Hard Phone vs. Soft Phone

- At AIS, we get this question all the time.
What's the difference between a soft phone and a desk phone?
In the next couple of minutes
we're gonna help you understand what those differences are
and help you know which one's right for you.
(upbeat music)
So a desk phone is hardware, it's plastic,
you can pick it up and hold it in your hand.
And you all know the difference
between hardware and software.
Software is on your computer, it's an application.
So the difference between the hard phone
and the soft phone is the hardware phone sits on the desk
and the software phone is on a computer, on a tablet,
or maybe on a cell phone, maybe all of the above.
Let's start and talk about the hardware desk phone.
Let's talk about a few cases
where we see that a desk phone is really a necessity.
One of them is on the retail counter.
So if in your business you have a countertop
where you're seeing customers,
in those places you're often going to have people
working different shifts
and you won't typically have them in front of a computer
where they can use a soft phone.
Also, with a soft phone,
typically on a computer you're not going to have
a USB device plugged in that gives you a handset,
you'll have a headset.
And that makes things difficult in the retail environment,
because you're not able to get up and move
away from your retail station.
Another place that we see a need for a desktop phone
is with shift workers.
So if in your business
you have phones that are shared by different people
throughout the day or different days of the week,
those are typically not places
that we see as much soft phone.
And there's a lot of reasons for that,
but one obvious one is that then people
have to bring a headset with them.
Most of the time, people don't want to share a headset.
Another place to consider desk phones
would be in the common areas of your building.
So if you have phones in a lobby,
or maybe in a warehouse loading dock,
or in a break room currently,
those are places that you'll wanna make sure
you consider a desk phone for.
We found at AIS that due to cell phones
being in everyone's pocket,
we don't see those common area phones as much,
but still something for you to consider
as you're looking for a new system.
Finally, with a desk phone,
you may find that your staff just prefers a desk phone.
And it's something that you have to do a quick survey
and understand your staff.
And you may find that people just want
to be able to pick up that phone and have it in their hand
and be able to go right to speaker phone,
or even have someone stand near them
and talk on a conference call with them.
Those are places you'll wanna consider a desk phone.
Now, let's talk about soft phone.
Chances are you've already used a soft phone.
For example, if you've made a FaceTime call,
that's a soft phone.
Soft phone is just a phone delivered as software.
It's on either a computer, a tablet,
or even a mobile device.
Some cases that you would wanna look at soft phone
would be mobile users.
So are you or your team moving around?
Are you often away from the desk?
Are you moving between an office and a home office?
Or out in the field seeing clients?
With a soft phone you'll have access
to all of your office calls
and have the ability to call out to your customers,
showing your office number,
so you're masking your personal cell number.
Some other cases where soft phones can work well
would be if you have a sales team,
or if you have a support team that's out in the field
or even a service company,
you're able to take customer calls
and transfer them to your team out in the field
on their office extension.
And having those calls stay on soft phone
gives you some advantages,
like the ability to have reporting on those calls.
So now, as the team is out and mobile or from home,
you're able to track
and understand how much time they spend on the phone
and if they're really working.
An important thing to know about soft phone
is that a soft phone is a lot more than a phone.
So in that software application,
instead of what you're used to in a desk phone
where a desk phone has one purpose,
you can pick it up and talk on the phone.
With a soft phone you're able to do collaboration.
So you can have text messaging
and file sharing to your team.
You could click a button
and switch a phone call to a video conference,
because on your soft phone or on your mobile device
the camera's built in, so you can go right to video.
And for many businesses, you may be surprised to hear this,
but faxing is still huge in a lot of industries
and a soft phone is going to allow you to receive
and send faxes as well.
So we've talked about some advantages of desk phone,
some advantages of soft phone,
but I have a question for you.
Why should you choose?
You don't have to have one or the other.
Why not use both.
By having both, they work together very seamlessly.
So if you're at a desk phone and on a call,
with a modern phone system you can push one button
and switch that to a soft phone and be on the go.
You're able to move those calls around.
You could have the advantage of the desk phone
and having a speakerphone stationary on your desk
and the advantage of mobility in a soft phone as well.
If you wanna learn more about telecom, mobile apps,
faxing, and collaboration,
visit our website.
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