90 VoIP Features, Benefits, Availability For Business Telephony

Analog phone systems are fading away quickly in favor of business VoIP phone systems. Based on recent research, 61% of large and small business owners switch to internet telephony after their PSTN contracts end.  But what are the features of VoIP as compared to traditional phone systems?

 

90 VoIP features you can expect from providers:

 

1. Advanced Call Management

Advanced call management determines how incoming calls are handled. Using this functionality, you can choose whether to hold, block, or prioritize calls so that call quality is maintained.

Feature Availability: Most providers have this feature out of the box and you won’t have to pay extra.

 

2. Anonymous Call Rejection

This feature allows you to block all calls with blocked or anonymous caller ID information. 

Feature Availability: You get this feature by default with most providers. However, you’ll have to activate it manually before use.

 

3. Auto Attendant

An auto attendant is a menu system that helps companies answer and route calls to the correct destination. 

Feature Availability: All providers have some form of an auto-attendant out of the box – the only difference is the ease of setup. Take a look at our list of best auto attendant phone systems.

 

4. Automatic Service Failover

Also called a Fallback or A/B Fallback Switch, this service switches your internet source to 4G or some other type of network when your main network is done.

Feature Availability: Most providers offer this feature as part of their uptime guarantee.

 

5. Auto Dialers

This service automatically dials numbers from a pre-set list. 

Feature Availability: Every business phone system has some type of auto dialer as a standard feature.

 

6. Automatic Call Distribution

Automatic call distribution (ACD) is a tool used by businesses with high volumes of incoming calls to distribute them to specific agent groups or individuals.

Feature Availability: All providers have this as a default feature. For example, you can get it with Nextiva’s plans that start at $50.

 

7. Business Text Messaging

Use this feature to send text messages from your provider application to a database with your customers’ phone numbers.

Feature Availability: Many providers have this as a default feature. For example, you have to purchase it as an additional feature with Talkdesk. Providers that do have it put a limit on the number of included free messages.

 

8. Busy Call Forwarding

Busy call forwarding automatically sends your calls to another rep when your line is busy.

Feature Availability: If a provider does not have this feature, expect to spend about an extra $2 per month to have it included.

 

9. Busy Lamp Field (BLF)

BLF is useful for quickly determining if someone in your organization is available for a call. Using SIP, the system determines if the line is busy, which then displays a busy light on your IP phone for that line.

Feature Availability: Most SIP providers have this as a default feature, but you may have to set it up manually.

 

10. Call Analytics

Call analytics is the collection, analysis, and reporting of incoming and outgoing call data to better measure performance and customer experiences. It is done in real-time, and there are key performance indicators (KPIs) that are often used to track and visualize specific metrics.

Feature Availability: This is not a commonly offered feature. Some providers have this as a default feature, while most others have this as an add-on paid feature. 

 

11. Call Barge

Call barge is a feature that allows a supervisor of a call center to listen in on calls and barge in when the agent is having trouble. The conference allows you to address both the agent and the customer.

Feature Availability: This feature comes as default with most providers.

 

12. Call Blasting

Call blasting is a call center technique that is used to contact large groups of people at the same time. 

Feature Availability: This feature is not standard and is usually a paid add-on. Most call center software providers have a pay-as-you-go structure that averages about $0.045/min. Larger providers will also have unlimited plans for businesses with more outgoing calls.

 

13. Call Flip

Call flip lets you transfer a call from one phone to another without a hassle. This means that an agent can take a call on their desk phone and transfer it to their mobile device when they need to leave the office. 

Feature Availability: Most providers include this as a default feature. For example, it’s included in Nextiva and Grasshopper but you have to manually activate it.

 

14. Call Forwarding

Call forwarding allows a call to be transferred to an available agent’s desk. 

Feature Availability: This is a standard and widely available feature from all major providers.

 

15. Call Hold

Call hold allows agents to place a caller on hold for a short period. 

Feature Availability: This is a standard and widely available feature from all major providers.

