What is the difference between a softphone and a hard phone?

How VoIP phone systems help your callers reach you more effectively.

When new technologies go mainstream, they often bring new terminology along with them. At some point, we all had to learn what it meant to “hack,” “tweet,” “post,” “stream,” “blog,” and use a “search engine.” However, what was once nonsensical jargon has now become everyday language. As VoIP phone technology matures, we are all learning the parlance, and today we are going to take a look at some of those terms – and what it means for you.

Right now, you might not know what it means for a “VoIP system to perform a prioritized hunt to reach your softphone,” but fear not! In less than five minutes, you will not only understand it but will appreciate the significant opportunity this offers to your business to connect better with your customers – on your terms. However, before we begin, let’s first take a quick review of VoIP technology.

What is VoIP?

A VoIP phone system uses the internet to transmit voice and data, instead of sending analog signals over copper wire like traditional phones. Unlike traditional phone systems, which use a dedicated phone line, VoIP phones use the same network infrastructure as your computer.

This allows users to use VoIP calling on internet-capable devices whenever they are connected to the internet. Since these systems can also transmit data, they are able to include additional features like video, text, and audio over the same line. Importantly, your business can maintain its current phone number(s) and extensions when you migrate to a VoIP system.

What types of devices can you use for calls?

We can break VoIP devices into two basic categories, “soft” phones and “hard” phones.

Hard Phones

If you have ever seen or used a traditional office desk phone – you know what a hard phone is. A VoIP hard phone is any device using VoIP that is dedicated specifically to making phone calls. A VoIP hard phone usually looks and works just like a desk phone, but usually has some sort of color screen that belies its additional capabilities. Many businesses that make the switch to VoIP decide to keep using desk phones, since it maintains the current flow of business and office communication.

However, hard phones are not just limited to a traditional desk phone design. As VoIP technology has matured, more and more options are available to users. Some high-end desk phones now include a high-definition display and camera to enable video calls quickly and easily between capable devices. Other phones resemble traditional wireless phone handsets, but with greater capabilities. These handsets can hold a charge for days, be held on a belt clip, contain the company directory, and even be ordered for use in rugged environments with dust, drop, and water protection.

Soft Phones

The device that you are currently using to read this article is a potential softphone – be it a tablet, laptop, or cell phone. Softphones are devices that have either downloaded a VoIP phone application or can access an online version of the software via a web browser – usually this means a Windows or Mac computer or an Android or iOS smartphone.

Once users download the app, they can use their computer or smartphone to make and receive calls through their extension on the company phone number. To those on the other end of the line, it appears to them that you are calling them from the same work number that you have always used. In the same way, when they dial your old extension number, it is routed to your softphone – where you can answer it just like you always have.

How can callers reach you more effectively on VoIP devices?

Since hard phones and softphones are both connected to the same internet-based system, you can use your VoIP software to dictate where you want an incoming call to your number to be routed: hard phone, softphone, or both. You can also determine in what order you want the phone to ring: hard phone first, softphone first, or both simultaneously. Finally, you can decide what hours you want to be available and what happens when you are not.

Option 1: Prioritized Hunt

For any number of reasons, you might have a preference on which device you like to answer an incoming call. If you are at your desk, maybe you like to answer on your desk phone, or if you are usually on the road or out of the office, you prefer to answer on your cell phone. Whatever the case, setting up your VoIP number for a “prioritized hunt” lets you decide which device you would like to ring first, second, and third, as well as for how long on each device.

As an example, let’s say that you normally work at the office during weekdays and prefer to use your desk phone. You can set up your extension to always ring first on your desk phone for 10 seconds before moving on to your next device. However, since you might be away from your desk to check on some numbers with Jill in accounting, once those 10 seconds time out, then the call begins to ring on your computer for the next 10 seconds before finally going to your cell phone for a final 10 seconds where you can see the name on the caller ID and take the call.

If you are unable to answer on any device, you can use advanced call routing to automatically transfer the call to a relevant colleague or send the caller to your voicemail once the system tries each of your devices. In addition, if you do not want the system to send calls to your cell phone after work hours or on weekends, you can easily set the system to not disturb you during certain days or hours.

Option 2: Ring All

If you prefer to answer incoming calls as quickly as possible, or like the convenience of being able to choose from different devices, the “ring all” functionality allows you to choose which device you use to answer your calls. As you might have guessed, “ring all” sends incoming calls to all devices that you allow to receive incoming calls. This means that if you have set up your cell phone and desk phone to ring simultaneously, you can pick up the receiver on your desk phone when you are in your office, or on your cell phone when you are out – the caller will not know the difference.

Once the call times out, you can use any of the same advanced settings that we noted above to route a caller to a colleague or voicemail or send a call straight to voicemail outside of business hours.

The caller’s experience.

From a caller’s point of view, nothing has changed from when they used to call, except that now for some reason it is much easier for them to get ahold of you on your business number! They will continue to call on the same number, at the same extension, only now you will be able to pick up no matter where you are on the device that you prefer.

One scenario that could produce a notable change for incoming callers would be if you chose to use a custom recording instead of standard ringing. You are probably familiar with such recordings – “Your call is very important to us. Please stay on the line while we try that extension” is one common example. With VoIP, you get to decide if callers hear ringing, a standard message, or a custom message as they wait for you to pick up.

Hopefully, you feel a little more comfortable with VoIP terminology after reading this article. Although VoIP systems can seem a bit intimidating at first, once you get past the leading edge of the learning curve, the technology quickly helps you become more efficient. VoIP users who configure their system to match their preferred working style will miss fewer calls, which means you spend less time listening to voice mails or returning calls. More importantly, it means that your callers can easily reach you the first time that they call, which can mean fewer missed sales opportunities and fewer frustrated customers.

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