4-Line Business Phone System Buyers Guide

Business Phone Systems for Upgrading Your 4 Line Business Phone

By Neil Zawacki
Updated: June 20, 2011

Four-line business phones offer numerous potential benefits to small businesses. They have multiple phone lines available, each with their own auto attendant and voice mail, allowing a company to effectively manage their phone traffic.

You should keep in mind a few factors when buying this type of phone system:

Common Mistakes

One of the most common mistakes is to go for the cheapest system. You want to stay within your budget, but if you sacrifice quality there’s a fair chance it won’t be able to meet your needs.

You should also take your future needs into account before you make your purchase. If you expect to have more employees in the years to come, make sure it has the ability to expand.

Another frequent mistake is to select features that you’re rarely going to use. Voicemail transcription and call recording can be nice, but if you’ve only got one employee who’s going to use it, you might want to give it a pass.

Total Cost

The cost of the four-line phone system will be based on several factors. The most important is the central base system, which generally runs at least $1000. There will then be the physical phones, which tend to go for around $100-200 each. You should also consider the cost of phone system add-ons, as well as potential elements like training, setup, and maintenance.

Evaluating the Vendor

You should also take a close look at the vendor before you purchase the system. Some are much more reliable than others or have reputations that may be cause for concern. Consider the following questions:

• How long have they been in business?
• Are there customer references available?
• Do they offer a free demo?
• If there a 30-day money back guarantee?

The answers will often vary quite a bit between the phone vendors. In general, it’s better to go with a company with a couple years of experience, so there’s less chance of them suddenly going out of business. Free demos and money back guarantees also tend to show that they are genuinely confident about their product.

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