 

16. Call Hunting

Also referred to as find me/follow me, call hunting distributes inbound calls made to one telephone number to multiple phone lines.

Feature Availability: Many business VoIP providers have this feature built into their plans. But in some cases, you may need to purchase it as an add-on feature.

 

17. Call Masking

This technology masks calls so that a different number appears on the caller ID. For example, when you want a customer to think that you are calling from a personal number, you configure the system to display that number from your IP phone or softphone.

Feature Availability: This is a standard and widely available feature from all major providers.

 

18. Call Monitoring

Call monitoring is one of the key features which allows users to listen to calls without the caller or the agent’s knowledge. This is designed to help improve customer experience and maintain agent training.

Feature Availability: This is a standard and widely available feature from all major providers.

 

19. Call Notify

This feature informs specific agents by email when a particularly notable customer calls. 

Feature Availability: Most call center software providers have this as a default feature.

 

20. Call Park

Call park will enable team members to place a call on hold until a specific person is available to take the call. 

Feature Availability: Most providers, such as 8×8, 3CX or Nextiva have this as a default feature, with no additional costs.

 

21. Call Presence

Call presence lets you see which of your agents is available to take calls, who is currently on the phone, and how many customers are in the queue. 

Feature Availability: This is a standard and widely available feature from all major providers.

 

22. Call Pulling

Call pulling gives you the option of transferring calls from one device to another. It allows agents to be more mobile and the transfer is virtually unnoticeable by the caller.

Feature Availability: This is one of the most common features in the VoIP industry and it comes standard.

 

23. Call Queuing

When a business receives a high volume of calls, call queues will organize calls in order to help to reduce wait time. 

Feature Availability: There are practically no providers without this feature. 

 

24. Call Recording

Call recording allows you to refer back to calls at a later time or train agents. 

Feature Availability: Most telephony providers have this feature as an add-on for an additional cost. For example, Mitel has MiVoice Call Recording, an advanced call recording feature for recording and sharing call playbacks.

 

25. Call Screening

Call screening allows you to make a decision about the importance of the call based on the number. This means that spam calls are discarded with ease, and high-value calls are prioritized by agents.

Feature Availability: This is a standard and widely available feature from all major providers.

 

26. Call Takeover

This feature lets supervisors literally take over a call if an agent is struggling to meet the callers’ demands. 

Feature Availability: This is a standard and widely available feature from all major call center software providers.

 

27. Call Tracking

Call tracking is used to determine how customers located your business. It helps determine how successful ad campaigns are and if they are beneficial in a specific area.

Feature Availability: This is an add-on feature with most providers. If not folded in, expect to spend around $5 per month or more. Alternatively, you can always look into getting this as a standalone product from specific call tracking software providers such as Phonewagon.

 

28. Call Transfer

This feature allows an agent to transfer their caller from their phone to another department with ease. 

Feature Availability: This is a standard and widely available feature from all major VoIP providers.

 

29. Call Waiting

This feature emits a tone to notify a person already on a call if someone else is trying to get through.

Feature Availability: This is a standard and widely available feature from all major VoIP providers.

 

30. Call Whisper

Instead of passively listening in on a call, a supervisor can use call whisper to directly coach their agents during calls. The customer won’t hear the supervisor’s feedback, but it helps the agent in difficult situations.

Feature Availability: Most call center providers have this as a default feature. However, some providers require a more expensive plan to include it, such as RingCentral. You have to pay for the Ultimate plan at $49.99 per user per month to unlock call whisper.

 

31. Campaign Performance Analytics

These analytics help you understand performance across a particular time period for a given phone number/campaign.

Feature Availability: Much like call analytics, most call center software providers have this as a default feature.

 

32. Click to Call

Click to call allows your customers to simply click on a button on your website or mobile app and immediately establish a call with an available agent.

Feature Availability: While most providers offer this feature, it typically requires an additional cost for accessibility. 

