Google Voice for Business?
Google Voice is a powerful new free, service from Google that offers some features similar to leading business IP PBX solutions like the Dalcon Communications Manager Asterisk based software. When the service debuted many people began to wonder about its potential as a business communications application. The answer, as turns out, depends:
• Yes: Google Voice is (currently) a good option for small and home businesses; though we will cover why this could change in the future.
• No: Google Voice is not appropriate for businesses larger than just a couple employees.
The functionality Google Voice provides is nothing new. So in order to support my two previous claims, I am going to analyze the one characteristic of Google Voice that differentiates it significantly from its competition—Google Voice is free.
Because Google Voice is free, it instantly adds value to any smaller businesses that cannot afford traditional business communications systems—if they couldn’t get any of the services before, than the services offered by Google Voice are certainly better than nothing. Although Google Voice is designed for personal use, it can be effectively set up to handle the communication management needs of a smaller business.
However, much like the old saying goes, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”; as economics 101 tells us, when you don’t pay with money, you pay with something else. Unfortunately for larger businesses, these hidden costs can be much more “expensive” than paying for a traditional business communication system.
Why Google Voice is Bad for Business
No live support: Many businesses rely on their telephony communications so much that when their phones go down, so does their business. However, as Google is an internet based company providing a free service, they do not offer support in the slightest. When the system goes down, your business is stuck holding the cards.
Potential Advertising: Google advertising is a major concern for businesses of all sizes. Google Inc. is a business; therefore even though they offer their services for free, they must find a way to capitalize on their services or else cancel them (which would be devastating to any business relying on Google Voice). Usually Google monetizes its services through advertising. This means that although Google Voice is ad free now, there is a good chance that soon your customers could be hearing “targeted” Google ads from your competitors every time they try to get in touch with you.
Less Functionality: Granted, for a free service Google Voice offers everything and more that an individual or a small business would need. However, for even slightly larger organizations, Google Voice lacks (or limits) the features necessary for business to run smoothly. For example, Google voice does not offer custom IVR (Interactive Voice Response) development, the ability to support toll free numbers, or even porting of existing business numbers.
Privacy/Security: Regardless of the size of your business, using Google voice to manage your communications means giving Google plenty of access to your private business information, including text transcripts of all of your voicemails. Should this information fall into the wrong hands, it is scary to think of the kind of information about you and your customers that could be data-mined.
In summary, Google voice is a great free service, but it isn’t appropriate for all but the tiniest of businesses. For businesses that are looking for a low cost business phone system that provides cutting edge support and functionality; an open source PBX such as Dalcon’s Asterisk telephony solution is a great alternative.
