Global Call Forwarding – The Perfect Solution for Businesses and the Pros that Power Them

While you could skip the international call forwarding number and simply inform all of your contacts of your temporary phone numbers, doing so requires you to inform everyone who may possibly have a need to reach you.

Global call forwarding is a versatile telecommunications method that helps businesses and business professionals stay in touch around the globe. From a business perspective, setting up an international call forwarding number makes it possible to appear local in various countries while also allowing for affordable international calls. From a business professional’s perspective, global call forwarding ensures that calls continue to come through despite frequent international travel.

How Global Call Forwarding Connects International Customers to Businesses in Faraway Countries

Businesses often establish local phone numbers in external countries and then use call forwarding to route those calls to their main office or call center.

For example, if you operate a business in the United States and would like consumers in Brazil to be able to call your US office, you have two choices:

Give them the direct line to your US office (because a North American toll free number won’t work in South America)
Establish a local number in Brazil and call forward it to your US office.

Think about perceptions for a moment. If you give a Brazilian customer a US number to dial, the customer may worry about costs or be concerned about dealing with an international company. There may also be concerns about language or time zones.

In contrast, if you give a Brazilian customer a Brazilian phone number to call (either local or toll free), the customer will see a familiar number and costs won’t even be considered. From the customer’s perspective, it’s a local phone number; thus, language and time zone differences are not a concern either.

In addition to overcoming concerns about costs, time zones, and language, a global call forwarding number can also be used in lieu of establishing a local office. Imagine the costs of renting office space and staffing local offices in just three countries compared to ordering three international call forwarding numbers.

Now multiply that by the number of countries you want to serve. The savings are significant, and you would be able to handle all of those calls in a central office.

How Global Call Forwarding Allows Business Professionals to Be Found Around the Globe

Global call forwarding is also beneficial to business professionals who travel frequently. By setting up an international call forwarding number, you can be found wherever in the world you may be. Not only can you be reached internationally, your callers can do not need to do anything special in order to reach you. Below are a few of the many benefits of global call forwarding:

One number can reach you anywhere in the world – Once you establish a global call forwarding number, you can set it up to ring at the number of your choice at any time. For example, you might start by setting its ring-to number to your main office phone number. When you head to Hong Kong for a few months, you can set your ring-to number to your office phone in Hong Kong. When you go on vacation in France, you can change your ring-to number to your hotel room in Paris. No matter where you are, your callers can reach you.
Easy for callers – While you could skip the international call forwarding number and simply inform all of your contacts of your temporary phone numbers, doing so requires you to inform everyone who may possibly have a need to reach you. Not only that, your callers may be hesitant to dial an international phone number due to unfamiliarity with the process as well as concerns about international calling costs. By forwarding your calls as needed, you no longer need to inform others about how to reach you and your callers no longer need to be concerned about the technicalities or costs involved in reaching you when you’re out of the country.
Complete control over access to you – Setting up an international call forwarding number also gives you complete control over when and where you can be reached. Using advanced features such as time of day routing ensures that if a call comes through in the middle of the night, it will be sent to voicemail. Likewise, if you’d prefer not to give out your cell phone number but need to take calls on your cell phone when out of the office, you could simply forward your calls to your cell phone when needed. This allows you to take the calls at your convenience when out and about without having to reveal your personal cell phone number to customers, colleagues, and business partners.

Whether you would like to extend your business’s reach to other countries or need a convenient way to receive phone calls when traveling outside of the country, global call forwarding is the perfect solution.

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10 Ways to Use Global Call Forwarding

Use global call forwarding numbers to appear larger and more capable.

Global call forwarding using virtual phone numbers can be used in a variety of ways, allowing you to connect with international friends, family, colleagues, partners, and customers using a single virtual phone number. Below are 10 ways to use global call forwarding to connect with others around the globe.

1. Use a global call forwarding number to keep in touch with family members living abroad. If you have family members living in another country with high international calling costs, consider ordering a global call forwarding number that’s local to that country. Once established, your family members would dial a local phone number that forwards to the destination number in your country. You would pay a fixed per minute price that’s typically much lower than the host country’s rates.

