Virtual numbers are becoming increasingly popular with businesses in the UK as they are basically eradicating the need to install and maintain a physical business phone system in every office. Customers can still call up a local number to reach you, but you need not have a local office for that. In case you are not yet using virtual numbers for your business and you don’t have an idea what they are or how they can help you, Louis Hernandez Jr tells you what you need to know below.
What are Virtual Numbers?
Quite simply put, a virtual number need not be connected to any hardware at all. Any calls made to a virtual number are instantaneously forwarded to physical numbers assigned to that virtual number. For example, a virtual telephone number will let local customers and businesses call you up just as any other local business, but the call will be forwarded to your actual office number, wherever it might be located.
The Advantage of a Local Presence
One of the main advantages of using virtual numbers is that you can build a local presence for your business all around the world, without actually having to build physical extensions of the business anywhere. In other words, you can maintain a presence in important business locations, without the cost of building and maintaining a local branch. Since there are mostly no geographical restrictions in place here, the possibilities of your business reaching out to multiple national and international business hotspots are endless. Additionally, any calls made from the same area code as the virtual number will be charged at a local call rate, therefore encouraging more people to call you up, who would otherwise skip calling to avoid heavy long-distance call charges.
Virtual Phone Systems
A virtual phone system is the next step after getting a virtual phone number because they allow a business to do so much more. Once the call is forwarded from the virtual number to the office number, it will then be further routed to a particular employee’s private or home number. This essentially eliminates the need to maintain even a single phone system in any office. All you need is a central office number and the virtual phone system will let you attach all your employee’s personal mobile numbers as extensions. It not only saves a lot of money as you don’t need to install or maintain actual phone systems anymore, which makes sure that all your workers are available during working hours, even when they are outside the office. Virtual phone systems are perfect for businesses that maintain remote employees working from another city or even a different nation.
Now you know what virtual numbers are and what they can do for a business in terms of cost cutting, widening a business’s presence, and offering general flexibility. It’s a way to be present everywhere you need to be, without suffering the tremendous financial drains of actually building and maintaining local offices in all of those places.
