Phone Service Archives | Page 3 of 3 | Indy Developers Network

Indy Business: Unwanted Spam Calls

With the growing problem of unwanted and fraudulent spam calls, more and more people are asking if anything can be done about it. There are apps and services available for cell phones, but what can you do about spam business and residential calls? In this post, we’d like to highlight some of the ways to decrease or eliminate telemarketing calls.

Talk to your provider.

Not all providers will let you block unwanted calls, but it’s worth finding out. For example, we will block calls for both our business phone service and our home phone service. Not only can we block a number or a whole area code, but the way we block it makes spammers believe your number has been disconnected even though everyone else can call you normally. It’s a great tool for removing your number from spam call lists.

Also, if your provider says they don’t block unwanted calls, consider porting your number to one that will.

Let your phone do the talking.

Because so many of the spam calls are automated, why not automate your answer to them? With modern phone systems, it’s extremely simple to create an answering service that screens your calls. Just requiring the caller to press a single button is enough to stop most telemarketers. And you can combine this method with call blocking to virtually eliminate unwanted calls.

Get extreme.

As a last resort, you can choose to only allow calls from a list of trusted numbers. Instead of blocking bad callers when they contact you, you start by assuming every call is bad until you say otherwise. This is guaranteed to eliminate unwanted calls, though you may miss some legitimate calls from people whose number hasn’t been whitelisted.

Whatever you choose to do, it’s important for all of us to make it as hard as possible for spammers to succeed. The moment their activities are no longer profitable, they will stop engaging in them.

If you want help fighting your spam calls, or want to switch to a phone company that does all it can, feel free to contact us or give us a call anytime. Thanks and have a great day!

Indy Business: Best Business Phone

Over our 10-plus years providing phone service, we have used and recommended a ton of business phones. We can safely say the current best business phone for most people is the Grandstream GXP2130. It has a professional look and feel, comes with all the features a modern business needs, works as well or better than more expensive options, and can be used with most VoIP phone service.

Look and feel.

The GXP2130 has a solid construction and feels nice in the hand, like many desk phones available today. Where the GXP2130 really stands out, though, is its color screen and intuitive interface. We wish the screen was a touch screen; but for under $70, it is hard to complain about a button-operated screen. Plus the buttons around the screen are all placed well and the screen changes to clearly show their function at all times.

All other buttons are labeled with helpful icons that show what they do. The call transfer button shows a phone pointing to another phone. The do-not-disturb button shows a microphone with a line through it. The hold call button shows a pause symbol, etc. We’ve also found these icons to be easier to learn and recognize at a glance than text labels like other brands use.

Features.

Like most SIP desk phones, the GXP2130 is completely customizable, but the majority of users will never need to customize them. From the moment they are provisioned, local time and weather displays on the screen, and the default buttons are programmed to work out of the box. The only unclear settings that users may wish to set are two SIP security options which will eliminate any phantom call issues. Those settings can be found by following these instructions.

Try before you buy.

We doubt you’ll have any issues with the Grandstream GXP2130, but please feel free to contact us or give us a call if you’d like to try them before buying. We offer free trials of our recommended phone hardware and phone service because we’ve seen how much customers appreciate it.

Thanks for reading our thoughts and have a great day!

Indy Business: Why So Affordable?

New business customers sometimes ask us how we can offer our phone service for Indianapolis so much cheaper than the big internet companies. We don’t always know how to answer that question because we’re not one of those big companies. Still, we’d like to try breaking down how we can offer so many services for so little money even as our competitors have to charge more.

Providing phone service isn’t that costly.

Phone service using traditional phone lines can be expensive to provide, but modern VoIP phone service is relatively inexpensive. We’ve actually been able to lower our prices as we’ve grown because internet and cloud services become cheaper and more reliable year after year. So why don’t the big phone and cable companies do the same?

The phone companies at least are trying to pivot to VoIP, and that may allow them to save money; but cable companies have been offering VoIP all along. We think they charge so much because they have to. Either they have to charge to make up for administrative costs, or they have to charge a lot to accommodate their shareholders. Either way, the customer ends up paying more.

Customer turnover is expensive.

