Juggling emails, team management, and long-hour meetings – running a small business or startup keeps you on your toes. But what about official phone calls? Using your personal phone number or the company’s physical landline can hold your business back. Now is the time to upgrade how you communicate with your customers, and this is where the benefits of a virtual company phone number come in. It is a game-changer for businesses on the go. It could be your secret weapon for professional calls, a happy team, and booming customer service – all without the stress of a traditional phone line.
Before we explore the benefits of a virtual company phone number, you first need to know:
What are you missing out on?
1. Professional Image
Mr Olayemi, Director of a Data Analytics company in Lagos, is in a very important meeting, a potential investor or client calls his “business” phone number (which is actually his personal phone number). He is unable to take the call, and instead of the investor hearing a professional greeting like, “Thank you for reaching out to [Company Name]. Please leave a message, and we’ll get back to you shortly, the call does not get picked at all.
The fact is, without a virtual phone number, small businesses often use personal phone numbers, which can compromise their professional image. Using a personal phone number may give the impression that your startup is not established, which can impact your credibility and ability to attract investors, clients, or top talent. When you use your personal phone number for business, you may also receive personal texts and notifications during work hours, which can be distracting and unprofessional.
2. Call Management Features
Traditional phone systems do not have advanced call features offered by a virtual company phone number. Virtual phone number services come with a variety of useful call management features such as call transfers, voicemail-to-email transcriptions, personalized professional messages, and automated messages.
These tools help you convert customers and drive more sales because you can now handle calls more efficiently and professionally, providing a seamless experience for customers who now retain your services. It also increases team collaboration and makes your team achieve results faster and easier.
3. Flexibility
As chief of her business, Mrs Clement, chief of staff of a healthcare company in Abuja, is not always physically present at her place of work due to other important tasks assigned to her by the hospital. Let’s say she is in a different location at the moment for business, and her team needs to transfer a very important call to her without disrupting the current conservation with a client. This is where a traditional phone system becomes an obstacle to the business growth.
Traditional phone systems are bound to a physical location, limiting the reach of small businesses and startups. With a virtual phone number, you can exceed geographical barriers and work with customers from different locations without being tied down to a specific area code. Also, there is the option of transferring calls within teams, especially with teams that work remote. This flexibility opens doors to new markets and customers.
4. Being in the Loop
What exactly are your employees saying to your customers? A traditional phone system puts you out of the loop of your business. You don’t have access to call analytics and recordings which can help you analyze calls between your staff and customers and see how they can improve their interactions so as to convert the customers more. It is very important that you know what your staff says to your customers.
5. Work/Life Balance
In the absence of a company virtual phone number, customers might reach you at any hour, disrupting your work/life balance. A company virtual phone number provides the means to manage work-related calls effectively, ensuring that business communication is restricted to work hours. This feature allows you to maintain a healthy work/life balance, enhancing productivity and personal well-being.
6. Cost-Benefit Value
While using a phone with a sim card or any other traditional phone system may seem cheaper to you, the cost-benefit of a virtual company phone number is incomparable. Apart from the fact that there are no installation costs and lower monthly fees, you have easy access to call recording, call transfers, and analytics which will offer you great insights and help boost your sales in comparison to a traditional phone system. In other words, you’re getting more than you will ever put in
Now that we’ve discussed what you’re missing out on, let’s show you what you stand to gain by getting a virtual company phone number.
Related post: How to get a Company Phone Number, a step-by-step guide for an African Phone Number
Benefits of a Virtual Company Phone Number
1. Look Big
Let’s say Mr. Chibueze is the owner of an insurance company in Lagos with a small team, and he’s trying to compete with larger companies in his industry. He wants to project a professional image. With a virtual phone number, he can create a professional greeting and menu, such as: “Thank you for calling [Company Name]. Press 1 for sales, press 2 for customer service…”. He can also transfer calls to different team members or even different locations to ensure calls are answered promptly, even if he is not in the office.
When a potential customer calls your virtual phone number and hears a professional greeting and menu, they may assume you have a larger team and a more established business, which can help build trust and increase the chances of closing a sale. By using a virtual phone number, you can create a professional, big-business image, even if you’re a startup. This can help you build credibility with potential customers, appear more established and reputable, and compete more effectively with larger companies
2. Understand your Customers and Sell more
The end goal of every business is to sell. Many virtual company phone number providers, such as PressOne, offer insights to understand your customers better and sell more to them. These insights help you analyze how you can improve your services to your customers and convert them easily. Also, these services make you look reliable to your customers as they ensure uptime customer support. This builds confidence in your business and ensures that your operation continues seamlessly
3. Ease
A virtual company phone number offers unmatched ease, allowing you to make and receive calls from anywhere using any internet-connected device. Additionally, these services can easily scale as your business grows, enabling easy addition of users or numbers as needed.
For example, as your startup or small business grows, you may need to manage a remote team across different states or countries. One of the benefits of a virtual company phone number is that it is easier to manage calls across different time zones or to transfer calls to team members in different locations. This flexibility can help your business adapt to changing communication needs without obstacles.
4. Better Customer Service
With a virtual company phone number, you can set up call transfers to direct incoming calls to the appropriate team member or department, ensuring that customers reach the right person quickly. This can lead to faster response times, improved issue resolution, and overall customer satisfaction.
Furthermore, the number often comes with built-in analytics and call-tracking features, which allows you to monitor call volume and duration, track conversion rates, and Identify areas for improvement. The result of this is better sales strategy and customer service.
5. Global Reach
One of the major goals of a startup or small business is to grow and expand. But who says you need physical offices to do this? A virtual company phone number enables your business to establish a global presence without the need for physical branch offices. With international virtual numbers, you can cater to customers in different countries, providing them with a local number to reach the business. This global reach gives room for international expansion and ease of access to customers, opening up new avenues for business growth.
6. Integration with Business Apps
Virtual company phone number services often integrate with business tools such as Customer Relationship Management software (CRM). For example, the PressOne virtual company phone number offers an integration with Hubspot. It helps you gain deep customer insights with call data.
You can leverage PressOne’s call intelligence tool to monitor calls from your website, ads and campaigns. You can also see call activities and transfer calls to team members. This integration allows for easy coordination between various business applications which improves your business operations.
Ready to get started? Try PressOne today. Never miss the opportunity to grow your business