2. Using a virtual number to stay connected when traveling the world. If you travel around the world, you could order a global call forwarding number that’s local to your home country and give that number to your family, friends, and colleagues to call.

As you move from one country to the next, simply change your ring-to number to your new local phone. Your contacts back home would dial a local or toll free number and you’d pay a low per minute rate.

3. Set up shop in another country. Want to start offering products and services overseas? Instead of setting up a physical location in another country, consider setting up a virtual location with an international call forwarding number. Your customers would dial a local phone number to reach you no matter where in the world you actually are.

4. Use a global call forwarding phone number to receive international faxes. Instead of maintaining separate international phone and fax lines, sign up for a global call forwarding number with a fax-to-email feature. Whenever someone needs to send you a fax from that country, they’d simply fax the document to you using the call forwarding number. You’d then receive an email containing a PDF of the faxed document. Not only does this eliminate the need for a separate phone line, it also means that you can get rid of your fax machine and its ongoing expenses.

5. Use global call forwarding numbers to appear larger and more capable. If you would like your business to appear larger, ordering several virtual phone numbers can instantly give your business an international boost.

6. Use virtual numbers to establish yourself in a given country. Are you headed to an international conference where you have the potential to close business deals with partners around the world? Consider establishing global call forwarding numbers in your target countries and then print up business cards with your new phone numbers. Your prospects will likely feel confident calling you from their home countries thanks to your local presence.

7. Use global call forwarding to avoid costly international roaming rates. When traveling internationally, your mobile phone may or may not work at your destination. Even if it does work, you could be faced with sky-high international roaming rates. A better option is to order a global call forwarding number and then buy a disposable cell phone at your destination. You can then designate your new mobile phone as the ring-to number and receive your calls no matter where you go.

8. Use global call forwarding to control when and where you receive international phone calls. International call forwarding plans typically allow you to change the destination phone number on the fly. In addition, many plans have a “time of day” routing feature where you can preprogram how calls are handled based on the time of day they are made. For example, if you do not want to be disturbed between 6:00PM and 5:00AM local time, you can configure your phone number to route any calls between those hours to voicemail.

9. Use global call forwarding in an international call center. Global call forwarding numbers can be routed to an international call center where you can have customer service agents available to handle incoming calls. If you have multiple call forwarding numbers, you may want to route calls to specific agents based on country codes. Similarly, you can route calls to different call centers based on time of day.

10. Use global call forwarding to reduce international calling costs. With low international calling rates and the ability to switch ring-to numbers on the fly, many people have found that global call forwarding is a cost-effective way to make international long distance calls. Rather than dialing directly, you can change your ring-to number to the number you’d like to call and then dial your global call forwarding number. This bypasses the traditional system, puts you on your call forwarding provider’s network, and gives you access to low per minute international calling rates for dozens of countries around the world.

Global call forwarding is a versatile solution to a number of international calling scenarios.

How will you use your global call forwarding number?

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Virtual Numbers for Startups and Small Businesses

After all, some callers won’t think twice about calling you at all hours. By giving callers your virtual number, they can call you 24/7 yet you won’t necessarily have to hear the phone ring while you’re trying to sleep or spend quality time with your family.

Startups and small businesses need to be accessible, yet they often run on a tight budget. Virtual numbers allow entrepreneurs, startups, and small business owners to receive phone calls professionally without the expense of a PBX system. Not only that, virtual numbers are highly portable.

Whether you need to work out of a temporary location at first before moving into your office, your virtual numbers can follow you wherever you may go – and your callers will never be aware of your movements.

How Virtual Numbers Work

Virtual phone numbers are essentially call forwarding numbers that are not associated with any given phone line or device. You can order virtual numbers with specific country and area codes so that they are “local” to a given region. For instance, you could order a virtual phone number for Los Angeles and another for Ireland and then set both of those numbers to ring to your New York apartment.

People in LA would see a familiar area code and think that they’re calling your Los Angeles office. At the same time, your contacts in Ireland would see a familiar local number and feel confident dialing your Ireland office without any concerns about paying international long distance charges.

As the account holder of those numbers, you would pay your virtual call forwarding service provider for each minute of service. Depending on the plan, you’d likely pay different rates based on the country of origin. Virtual numbers are quite similar to toll free numbers both in terms of how they work and how they are billed.

