What Is a VoIP Caller?

A VoIP caller is someone making a call using VoIP technology. Fine, but what does that mean?

VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. So a VoIP caller is making calls over the internet. In short, this means they’re not using traditional phone lines or mobile networks.

A VoIP caller can make and receive calls just like you can with traditional phone lines or mobiles. But using VoIP gives them a far greater degree of flexibility and opens up a wide range of further potential benefits.

More and more businesses (and even individuals) are becoming VoIP callers. The many advantages of VoIP make it clear why, but more on that later.

What Exactly Is Voice Over Internet Protocol and How Does It Work?

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) provides an alternative to traditional phone lines and cell phone services.

Consider the two traditional approaches to making phone calls:

• A traditional landline phone number facilitates calls to and from a particular location — e.g., your home or your office desk — via physical wiring and connections.

• A cell phone number directs calls to a SIM card on a particular device (dependent on cell phone coverage).

Both approaches are thus limited either to specific locations or devices. That’s not the case with VoIP.

VoIP technology converts sound waves into digital data packets and then transmits these packets over the internet. This conversion into a digital format enables a far greater degree of flexibility and agility. Calls can be directed to other people or handled on different devices with much greater ease.

This flexibility is one of the central features of a VoIP phone system. 

Rather than a traditional landline or mobile number, users will have a virtual one. And that virtual number can potentially be used on any internet-connected device, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, and IP-enabled desktop phones.

Converting phone calls into a digital format — data — also increases the potential to use them in different, richer ways. Various tools and functionality can be applied to that data (as with any other data). That means phone calls can be managed, analyzed, and leveraged more effectively, optimizing your business’s performance.

It also means your telephony system can be integrated alongside any other data and information your business uses, facilitating a more coherent and unified approach.

Why Are More Businesses Using VoIP Technology?

VoIP technology is becoming increasingly popular with businesses. Here are just a few reasons why:

1. Flexibility and Convenience for Employees

VoIP technology allows workers to stay connected to a phone number wherever they are and on whatever device they have (so long as they have a reliable internet connection).

A virtual number can receive and make calls on any internet-connected device, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops. It’s much more flexible and convenient than traditional phone technology, where employees may need multiple numbers for different devices and locations.

VoIP technology makes sense for most modern businesses. Have you got a lot of team members on the road, traveling between offices or appointments? VoIP allows them to keep in touch wherever they are without juggling different numbers or devices.

Perhaps you have a lot of remote or hybrid workers? Again, with VoIP technology, the office can be wherever your workers are. As well as phone calls, VoIP based systems can also often handle things like conference calls and video conferencing, functions that are crucial for remote working.

You can assign a single virtual number to a team of workers. Or you can assign more than one virtual number to a single employee. Design the system that best works for your business and supports your customers, and then adjust it as needed.

For this flexibility alone, many businesses see VoIP as the ideal telephony technology to support today’s more dynamic and mobile workforce.

2. Cost-Effective for Businesses

With traditional phone lines, a lot of hardware and infrastructure work is needed — there’s a separate telephony network alongside the company’s equipment for internet connectivity.

Adopting VoIP technology removes the need for a separate voice network and corresponding hardware. Instead, everything can be handled using existing internet-connected devices and over the existing data network.

That makes VoIP simpler and cheaper to manage and maintain. The main cost is likely to be an investment in software with a VoIP service provider.

Beyond general maintenance of your data network, your VoIP provider will maintain the broader functioning of the service and toolset you invest in.

3. Easily Scalable to Meet Changing Business Needs

The simplicity of setting up and maintaining VoIP-based systems is also a great help when your business needs to scale up a particular area of its operations — for example, adding new agents or teams.

A traditional copper wire-based approach requires a large amount of set-up when you add new lines or teams (laying down cables, etc). With a VoIP system, adding new users and numbers is a simple administrative job, not a significant infrastructure project.

A VoIP system can grow and adapt to meet the needs of your business. That said, it’s wise to keep reviewing whether you’re using the most suitable service and package to fit your business. As your business evolves, additional features or integrations may become of more interest. With VoIP, such changes are easy to implement.

Likewise, VoIP technology makes it easy to adopt new virtual numbers. For example, you may want to support expansion into a new market by providing customers with either local phone numbers or international phone numbers to reach you. Again, with VoIP service providers like Vonage, that’s easily done.

4. Advanced Features and Integrations

VoIP technology makes a wide and ever-expanding range of additional features possible. Remember, VoIP technology converts voice signals into data. And that data can be managed, processed, and leveraged for business value — just like any other data.

Companies like Vonage have developed sophisticated software leveraging VoIP, to enable smarter, more efficient business communication.

For instance, Vonage Business Communications is a Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) system designed to support internal collaboration. Vonage Contact Center, meanwhile, is a great solution for customer-facing communication.

Such software systems offer a powerful suite of tools, including:

• Simple but powerful call management tools, such as call routing, call recording, call transcription, “flipping” a call between devices, and voicemail options

• Integrations with other business tools, helping to streamline your workflows and increase productivity; for instance, by integrating your telephony and CRM systems, it’s far easier to provide a responsive omnichannel customer experience

• All sorts of analytical tools to provide performance and productivity visibility

• Coaching tools to support your employees and agents in interactions with customers

• Artificial-intelligence driven features, to provide further value and efficiency

VoIP technology is about so much more than merely making and receiving phone calls. With the right software to underpin it, it can supercharge your entire business.

And the range of features available is evolving all the time.

How To Identify a VoIP Number: Can Customers Tell if a Number Is Virtual?

It’s not always easy to identify if someone is calling from a VoIP number. Indeed, in most cases, a call from a VoIP number will be experienced in the same way as a call from a traditional number.

Moreover, it’s possible to port an existing number into a VoIP system. So a business phone number may switch from being “traditional” to being “VoIP” without customers noticing any difference at all!

Likewise, businesses can adopt local phone numbers or international numbers, making it harder, again, to distinguish between traditional and VoIP caller IDs and numbers.

So, ultimately, the technology enables customers to have a similar experience with VoIP as they do with traditional phone lines. And that’s as it should be.

In fact, with VoIP, you’re able to offer customers an enhanced experience. The ways that customers can benefit from a VoIP experience can include:

• A smoother phone conversation thanks to HD call quality, regardless of which devices your workers are using

• A local (thus cheaper) number on which customers can reach your support team

• Smooth and effortless service from agents thanks to integrations with your CRM or behind-the-scenes agent coaching

It’s well worth considering how your business could use VoIP to enhance customer interactions with your brand.

Could VoIP Be the Right Fit for Your Business?

Voice over Internet Protocol could be a great fit for your business — as long as your employees have access to reliable internet and connected devices.

If you travel much or have a remote or more mobile workforce, a VoIP system could give your team the flexibility and means to stay connected. It can also be cost-effective and scalable as your business grows. And, overall, it’s much simpler to maintain than traditional telephony systems.

Plus, the extra functionality enabled by VoIP technology may very well clinch the deal. More and more businesses are making the switch and discovering the benefits. With new tools and functionality being developed all the time, it’s likely to be the future of business telephony.

With careful implementation and management, VoIP systems can pave the way for better customer service, easier collaboration, optimized workflows, and a more competitive overall business.

To get the best of what VoIP has to offer, Vonage has you covered. Reach out to a Vonage expert today to find out more.