When it comes to reaping the transformative benefits and advantages of Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), you must focus on more than features and functions. You also need to choose the right UCaaS provider.
To help you achieve this goal, here are six questions to ask a potential UCaaS provider:
1. Do you have in-depth experience designing, implementing, and supporting UCaaS systems?
As the old — but absolutely 100% valid — saying goes: there is no substitute for experience! If a UCaaS provider has less than a decade of experience (but obviously more is better), then cross them off your list. Regardless of what you face in the future, you want your trusted UCaaS vendor to have “been there, done that.”
2. Do you offer customized UCaaS solutions as a UCaaS provider?
This is an extremely important question! Do not allow any UCaaS provider to try and sell you a one-size-fits-all product. Your organization is unique — not generic.
3. As a UCaaS provider, will you help us get the most for the least?
You want to have full confidence that the advice that a UCaaS provider offers is best for your needs and goals — not for their revenues and profits. Avoid any provider that tries to push you into buying something without clearly laying out the objective, verifiable rationale for their advice.
4. Is your UCaaS solution reliable?
You definitely need to verify that a UCaaS provider’s solution is reliable. For evidence of this, ensure that all of the following are in place:
- Their solution is over-engineered for high traffic demands.
- Their solution is built using a state-of-the-art infrastructure that includes multiple 1GB fiber synchronous connections with full Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing, as well as multiple carrier-class data centers.
- Additionally, their solutions have automatic backup to ensure business continuity in the event of a local power outage.
- Their solution is supported by LOCAL experts who, if necessary, can be on-site within a matter of hours.
- Finally, their solution is constantly being improved and upgraded to optimize reliability and performance.
5. What do your customers say about you?
A credible UCaaS provider will gladly share verified reviews from real customers. Conversely, a dubious UCaaS provider will check one or all of these boxes:
- They will resist providing reviews to you; often with ridiculous excuses like “oh, we’d love to show you our reviews, but we’re updating our website” or “unfortunately, due to privacy reasons, we can’t share any reviews with you.” Excuses like this are bogus and big red flags!
- Their reviews do not have the name and company of the reviewer.
- They only have a handful of reviews — which means they don’t have a lot of happy customers, that they don’t care about making customers happy, or additionally, that they’re inexperienced.
6. Will you provide us with a comprehensive demo?
This question may seem…well, redundant! After all, every UCaaS provider offers a demo. But that does not mean that all demos are alike! What you want — and frankly, need — is a COMPREHENSIVE demo where you can go behind the scenes to discover how a solution works, and ask a wide range of business-related and technical-related questions. There should be absolutely no sales pressure of any kind, and the demo should be delivered to you in-person and/or over-the web (as you prefer).
And what if you need multiple demos; for example, one for your executive team, and one for your technical team? This should be no problem. A leading UCaaS provider should be delighted at the opportunity to provide your group with a deeper understanding of their solution.
The Bottom Line When Choosing A UCaaS Provider
On a technical level, UCaaS solutions are sophisticated and complex. But choosing a trustworthy and reliable UCaaS provider shouldn’t be a difficult ordeal. Use the questions above to streamline and simplify the process, and ultimately find a superior UCaaS provider that will not just meet your high expectations — they will exceed them!
Ready to Learn More?
At Carolina Digital Phone, we are proud to be one of the industry’s most experienced and reputable UCaaS providers.
Schedule a 100% complimentary, no-risk demo of our all-in-one VoIP+UCaaS solution. Call us now at (336) 544-4000, or chat with us by clicking the icon on the bottom of your screen.