By John Malone, President and CEO, Eastern Management Group

In a new Eastern Management Group survey of small businesses, voice over IP (VoIP) phone providers Yealink, Grandstream and Digium received the highest customer satisfaction ratings. Almost 3,000 IT manager customers participated in the extensive evaluation of 17 VoIP phone companies.

Customers judged their VoIP phone vendor on 10 customer satisfaction measurements:

The survey findings are in 2018 Small Business Market VoIP Phones Customer Satisfaction, a report by Eastern Management Group.

The survey found small businesses have vastly different vendor expectations than do enterprises. While providers may not intend to deliver a different experience to small versus enterprise customers, the perception is vendors frequently do. Here are a couple of examples taken from the study’s 10 customer satisfaction measurements.

Small businesses rate Yealink as No. 1 for purchase experience and also No. 1 for contact center experience, two of the 10 customer satisfaction measurements. Enterprise customers rate Unify and Gigaset tops for purchase experience and contact center experience. The customer satisfaction studies find the Top 10 Leaders℠ for small and enterprise also reflect different customer choices. Only Digium and Polycom Digium are Top 10 Leaders for both small and enterprise customers. Digium is addressed in this post.

Yealink — Small business customers are ecstatic about this company, its products and support; it almost seems Yealink can do no wrong. In one of the most essential Customer Satisfaction Measurements, called Recommend-To-A-Friend, Yealink beat out every vendor, with 99% of Yealink customers saying they would recommend Yealink to a friend. This is a significant achievement. To accomplish it, Yealink needed multiple high place finishes in the 10 customer satisfaction measurements, which, in fact, Yealink did receive. Not surprisingly, Yealink achieved both Top 10 Leader℠, and Best-Of-The-Best℠ status in the study.

Yealink offers an array of VoIP phones. The T4 Series of tel sets range from the quite affordable SIP-T40P to pricier, full-featured desk sets. The T2 Series scales from an inexpensive SIP-T19P to the SIP-T29G high-end instrument, phones using the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), a communications signaling protocol. There are also at least five Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) phone models available.

The China-based company, founded in 2001, has VoIP phone distribution in 140 countries.

Digium — This company mustn’t be overlooked as a world-class communications equipment provider. Digium’s sweet spot is small business customers, although it’s also an enterprise darling. Digium is the real deal, according to the company’s VoIP phone customers. Now a subsidiary of Sangoma Technologies, Digium is twice as substantial (twice the revenue), with deeper pockets, more support and broader channel distribution.

Of the 17 VoIP phone providers evaluated, customers ranked Digium #2 in the overall customer satisfaction study. Digium achieved both Top 10 Leader and Best-Of-The-Best status.

Grandstream — Ninety-four percent of Grandstream Networks customers would recommend this VoIP phone vendor to a friend, making it the No. 2 finisher out of 17 companies evaluated for this category. The company is also a Top 10 Leader in …

… the customer satisfaction study.

Boston-based Grandstream, around since 2002, offers product availability in 150 countries. The GXP1600 Series and the higher-end GXP2100 Series make for a robust portfolio of corded phones. Cordless VoIP DECT phones are represented in the DP Series.

Yealink, Digium and Grandstream are more than well-regarded VoIP phone providers. Each offers a comprehensive portfolio often consisting of IP PBX appliances, physical security, video conferencing and, of course, VoIP phones.

The global market that all 17 VoIP phone vendors sell into is extraordinarily large. The Eastern Management Group report, 2018-2024 SIP Global Market 7-Year Forecast and Analysis, shows that 2018 VoIP phone shipments amounted to 11 million sets, and are projected to grow to 21 million instruments by 2024.

For more information about the study and report “2018 Small Business Market VoIP Phones Customer Satisfaction,” please contact our analysts or [email protected]

John Malone is president and CEO of The Eastern Management Group, a communications industry research company, and the author of three books for young readers. In addition to Eastern Management, he founded two other software and database management companies. He has served on the board of directors of numerous publicly traded and private technology companies. Malone has managed the company’s research assignments for major technology businesses and service providers worldwide. He is a former executive with AT&T, where he developed the world’s first call center. He earned his bachelor’s and MBA degrees from the University of Dayton. Follow Malone on @temgworldwide or on LinkedIn.