With a virtual number, you have complete control over the destination phone number. You can change this number at any time online. If you plan on working at the local coffee house for a few hours, you could change the ring-to number to your cell phone.

When you return to your home office, you could then change the ring-to number to your home office phone. Similarly, if you need to leave the country, you could change the ring-to number to your hotel room or temporary office space. Meanwhile, your callers will not notice any disruptions because they can reach you as they normally do.

Virtual numbers are available for locations around the world. In addition to domestic and international virtual phone numbers, you can also get toll free virtual phone numbers if desired.

Benefits of Using Virtual Numbers for Your Startup or Small Business

Using virtual numbers can deliver several important benefits for startups and small businesses. Below are just a few to spark your imagination:

They can help you compete with “local” bidders. If you’re bidding on a project in another city or country, decision makers may have a preference for doing business with local companies. Getting a local call forwarding number, even if it’s just for short-term use as part of the bidding process, can give your business a local credibility boost.
Easy split testing. Use different virtual numbers to split test your advertisements and landing pages. Which phone number receives the most calls? Which phone number generates the most sales?
Look bigger. While your startup may be excelling despite the fact that you’re running it out of your garage, you may not want to appear as though you’re working out of your garage. By establishing a toll free number and a few virtual numbers in major cities, you can instantly appear to be a larger company. Many virtual number service plans include auto attendant, music on hold, and multiple mailbox features that can also help your company to look bigger than it currently is.
Protect your privacy. As an entrepreneur, you need to be readily accessible, but you may not want to give out your personal mobile phone number or home phone number. After all, some callers won’t think twice about calling you at all hours. By giving callers your virtual number, they can call you 24/7 yet you won’t necessarily have to hear the phone ring while you’re trying to sleep or spend quality time with your family. You decide when to accept calls from your virtual number and when to send them to voicemail or to an assistant.

Virtual numbers are ideal for startups and small businesses alike. With one or more virtual numbers, you can immediately establish your business in a given community as well as appear bigger than you are.

You can also move from one location to another, control where those calls go, compete with local bidders, test your ads, and maintain your privacy. Best of all, you can get virtual numbers on a pay-as-you-go basis with no contract or minimum usage requirements.

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Virtual Call Forwarding Numbers and Enhancing Customer Service

For example, your callers in Italy would dial an Italian toll free number which would then be forwarded to your designated ring-to number in the US.

Do you serve an international customer base?

Global call forwarding can play an important role in your customer service strategy as well as deliver several important cost advantages. Whether you run an international call center or a small business that serves a couple of different countries, using call forwarding smartly can improve service levels.

Connecting with Customers with a Global Call Forwarding Virtual Number

When properly configured, global call forwarding can ensure that your customers from around the world can reach a customer service representative with minimal hassles. Did you know that a toll free number issued in one country doesn’t necessarily work for callers in another country? While you may have a US or Canada toll free number, callers from other countries such as Italy, Egypt, or China will not get through if they attempt to dial that number.

If you want callers from other countries to be able to reach your business without incurring toll charges, you will need to establish toll free global call forwarding numbers specific to each country. For example, your callers in Italy would dial an Italian toll free number which would then be forwarded to your designated ring-to number in the US.

Setting up a global call forwarding number is not difficult. In fact, the process is similar to setting up a traditional toll free business number. Like a traditional toll free number, toll charges for an international toll free call forwarding number are paid by the account holder and not the caller.

By setting up a toll free global call forwarding number for each country that you serve, your international customers will not need to incur any long distance charges to call your customer service center.

In addition, seeing a local number overcomes potential concerns about calling outside of the country as well as gives callers the impression that they are dialing a company located within their country.

While global toll free numbers work in much the same way as domestic toll free numbers, time zone and language differences add complexity to the equation. If you are serious about serving a global audience, consider staffing your call center with native speakers during hours that coincide with business hours in the callers’ countries. Depending on where your call center is located, you may need to schedule native speaking CSRs to answer calls in the middle of the night.

To ensure the best service possible, you can set up calls to ring to specific extensions based on their country codes as well as route calls based on the time of day they are made. For example, if a call originates in Spain, you could route that call to one of your Spanish-speaking CSRs.

