Business Phone Numbers

A vanity phone number differs from a traditional phone number because it is not assigned to a specific country code or area code. With your vanity phone number, a traditional string of numerical digits is replaced with letters or a word. These letters come together as a keyword or phrase related to your business.

Because your vanity number will be combined with your virtual phone number, forwarding calls from a vanity line to the destination of your choice can be done almost instantly. Furthermore, a vanity number can be forwarded to a landline or cellular phone. Forwarding calls to personal cell phones is also a smooth transition for business owners because virtual phone numbers work well with both IOS and Android operating systems.

Here are some of the top ways a vanity number can enhance your business.

A Vanity Number Helps With Tracking Advertising Efforts

A business owner can’t determine the best marketing strategies to increase sales and brand visibility if specific performance metrics for individual campaigns are unknown. Every marketing outlet is unique. Business owners must be aware of customer preferences and analyze what changes should be made to encourage more phone calls that convert to sales.

Analyze key metrics by gathering data that answers questions such as:

• What is the call duration time before closing a sale?
• Are advertisements being properly placed to attract target customers?
• What time or day of the week does your business receives the most phone calls?

Along with tracking data, call recording can also be used as a feature of your vanity number to find key conversation points that motivate customers to buy.

Vanity Numbers Encourage Brand Recognition

One of the top ways a vanity number can enhance your business is by making your brand more recognizable. Regardless of your chosen field, most entrepreneurs are working within competitive markets. Therefore, it’s important to stand out with product knowledge and personality.

A vanity number has a unique impact because it shows potential customers that your business is both professional and creative. In fact, some of the most popular and nationally known businesses hold their rank and relevancy by using a toll free vanity phone number. Consider 1-800 Flowers, which is one of the most commonly referenced businesses with a vanity line. This floral business stands apart in a saturated market because the company is memorable and easy to contact.

By taking the time to find the right vanity number, you’re setting your business on a path to long-term success. The best way to determine which vanity number is right for you would be through testing multiple numbers to see which number truly resonates with customers and potential business partners.

Vanity Numbers Show Accessibility

Building customer loyalty is important because loyal customers will continue to buy from you and recommend your business to others. A vanity number increases referrals because it is easy to remember and customers are likely to refer your company through word of mouth recommendations.

Another advantage when choosing a vanity number as part of your marketing strategy is that your business will have a more trusted presence. Consumers are more likely to associate your company with the traditional brick-and-mortar stores they are accustomed to when shopping. Large businesses often have vanity numbers, so it’s a symbol of being highly established. If your business also has these professional phone numbers, customers are more likely to call and buy your products.

Remember to Research

Researching the best vanity number to use is a critical step when selecting your phone number. There are many instances where businesses have mistakenly used similar phrases and words to describe their products and services. These same keywords and phrases are the terms customers use for online research and when browsing local directories.

Similar numbers can be problematic if your vanity number closely resembles the contact information of a competing company because this can result in a competitor getting more calls from consumers looking to buy from your business.

Finding the right balance through research is important. If you use a local phone number, you’re limiting the ability to reach out to local consumers instead of building national or global awareness, which is more profitable. If you choose an uncommon term that is misleading, callers may confuse your messaging and think you are offering a different service.

Use Vanity Numbers For Long-Term Growth

Every business owner is different, and all entrepreneurs have unique visions for their business and creative ideas that can’t be replicated. Still, what many company heads have in common is the desire for a profitable business that continues to expand as a visible and respected brand.

Before a business can begin to thrive, a company budget that implements the use of modern technology and strategies is essential. Today, more companies are recognizing how a vanity number is a strategic method to enhance their business, promote their brand, and attract more customers.

If your small business doesn’t have a toll free number yet, you need to ask yourself why not. A toll free number is an indispensable asset for any size business. The benefits of having a toll free number are countless. It helps your company way more than simply enhancing your brand recognition and boosting your credibility; it also increases your sales and bumps up your ROI. Here are just a few reasons why your small business should have a toll free number.

