Communicating with your customers when running your car garage is generally done over the phone. So it makes sense to find the best phone system to run your car garage business, one which is going to encompass all the call features you require.
If your customers are trying to get through to your engaged phone line - how are you going to get back to this customer if they don’t call back? Call logging.
85% of people with unanswered calls won’t call again, and will most likely turn to the garage down the road.
Call logging means every single inbound and outbound call to your garage will be saved, meaning you can get back to all enquiries ASAP.
To manage and receive more work for your garage, there are some call features to bear in mind:
- Call Queuing
- Call Waiting
- Call Reporting
- Call Recording
- Call Logging
Call Queuing enables your car garage to manage busy stages during the day without missing calls. By integrating call queuing into your car garage phone system, your customers will experience improved customer service. Never missing business phone calls is essential in the running of your car garage. And it is easily done when you and your employees are busy under the hood of a bonnet!
This article demonstrates the significance of missing phone calls in your business.
Smaller Individual Car Garage Businesses
For smaller car garages, hosted phone systems are probably the way to go, and are easy to scale up as your business grows.
A hosted phone system is cloud-based, which means you connect to it using an internet connection (IP technology) - but effectively you are renting the system rather than purchasing your own dedicated system. This type of phone system is a low-cost alternative to an IP/hybrid phone system because you don’t have significant upfront capital costs.
Which phone system do we recommend for individual car garages?
When we look at a business, we offer them the right solution fit, which is why we don’t limit ourselves to one option, however, we have several partners and we have thoroughly tested their systems to know the key benefits and any limitations they may have. For Hosted Phone Systems we predominately recommend Horizon and Wildix. Both of these phone systems would work well with your car garage. They would give your car garage the ability to manage and configure the phone system according to your car garage's needs. Employees can then manage their calls easily and effectively, so maximising productivity.
We recommend you demo both as they have similar features but from a pricing point of view; Horizon is best when there are 1-15 users, whereas Wildix is best when there is 15+ users. Both are easily scalable for growth so ultimately; it would be down to user preference.
Large Multi-Site Car Garage Businesses
For larger, multi-site car garages we recommend an IP Phone System. An IP Phone system can be hosted on-premise (or in a data centre) or you can have it hosted on your own private cloud. When you choose an IP Phone System, you purchase the phone system for your own use and you choose where to host it.
For businesses with existing infrastructure, a hybrid phone system is better suited.
A Hybrid Phone System combines the different types of connection technology (ISDN, Analogue, Digital and IP) into a single modern and flexible phone system. The hybrid phone system is a growing option for businesses of all sizes, especially with the switch off of ISDN. They’re easy to install and maintain, are a cost-effective option whilst offering the flexibility to grow.
Most businesses opt for a Hybrid Phone System when they have ISDN, Analogue or Digital infrastructure but want the advantages that IP brings to the table.
It is worth noting that a Hybrid Phone System set-up is predominately an on-premise phone system but now there is technology in place where it can be partially hosted in the cloud so that just the hardware for the legacy equipment is on-site. If you decided to go down the pure IP phone system route at a later date, this acts as a good stepping stone because everything is in place for a switch.
Which phone system do we recommend for multi-site car garages?
All of these phone systems have the right features for a multi-site car garage, some of them have slightly more advanced feature sets. The main difference between them would be cost and user compatibility.
We recommend a demo so you can see which is the best fit.
What else do I need to consider for my car garage?
Your car garage may need to take card payments over the phone from customers, so if this is the case for you, your phone system needs to be compliant.
With both phone system solutions mentioned above, one key takeaway is that your car garage business must have sufficient and secure business broadband services to ensure your voice quality remains high. If you need any further advice on broadband for your business, please let us know!