The internet has been a boon to communication in many businesses, making it easier and more cost effective to communicate with contacts all over the world via email and instant messenger services. However, there are still many situations when making a phone call is truly the best way to keep in touch with business partners, clients or customers, which is why business phone systems are still so vital for organisations of all sizes.

Phone systems will be especially necessary if your company offers customer support services, as people are less likely to be satisfied when their only method of communication is by the slower process of email. By making sure your business phone system includes all the features to keep customers happy and minimise their time waiting in lines or being transferred to multiple locations, you can greatly improve satisfaction levels.

Similarly, if your business has a sales arm, telephones can be one of your key assets for making and closing deals. Adding auto-dialling services to your phone system can make it much quicker to process batches of phone numbers and subsequently organise them for later use.

Phone systems are useful for companies of various sizes, but that doesn't mean the same type of systems will be equally useful for all. For example, Private Branch Exchange (PBX) business phone systems can be the best option for companies with a smaller number of employees connected to the network, but will not be so cost effective for larger companies of more than 40 employees.

Many modern phone systems can also link your phone to your computer and other devices, which can allow you to make use of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology to get even more out of your business calls. VoIP software allows you to make voice as well as video calls over broadband connections, rather than using a standard phone line, and can work out much cheaper - especially when making international calls to contacts overseas.

Whichever type of phone system you favour for your business, you should ensure that your phone package offers the best value for your investment, and that you won't be without features that could make your business activities simpler - whether that's do-not-disturb options for handsets, speed dialling capability or caller ID blocking for nuisance calls. You could find that even an option that might seem fairly trivial at the moment, might be a huge advantage to you at some point in the future.

Clint Starr writes for a digital marketing agency. This article has been commissioned by a client of said agency. This article is not designed to promote, but should be considered professional content.