5 Ways Small Businesses Can Use a Toll Free Number

The main attraction of toll free numbers is that they are free for customers to call. The business using the number bears the cost of customer calls. But while this may sound expensive, phone service providers have found ways to make toll free numbers inexpensive for businesses. This is because toll free numbers are a great marketing and sales tool for businesses as the ‘free calling’ option attracts more customers.

So, why should your small business get a toll free number?

1. Increase Customer Satisfaction

When consumers were surveyed, they pointed out that one of the most annoying things about a company was finding out that there was no easy way to contact them when they needed assistance.

Your customers will quickly become frustrated if they cannot find a phone number on your website. Why not make it really easy for them and give them a toll free number that’s easy to find. That way they will realize that you have respect for them and they will stay loyal to your brand.

2. Make it Easy to Remember

One of the other great things about a toll free number is that they are really easy to remember. Toll free numbers usually consist of a sequence of numbers that stick in your mind. For example, 1-800-444-4242, or 1-800-505-5050. Another way you can make your toll free number unforgettable is by buying a vanity number. A vanity number is one in which the number sequence is replaced by letters representing the number. The word or words should be relevant to your business. For example, 1-800-CONTACTS, 1-800-MATTRESS, or 1-800-FLOWERS. If they can remember your number, people will call you, and this is a very good way to generate sales.

3. Boost Your Company’s Legitimacy

Toll free numbers aren’t just for the huge corporations out there. By using a toll free business number, you are giving your business credibility and enhancing your company’s image. This is great if you are just starting a business. You could be working out of your garage, and no one will ever know.

4. Maintain Portability

When you have a toll free number, your physical location doesn’t matter. If you decide to relocate your business, your customers won’t even know because they will still be able to reach you on your toll free number wherever you are. All your calls to your toll free number can be forwarded to your smartphone or any other number of your choice. What’s more, once you buy a toll free number, it’s yours for good. Even if you decide to change your toll free number service provider, you can port your number to keep it.

Related: 5 Phone Number Porting Myths Debunked

5. Use it as a Marketing Tool

Toll free and vanity numbers can both be used to help you keep track of your marketing efforts. For example, if you have a website, billboard, print ad, or even a radio or TV commercial, each time someone picks up the phone and makes a call to your company, you will always know which ad is drawing them in because you can use a different extension for each marketing campaign.

6. High Availability

Right now is a great time to purchase a toll free number because new prefixes are available, such as 833. The new numbers mean there are more available number combinations. So you have more chance of finding an easy-to-remember combination like 1-833-333-3333. Keep in mind though, they won’t last long, so you should act quickly. New prefixes only come along as and when they are needed, and this isn’t usually very often. There is not likely to be a new prefix released until almost all of the 833 numbers have been taken. Learn more in our toll free number prefixes guide.

How to Get a Toll Free Number?

If you’re interested in getting a toll free number, you can get one from a variety of sources, such as national phone service providers and any communications company which has access to toll free numbers, such as Global Call Forwarding. You can call them directly to see if the phone number you want is available.

Once you have chosen your toll free number, you will have a monthly payment plan, rather like any other phone plan. You can add on or remove extra numbers whenever you wish without penalty. While a lot of toll free number providers charge per minute for calls to the numbers, some will charge a lower rate if you have more than one toll free number. No contract or additional equipment required. Have questions? Call us or chat with us online!

As your company expands its reach to international countries and different time zones it may become harder to keep your company operating as one. Many companies expand to different countries around the globe, and even smaller companies will expand their reach to other countries because of the profitability and ease thanks to the developing technology. To keep your company growing, here are a few tools that can help companies in their international expansion efforts, or to maintain greater control with employees across the world.

Virtual Phone Systems

Virtual telephone systems are the best way to stay in contact with your sister businesses overseas, as well as your consumers overseas. The virtual phone system makes it possible for international employees to work together and more efficiently. It’s also a great tool to use for customer service. Virtual telephone providers often provide a variety of features that allow employees to manage their relationships with customers with greater ease.

