL lines.
2: Telephone Handset Rentals
Some businesses have been paying $3 per month for handset rental costs. In many cases, this cost has been present for a matter of years. And in far too many cases, this cost is being charged for non-existent handsets!
Ask the current provider if they can waive the cost of the handset from this time onwards. If they cannot, go out and buy a new handset - often a portable handset is cheaper and more useful in the long-run.
3: STD Calls
If the business is locked into a contract, STD calls may be inflexible. Do take note of any capped call times which you may receive - it may be most effective to hang-up before the capped period ends and call back.
VoIP is a solution which is becoming popular. Most VoIP solutions are not business-grade though. (Remember: If you have VoIP over an ADSL connection, you are probably receiving a better call quality than the person you are calling.)
4: Calls to Mobiles
Again, if the business is locked into a contract, calls to mobiles may be inflexible.
Again, VoIP is one offer which you might investigate. Generally though, the costs of calling a mobile via VoIP are matched by the best standard voice offers.
Some companies can take advantage of SMS solutions. These are platforms which allow a user to send an SMS from their desktop. Discount SMS rates apply.
5: Calls to Company Mobiles
If your business has a fleet rate for calls between the mobile fleet members, then invest in an extra handset for the office. Not only will this save on calls from the office to these mobile users, but it will also save on calls from those fleet members back to the office. This often provides huge savings.
Expanding on this facility is a hardware solution called a Mobile Gateway. These may be connected to a landline phone or phone system to act as a fleet mobile and be used and answered from a normal phone. The calls are charged at the mobile to mobile fleet rate.
6: International Calls
VoIP is a viable alternative for international calling.
7: 190 Numbers
These calls are billed as information numbers (weather reports are one example). However, they are also used as competition lines and premium services (such as horoscopes, personal services and adult services). Quite simply, do not call these numbers unless they are essential to the running of the business.
8: Directory Services
Calls to Sensis are billed almost as highly as premium service numbers. In most cases, there are free alternatives.
9: Directory Listing Charges
Many companies still over-advertise in the Whitepages. Why? If a customer is looking for your company name in the whitepages, they do not need a business-card sized advertisement - they will find it regardless because they are looking-up that business name.
10: Phone Bill Audit
A great numbers of companies are being charged for features or services which are no longer connected or no longer necessary. Call all phone lines on the account to make sure they are connected. Investigate whether the messagebank is still in use, whether the line-hunt works, whether the fax line can be attached to a phone line as a Duet, etc. If there are any charges on the account which are unclear, ask your provider to explain them.
Most of all, if an error is found, don't be reluctant to ask for a credit on the account.
See also, the general discussion page about Phone Cost Reduction.