There is a glut of new businesses entering the Indian market, making it increasingly competitive. In this country, there are more startups than in the United States and China combined. A startup may be on its way to an international round of funding or still based out of your friend’s basement, but it needs legitimacy to thrive in a competitive marketplace.
Here comes the role of a virtual number. When you have a virtual business number, incoming calls are automatically forwarded to any device or number you choose. No physical telephone lines are associated with virtual phone numbers, unlike conventional phone numbers. You can choose from a variety of phone numbers to forward incoming calls to both national and international destinations. Virtual phone numbers are becoming an increasingly popular marketing tool for Indian startups.
Different types of business phone numbers
Businesses can choose from a wide selection of telephone numbers.
• Landline numbers
• Toll-free numbers
• Virtual phone numbers
All business phone numbers have their pros and cons. Let’s look at the basics of these numbers for businesses.
Landline Numbers
Landline numbers are the most basic and regular type of phone number. Organizations can use landlines to conduct their communication processes. Both clients and leads have the ability to communicate with your business without being charged high call rates.
Toll-Free Numbers
Customers can contact your business for free by calling an 1800 number, which can be obtained at no charge. Having easily recognizable phone numbers additionally simplifies the process of getting customers in touch with businesses for assistance. A toll-free number also offers the flexibility to relocate or expand your business without any hassle, improving your brand’s reputation and visibility.
By providing call forwarding, call routing, and monitoring features, toll-free numbers help businesses manage inbound calls efficiently. To automate customer calls and offer self-service to callers, you can incorporate an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) solution into the toll-free number.
Virtual Phone Numbers
The virtual number lets you use your personal phone number for business communications by forwarding them to your personal number. With a virtual number, you can integrate IVR with your toll-free number and automate customer calls.
By facilitating call routing, forwarding, recording, and analysis, cloud-hosted virtual phone number solutions help your business manage high-volume incoming calls efficiently. In addition to choosing from a range of premium numbers, you can make the virtual number easier to remember and recall. For small businesses, virtual phone numbers are a good alternative to traditional business number types.
Choosing the Suitable Business Phone Number
Business phone numbers can be customized to fit your needs. However, there are positives and negatives to each type of business phone number. To choose an ideal phone number for your business, you must keep several factors in mind.
• Expands Business Presence
Today, every company wants to be able to reach their customers no matter where they are. Therefore, you need to choose a telephone number that encourages you to expand your business presence globally in such cases.
You can improve your business presence with cloud-hosted virtual phone number services. Incoming calls can be forwarded to a call center once a virtual number is marketed for all of a company’s locations.
• Facilitates Call Management
The phone number you select should allow you to handle high volume incoming calls efficiently. By routing incoming calls to a range of devices and numbers, virtual phone numbers assist your business with managing the surge in demand for incoming calls. In addition, the company’s advanced call management features, such as call routing, forwarding, and recording, simplify call management even further.
• Available at Affordable prices
Businesses seek affordable phone numbers for their businesses. In any company, the cost is a factor that impacts its ROI, regardless of its size. Virtual numbers are easy to set up and are very affordable. In addition, the calling charges for a virtual number are lower than those for a toll-free number since both the customer and company bear these costs.
• Ports Easily
Running a business involves expansion or relocation regularly. Therefore, there is a high likelihood that your business will relocate or expand in the long run.
Fixed landline numbers are not preferred for such businesses since they are fixed and cannot be changed. However, you can continue to use the same number with a virtual phone number regardless of your location.
• Implements IVR
There is a need to hire additional call center agents to handle incoming calls throughout the day. Fortunately, IVR allows customers to contact your business at any time. IVR solutions will enable you to streamline customer service delivery, unlike traditional business phone services. In the IVR, you will be able to offer 24/7 customer support without employing dedicated agents.
To effectively handle inbound calls, businesses increasingly use virtual phone numbers instead of traditional phone numbers. Therefore, you should opt for cloud-hosted virtual phone number solutions for smart call management features like call routing, forwarding, and recording.
