You can think of a virtual phone number as two things: an innovative telecommunications tool and a game-changer for your business. But just what makes a phone number virtual?
Standard telephone numbers are connected to a specific phone line or cell phone accounts, but virtual phone numbers are not. Once you purchase a virtual phone number, you are in control of where you forward it. You can send incoming phone calls to a desk phone, a mobile phone, directly to voicemail, or to an interactive voice response (IVR) system with a few clicks in cloud-based software.
In this article, we look at how this flexibility gives you power.
Table of Contents
- Less Setup and Maintenance
- Flexible Work Environments
- Learn More About Your Customers
- Be More Available to Customers
- Money Savings
Less Setup and Maintenance
With a traditional landline, you need a PBX to handle business calls. With a VoIP phone system, thought by many to be cutting edge, you may still need ATA adaptors or even custom phones. Not so with a virtual phone number.
A virtual phone number will come with a virtual phone system. Setup, if you can call it that, is simply logging into your virtual phone systems and forwarding your virtual number to your desk phone, cell phone, or even, with the right software, your laptop or tablet. It’s pretty simple.
Flexible Work Environments
Hybrid and remote work don’t really work that well with traditional phone systems. With a virtual phone number, however, your team members never really have to go into the office, because your number isn’t locked to a specific desk phone. If they are at home or on the road, you can simply forward the numbers to their home phone or even their personal cell phone.
The software that comes with your virtual phone number will have routing features built in. These features let you forward the number to a standard landline, a personal phone number, or directly to voicemail after hours. And you don’t have to pick just one number to forward to. Simultaneous call forwarding will forward an incoming call to multiple lines at the same time and sequential call forwarding will forward that call to a chain of numbers in order.
Learn More About Your Customers
No small business owner ever said they wanted to know less about their customers. They want as much information as they can get. Talking to them and adding notes to your CRM is important, but you’re missing out if you’re not using call tracking and call analytics—features that come with most virtual phone systems.
Call analytics gives you the details on the duration, location, and time of every call. You can also record a call, transcribe it, and track keywords to categorize the caller and their needs. Call tracking tracks the call up to the point you answer it and lets you know how the caller found the number in the first place, so you can calculate the ROI of marketing campaigns.
Be More Available to Customers
When you get a virtual number, you can pick and choose. Do you want more of a local presence? Get a number in your area code that tells callers you’re a neighbor. If your customer support team fields calls from across the country, then get a toll-free number. And if you want your number to be memorable and say something about your company, choose a vanity number.
You can also use click-to-call with your virtual business number, so mobile visitors to your website don’t even have to remember your number. They can simply click a link and be connected to your customer support staff without dialing a single number.
Money Savings
Phone systems used to be expensive. Well, they still are if you get the wrong one. This was just par for the course because communication is important to every business, and the phone is still the preferred method of business communications. But with virtual telephony, you can cut this cost and get more features, and the only cost is a monthly subscription fee. This is a game changer for small business owners and startups with tight financial resources.
If you’re running a small business, you need a business phone number. There is no question. But you don’t have to settle for the phone systems of the past.
Getting a business phone number and an advanced phone system has never been easier or more cost-effective. With a virtual phone number, setup is quick and easy. Your team can work from wherever they are. And you get added features that will streamline your business communications and improve customer experience.
