Ditch the bloated legacy business phone. Choose a system with the essential business phone features you need.
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Looking for a new phone provider for your business? It can be hard to know which business phone features you should prioritize as a growing team. Some features may sound great on paper, but if your team isn’t large enough, you may end up overpaying for features you won’t use.
With so many different virtual phone providers that cater to small and growing businesses, the search for the right business phone can get even more confusing.
In this article, we’ll highlight the essential features your team needs to stay productive and scale customer interactions efficiently. We’ll also share features to look out for as your team grows and your needs evolve.
Here are the core features, the ones that make the ‘phone’ part of a business phone:
Believe it or not, several business phone providers don’t offer unlimited domestic calling. Instead, they offer a fixed number of minutes in their monthly plans and then charge by the minute when businesses exceed that limit.
Instead of worrying about whether you’ve exceeded your monthly calling minutes, prioritize providers that offer unlimited domestic calling.
Texting offers you the flexibility to continue business conversations without having to schedule time for a call.
Unlimited domestic texting helps you have as many conversations as you want over text with customers based in the US and Canada. This feature applies to SMS and MMS messages and local and toll-free numbers.
When you’re evaluating providers, look closely at whether they offer unlimited domestic texting. Many providers claim to offer unlimited domestic texting, but you often have to read the fine print to see whether they actually do. Some common limitations you might find are:
If you’re unsure about a customer’s text offering, double-check with their support team before you make a decision.
Want to change your business phone provider but keep your existing business number? That’s why you need number porting.
Number porting is the process by which businesses can move their number from one business phone solution to another. It allows you to use a new provider without disrupting communications with your customers.
With OpenPhone, you can submit a porting request directly in your account. Continue using your existing provider while we port your number to our platform. We’ll notify you when your port is complete and you’re ready to use it. Then you can cancel your previous service and switch over to OpenPhone.
Prioritize providers that offer free number porting. If a provider charges exorbitant fees to port your number to their service, it’s a sign they might be optimizing for their needs over yours.
It’s not you, it’s your provider. More unreliable than your ex, terrible at collaboration — we could go on. Meet OpenPhone, the business phone system your team will actually fall in love with.
Growing fast and need more phone numbers for different departments in your team? Choose a provider that offers additional local and toll-free phone numbers.
Many providers limit how many phone numbers you can get on each of their plans. It’s a strategy to get businesses to upgrade to a more expensive plan. But you should only pay for the numbers you want to use without paying for features you don’t need. Prioritize providers that let you get as many additional phone numbers as you want without having to upgrade to the next pricing tier.
It isn’t enough to only offer mobile apps for your business phone — desktop apps help your team stay on task.
A business phone provider should ideally offer desktop and mobile apps on every major platform so your team members can use their preferred devices to communicate with customers.
Choose a provider that offers desktop apps for Mac and Windows devices and mobile apps for iOS and Android. Bonus points for a provider that also has a web app users can access on any device.
With these core features covered, scroll down to learn about the features that help you manage and route your calls smoothly.
Manage incoming calls in real time with these call management features:
Ring order is a call routing feature that sends incoming calls to your team in a predetermined sequence. It’s an effective way to sequence inbound calls to a shared number.
You can choose from two common types of ring orders: simultaneous and custom. A simultaneous ring order dials everyone on the team, and a custom ring order dials custom batches of your team in a specific order.
Ring groups are useful when several team members in a department share a number, say in sales or customer service. Front-line reps can get incoming calls first, and if they're unable to answer, the rest of the team can receive them.
Give your customers the ability to reach departments and team members directly with phone menus.
A phone menu, also known as an auto-attendant, is a business phone feature that lets callers route their own calls to specific departments or phone extensions. Callers can select keypad options, like ‘Press 1 for sales,’ or use voice commands (also known as interactive voice response, or IVR for short), like saying ‘Sales’ or ‘Support.’ With a phone menu, teams can reduce call transfers and wait times, which provides a better experience for incoming callers.
Prioritize providers that let you create multiple phone menus based on the time of day. That way, you can offer more menu options during regular business hours and offer fewer options after hours based on your team’s availability. You can also route calls to specific people after hours instead of ringing the entire team.
