If there is any change to make note of for businesses during the last 12 months of lockdown, it’s undoubtedly the shift towards a working from home culture and addressing the communication challenges that this poses. The need for staff to remain available and connected to undertake their role has given rise in the uptake of modern forms of telecommunication such as VoIP, through platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
With working from home set to stay, many businesses are beginning to reevaluate their operational requirements, including how staff remain connected both internally with one another, and externally with customers. It begs the questions – is a landline still necessary for business post-lockdown?
Alongside the rise of VoIP and other forms of modern telecommunication solutions, businesses are also beginning to turn their eye towards mobile leasing as a cost-effective way of keeping businesses connected to combat increasing handset and telecommunication infrastructure costs.
Typically utilised for employees as part of a fleet, mobile leasing packages can easily be expanded to include additional handsets, equipment and tariffs to accommodate other members of a growing team, or to suit requirements such as working from home. Flexibility is a key driver in the uptake of mobile lease contracts, alongside cost-efficiency, as mentioned above.
A mobile lease package combined with VoIP technology would enable a business to maintain a degree of operational effectiveness from both an internal and external perspective, but this setup may also create problems in the long term.
As great as a NAP sounds in your working day, it’s an acronym for Name, Address & Phone Number, the three of which are vital for local search engine visibility. This data is housed in your Google My Business account, and appears as a listing when a user searches for the name of your organisation.
Users often search for a business name to find information such as operational/opening hours, address details or contact information. Providing users with this information increases the likelihood of a user visiting your store, or contacting your business directly. The absence of this information may result in a potential customer searching for an alternative, and taking their business elsewhere.
Contact information doesn’t have to be a landline – a mobile phone number will also suffice, so is this another nail in the coffin for the reason to have a business landline? Not particularly. As well as business search success relies on the availability of company and contact information, it also relies on a degree of perceived trust.
Companies that have a mobile number as a primary source of contact often lead to connotations of an untrustworthy business, opposed to a landline which is regarded as an indicator that your business is a real and physical entity. The same applies to your website’s contact page. Although a physical address may exist, a landline reinforces the quality of a business over and above a mobile number.
This all depends on the size of your business of course – for sole-traders, consultants and those who work freelance, a mobile number may be your best point of contact.
In today’s connected world, 9 – 5 working hours are quickly dissolving into longer working weeks, and unfortunately, weekends. Whilst the proliferation of digital technology has enabled business and individuals to achieve more, enabling greater work-life balance is appearing more and more on the agenda of organisations seeking to improve the welfare of their employees.
Whilst mobile communication is an essential aspect for many employees and their working day, they will often have access to both a business and personal phone, resulting in less downtime away from a screen, and a constant always-on presence which can be hard to get away from.
Having a landline as a primary point of contact for individuals that don’t work as part of a fleet or who don’t need a mobile phone as a primary means of communication at work creates a gateway between home and work life, enabling them to restore some balance over their screen time and their working day.
Our verdict – yes. Although with newer technologies developing and becoming more utilised, the role of landline is changing from one as a primary source of contact for an organisation, to one that compliments a wider array of communication solutions. We’re some way off not needing a landline for our businesses, just yet.
If you’d like to talk to one of our communication experts, you can arrange your personalised telecoms review today.