 

33. Cloned Lines

With this feature, you can plug multiple phones into a device and use a single inbound phone number, which means that fewer numbers will be required.

Feature Availability: Most providers include this feature as a default.

 

34. Conference Bridge

A conference bridge is a feature that allows more than three people to be added to a call. It‘s useful for quick team updates and meetings that only require voice.

Feature Availability: This feature is present in all leading VoIP providers’ offers.

 

35. Custom Music on Hold

This is one of the more common features. When using it, you will be able to upload and play audio files to your callers while they wait for an agent to become available.

Feature Availability: Most providers include this as a default feature. You can upload your own file or use default options from the providers’ libraries.

 

36. Custom Ringback

Custom ringback is a setting that allows your callers to hear a specific audio file when they contact your business.

Feature Availability: Most providers include this as a default feature. However, you will need to set it up and customize it on your own.

 

37. DND

DND (do not disturb) will turn off your ringer and send callers to your voicemail to leave a message. This is beneficial for employees who have calls transferred to their cell phones during off-hours.

Feature Availability: Most providers include this as a default feature.

38. E911

Enhanced 911 is VoIP’s answer to traditional 911. Unlike PSTN-based 911, IP phones and other devices aren’t registered by default to a single location, so it’s harder to receive emergency services. With E911, location accuracy is improved greatly via several key technologies and VoIP location registration, compared to a landline phone service. 

Feature Availability: Not every provider has this feature by default. Those that do (such as 8×8 or Nextiva) may charge an E911 service fee that could cost as little as $1 per month, per line.

 

39. Editable Call Flows

Editable call flows allow you to change your routing schema at the drop of a dime so that calls are still received no matter what. Some systems allow you to drag and drop various aspects of your call flow for an easy-to-edit system.

 

Feature Availability: This is a feature included by default with most providers.

 

40. Enhanced Mobility via Apps

VoIP mobile phone apps allow you to take your conversations on the go with you, letting you help your customers whenever they need it.

Feature Availability: All providers today have some sort of mobile app included in all packages.

 

41. Extension Dialing (number change)

Many business lines have extensions that are between two and five numbers in length. That way, employees within one company can quickly communicate with each other.

Feature Availability: Almost all providers offer this feature for free.

 

42. Extension Menus

An extension menu maps out every employee’s extension. That way, customers can easily contact the person that they need to speak with.

Feature Availability: This feature is widely available with most providers nowadays.

 

43. Free Intra-Company Calling

Rather than use a full number, endpoints within the organization can reach other endpoints with just an extension. Users merely dial a two- or three-digit number to reach other desks within the organization. 

Feature Availability: Most providers have this as a default, free feature.

 

44. Geographic Redundancy

Also known as georedundancy (or geo-redundancy), this feature is a standard benefit held by most providers. With georedundancy, the data centers that handle VoIP traffic are geographically dispersed so that, if one goes down for whatever reason, the others pick up the slack to prevent downtime.

Feature Availability: While some providers have more georedundant servers than others, this is a standard feature for most plans.

 

45. HIPAA and HITECH Compliance

When dealing with electronically-protected health information (ePhi), you need to have a system that is HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) compliant. Fortunately, several providers have features like managed call recording and encryption for data as it is at-rest and in-transit.

Feature Availability: Not every provider is HIPAA-compliant. You can expect to spend anywhere from $25 to $50 per month for a provider with it.

 

46. Hot Desking

Rather than assign agents in a call center or contact center to specific, static desks, hot desking allows you to assign them as needed. For example, your agents may work at different workstations each day, but all of their saved recordings and notes will travel with them as they sign in when they arrive.

Feature Availability: Most providers have this feature by default and offer it for free.

 

47. Hoteling 

With a hoteling setup, which has a host and a guest, the host is the default user on the endpoint. The guest makes outbound and inbound calls using their credentials by logging in, so traveling between offices and desks is simple. It also allows them to use features on their account including virtual numbers and caller ID.

Feature Availability: Not many providers have this feature. Those that do, such as Nextiva, offer it for free.

