Despite all the new and emerging business communications technologies of the 21st century (VoIP, Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, Bluetooth, cell phones, blackberries, etc.), most companies in business today still write a check each and every month for a local exchange company for 125 years. old technology – local phone service – (sometimes referred to as POTS, or “plain old phone service”).

Although it may be the same boring set of copper wires that plugs into a standard phone and rings when calls come in, the local phone service portion of your company’s telecom bills is the perfect place to start your cost reduction efforts. of telecommunications.

Here are 8 quick ways to start lowering your local phone service bills. Check them off one by one when you complete them and you could reduce your local phone service bills by as much as 10% or more.

1) Determine the right local service plan for your needs, then upgrade if necessary.

Many local exchange carriers (LECs) offer three basic types of local service plans. The flat rate service allows unlimited calls within a local area at no additional charge. With the Metered Rate Service, local calls are charged based on time and/or distance and/or time of day. Message rate service that applies charges to each local call regardless of duration or distance.

Analyze your business needs through personal and observational surveys, then determine the most cost-effective local service plan. You’ll be amazed at the savings simply by implementing the right plan for your company’s calling patterns.

NOTE: When moving from a flat rate service plan to a metered or messaging rate plan, make sure you know the extent to which employees make personal calls. Also, consider any lines that may be connected to frequently used services, such as apartment door answering systems.

2) Delete unnecessary or unused lines.

Historically, telephone companies have recommended and provided sufficient numbers of access lines to provide a P.01 grade of service. This means that no more than 1% of all callers will receive a busy signal during the busiest time of the day. P.01 is appropriate for some situations, but results in many clients having many more lines than necessary.

Take inventory of all lines being billed, then locate them and determine their level of importance to daily business activities. Eliminate lines with unidentifiable phone numbers, lines that ring without answer, and/or metered rate or message lines that show no use.

For more advanced phone traffic calculations, use our online phone traffic analysis program.

3) Eliminate unnecessary or unused features and line services.

More often than not, most companies have lines that contain features and/or services that are not needed or rarely used. The problem arises when features are added to serve a specific purpose or employee, and then not removed when things change. Over time, many features may be included in the lines and users have no idea that they are even available.

Your previously completed circuit inventory will help you determine the specific features needed for each line. Cable maintenance charges should always be eliminated. These charges can be as high as $6.00 per month for each line!

4) Block expensive pay-as-you-go features.

Directory assistance call completion, redialing, and callbacks are nice and convenient for employees, but they will cost your business over time. These features can and should be blocked through your provider immediately. If you need any of these features, please contact your LEC and ask if there is a monthly fee for unlimited use.

5) Check the summary section of your invoices every month.

Nothing can replace a well designed and systematic telecom audit of your entire telecom department. However, a quick monthly scan of the summary section of your local phone bills will sometimes yield “gold nuggets” of savings.

Common problems include: more than one long distance carrier included (blocking), false Internet charges (cramming) from companies other than your ISP, and unlisted directory listings. These charges can be as high as $29.95.

To maximize savings, review each bill every month. The bogus charges will continue month after month until they are removed. And don’t be surprised if they magically reappear 2-3 months after they’re removed from an invoice.

6) Consider upgrading to a T1 if you have more than 20 lines.

For smaller businesses, installing a T1 line on your PBX system can reduce local phone charges. A T1 can be cost effective because it combines many outgoing lines into a single digital line that runs from your office to the LEC head office. The T1 can replace up to 24 POTS lines on your PBX. No one will know the difference except perhaps the person paying the bills. Furthermore, a T1 can also carry data.

7) Collect Customer Service Records (CSRs) from your LEC for further local service analysis.

A lot of information can be found in the CSRs that is not on your monthly statement. They are an invaluable resource when it comes to identifying unnecessary services and unused lines. CSRs reveal the number and types of lines, their PICs, service items, paging arrangements, wire maintenance, circuit termination locations, directory listings, and a host of other esoteric information.

Obtaining your CSRs from the LEC can be a painful and time consuming process, but the effort is worth it in the savings and credits that are ultimately earned. Some LECs will charge a fee for issuing CSRs, but with some persistence, you may be able to get a waiver of this fee.

8) Consider hiring a telecom consultant for telecom auditing, invoice management or telemanagement services.

Time is money. If your staff is not prepared to consistently implement the above tasks, consider hiring a professional telecom consulting firm to handle them for you. Ideally, a telecom audit conducted first will reveal many areas for potential cost savings. Then a monthly invoice management program will keep your invoices clean and free of those pesky recurring errors.

At TelCon Associates, we have structured our consulting services for maximum client savings without risk. We put emphasis on details, punctuality and a high level of personalized service for our clients.

So get to work reducing those local phone bills. you will be glad you did.