Even when you have a phone menu, you’ll sometimes need to transfer a call to a colleague or to your manager.
Call transfers let you connect callers to another member of your team in real time. You should be aware of two types of call transfers: cold transfers and warm transfers.
A cold transfer involves transferring a call to a team member without sharing any context on the reason for the transfer. A warm transfer, on the other hand, involves putting a caller on hold, sharing a bit of context with a team member, and then transferring the call to them.
Warm transfers are the more effective transfer option because callers don’t have to repeat themselves and team members stay aligned. Prioritize business phones that offer warm transfers so your team can collaborate on live calls more efficiently.
Call forwarding is a business phone feature that routes incoming calls to another phone number. It gives you the flexibility to manage incoming calls for a variety of scenarios, including:
Prioritize providers that let you add call forwarding to any step of your incoming call flows. For example, OpenPhone lets you forward calls in your phone menu as a backup option or forward all incoming calls by default. You can also forward calls between different OpenPhone numbers depending on your team’s availability.
Compared to traditional landlines, modern business phones treat voicemails very differently. Here are three voicemail features you should look for in a business phone provider:
A good business phone doesn’t just help you manage your calls smoothly; it also helps you collaborate with your team. Scroll down to learn more about the collaboration features that can set your team up for success.
Unless you plan on running a one-person business, keep in mind these collaboration features that help you work more effectively with your team:
A shared number allows multiple people on your team to be able to call and text from a single number. That way, your team can split responsibility for incoming calls and texts and collaborate on customer communications. This also makes it easier for your team to delegate tasks and responsibilities and stay updated on customer communications and needs.
With a virtual phone, your team can access the same number from each of their devices. Incoming calls will ring team members according to your preset ring order, also known as shared calling, and incoming texts can be viewed by anyone on the shared number with a shared SMS inbox. You can also see when someone is replying to a customer so you don’t end up sending multiple texts to them at the same time.
Many business phone providers don’t offer shared numbers by default. They may offer phone number extensions or ring groups, but shared numbers aren’t as common as you might think. Prioritize providers that provide a seamless shared number experience because they’re the most collaborative way to handle incoming calls and texts.
Tired of toggling between multiple apps to coordinate on customer requests or workshop a response to a customer’s text? You need a business phone that offers internal threads.
Internal threads help your team collaborate internally on messages, calls, call recordings, and voicemail with a contact. You can leave comments next to any customer interaction and tag team members for visibility or to assign tasks.
Team members benefit from internal threads because they get the context they need without having to ask colleagues or check their email or Slack. You can also use threads like a real-time checklist for action items that need your attention.
If your call and text data is siloed from the rest of your stack, it’s hard for your team to collaborate.
Look for providers that offer native CRM integrations with tools like HubSpot and Salesforce. And if you’re using a different CRM or want to share your calls and texts with scheduling or project management software, consider providers that offer flexible integrations with tools like Zapier and Make. Both of these tools are connectors that plug in to thousands of apps without any coding, so you can set them up by yourself in minutes.
Providers with an API also have the added advantage of customizability with your integrations, so you can control which data gets sent to the rest of your stack.
In our final category of essential phone features, you’ll find out which features can help your team grow. Scroll down to see which productivity features you should prioritize.
Personal phones are static tools that facilitate conversations. Business phones are dynamic tools that help teams grow their business. Here are the productivity features that can make a difference in your growth trajectory:
Knowing what your customers said on a call has multiple benefits for your team. You can reference specific requests, resolve disputes if they arise, and follow up on key action items.
With call recording, you won’t lose track of what’s important to your customers and your team. Prioritize providers that offer automatic and on-demand call recording so you can accommodate calls where confidential or sensitive information is discussed.
Call recording is also useful for the next productivity feature in our list: call summaries and transcripts.
Call recordings aren’t useful if you don’t have the time to review them. AI call summaries and transcripts make it possible to review calls at a glance.
Providers that offer this business phone feature use AI tools to immediately generate a summary of your calls with key action items and a full, time-stamped transcript so you can save time taking notes and following up.
Many providers offer this feature as an add-on that you have to purchase separately. Choose a provider that includes it in their plans because your team will rely on it daily to keep track of your customer and business needs.
