Ask HN: How do small businesses handle phone calls?

5 points·duckkg5··7 comments

If you run or work at a small business: cell phones, landline, VoIP, or something else?

What sucks about your current setup?

What would you like to see instead?

I work for a business phone provider, so obvious bias there…but we always encourage a dedicated business number, and have found that it’s less about VoIP vs landline and more about the ease of separation and routing. That said, features like calls routed to mobile phones, auto-attendants, and voicemail or callbacks instead of constant live answering tend to function a lot more cleanly on VoIP systems.

Setups that hold up best usually prioritize flexibility over hardware. Ringing multiple devices, limiting interruptions during focus time, and having visibility into missed calls matters more than the specific underlying tech.

If it helps, here’s a neutral comparison of common small business phone setups and their tradeoffs: https://www.virtualpbx.com/blog/general-telephony/top-10-sma...

At Matasano --- and this is back to like 2005 --- we just used an online telephony provider that routed calls to our mobile phones. I'd probably still just do that today.

Google Voice for local, VOIP. ms for toll-free text and call in US and Canada. No live calls. Everything goes to voicemail and we call back.

If you’re building something in this space I’d be open to have a call to share my experience owning a couple of companies.

Let's do it, how do I reach you?

Landline for incoming customer calls. Technically it's a package deal with the cable internet company.

My cell for real business, like my distributors. Mostly we text.

Nothing sucks about it. People call, we answer.

I use https://www.quo.com/ (previously OpenPhone).

(no affiliation besides being a customer)

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