These features can also help with better training. At Global Call Forwarding, one feature that can be very useful is Call Recording. This feature can be used to inspect each call and analyze whether each sales team is following the same protocol. It can also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of each call for future reference. After successful use of this tool, it will be easier for your international teams to remain consistent. Whether they are in America, England, or India. To follow up on other details, simply look to the Account Management feature that is also featured at Global Call Forwarding.

Virtual Phone Numbers for Your International Team

Using virtual phone numbers will reduce challenges and allow your international teams to create relationships with their local customers. This should be the #1 goal of each of your international teams. Finding new customers and keeping them is the reason you expanded your business in the first place. If your customer service call center operates in India, you can still use local area codes from places all over the world using a virtual phone system. For example, your Indian customer service reps can place a call using a local area code to San Francisco in America. And that’s yet another important tip: you should always be using local area codes for your customer service calls. A customer in San Francisco is unlikely to answer a call from India, but much more likely to answer one with an area code from the San Francisco area. Not only because an India number might be foreign to them, they will probably also associate the number with extra fees.

Advanced IVR and PBX

When you have remote workers all over the world, an advanced IVR / PBX allows each worker to work from different parts of the world without being left out of important updates or team calls.

The IVR can be programmed to connect your teams by creating a welcome message followed by important announcements. This can all be done with your company phone system and does not require any extra hardware. Each phone system carries necessary information, such as accounts and contacts, that each international team needs to know. They can access this important information at any time, which is essential since they will all be working in different time zones.

The IVR system can be used to create a private telephone network that only you and your employees can use. They will each have their own extension that can be accessed by other employees. Using your own private system within the virtual phone system you already have will lower your operating costs, as well.

If you allow your employees to work remotely in different countries, it is likely they will be more productive than if they were to have to report to an office. Keeping your team together through a virtual phone system will create a great working experience throughout the globe. It might seem like the teams would feel disconnected, but having the ability to contact your international team’s number through an easy-to-use virtual phone system will actually help each team work together more effectively.

For your company, expanding should be a goal. However, expansion can become quite tricky if it is not handled well. Communication becomes key to the expansion of international territories.

Using a virtual call system to keep your various teams connected will allow each team to work more efficiently separately and remotely while maintaining an overall synergy for your overarching business.

Telecommuting jobs have become a quickly growing trend amongst businesses. Remote workers are being hired in droves and even people you see around the office are choosing to work from home multiple days a week. The change seems to have staying power, too. Allowing workers to stay at home has increased employee productivity. This may have something to do with cutting out time otherwise spent commuting, and distractions like coworkers and the water cooler. Because of this flexibility and ease of working at home or around the corner at a favorite coffee spot, workers have escaped the mundane feeling of having to come into an office each day. Perhaps it is the freedom that is boosting creativity.

Working from home has become possible because of the introduction of cloud technology. Cloud technology can take many forms, one of which is telephony. If you work from home you might already use a softphone; if you do not you might want to consider getting one. There are several benefits to using a virtual phone and not just because it helps to keep your professional life separate from your personal life.

It’s Inexpensive

If you’re not already using a virtual phone system because you think it might be too expensive, it should be reassuring to know that there are virtually no up-front costs and because everything works through cloud servers, they cut out the cost of hardware and IT services. They also won’t take up any space in your house because it’s virtual.

You’ll Be More Productive

Using a virtual phone system means you can use your own device to access phone calls and messages from anywhere. Your cellular phone, your tablet, your home computer, or a traveling laptop are all possibilities. Anywhere you go, you’re connected to your business if you want to be. You can even convert audio files to fax documents or email messages if you need to. You can also make use of other tools that enable remote working such as online content and project management systems, chats, etc.

It’s More Professional

Your home phone will not be displayed on a caller’s ID so they will never know that you are working from your home and not an office. Also, you can create a professional voicemail message for when you are away from your connected devices. There are also many professional options that are available when you opt for a virtual phone system. These options include being able to transfer calls, put people on hold to music, and automatically forwarding calls over to other people within your field to take calls when you are away.

Your Virtual Phone System Is Prepared To Grow With Your Business

Extensions can be added all the time. It doesn’t matter how fast your business grows, a virtual phone system is ready to take on your needs, as needed.

