Even though it seems that most modern communication is handled without ever exchanging a word, the fact remains that people prefer to speak over the telephone when handling their business transactions. This includes customer service inquiries, as well as handling orders for products and services from a dedicated sales team. If you run a startup or small business, business phone numbers are your key to establishing a line of communication to your business directly.
With advances in cloud computing, particularly in telecommunications, there have been recent leaps in the level of service. Virtual phone numbers are part of this revolution, where your business can gain a level of benefits that were previously reserved for enterprise-level organizations.
Curious to know more? In this article, we’ll cover what virtual phone numbers are, how they can be used by businesses, and some of the many add-ons feature available.
What are Virtual Phone Numbers?
Virtual phone numbers are phone numbers that function exactly the same as “regular” phone numbers. This includes for usage, as calls are instantly routed to a destination phone number. Also, virtual phone numbers are indistinguishable from regular phone numbers, which have a number of benefits for businesses.
Benefits of Virtual Phone Numbers
With virtual phone numbers, your business can gain a number of benefits, including:
- Accessing new markets with minimal overheads, as virtual phone numbers are significantly cheaper than setting up a brick-and-mortar location in new cities/ regions/ countries.
- Give full accessibility to potential customers without accruing long-distance fees.
- Route calls instantly to a centralized call processing center.
- Establish authenticity in new markets with your marketing efforts (website, social media, etc.).
- Ease of implementation, as virtual phone numbers work with any device that can accept phone calls (i.e. smartphones, headset, laptops, PCs, tablets, etc.).
Depending on your business model and creativity, virtual phone numbers can be used to sort out various parts of your business. For instance, you may use virtual phone numbers for staff members that travel on business and wish to stay in contact with local contacts that lack the means to call outside of their country. Some businesses may also want to forgo the overheads and legal hurdles that come with setting up a branch office in an international country, especially in regards to taxation and business protocol.
Toll-Free Numbers
Virtual phone numbers can in a different variety of functionalities, which includes toll-free numbers. Just as virtual phone numbers are identical to local phone numbers, toll-free numbers work in the same manner. This means that callers aren’t charged for calling or receiving calls from your business. Customers can then freely reach your business without obstacles while also gaining a professional image and added features. These features can include a call directory, where calls can be distributed to appropriate branches of your company. Call directories can increase the efficiency of your company, as they reduce misdirected calls and allow customers to get directly to the heart of their inquiries.
International Virtual Phone Numbers
There is a problem with traditional toll-free numbers: they are country-specific. If a caller doesn’t live in the same country as the toll-free number, they are charged as if the call was a regular call. Of course, this defeats the purpose of having a toll free number.
With virtual phone numbers, this hurdle is easily overcome by ITFS numbers (International Toll-Free Service numbers). ITFS numbers function as a way of routing calls between countries while maintaining the no-cost for your customers and clients.
Add-Ons for Business Telephone Numbers
As mentioned before, virtual phone numbers come with a variety of add-ons that can exponentiate your business’ telecommunications. In addition, to call routing capabilities, virtual phone numbers can use call recording to monitor inbound and outbound calls to ensure that your customer service team is adhering to company policies, maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction, and backing up important conversations as reference points.
Author: Tom Senkus
Author’s Bio: Tom Senkus is a freelance writer and entrepreneur. For more information on his published work and services, visit tomsenkuswriter.com