 

48. International Local Numbers

With international virtual numbers, you provide customers with local numbers in their jurisdiction that they use to reach your call centers. There’s no need to have a physical office in the country – the numbers are hosted virtually.

Feature Availability: Many providers have this as a default feature. Expect to spend anywhere between $5 and $10 per number, but many providers don’t have a publicly displayed pricing table.

 

49. IVR Systems

Customers can use an IVR (interactive voice response) system to navigate through your services. Self-service features like bill pay and survey administration are available so that the customer doesn’t needlessly tie up agents.

Feature Availability: Most providers have this as a feature in their mid- and premium-tier plans. Some providers have a one-time fee of around $800 while others charge monthly. Expect to pay anywhere between $10 and $60 per month. Take a 

 

50. Local Numbers

Local virtual numbers appear to be in the same area code as your customers in order to establish a presence where your customers are. 

Feature Availability: Most providers have this as a standard feature, but for those that don’t, expect to pay $4 to $10 per month, per line. For example, RingCentral includes one main number, while each additional local number costs $4.99 per month.

 

51. MMS Messaging

MMS is a type of multimedia messaging that allows you to send images and videos besides the standard text features of SMS.

Feature availability: At the moment of writing, only RingCentral offers MMS messaging and it’s included for free with their plans.

 

52. No Answer Call Forwarding

When calls receive no answer, they automatically go to another phone number or ring group.

Feature Availability: For those providers without this feature rolled-in, expect to spend about an extra $2 per month for the feature.

 

53. Number Porting 

When changing carriers, phone number porting allows you to take your old numbers with you to your new VoIP service provider. The waiting period can take as little as days, but dependent on the previous carrier, it can take weeks. 

Feature Availability: All providers have this. Some providers charge for this service, while others provide it for free. For example, Ooma charges $39.99 per ported number.

 

54. Office Intercom

IP paging intercoms are useful for businesses with spaces like warehouses or entryways that don’t have easy-to-reach IP or softphones. These work through an extension and activate the speaker for announcements.

Feature Availability: This is a hardware-reliant feature that is available from some providers but must usually be activated. 

 

55. Online Fax

Internet faxing uses the T.38 codec and sends faxes via a T.38-compatible gateway, so they are sent without a dedicated analog fax machine. The codec changes faxes to an image and (through an internet connection) sends the image as a data packet to the target location where it’s changed back to a traditional fax.

Feature Availability: Most online faxing providers have this function, such as RingCentral, which allows 500 shared pages per month. For standalone unlimited faxing, expect to spend between $15 to $20 per month. 

 

56. Power Dialing

Power dialers automatically dial for your agents so that they can focus on live calls or taking notes between phone calls. Most power dialers prioritize leads and screen out negative call results so that agents focus on other important tasks.

Feature Availability: Most call center software providers have this as a default feature for base-level plans.

 

57. Predictive Dialing

With a predictive dialer, calls are filtered automatically and predictive analytics are used to determine when an agent is available. 

Feature Availability: While most call center software providers have this feature, for standard VoIP, expect this to be present only at more premium tiers. Dedicated predictive dialer software goes for anywhere from $50 to $200 per month. 

 

58. Predictive Lead Scoring

Predictive lead scoring is how call centers or sales companies rank the value of prospective customers or leads. This feature uses CRM integration, AI, and customer info to determine who is most likely to convert, which is valuable for easily identifying ideal customers.

Feature Availability: Rarely is this feature available through a modern phone service provider, but it is present on several marketing automation and CRM platforms like Hubspot and PipeCandy.

 

59. Priority Alerts

This feature provides instant alerts or push notifications when a prioritized customer calls in.

Feature Availability: Many providers have this as a default feature that needs to be set up manually.

 

60. Progressive Dialing

With progressive dialing, your agents progress through a list of contacts with the help of software. The dialer itself assigns calls as they become available and filters out negative call outcomes like busy signals, no answers, and answering machines.

