Are you using a consumer network to run your business mobile phone services?
Did you know that 85% of businesses are using what is effectively the wrong network or tariff for their needs?
And this isn’t just multinationals but also SMEs and entrepreneurs.
The reason for this is that most businesses are using consumer networks rather than a business-to-business network. Using the wrong network or tariff could be costing you thousands of pounds every year.
We are all so accustomed to using consumer networks that companies today often opt to go on to a consumer network and take up the ‘business plan’ option. But those phones are still running via a consumer network rather than a business-class network.
There is another option though and that’s to use specialist business mobile networks, which are available not just to large-scale international companies but to smaller businesses and entrepreneurs as well.
What’s the difference between these networks?
Consumer networks in the UK tend to be highly congested because so much of the population use them. The sheer volume of people on those networks means that call quality will be lower, leading to dropped calls and failures to connect, and, most problematically, issues around the use of data.
A lot of the consumer networks support many thousands of people streaming sports events, movies and TV programmes at once, which means the speed of the data is generally going to be much slower. By contrast, a business network focusses solely on providing businesses with the data they need and therefore you don’t have the congestion that you get with a consumer network.
Of course, people using a business network can still stream and play movies on their devices, there are no restrictions, but there are far fewer people accessing the network to start with so the service is better. Also a business-to-business network has far more dedicated resources available to cope with the types of demands that emerge.
Cost effectiveness of a business network
The overall cost of a business-to-business network is greatly reduced from a user perspective. For example, data is around 25% less expensive than it would be on a consumer network.
Also, if your mobile service provider is monitoring your data, they can advise you on how much data is being used and whether you need to buy more before it becomes a problem that leaves you facing ‘bill shock’.
Another benefit is the ability to share your data between multiple phone users.
For example, let’s say you took on a business-to-business package for your sales team which comprises of 10 people. You could allocate a certain amount of data to each user but if one of those people hardly uses their data allocation then their unused data can be transferred to other members in the team without there being any financial implications.
You can have as few as 2 people in a team or as many as 100 but having the ability to pool your data across your team makes mobile phone use much more cost effective for your business as a whole.
TTG and the Gamma Mobile Phone Network
Last year at TTG we started to provide cloud-based telephony services to our customers. It was a great success and in December we took the opportunity to partner further with our telco by providing business mobile phone and network services.
We chose them because:
- The cost savings gained by our customers through moving to a business-to-business platform were significant and at TTG we are all about providing quality services that are as cost effective as possible.
- The tariff you choose has no hidden extras and we don’t subsidise handset purchase by hiking up your tariff. You will always get unlimited calls to UK landlines and mobiles and you choose your tariff purely on the data allowance – because today, we realise that data is as important to many businesses as voice.
- The level of customer service when we communicate with them is incredibly high because they are dealing solely with businesses. The same cannot be said for consumer mobile phone providers who inevitably have to handle a huge number of enquiries every day.
- It has great manageability. For example, your voice mail messages can be saved forever, unlike with consumer networks where they will only be saved for a period of 7 days. Knowing that an important message hasn’t been automatically deleted gives our customers extra peace of mind.
It is worth noting too that there are no time limits to the length of messages that can be left on your phone ready to be listened back to. That means that your important customers won’t be cut off mid-sentence or have to dial back to leave a completed message.
You can also tailor your outgoing messages to different groups of people. For example, if you are going on holiday you can have a voice mail message that your customers receive, a different voice mail message for your work colleagues and a separate voice mail message for your board of directors. We know that it can be priceless for busy company directors, for example, to leave themselves contactable by some colleagues but not others.
- Control is an important part of the system. For example, if you are travelling abroad and you have forgotten your voicemail PIN number or haven’t turned on a facility we can reset that for you remotely. And when we make changes they kick-in immediately. We haven’t come across another platform that allows you to do that yet. All of this makes it easy for you to stay in contact with your office, your team and most importantly your family.
- A lot of people are familiar with the term bolt-ons when it comes to mobile phone contracts. This will generally refer to things like extra data or roaming across Europe. Now with the this platform you are only charged for the bolt-ons when you use them. They are not added each month to your bill but you have access to those benefits if you ever need them.
- Multi-net allows your mobile phone to roam from the primary network to other UK mobile phone networks if you are in an area where there is no reception on the primary network. This can be really useful for someone who works in the City from Monday to Friday, for example, but retreats to a more rural setting at the weekend. We can also provide ‘5 Bars’ of service via broadband if your bolt-hole is in a ‘not-spot’.
What’s the catch?
The truth is that there really aren’t any catches or downsides to using business mobile networks but it is something which a lot of companies of all sizes often overlook and assume to be more complicated than in fact it is.
In reality it is so straightforward that we can even port your existing mobile number into the network within a couple of business days, ensuring you never miss a call even when switching.
A lot of people simply aren’t aware that business networks exist because consumer network operators are so impressively good at promoting their packages. In fact, mobile phone service providers are some of the best known brands around and it is difficult for specialist business network operators to get their messages across and enter the public consciousness in a meaningful way.
At TTG, we think that awareness of business mobile networks will increase in time and we are absolutely confident that there are thousands of companies and entrepreneurs across the UK who could benefit from using them. The potential cost-savings involved is perhaps the key advantage but the functionality and usability of business-only networks can be highly beneficial as well.
If you’d like to find out more about business mobile networks and how our services in this context could work for your business then get in touch by emailing [email protected] and we’ll be happy to talk you through your options.
