A virtual phone number is an online phone number that lives on the cloud. You can use this phone number to receive texts online and calls to your computer, landline, or your mobile. You can also make text messages and outbound calls using this online phone number. There are plans like small business and entrepreneur plans that you can select depending on your team size. Many virtual phone number providers offer features like welcome greetings, virtual receptionist, business hours, etc. Apart from this, it also offers company directory, call queue, and a multi-tier phone menu as well. In this article, we have listed a few ways on how you can get an online phone number.
Shifting to a cloud-based phone number
A cloud-based phone system service you are free to make calls with the DID (Direct Inward Dialing Number). It also helps to bypass phone verification. These DID numbers will work like your regular phone number but these get hosted on the internet. You are free to receive and make calls to any device and all that you need is a good internet connection. You can use the online phone number service to make calls on your desktop, laptop, or your mobile phone. It also does online phone verification. The online phone number will not have any physical phone line.
Unlike the PBX systems, these new-age online phone numbers work best for any business. You can also use these phone numbers to track calls and monitor the performance of your agents. Like a regular phone number, these DID numbers are of two kinds.
The virtual local phone number comes along with an area-specific code for which you need the number. Even though the online phone number is a virtual phone number it looks like any other local number.
Apart from Sales, You can also use toll-free online phone numbers to serve your customers. Your customers can call on this number without paying any charges.
Step by step guide to get an online phone number
Online phone numbers are helpful as you do not have to buy a new device to use them. It avoids you from getting into sneaky fees, contracts, or appointments. All that you need to do is to follow these three steps below to set up an online phone number.
Select a toll-free or a local phone number
The first step is to choose a toll-free or local phone number to talk as well as text using a computer or mobile. This saves you from sharing your number.
Add your devices and phones
The next step is to make and receive calls on the devices and phones that you already own. You can also add your employees to it. Receive the voice transcriptions on the mobile app or your email. You can also set it up for every user so they can get an individual number if they want to.
Set hours, voicemails, and greetings
Now, You can automatically handle the incoming calls. You can configure the voicemail, welcome greetings, and set the business hours. You are also free to create a professional call menu option. You can route the calls to anyone, to a colleague, or even to the entire team.
Benefits of an online phone number
Whether as an individual or a business owner there are many reasons to have an online phone number.
- You can block the spamand robocalls.
- You pay a small price to get a big company phone system.
- Your business looks professional with online phone numbers as you can choose a toll free one.
- Get to configure the business hours fast.
- You can also remove or add the users instantly.
- Make or receive calls on any device of your choice.
- It lets you automatically respond to any incoming text message or calls.
- Get voicemail or email with the transcribed text for every user.
- You can configure a virtual receptionist in minutes.
- One phone number for all your service agents is possible.
- You can add or remove any phone number instantly from it.
- The best part is that with an online phone number you never miss a text or a call again.
- Features of the online phone number.
- The online phone numbers let you enjoy these features:
- Buy the online phone numbers of more than 50 countries and start sending and receiving calls from across the globe.
- Power dialler lets you deliver your daily contacts by calling.
- Smart switch lets you bid goodbye to all your safety and connectivity issues.
- Global contact lets you know the correct time to call the international clients.
- Smart call forwarding lets you forward calls to various phones so that you are always reachable on the go.
- The call transfer is a feature that lets you redirect any connected call from the phone number to the team member.
- Call conference is a feature that lets you add a third person to the two way call and this lets you have a 3-way conference.
- Call queuing lets you place an incoming call in a line when the agent is working to attend to other customers.
- Call barging is where a supervisor who is monitoring the call silently decides to enter into the conference bridge.
- Call recording lets you record each call to monitor the team performance.
- Voicemail facility lets you get voicemails on your inbox and play them on your email directly.
- Call analytics lets you track the support performance.
- On hold, music plays much when your client is on hold.
Conclusion
t is beneficial for a business to make use of online phone numbers. It helps to boost productivity of your agents as it automatically routes the calls to the next available agent. This helps you avoid idle time of your agents. You can also generate custom reports and monitor the performance of an agent in real-time. Apart from business performance, online phone numbers help you scale as you can manage the business from anywhere and anytime.