IndustryProfessional Services
Stop Paying Per-Seat: Business Phone Systems by SPARK VoIP
Analysts, bookkeepers, juniors, designers, schedulers. They need email and a laptop. Under per seat pricing every one of them is another line on the phone bill for as long as they work for you. Our monthly bill follows how many calls your firm has at once, so hiring people who stay off the phone does not move it.
§What usually starts this
Firms do not change phone systems for fun. Something starts it.
Which one brought you here?
You are about to hire
The plan says more people this year, and every phone quote you get adds a line for each of them, phone or not.
The front desk is the bottleneck
One person answers the main number. When they are at lunch or on another call, clients hold or land in voicemail.
Clients have personal cell numbers
People working from home started saying “try my cell”, and now client relationships live on personal phones.
Busy season showed the cracks
Tax season, renewals or month end made it obvious where calls go to wait.
§The hiring tax
Your phone bill should not track your headcount.
Think about the last three people you hired. How many of them talk to clients on the phone every day? Often one. Sometimes none. Then think about what those hires did to the phone bill: the same as if you had hired three receptionists.
The number of conversations your firm has at once is fairly stable. It moves when you add client facing people or when your call volume really grows. It does not move because you hired an analyst. That is the number we charge for.
$30 per simultaneous call. A month, published. One simultaneous call is one SIP trunk.
What moves your monthly bill. Needing more calls at once. You will see it coming before it happens.
What moves your license. The 3CX license is annual and has to carry every extension. Add enough extensions to cross its limit and the license moves up a tier, and its price goes up with it.
§The front desk
Reception is one person, and that person goes to lunch.
In a forty person firm there is usually one front desk, sometimes a second person who covers it, and a queue of calls that all want somebody specific.
We build what happens when the front desk is busy, out, or gone for the day. The goal is that a client calling your main number never hears the system working.
Where the call goes next. Second and third, in the order you choose.
Who can see it. The people you pick can see that a call is holding.
Who can take it. They pick it up from their own desk or their mobile, without a transfer ceremony.
§Hybrid staff
Half your people are somewhere else. They keep one number.
Somebody working from home is on the same extension they have in the office. The 3CX app on their mobile is their office line: they answer their extension with the firm’s number showing, and calls they make show the firm’s number, not their personal cell.
Transfers. Work the same between the office and the kitchen table.
Voicemail. Goes to email with the audio attached.
Client relationships. Nobody has to tell a client “try my cell instead”, the habit that quietly moves your clients onto personal phones.
§Busy seasons
Tax season, renewals, month end, storm season.
Most firms have a stretch of the year when the phones are much busier than usual, and the rest of the year when they are not.
We size your system for the peak that matters, not per person. If the peak grows past that size, the answer is more simultaneous calls on a month to month service, not a renegotiated contract. If it also crosses your license tier, the license moves up with it.
§The price
A worked example instead of a range.
The monthly bill is $30 per simultaneous call, which is the same as $30 per SIP trunk. The 3CX license is annual, sold separately, and invoiced by us. It has to be big enough for your calls at once and for your extension count, so adding phones can push it up a tier.
Worked example: a 35 person insurance agency. Twelve people are on the phone most of the day; the rest work in service, accounting and admin. With the conference room and the fax line that is about 38 extensions. We size it at 16 simultaneous calls, and 38 extensions fit inside a 16 SC license, so calls set the size: $480 a month, plus a 16 SC license, annual. Hiring three more account managers adds three extensions that still fit the license, so the monthly rate holds unless your calls at once outgrow 16. Fifteen more phone heavy staff would change it, and you would see that coming.
§When something breaks
What happens on a bad day, said plainly.
If the office loses internet or power. The phone system is not in your building, so it keeps running. Your staff keep working on their mobile phones with the 3CX app.
Our side. The hosted system runs at 99.9 percent uptime.
Who you get. A real person answers. If they can fix it on the call, they do. If not, they open a ticket and tell you what happens next. Tickets by phone, email or text. After hours, call (918) 608-8888 for 24 hour emergency support.
§Changing systems
Your old system stays live until your numbers have landed.
You keep your main number and the direct lines you want to keep. You do not need IT on your side. We run the system, and we train whoever you choose to change hours and add a person.
Your numbers. We port the ones you keep. The old system keeps ringing until they arrive.
Your phones. If what you have is supported, you keep it. We provision the phones either way.
The install. Standard remote install is free. Custom work is $125 an hour, quoted before we start.
§Questions
What people ask before they call.
Can we keep our main number?
Yes. Your old system stays live until the number lands on the new one.
Do we need IT?
No. We run it. We will train whoever you want to change hours and add a person.
Can we record calls?
Yes. Recording can be on per number, per queue, or off. What your recording policy should be is your decision, not ours.
What happens when we add somebody?
They get an extension. Your monthly bill follows calls at once, so it only moves if you need more of them. If new extensions push past your license’s extension limit, the license moves up a tier and its annual price goes up. We tell you before that happens.
Do we have to buy new phones?
No, if what you have is supported. We provision them either way.
What happens if the office loses internet or power?
The phone system is not in your building, so it keeps running. Your staff keep working on their mobile phones with the 3CX app.
Are we locked in?
Month to month on our side. The 3CX license is annual.
Twenty minutes and a headcount.
Tell us how many people you have, how many phones, where your offices are and which numbers you need to keep. You will get your size, your monthly rate and your license line on the call.
Or call (888) 223-1094