There’s No Cost To Call Internationally

Virtual phone numbers get to bypass the heavy costs associated with long-distance calling. Simply purchase an area code in any country that you need and you can make as many calls as you need without incurring the charges. Plus, your customers will never have to pay outrageous international fees which will, in turn, build a customer’s trust in your company.

No Spam Callers

Your virtual phone system is equipped with PBX which can help you keep track of your phone calls. It also sorts out blacklisted callers so you won’t have to worry about spam making its way into your business.

You Can Switch Over To The Right Department

If you get a phone call that you are not prepared to deal with, you can easily transfer the call to the person who is equipped to deal with certain phone calls. For example, if you work in sales and the person who has reached you is trying to reach someone in customer service, it is very easy to transfer them to the correct place. At the same time, if you are dealing with an unruly customer, you can quickly transfer them to a member of your management team.

If you don’t already have a virtual phone system for your company, it may be time to try one out. It is an affordable and professional way to grow and manage your business from home.

You’ve heard the saying before, “don’t mix business with pleasure.” So why do so many people run their businesses from their personal smartphones? Working from one solo line may work for a small business that is just beginning to take off, but as soon as you start to get calls at all hours of the day it might be time to add a second line.

Today, smartphones are equipped with the ability to add a second line that you can use for business, personal calls, or while traveling abroad to avoid international charges. Having a second phone line can even help in sales prospecting! If you are wary of giving out your information and you are meeting a lot of people, adding a second phone line is a safe and effective way of communicating with people you do not know. To get a second phone line is as simple as downloading an app, or you can sign up for a free trial at Global Call Forwarding.

Getting a Second Phone Line

Global Call Forwarding forwards phone calls and text messages to any device of your choosing. You can use a second phone line on your smartphone or on your computer and tablet, too. It’s easy to sign up, too: you can do so online or by calling their toll free number at 1 (888) 908 6171. If you are running a large business, you can choose to get a toll free number, but most likely you will want to choose from their many local phone numbers if your business is smaller, or if you just want to add a second line while traveling abroad.

Global Call Forwarding serves over 150 countries, so if you are traveling abroad extensively, Global Call Forwarding offers local phone numbers, which can help you avoid those sky-high international rates. And since they have over 20 years of experience, the service that you will be receiving is high-quality, with a very low chance of missing or dropping a call.

Features for Your Second Number

Whether you choose a local number or toll-free number, you will still have access to many included features and some extras that are optional to add on. Many features offered with virtual numbers are designed to make a business run properly, no matter how small or large that business is. Even if you are just a busy nine-to-fiver with a lot of clients to juggle, their plethora of features can help keep you very well-organized. Here are some of the most beneficial features that can help you balance your workload:

• Sequential Forwarding: allows you to forward phone calls to different offices within your business.
• Voicemail to Email: forwards your voicemail to email that you can listen to at your leisure. You can keep business separate from your personal life easily with this feature.
• Time-Based Routing: this feature allows you to route phone calls to voicemail or a call center while you are out of the office. This feature makes it a lot easier to enjoy your personal time, without having to worry about work.
• SMS Forwarding: this feature creates a truly mobile experience.
• Text Messaging: this is the preferred choice of communication for many people. If you speak to or work with a lot of millennials, then this feature will be imperative in your business dealings.

There are many apps available for Android and iPhone users. Zoiper is one app that can run a variety of different platforms, which means you can get in contact with the people you need to while using a tablet or computer, too. As long as your cell phone runs on any browser, macOS, Linux, or Windows, you’re covered.

Apps like Zoiper and the GCF Softphone come with a plethora of features to keep your calls safe and secure. One tool used by Zoiper is encryption. That means that no one can spy on your calls or texts messages, the only person that can communicate is you. Other features include audio, instant messaging, and number recognition.

If you’re looking for toll free numbers for your business, you’ll quickly notice that there are a number of available options. Deciding which one you want can be a little confusing, particularly if you’re not sure which type of toll free number is right for your company. To resolve any confusion, here is a rundown of the different types of toll free numbers, how they work, and where they work.