Feature Availability: Most call center software providers have this as a standard dialing feature. If they have predictive dialing, chances are that they offer progressive dialing as well.

 

61. Push to Talk

This works as a useful collaboration feature by providing an intercom-like means of communicating. Connected coworkers merely press a button on their IP phone or softphone to instantly talk with colleagues.

Feature Availability: This is a feature provided by some service vendors, but it also needs to be supported by the VoIP devices you use.

 

62. Quality of Service (QoS)

This is the overall measure of performance for a call. It is quantitatively measured through several different criteria, such as latency, packet loss and burstiness of loss and jitter. 

Feature Availability: Not every provider has this feature. Those that do, typically provide it at mid- or enterprise-grade tiers. Expect to spend a subscription price of over $30 per month.

 

63. RCS Messaging

Rich Communications Services messaging is the evolved version of SMS that lets you send more than just text – you can also send videos, images, add participants to a conversation and more, as part of unified communications.

Feature availability: Not many providers have this feature. For example, Twilio has just launched it and you can request early access, so it’s not commercially available just yet.

 

64. Remote Call Forwarding

With remote call forwarding, you use a smartphone or portable device to seamlessly forward desk calls to the field. 

Feature Availability: Most providers have this as a default feature for base-level plans.

 

65. Ring Groups

Ring groups allow you to have multiple phones ring when a single extension is dialed. 

Feature Availability: Most providers have ring groups as a default feature.

 

66. Sentiment Analysis

This feature uses predictive analytics and AI modeling to determine the customer’s sentiment, which is scored and fed to agents. This helps agents gauge customer reactions better and more quickly seek out the help of a supervisor when needed. It also boosts customer satisfaction significantly. This is one of the less common features.

Feature Availability: Not very widely used. For example, Vonage has it but you have to get in touch with sales to get the full pricing details.

 

67. Shared Call Appearance

Shared call appearance lets you share a single business phone number on multiple devices. When calling from your smartphone, softphone, or IP phone, the same number will be used. 

Feature Availability: Most providers have this as a default feature. However, you have to manually set it up.

 

68. Skills-Based Call Routing

This feature is designed to get customers to the agent with the right skills. The routing system delegates based on things like call history or repeat bugs. 

Feature Availability: The majority of providers have this feature as default.

 

69. SMS Messaging

A short messaging system (SMS) lets you send short text messages to your database through your provider.

Feature Availability: Most providers have at least some form of texting for subscribers by default. Some providers only include it for free for business texting. Some charge for this feature – for example, Grasshopper includes in their pricier plans but for the basic plan, you’ll have to pay $10 per month per number to unlock this feature.

 

70. Softphone

A softphone is a software/app based telephone. In other words, this is an application that you run on your device that provides users with functions of a standard desktop phone. 

Feature Availability: All providers have this as a default, free feature.

 

71. Speed Dial

This feature lets you use a short sequence of numbers to call a full number which you interact with frequently. For example, pressing 1 and dialing actually makes a call to 535789001.

Feature Availability: Most providers have this as a default, free feature.

 

72. Third-Party Integration

This is an integration with third-party software that enhances the features of your provider. For example, a CRM integration that lets you access your CRM contacts and dial straight from your dashboard.

Feature Availability: Very few providers have native third-party integrations – most require using an API or some sort of extension to get started with an integration.

 

73. Three-Way Calling

This feature lets you start a call with three participants with a few presses of a button on your softphone or device.

Feature Availability: All providers have this as a default feature.

 

74. Time-Based Routing

With time-based routing, the voice system routes calls based on the time of the day, month, or year. For example, rather than have a customer call you after hours, you set the system to route calls to an auto-attendant after 6 PM. 

Feature Availability: All providers have this as a default feature, but you’ll have to spend some time setting it up.

 

75. Toll-Free Number

This type of number lets customers call you without incurring any charges on their phone bill. 

Feature Availability: Most providers have this as a default feature for around $10 to $15 a month.

