Hosted Business Phone System on Steriods: Astoundant

Searching for the right hosted business phone system can be exhausting. So many options. So many price points. It shouldn’t be this hard for phone service. Astoundant hopes to make it a little easier.

Astoundant’s hosted business phone system has 40 features included

We decided to open the cupboard and give away all of the features to our customers. Some business will never use all of these features, but we keep them here anyway. Most of our early customers left their phone providers because they were nickle and dimeing them for extra features. Voicemail? Extra. Caller ID? Extra. Call forward? Extra.

We also offer extra features, like speech to text transcription of voicemails. Voicemails sent to email. A virtual receptionist to greet callers. All for free.

When you buy a mobile phone, countless free apps exist for you to download to add functionality. Over the years, Android and iOS have added some free apps to enhance functionality. Astoundant started with 20 features, then added free features as the service has matured. It’s evolution, progress.

A hosted business phone system with unlimited calling

Take and make unlimited calls to or from any area code in North America. It doesn’t matter: the same area code, Puerto Rico, Canada, Alaska, or Hawaii. You don’t pay extra for that call, subject to our reasonable use policy.

What is our reasonable use policy? It is a provision contained in our terms and conditions. As our customer, you agree to use our services in a reasonable manner, consistent with our other customers use. For example, using our Unlimited Monthly Voice service to run an outbound telemarketing call center would not be reasonable and consistent with our other customers use. We have custom rates for unique situations.

We do this to keep our overhead costs low. Including high volume or otherwise unusual traffic along with typical traffic results in performance degradation for everyone. This leads to additional human resources and capital towards cloud infrastructure. By setting aside a section of our infrastructure for unique customers, we increase our service level performance for everyone and keep our costs down.

A reliable hosted business phone system

Astoundant’s service takes reliability. We constantly monitor our infrastructure to address most issues before our customers even notice. We use the latest stable software, and we revisit and update our custom programming scripts. All of this backend work maintains a high level of efficiency and proactive customer support.

We use the Asterisk PBX software as our main service platform. As an open source software, a worldwide community of developers maintains it, as well as Sangoma. A competing company in many respects with Astoundant, their support of Asterisk shows the vast resources available to business phone service customers. Asterisk is used by every Fortune 1000 company in over 60 countries.

World class customer service

Without prompt and courteous customer service, Astoundant would be indistinguishable from its competitors. We believe in people over profits, and we use a 5 point model for customer service: responsiveness, accountability, integrity, service, and efficiency.

Great service starts with responsiveness. We quickly respond to all support requests, typically within a few minutes. For accountability, we offer a service guarantee that our services will reach our customers’ Internet doorsteps 100% of the time. If our service level dips below 100%, we issue prorated refunds to every affected customer for the time that their service is less than optimal.

We maintain integrity by putting all of our expectations and promises in writing. We also send easy to read statements to all of our customers, so they know exactly what they are paying for. If any employee makes the inevitable mistake, we quickly own up to it and make amends in the best manner possible.

We strive for above and beyond service. We realize that many of our customers are not tech-savvy. In many instances, we continue to assist customers with any of their technical issues that affect delivery of our service, even when we successfully deliver to their Internet doorstep. For example, we will conference call with their technical support resources to assist in finding a solution.

For efficiency, we offer multiple methods of reaching us. We will deploy tools such as remote desktop software to troubleshoot issues on the spot. In the event of the occasional on-site visit, we provide accurate arrival time windows.

Astoundant considers great phone service more than just about price. We offer 40 standard features and virtually unlimited custom features. We constantly upgrade and maintain our system to enhance reliability and guarantee our services. We place people over profits, and we use a 5 point model for customer service.