International Toll Free Numbers

When you subscribe to international toll free numbers, they will be allocated to the countries of your choosing. Your customers in those countries will be able to call you without any charge to them. Instead, your company pays for the cost of the call. This is a great way to expand your business throughout the world because it provides an inexpensive and efficient way to increase your communication and marketing. It also makes it much easier for clients to contact you.

So that your customers know that their calls will be free of charge, international toll free numbers are formatted with a different prefix than other numbers. The prefix will vary depending on the country the calls are being made from, but they are easily recognizable.

How Does International Toll Free Calling Work?

Let’s say that your company is located in the United States, but you have a significant customer base in the U.K. Those British customers may be reluctant to call you because they would have to pay costly long-distance calling charges. They would also have to mess around with tricky long-distance calling codes. Market research shows that these two factors will reduce communications with your customers, decrease your leads, and cut your revenue.

This is where international toll free numbers come in. In this case, you can avoid the problem by purchasing a U.K. toll free number, from a company such as Global Call Forwarding. That makes it free for all your British customers to call you, and all calls will be easily redirected to your mobile phone, office landline or customer service center in the U.S.

How Toll Free Numbers Can Improve your Metrics

The important thing to remember when you buy international toll free numbers is that you can make each one serve its own purpose. In this way, you can track the effectiveness of your marketing strategies. For example, let’s say you are advertising your product or service in several places simultaneously. These are:

• Your website
• Television
• Newspaper
• Email newsletter

You could use a different toll-free number for each of these mediums, that way you would be able to track each lead to its original source. Armed with this information, you can adjust your marketing strategies to be more effective where necessary. You will also need to find out any restrictions before you purchase a new number, such as whether the phone number will work with mobile phones or not.

Are There Any Universal Toll Free Numbers?

Many business owners want to know if they can purchase toll free numbers that are free to call from anywhere in the world. Unfortunately, global toll free numbers, in this sense, do not exist. However, there is something similar. This is called a universal international freephone number (UIFN).

Although UIFNs aren’t universal toll free numbers, they can be used to make toll free calls from several different countries. These numbers do come with some restrictions, including:

• Each UIFN must be registered in a minimum of two countries.
• Each UIFN must be in service for a minimum length of time, this being at least 180 days from the day you subscribed to it.

How UIFNs Work

UIFNs take a current toll free number and turn it into an international number by adding an extra digit. Now you have an 11-digit number that doesn’t alter the integrity of your existing toll free number. For example, if your original toll free number was 1-800-FLOWERS, it would then become +8000-FLOWERS. This method allows you to maintain your original vanity number while enabling your business to receive calls from other countries. By making just this slight variation, you have extended your global reach, while also boosting your brand awareness.

If you need a toll free number that can be used in several countries, a UIFN may be a good choice for your company. Make sure to check the restrictions, and shop around for set-up fees because they can be expensive.

Virtual International Phone Numbers

If you haven’t heard of virtual international numbers, you may have heard of DID (direct inward dialing) as they are sometimes referred to. This is a type of international toll free number that is not tethered to an actual phone line. Instead, calls made via a virtual phone number are rerouted by the service provider to your office phone, customer service team, or even your personal cell phone. This type of toll free number sometimes comes with a host of special features. For example, virtual phone number provider Global Call Forwarding also offers failover forwarding, blacklisting and whitelisting, SMS forwarding, voicemail to email, and time of day routing.

Virtual toll free numbers can route calls originating from several sources such as:

• Mobile phones
• Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
• Public switched telephone network (PSTN)

This means you can receive calls from all over the world from practically any platform to any platform.

When you begin your search for an international toll free number, the main thing to be aware of is that there are many competing companies in the market, each offering different packages and different services for differing fees. A certain number of different factors will influence your final choice, such as the size of your company, your budget, how much global exposure you have or want, etc. The best virtual international phone number providers do not charge activation or set-up fees, in most cases, and the virtual numbers should be available within just a few minutes. Furthermore, you should not be required to make a long-term commitment, and you should be able to cancel at any time without incurring a penalty.