Running your own successful VoIP business means carefully implementing a wide variety of capabilities, especially billing.
Here’s five reason why:
1. Integration
Some VoIP businesses use one solution for switching, and another for billing. This often means importing and exporting call detail records from one system to another. Managing two disparate solutions adds complexities, potential incompatibilities, and increased risk of error. If you already have a switching solution, but need a billing solution too, it is vital to select your billing provider very, very carefully to ensure that they have the experience and stability to meet your needs for the long term.
2. Real-time
A successful VoIP business not only needs to move fast, but it needs to move in real-time. Real-time billing enables you to offer prepaid services via Calling Cards, a mobile smartphone app, WebRTC, and other popular calling methods. But the need for real-time billing does not stop there. Whether you offer prepaid or postpaid services, you’ll need to provide real-time access to call detail records in web interfaces used by your customers, resellers and distributors. You’ll need to quickly suspend calling for non-payment. In short, your switching, billing, payments and your entire Customer Management methodology all needs work in concert, and in real-time.
3. Payment Options
You work hard to make your VoIP services easy to buy and easy to use, but they also need to be easy to pay for too. Does your billing provider offer access to many leading credit and debit card processors? Can they support ACH? Let’s not forget PayPal, which is clearly one of the fastest growing payment options in the world. Many end users evaluate payment options before they make a purchase decision, so in today’s competitive VoIP market, if you fail to offer the payment options your customers want, your sales will suffer.
4. Promotions, Subscriptions, Discounts
Want to offer special incentives for new customers? Would you like to attract more lucrative high-volume callers via volume discounts? Whether you offer a range of flat-rate monthly subscriptions, or a variety of pay-as-you go plans, you need the ability to implement the type of pricing you want, when you want it. You’ll need the flexibility to quickly make changes when needed. If you offer Hosted PBX, you may even want to bill for the IP phones you provide to your customers either as a monthly recurring charge or a non-recurring charge.
5. Commissions
Many VoIP providers not only sell to end users, but some also have built a robust network of resellers, distributors and sales agents as a way to grow their business. This type of multi-tiered sales channel gives you more “feet on the street” to grow your sales, while freeing you up to manage other aspects of your business. You’ll need the tools to accurately calculate commissions based on billing, and easily adjust them as needed.
Summary:
The above five things are just the tip of the billing iceberg… Telinta’s robust cloud-based billing means you can offer brandable VoIP services, with the billing and payment capabilities you need, without owning any special hardware or software.
Contact us to learn more.