SMS auto-replies let teams automatically reply to customers when they get a missed call or receive a text they can’t immediately respond to.
They help you keep customers engaged when you’re busy or unavailable so they don’t move on to another business. They also set the right expectations.
Many providers don’t offer auto-replies or offer them with limited conditions. Choose a provider that lets you set up auto-replies for these scenarios:
During business hours:
Outside business hours:
These are the most common instances where auto-replies can help set the right expectations with customers. If you’re looking for auto-reply templates you can use, get inspired with these 41 auto-reply text examples.
Scheduled messages help your team send more messages in less time by scheduling them according to your customers’ timezones.
Draft updates or replies when it’s convenient for your team, and they’ll reach customers when it’s convenient for them to read them.
Scheduled messages sound like a standard feature for business phones, but they’re not offered by several providers. Make sure you prioritize providers that offer it in their plans.
Snippets are prewritten text templates you can save in your business phone software. Your team can use snippets to answer common customer questions or provide standard responses depending on the type of conversation.
Common use cases for snippets are for standard greetings and farewells in customer support, sharing standard policy information like refunds or returns, or reaching out to customers to leave a rating after a support conversation.
Snippets help support reps in texting faster while maintaining a consistent brand voice and tone.
Want to personalize your customer conversations better? Understand your customers by creating detailed customer profiles.
Storing additional details about your customers can help your team have more informed conversations and make customers feel like you’re invested in their experience every time they interact with you.
Custom properties is a feature that allows you to log customer details like their role, timezone, company, and start date. Contact notes is a feature that lets you write notes about customers on a regular basis. For example, you can add a note about dates and places for a vacation they're taking.
Prioritize providers that offer these types of contact management features. They can often make the difference between establishing good customer relationships and great ones.
We’ve covered the essential features you should consider for your business phone. Here are a few more advanced features to look for as your business grows:
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Don’t just take our word for it. Over 60,000 businesses use OpenPhone, and we’re the #1 VoIP business phone system for customer satisfaction on G2.
Now that you know which features to prioritize in a business phone, you might be wondering which providers offer all of them in one place.
OpenPhone is a cloud phone system that has all the business phone features your team needs. With OpenPhone, you have core features like local and toll-free numbers, call management features like ring order and phone menus, collaboration features like shared numbers and internal threads, and productivity features like call recording, AI call summaries, and contact management.
Plus, get all the advanced features you need as you scale your customer interactions over time, including our AI agent Sona, which ensures you’ll never miss an incoming call again.
Want to try out OpenPhone? Sign up for our seven-day free trial today to experience all 19+ business phone features for yourself.
Find out how much you’re investing in your business phone solution upfront on our pricing page.
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We’re admittedly biased, but we believe the best business phone for small businesses is OpenPhone. It offers an intuitive user experience that helps small teams collaborate effortlessly with shared numbers and internal threads.
OpenPhone also combines AI, automation, and insights to help businesses create smarter, faster workflows tailored to their needs. As your team expands, you can effortlessly add numbers, onboard teammates, adjust roles, and connect new tools, no matter how complex your business gets — all with clear, transparent pricing.
The most important business phone features for growing businesses are productivity and collaboration features that facilitate business growth. For example, shared numbers, third-party integrations, internal threads, call recording, AI call summaries, and advanced messaging features.
A starting plan for VoIP business phone systems costs as low as $15 to $25 per user per month. Mid-range VoIP phone systems cost between $25 and $50 per user per month.
Set up your virtual business phone system in four steps:
1. Create an OpenPhone account.
2. Download the OpenPhone desktop or mobile app or go to the web app.
3. Import your contacts and invite your teammates.
4. Configure your business phone settings.
Check out our Getting Started guide for more details on setting up your OpenPhone workspace.
You can have as many users as you want in your OpenPhone workspace. Just keep in mind you can only have a maximum of 10 users added to a shared number on OpenPhone’s Starter plan. You can add unlimited users to your shared number on our Business and Scale plans. Keep in mind:
- Up to 100 users in your team's workspace can call and text from a single number at the same time.
- You can only have a maximum of 10 users in a group text (including yourself).
Join thousands of businesses already using OpenPhone to communicate better with their customers.
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