Keeping in touch with your customers and clients is a very important detail to a home business, and not having great communication skills can break your business. If your home business has employees that work for you, it’s even more important that your communication is on point, and they need to be able to have easy and quick access to you when problems or questions arise.

The most obvious way to communicate with your customers is by phone or email. However, when you’re running your business from home, you may need alternatives, especially if you’re receiving many long distance calls that can run up your phone bill greatly. Email is great for communication, but it’s not the most practical for time-sensitive problems. You may not check your email in time to respond to an urgent message, and this will make your customers become frustrated.

When Skype first hit the market, everyone was using it. Everyone was fascinated by its technology and how they could easily contact important people whenever they needed. It also made it much more convenient for those working from home, they could have meetings with another person without having to leave their home, but still being able to communicate face to face. For a while it was the only option for a VoIP, and Skype’s earnings were through the roof. Since then many companies have caught on to the idea and came out with their own VoIP services, many that are even better versions of Skype.

You may be wondering what other options are available besides Skype that will allow you to easily keep in contact with your customers and clients. The answer is very many, and the number seems to grow steadily. Most people do still use Skype, but in my opinion there are better options, and most are mainly free to use. Here is a list of more services like Skype for you to check out and choose which one is best for your need.

• Vonage is a great option for an alternative to a traditional home phone line. It uses a high-speed internet connection for calls, and includes free long distance calling all over the world.
• Magic Jack works similarly to Vonage in that it is an alternative to traditional landlines and it uses a high-speed internet connection as well. It also includes free local and long distance calling.
• Google Hangouts is a great tool that allows users to interact through video chat and the sessions are free. You can add up to a total of 10 people on one call.
• Google Talk goes hand in hand with Google Hangouts, its difference is that it is primarily used as a messenger app.
• Anymeeting is perfect for those who need to host larger group meetings through video chat. It allows users to host a video chat up to 200 people at one time, how cool is that?

Burnside | A technology professional with more than two decades of experience writing.  He has served as contributing author for ‘Talking Tech’ Column in the Pride of Durham News Paper(NC), and has an ongoing contribution here on CyrilBurnside.  He is a professional services consultant with PC99Solutions, an IT consulting firm for small business. Contact us today and watch your online business grow.