 

76. Unlimited Voice Calls

This feature grants you unlimited voice calls through your provider, usually available only for the United States and Canada.

 Feature Availability: Most providers have this as a default feature in various plans.

 

77. Uptime SLAs

An SLA or a service level agreement is a document that outlines the standards of service which your provider offers to you as a customer. Uptime is the most important element here and it denotes the percentage of time the provider promises to be functioning. For example, most providers have 99%, 99.99%, and 99.999% uptime SLAs for their customers.

Feature Availability: All providers have some type of service reliability promise, but not all present this as an SLA.

 

78. Vanity Numbers

A vanity number is a special number that you choose as a business to be more memorable. For example, 1-800-FLOWERS is one of the most notable numbers. Even though they are based on digits, they focus on letters on the keypad to make it easier for the customers to remember your number. 

Feature Availability: All providers have this as a default feature. The price depends on the provider. For example, RingCentral charges a one-time fee of $30 for each new vanity number.

 

79. Video Conferencing

This feature lets you make web-based video conference calls so that you have a more face-to-face style of business communications. Outside of in-house collab, these are also useful for marketing through things like product demos.

Feature Availability: Most providers have this as a default feature. The number of participants varies anywhere from just three attendees to hundreds. Prices range from freemium services to up to more than $250 per year. 

 

80. Virtual Extensions

Virtual extensions are an extension managing system that is based in the cloud. With virtual (PBX) extensions, you aren’t limited to a physical location; calls are easily forwarded to different offices or even personal devices. 

Feature Availability: All providers have this as a default feature.

 

81. Visual Voicemail

Visual voicemail is similar to standard messages except a visual interface is added. With this interface, individual messages are partitioned so that you don’t have to cycle through previous voicemails to reach newer ones.

Feature Availability: Many providers have this as a default feature. You can expect to spend anywhere between $2 and $5 per line for the service. For example, Vonage has this as an add-on feature for $4.99 per month per extension.

 

82. Voicemail

This feature lets your customers leave you messages when there is no agent available to pick up the call

Feature Availability: All providers have this as a default feature.

 

83. Voicemail Forwarding

With voicemail forwarding, you can send and receive messages through a control panel. With it, you receive specific messages or entire inboxes at new locations.

Feature Availability: All providers have this as a default feature.

 

84. Visual IVR

Visual IVR is a system that lets callers choose the right service or department using an interactive visual menu instead of just pressing buttons on their office phone. It’s exclusive to phones and computer devices.

Feature Availability: Some providers specialize in this feature, but it’s not very common. For example, Zappix offers this feature at $12 per month.

 

85. Voicemail Greetings

This feature lets you record a custom greeting for customers that reach your voicemail instead of an agent.

Feature Availability: All providers have this as a default feature.

 

86. Voicemail to Email

With this feature, your voice recordings are sent to your registered email, and an audio attachment is available for download as well. This transcription is very convenient because you don’t cycle through your inbox to hear important messages. 

Feature Availability: Many providers have this as an available feature – some include it in their base-level plans. Plans with this start at around $15 per month.

 

87. Voicemail to Text

This feature lets users see new voicemails as SMS messages. 

Feature Availability: Many VoIP solutions have this as an available feature, but will charge per line. Expect to spend anywhere between $10 and $250 per month dependent on usage.

 

88. VoIP Caller ID

VoIP caller ID shows you who is trying to reach your business. Not only does this help you avoid spam and trash calls, but it also helps your team know who is calling so that they can plan ahead.

Feature Availability: All providers have this as a default feature.

 

89. VoIP Control Panels

Every provider has some means of gathering insight or adjusting features of their service. While some do it better than others, the control panel grants admins access to analytics, center performance, and service fine-tuning.

Feature Availability: All providers have this as a default feature.

 

90. Virtual Switchboard

A virtual switchboard allows you to seamlessly transfer, send, and receive calls to different devices/users. Instead of needing a dedicated operator, you do all of this through the web portal or control panel.