Similarly, if a call from Spain originates after-hours, you could send that call to voicemail as callers are not expecting to be served after-hours.

Global call forwarding isn’t just for large businesses who can afford to staff international call centers. Small businesses often use call forwarding on a smaller scale. For example, if you’re a business consultant with clients in the Philippines, you could establish a phone number in the Philippines and then route those calls to your home office.

Your clients will appreciate being able to call you without incurring high costs, and you can become more accessible. In fact, you’d likely have an advantage over a business consultant who has not bothered to establish a local presence.

Because time differences are a major concern, consider adjusting your work schedule to accommodate clients in your target country. You may have just a small window of time each day that works for both you and your clients. However, by letting them know the best time to reach you, you’ll be better able to connect.

Another option is to use an answering service to prescreen calls that arrive in the middle of the night. Provide your answering service with guidelines as to when to notify you of an urgent call. This can ensure that you’re available to handle emergencies yet not constantly bothered at all hours with non-urgent matters. At the same time, your international callers will reach a live person regardless of when they call you.

Cutting Costs with Global Call Forwarding

Many businesses use global call forwarding as an alternative to physical locations. The cost savings can become significant. It is far more efficient to have a central office than it is to lease office space and staff offices around the world. By keeping operations central, you can also reduce your travel costs as you will no longer need to travel from one office to the next.

Whether you run a large business with international call centers or a one-person consultancy that caters to international clients, global call forwarding is a great way to deliver customer service.

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Become More Flexible with Global Call Forwarding

At the same time, you could establish several international forwarding numbers in countries around the world and have them ring to your call center.

Whether you run a small business or an enterprise organization, global call forwarding can help you become more flexible and agile.

With global call forwarding, you have several options. For example, you could establish a virtual number that follows you no matter where in the world you may happen to be.

At the same time, you could establish several international forwarding numbers in countries around the world and have them ring to your call center.

Imagine the possibilities! Below are just a few examples of how your company can take advantage of global call forwarding.

Using Global Call Forwarding to Stay in Touch Globally

As an individual who travels frequently, you may want to check into using global call forwarding as a means of staying in touch with employees, clients, and family members back home when you travel overseas. As you know, your cell phone doesn’t always work in other countries, and when it does, international roaming rates make accepting calls from people back home an expensive proposition.

Many business travels find it cheaper to buy a disposable mobile phone once they arrive in a country but that brings problems of its own. For example, you need to inform everyone that you have a new number for them to call if they need to reach you when you’re in that country. Since the phone number is local to the country you’re in, your contacts will face international long distance charges should they need to call you. Plus, once you dispose of that phone, you’ll need to tell your contacts that that phone number is no longer valid.

With global call forwarding, you establish a local phone number within your own country (or a toll free one depending on your preferences). You can keep this virtual number indefinitely. The beauty of global call forwarding is that you can change the “ring to” number on the fly. When you purchase a disposable mobile phone in a new country, you simply switch the global call forwarding number’s ring to number to your new mobile phone. You do not need to inform your contacts. They simply dial the same number they always dial. Since the virtual number is local to your own country, your in-country employees, clients, and family members do not need to worry about international dialing costs.

Meanwhile, if you use a reliable, low-cost global call forwarding service, the rates that you are charged will be far more affordable than international roaming rates. In fact, you can view per minute rates for each country you frequently visit before you sign up for a plan.

Using Global Call Forwarding to Establish an International Presence

Another way to use global call forwarding for your business is to establish local phone numbers in the countries that you serve and then have those calls diverted to your call center or main office. To customers in various countries, the phone numbers are completely local. They may even feel as though they’re dialing a business across town thanks to the way the number appears and even the sound of the ringtone. However, the phone will ring to your designated number whether it’s in the same country or not. This provides your business with a flexible alternative to setting up physical locations around the world.

Using Global Call Forwarding to Route Calls by Time of Day

Having a global call forwarding number in a different country does bring with it one challenge: global time differences. However, those differences can be dealt with using time of day routing. For example, if a caller calls you during local business hours, how do you want the call handled if it’s the middle of the night your time?

