Ten questions to ask before you sign
What is the total monthly cost for exactly our headcount, including every phone number, with VAT shown separately?
A price per user leaves out numbers, call charges and add-ons. A total for your exact headcount is the only figure you can compare between providers.
Is a phone number included, and is it one per company or one per person?
Some plans include one number per company, some one per user, some none. For twenty people, that difference is twenty monthly fees.
What is the minimum contract term, and what does it cost to leave in month seven?
A low monthly price often comes with a long term that renews itself. Month seven is when a poor fit usually shows.
Which country are the servers in, and can call recordings leave the European Union under any circumstances?
Call recordings are personal data under GDPR. Where they are stored, and who abroad can reach them, decides which transfer rules apply.
Can you send me the ISO 27001 certificate, its scope statement and its expiry date?
A logo on a website proves little. The scope statement shows whether the certificate covers the phone service you are buying or only part of the company.
What availability figure is in the contract, and what is the credit if you miss it?
A status page is not a promise. Only a figure written into the contract, with a credit when it is missed, gives you something to claim.
What are the support hours, is phone support included at this price, and what is the response time for a total outage?
Entry plans often come with email support only. When every phone in the office is silent, you need to know who picks up and how fast.
Which of the features we have just discussed are not in this plan?
Demos tend to show the top plan. Asking what the quoted plan leaves out keeps you from finding the gap after you sign.
If we leave, how do we take our numbers, our recordings and our call history with us?
You can port your numbers to another provider. Recordings and call history may stay behind unless you can export them, so ask before you rely on them.
Our copper line is being switched off. What exactly do we need on site on the day, and who pays for it?
Operators across Europe are switching off copper telephone lines. Alarms, lifts, card terminals and fax machines may still use them, and each one needs a plan.