Grasshopper Review – 8 Factors why this SME VoIP matters to you
Make Your Small Business Sound Like Fortune 500 Company with The Best Virtual Phone System
“Press 1 for Sales, 2 for Support, 8 for the Name Directory”.
Is your business sound like above when your customer calls you?
Or does your business normally happen in the scene below:
“Hi, I would like to speak to John please?”
“Oh, you want to speak to daddy. Please hold on a second.”
“Daddy, there’s a call for you!” (Yelling at the background)
I suppose a great impression leaves a positive impact on your business. After all, you only need a few seconds to grab their attention, either good or bad.
This might sound little to you, but if you can improve the professional image of your business. I am certain that your customer will have more confidence in you and your business will be more converting.
Who Is the Grasshopper, Why Should I Trust Them?
Well, up to this point of writing. There are over 300,000 entrepreneurs had put their trust in Grasshopper and the number is still growing.
Since 2003, Grasshopper has been making it easier and cheaper for the small and medium entrepreneur to grow their business.
Founded by two entrepreneurs, Mr. Siamak Taghaddos and Mr. David Hauser. Grasshopper is built by entrepreneurs. I believe their incredible customer base speaks the reputation and reliability of themselves.
Furthermore, Grasshopper had been featured on The New York Times, Forbes, Inc, The Huffington Post, Business Insider and many more. That news and achievements are mainly about the great service and product of their business VoIP phone system solution.
Grasshopper headquarters are located in Needham, Massachusetts. The Grasshopper team is required to be listening, sharing and be open-minded as they are always entrepreneurial. Because of the entrepreneurs that Grasshopper is serving, Grasshopper employees need to be initiated to find new and creative solutions to their customers.
How Can I Benefit My Small Business By Using Grasshopper?
You want your small business to sound more professional. You need to have a better converting business. Most importantly, you want to control your budget while doing so.
Grasshopper certainly is the choice as you can create and customize unlimited extensions. So your customer can get to the respective person in charge with no effort.
You can create your toll-free number or vanity number such as 1-800-VOIPNOW. All the calls for your business will not be missed again because they can be forward to your home, office or your cell phone.
Click here to check out your business name keyword. Find out what’s the available number instantly.
One of the most favorite features from Grasshopper is that you can show your Grasshopper caller ID to your customer when you are making calls from the cell phone. Your customer will never know that you are calling them using a mobile phone.
I truly believe that voice over internet protocol is the future for our business and in our daily usage. There are thousands of business entities that had already switch to business VOIP. Mainly because they can cut down their operating cost as there is no expensive hardware to be purchased, installed and maintained.
We all need to cleverly utilize the resources available to our benefit.
5 Pros of Grasshopper
3 Cons of Grasshopper
Those that haven’t set up a software-based PBX like platform may have a little bit of difficulty getting Grasshopper up and running right out of the box.
When you’re talking about a tool and a service as powerful and as flexible as this there are always going to be several different settings and features that have to be managed to get everything working smoothly.
Grasshopper support is available to help clients every step of the way and it’s a good idea to take advantage of this tech support and customer service if you’re having difficulty getting up and running.
Some people find the business voicemail features of Grasshopper to be a little bit limited compared to more traditional PBX platforms.
All of your standard voicemail features will be included with your Grasshopper set up, but managing different mailboxes, playing back the right voicemail from the right mailbox, and diving into more “power user” features can be a bit more challenging than expected.
For the most part, Grasshopper’s call forwarding is right up there with the best of the best in the industry.
A lot of this has to do with the fact that you can set up several different rules to determine where and how calls are forwarded after they have dialed your Grasshopper number.
However, if you have multiple rules that overlap or are in conflict with one another it’s possible for calls to be forwarded to the wrong number or the wrong devices at the wrong time. It’s a good idea to be extra careful about the call forwarding rules that you establish with Grasshopper, and that you make sure there is no overlap or conflict before you set them up.
Any Other Things That I Should Take Note?
How much does Grasshopper really cost? Any catch?
If you had read carefully enough, you should recall the unlimited extensions offer from Grasshopper’s plan.
Well, that is not entirely correct. By mean the unlimited extensions is limited to 1000. If you need to use more than 1000 extensions, you’ll need to set up and pay for another Grasshopper account. As one Grasshopper account can only serve up to 1000 extensions.