With time of day routing, you can send calls to a live answering service, call center, or voicemail based on the time of day calls take place. Since callers don’t expect to be helped after business hours, you could send those after hours calls to voicemail as expected or, if those calls occur during your normal business hours, you could exceed expectations by handling those calls in real time.

Time of day routing is a flexible feature that allows you greater control over how incoming calls are routed based on the time of day they occur.

Global call forwarding is a convenient, low-cost choice for businesses of all sizes. Whether you’re a globetrotting executive who needs to stay in touch at all times, a mid-sized business owner who wants to make it easy for international customers to reach your office without investing in a physical location, or a call center manager who needs to staff a call center to handle incoming calls around the clock, global call forwarding can help you become more flexible.

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Time to Get a Virtual Number

This virtual number is not tied to a given phone jack or device; it is completely virtual.

Whether you run a small business or perhaps operate out of your home, your customers, suppliers, partners, and others need to be able to reach you.

While you may have an office phone number and a mobile phone, you may want to add a virtual number.

Some customers add or several virtual phone numbers to the mix to create a phone presence in other countries where they do business now or would like to do business.

Virtual numbers are the most portable numbers you can get, and you can change where they ring on the fly. This allows you greater control over when and where you can be reached. Not only can a virtual number make you more accessible, it can also pay for itself. Here’s a quick look at what a virtual number is and how it can pay for itself.

How a Virtual Number Works

If you’re familiar with how a toll free phone number works, you’re already familiar with how a virtual number works. After all, a toll free number rings to whichever local phone number you assign it to.

When your business moves to a new location, your toll free number moves with you. You simply change the “ring to” number to your new office’s phone number. There’s no need to change your marketing materials and business cards when you move your office. The same is true of a virtual number. However, virtual numbers may or may not be toll free, and you can get international virtual numbers.

With a virtual number, you are assigned a local, toll free, or international phone number (depending on your preferences). This number is not tied to a given phone jack or device; it is completely virtual. When you first order your virtual number, you are prompted to designate a ring to number which can be any number you want such as your main office number, your mobile phone number, or your home phone number.

You can change this ring to number at any time and as often as you want. For example, if you want your virtual number to ring to your hotel room when you’re on vacation, you could do temporarily switch the ring to number to your hotel room’s phone.

The Benefits of Getting a Virtual Number

Having a virtual number is beneficial in many ways including, but not limited to, the following:

You can control when and where you can be reached – While you could give callers your mobile phone number, do you really want to be accessible 24/7? With a virtual number, you can be as accessible as you want without having to give up your personal phone numbers. For example, if you need to be accessible while at a conference, you could have your virtual number ring to your mobile phone. Those callers will never know your mobile phone number. Thus, when you’re at your son’s soccer game over the weekend, you won’t necessarily be bombarded with business calls on your cell phone.
You can create a business presence virtually anywhere – Whether you serve several cities within your own country or have customers located around the world, you can get a virtual number that’s local to each of your markets and have all of those calls routed to your main office or call center. Your callers will dial a local number, yet the phone will ring wherever you designate the ring to number.
Your number is portable – There’s no need to change phone numbers when you move your office.
You can use your virtual number to create a virtual PBX system – Several advanced features common with virtual numbers combine to form a virtual PBX system with features that rival costly systems. Start by creating a custom greeting and configuring the auto attendant to route calls in a manner that makes the most sense for your business.

How a Virtual Number Can Pay for Itself

When you order a virtual number on a no-contract, pay-as-you-go basis, you will incur charges based on usage on a per minute basis. If you have a domestic virtual number, your rates will be flat whereas they will be variable for international virtual numbers. In both cases, you’ll pay for your calls by the minute according to your service provider’s rates. While adding another bill to your business might give you reason to pause, many business owners find that a virtual number quickly pays for itself.

For example, if you travel internationally, receiving phone calls on your mobile phone can result in international roaming rates as high as $1.99 per minute. With a virtual number, you can route your incoming calls to a disposable cell phone purchased at your destination country. Instead of paying nearly $2 a minute, you’ll pay your plan’s rates for the countries involved.

You can also use your virtual number to receive faxes, allowing you to save the cost of a fax machine, separate phone line, and fax supplies such as toner or thermal paper.