Because the phone and cable companies raise their prices and fees regularly, they have a lot of customer turnover. Closing accounts, convincing new customers, and opening new accounts costs a lot of time and therefore money. Perhaps that’s a more lucrative way to do business in the long run, but it sounds exhausting to us and it certainly angers customers.

Instead, we’ve opted to charge a consistent monthly price for a good service. As a result, we’ve seen our customers stick with us for years and years. That allows us to spend less time on customer turnover, and more time improving our phone service for existing customers.

What to do about it?

If you think you might be paying too much, feel free to contact us or call us anytime. Worst case scenario, you get another quote and find out if you’re paying too much. Thanks for reading our thoughts and have a great day!

Indy Business: Business Phone Numbers

Ever wondered how Indianapolis businesses get those great, easy-to-remember numbers? They always have fun ones like the following:

(317) IDIOT-AXE
(317) JAR-LIST
(317) OLD-KNIFE

Numbers that spell things are great. It’s almost always easier to remember a couple words as opposed to a string of numbers. But maybe you’re just looking for a number. It doesn’t have to spell anything, but it should be simple to hear, recall, and repeat later. Numbers like these:

(317) 399-1717
(317) 436-4344
(317) 720-2550

For business that go with the big phone and cable companies, the bad news is that their options will be more limited. The big national companies don’t often take the time to find a number that suits you and your business. But for people who want a new, custom business phone number, there are a ton of great numbers out there. In fact all of the numbers listed above are available as of this posting.

Numbers in the 317 area code aren’t the only ones available either. There are phone numbers for all over Indiana and the country, as well as for cities in and around Indianapolis like Speedway, Zionsville, Carmel, Greenwood, Plainfield, or Avon.

And the best news is that a good, memorable number doesn’t cost extra. There aren’t even additional fees for toll-free numbers when you go with something like our business phone service Indianapolis. The number you want is the number you get. Plus if you’re ever unhappy with your service, you can take your number with you to another provider.

There are companies out there who will charge an arm and a leg for a custom phone number, but we recommend avoiding any corporation that just wants to make a quick buck. Look for a phone service provider who has a track record of reliability and excellent customer service. Those are the people you want to entrust your business number to.

Thanks for checking out our post! If you’re interested in learning more about what numbers we can offer, please feel free to contact us or call us anytime.

Business Blog: Saving Money Each Month

Many businesses become complacent with their monthly expenditures and forget to compare alternatives that are currently available, but that’s the surest way to lose money every month. Not all new products and services are better than older methods, however some definitely are. A thing we commonly see is a business or corporation still relying on telephone service provided by the old phone and cable companies instead of better VoIP phone service (VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol).

If every Indianapolis business switched to VoIP business phone service, the savings potential would be a huge boost to budgets across the Midwest. With traditional phone service, you pay for the number of lines you need and that’s the end of it. But with VoIP phone service, the number of lines does not always determine your cost. Usage is much more important.

For example, an office or company that has 10 phones should be able to pay for the equivalent of 5 phone lines, saving them easily over $100 per month. And they would still have access to 10 incoming and outgoing lines, plus all of the business features they depend on to communicate effectively with their customers and vendors.

Finally, it should be said that not all phone service or phone service companies are equal. When choosing any service–but especially business phone service–you want to choose a product that was built specifically for business, as well as choose a company whose customer service is local. You shouldn’t have to talk to someone across the country or across the globe when you have an issue that needs addressed. You want a person you know and trust.

These are the things we wanted to provide when we created our business phone service for Indianapolis. Affordable rates, local customer service, and features that make everything just a little bit easier. If that sounds like something that could improve your business, feel free to contact us to learn more.

icon-ban Indy Business: Unwanted Spam Calls

icon-phone-square Indy Business: Best Business Phone

icon-dollarIndy Business: Why So Affordable?

icon-list-ol Indy Business: Business Phone Numbers

icon-book Business Blog: Saving Money Each Month

Indy Business: Unwanted Spam Calls

Indy Business: Best Business Phone

Indy Business: Why So Affordable?

Indy Business: Business Phone Numbers

Business Blog: Saving Money Each Month