The phone bill lists lines nobody can explain, and the voicemail system dates from a different decade. The one person who knew how to change the auto-attendant left two years ago. Maybe you've already sat on hold with the carrier, or tried a cheap calling app and heard how rough it sounded. We set up and support business phone systems for offices across Monterey, and it's worth moving before an old system quits on a busy Monday morning.
Signs Your Office Phone System Is Failing
Phone trouble usually starts as small annoyances. Callers drop when they get transferred. The front desk can't see who's already on a line. Voicemail fills up. Nobody checks it, so a client's message about a deadline sits there until Thursday.
Some signs mean it's time to change now. Your system lives on a box in a closet and only one vendor can still work on it. Staff who work from home give clients their personal cell numbers. Adding a new hire means a service call and a week of waiting for a new extension.
Then there's the power.
When PG&E shuts off power in Carmel Valley, or a winter storm knocks out lines across the Peninsula, an on-site phone system goes dark with the lights. Callers hear ringing and nobody picks up. A cloud system keeps answering on the cloud side and sends calls to cell phones until power is back.
Doing it yourself tends to go badly. People buy handsets online and plug them in. Then they learn the network was never set up to carry voice.
Our Business Phone Systems
Most offices we work with end up on rVoice, our own cloud phone service. Your calls travel over the internet to the rVoice platform, so the phone system itself no longer lives in your building. Each person gets a number that can ring a desk phone and an app on their cell at the same time. You get an auto-attendant ("press 2 for billing"), ring groups for each department, and voicemail that arrives in email as an audio file. Want a different greeting for the holiday weekend? Change it yourself in a browser. Or call, and we'll do it while you're on the line.
We move your existing numbers over, so customers keep dialing the number on your sign. Before cutover day we set up the handsets, test calls from every desk, and show staff how to transfer and park calls. Our plain-English guide to VoIP covers how the calls travel if you want the background first.
Some offices already live in Microsoft 365 and would rather make calls from the app they use for chat and meetings. For them, Microsoft Teams Calling turns Teams into the phone system, with a real number on each account. We'll tell you which one fits. A dental office with a busy front desk usually does better on rVoice desk phones. A small consulting firm that's in Teams all day may not need anything else.
Neither works well on a weak connection. Business Internet and Connectivity is the part most phone vendors skip. We help you pick the right circuit and add a second line from a different provider. The router gets set to switch over by itself when the main line drops. Voice goes first. A big file upload shouldn't make your receptionist sound like she's calling from underwater.
Phone Service for Monterey County Businesses
A phone system on the Monterey Peninsula has to handle a few things a phone system in an office park never sees.
Power is the big one, so we plan for it during setup. We decide with you where every call goes when the office goes dark. Usually that's the cell phones of whoever's on shift, with a voicemail box that emails the team as the last stop. A battery backup under the network gear lets everything shut down cleanly. If you're writing down what the office does during a long outage, Ready.gov's business continuity planning tools are a good free place to start.
Medical and dental offices have another concern. Voicemails and call recordings can hold patient names and test results, and HIPAA protects that information the same way it protects a chart. We limit who can play recordings and how long they're kept. We also keep voicemail-to-email out of the shared inboxes half the staff can open.
Our phone clients run from Pacific Grove and Carmel-by-the-Sea through Seaside and Marina, then inland to Salinas, Watsonville, Hollister, and San Juan Bautista. Because the system runs in the cloud, a branch office in Hollister can share one directory with a main office on Alvarado Street. Same auto-attendant too.
Why Offices Pick Us for Their Phones
The company that set up your phones should be the one that answers when they stop working. Here, it's the same office. A dead phone line counts as a critical ticket, so a technician is on it within 15 minutes, and our emergency line answers 24/7. Most phone problems get fixed remotely within the hour.
We've been in New Monterey since 2008 and support more than 250 local businesses. Phone trouble often turns out to be a network problem. When it does, we don't hand you off to someone else. You get a written quote before anything moves, and one number to call after.
If your phone system is older than some of your staff, call (831) 649-5050 and we'll look at what you have. Phones are one piece of the work we do as the IT team Monterey offices call first, and they run better when the same people look after your network.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a business phone system cost in Monterey?
It depends on how many people need a line, which handsets you want, and how many numbers you have. We look at your current bill and setup, then give you a flat monthly price in writing. Hardware is quoted separately so you can see it.
Can we keep our current business phone numbers?
Yes. We port your numbers from your old carrier, which means moving them to the new service. Your customers keep calling the same numbers, and we handle the paperwork with the old carrier.
What happens to our calls if the office internet goes down?
With rVoice, the phone system lives in the cloud, so it keeps answering. Calls go to the cell phones or voicemail you picked during setup. With a backup internet line, most offices never get to that point, because the desk phones move to the second connection.
Do we have to buy new desk phones?
Not always. Some existing handsets work with cloud service, and we'll check the models you have. Some offices skip desk phones entirely and use a headset with the laptop app.
Should we use rVoice or Microsoft Teams for calls?
If your staff work in Teams all day and mostly take calls at their laptops, Teams calling is often enough. If you have a front desk handling a steady stream of calls, rVoice desk phones are usually the better fit. We'll go through how your office actually takes calls before recommending either.