This is to avoid the toll-free number to become the property of Grasshopper and you might also want to use them back with another carrier service.
What I Don’t Like About
What I Don’t Like About
The additional charges of 6 cents per minute is not the cheapest available in the market. In fact, I find them at the higher side of the calling rate compare with other competitors. So, it would be unwise if I over used my 500 minutes cap per month for calling.
There is an extra charge of $30 in transferring your own number or pick your own selection number. This is only a one-time charge, so I wouldn’t be minded if the number will help in my business. The good thing is there are no cancellation/termination fees and there are 30 days money-back guarantee for us.
The features and additional functions might be limited and not as extensive as other competitors. But if you need a simple and straight forward business phone system, then I’m sure you are good with Grasshopper.
Grasshopper Useful Resources
Alternatives for Grasshopper
When you choose a Grasshopper Virtual Phone over a competing phone, you’ll access so many awesome “bells and whistles”, many of which will be hard to find anywhere else.
Grasshopper Virtual Phone is designed to turn your entire world into an office, so you’ll access convenience and ease which is beyond compare.
I believe that Grasshopper Virtual Phone is your safest bet for reliable and cutting-edge Virtual Phone System service.
Grasshopper vs Phone.com
To give you a sense of why Grasshopper Virtual Phone is better, let’s compare it with a chief rival, Phone.com.
With Grasshopper, you’ll be able to access a pro voice recordings feature that offers unlimited usage for just seventy-five bucks per month.
With Phone.com, you’ll need to pay extra fees for this service, based on the cost of usage.
Also, Phone.com offers a free month of service to new customers who sign on for their virtual office service. However, the free perk is for monthly fees only and it does have some terms and conditions.
You’ll still be charged for toll-free calls and usage charges when applicable. When you choose Grasshopper, you’ll access a thirty-day, money-back guarantee which protects you as a consumer. I’ve tried them out and it’s FREE OF CHARGE for sure!
Grasshopper Virtual Phone Pricing Plan
Grasshopper offer 4 plans for their business Virtual pbx packages. But I only listed 3 of the plans that I think most suitable for all of us below as a summary.
- Solo – $26/mo ( Unlimited minutes included) (my recommendation)
- Partner – $44/mo ( Unlimited minutes included)
- Small Business – $80/mo (Unlimited minutes & Sms included)
All these 3 plans serve different types of customers based on their usage.
The one that I am recommending and reviewing is the Solo plan.
The reason I choose this plan is that the price is within my budget and the usage suits my business model. Previously 500 minutes per month is sufficient for my small business and personal usage which I think suits most of the SME entrepreneurs as well. Now they had even upgrade the calling minutes to unlimited!
However, the most popular plan for Grasshopper is the Partner plan. I hope you can pick the most suitable plan based on your business usage and fully maximize your selected number and features. I will explain more in the grasshopper review below.
7 Days Free Trial from Grasshopper
Not sure if Grasshopper is the right choice for you?
No worry as they are ready to give you a free run to test out their system if they are suitable for you.
Not many VoIP or virtual PBX providers are offering a free trial and they are the only ones in our encounter after so long.
So what are you waiting for?
Grab the free trial with no commitment, you do not even need to register your credit card for it.
Here’s what include during the free trial:
- 1 Phone Number
- 3 Extensions
- 100 Talk Minutes
- 100 Texts
- Full Features
Unfortunately, not all regions are available or open to this free trial, only selected areas are available. The US is certainly one of the available areas if that’s where you are in.
Conclusion: Is Grasshopper Good Enough for Your SME?
Conclusion: Is Grasshopper Good Enough for Your SME?Yes. In short.
Grasshopper wants their client to focus on the things that matter to them most and not get distracted by any phone system.
Which is true that the phone system should be a productive tool to assist you in your business, and not the other way round.
Here are a few summary points that I like about Grasshopper:
Grasshopper is built by entrepreneur (They know when things come to business)
No contract require (No additional charges when cancellation or upgrading)
It can’t be wrong when there’s over 300,000 users
However, the pricing is not cheap compare to RingCentral Office. But the good news is Grasshopper do not require a long term contract.
You can cancel them anytime without any additional charges.