Every UCaaS datasheet claims the same forty features. The difference between platforms shows up in the demo — and in the contract. Here's the checklist we'd use to shop our own category, including the questions that make weak vendors sweat.
Core telephony (make them demo, not describe)
- ▸ 1. Visual auto-attendant editor — can YOU change the phone tree at 5 PM on a Friday, or does it take a support ticket?
- ▸ 2. Ring groups and queues with overflow — where does a call go when nobody answers? Make them trace it live.
- ▸ 3. Call park and warm transfer — front-desk basics; clunky here means clunky everywhere
- ▸ 4. Voicemail transcription delivered to email/app — reading beats dialing into a mailbox
- ▸ 5. Mobile app parity — place, receive, transfer, and text from the business number on a personal phone
The revenue features (where platforms separate)
- ▸ 6. Missed-call auto-text — automatic, per-line configurable, with templates
- ▸ 7. Shared SMS inbox — the whole team sees and answers business texts with full history
- ▸ 8. Automated appointment reminders with natural-language confirmation handling
- ▸ 9. Screen pop with CRM/PMS context on inbound calls — demo it against YOUR system, not their demo CRM
- ▸ 10. Review requests and reputation monitoring built in
Platform and trust
- ▸ 11. Uptime: geo-redundant infrastructure and a written 99.999% target, plus automatic failover to mobile when office internet dies
- ▸ 12. Compliance: BAA available? Call recording permissions? Audit logs? (Even if you don't need HIPAA, the answer reveals engineering maturity)
- ▸ 13. Analytics: answer rate, missed calls, response times — per user and per line, exportable
- ▸ 14. Integrations: two-way sync with your actual CRM/PMS, plus API/webhooks for the future
- ▸ 15. AI: receptionist, transcription, and call intelligence — included in a tier, or a per-seat ransom?
The contract traps
Ask these four questions in writing: What are the one-time fees, itemized? What does porting cost? What's the term and what happens at renewal? What exactly requires an upgrade tier? A vendor that answers crisply is safe. A vendor that says 'your account executive will put together a custom quote' is telling you the price is whatever they think you'll tolerate. (Talk Is Cheap's answers: $0, $0, month-to-month available, and the pricing page is the whole truth.)