Finally, you can use your virtual number to bypass your local long distance carrier and make cheap international phone calls. Simply change the ring to number to whatever number you need to call and dial your virtual number. This allows you to take advantage of your international call forwarding service provider’s low per minute rates for the countries you need to call.

Getting a virtual number can make sense on many levels, and it can pay for itself by slashing your costs in other areas. Is it time to get a virtual number?

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International Call Forwarding for Non-Profits

Using call divert, calls can be routed virtually anywhere the organization needs them to ring at any given time. For example, if a small non-profit organization usually operates in the United States, it could have its international forwarding number ring to its main office in the United States most of the time.

Non-profit organizations, like their for profit counterparts, must increasingly do more with less. Pressure from stakeholders and donors often prompt non-profit organizations to take a harder look at how to shave administrative costs so that more of their resources can go toward providing much-needed services or emergency help.

Non-profits can both cut costs and become more accessible internationally by using international call forwarding.

International call forwarding involves establishing an international forwarding number and routing calls to that number to a different phone number known as the “ring to” number.

However, when the entire team is mobilized to provide aid in another nation after a catastrophe, it could use call divert to route those calls to its temporary office in the affected nation, a mobile or satellite phone, or to an alternate call center located elsewhere in the world.

Non-profits can use international call forwarding in a variety of ways to cut costs or become more agile – or both. Below are a few ideas for using an international forwarding number.

Create an International Presence with International Call Forwarding

Imagine that you run a small non-profit based in the United States that provides food, clothing, and financial assistance to people in Haiti. While most of your donors are likely located in the United States, some may also be located in Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Mexico, France, Canada, and the Bahamas.

In fact, each of these countries have a large population of Haitians, many of whom may share your commitment to helping the impoverished nation.

As you develop marketing materials targeted to these nations, you realize that your US toll free number won’t work internationally with the exception of Canada. With international call forwarding, you could create local toll free numbers for Haiti, Cuba, Mexico, Dominican Republic, France, and the Bahamas and use your main number as the “ring to” number.

To your international donors, your international call forwarding number looks as if it rings to a local office when in reality it rings to a phone in another country. The localization effect can inspire confidence, add a local feel to your non-profit, and overcome potential concerns about making an international long distance phone call.

Create a Virtual PBX with International Call Forwarding

Many international call forwarding service plans come with auto-attendant and call routing features commonly found in more expensive PBX systems. For non-profits that would like the advanced features of a PBX but can’t justify the expense, international call forwarding may be the answer. You can create a customized greeting and divert calls to the appropriate voicemail box or live attendant based on time of day or country of origin.

Receive Incoming Faxes

Fax machines require separate phone lines, plain or thermal paper, and/or ink and toner cartridges. Instead of maintaining a standalone fax machine and regularly spending money on fax supplies, your international forwarding numbers can double as incoming fax numbers. Rather than receiving a paper printout, your incoming faxes are routed to your email address as an image attachment. Since you can check your email from virtually any computer or mobile device connected to the Internet, you can receive faxes even when away from your office.

Make Low Cost International Phone Calls

Since you can change your international call forwarding number to ring to virtually any number in the world, you can also use it to make cheaper international phone calls. You’ll need to double check your per minute calling rates for the countries involved and compare them to the rates of your carrier. If they’re cheaper, and they very well could be dramatically cheaper, then temporarily change your ring to number to the number that you would like to call. Instead of dialing that international number directly, dial your virtual number which will then ring to your designated phone number. This bypasses your local carrier and gives you access to your international call forwarding service provider’s network and rates.

From ensuring that your team can be reached wherever it happens to be deployed and enabling low cost calls from international donors around the world to creating a local presence, gaining access to advanced PBX features, receiving incoming faxes, and making cheap international calls, international call forwarding is a terrific choice for any non-profit organization with a global mission.

Create a global presence and cut your costs at the same time with international call forwarding.

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5 Ways to Use Virtual Numbers for Business

Many business owners prefer that local callers use their main number instead of their toll free numbers due to costs.

Need to expand access to your business globally or locally?

Virtual numbers are a special type of phone number. Because they are “virtual,” these numbers can ring to any phone that you choose worldwide.

They do not need to be installed at your office or permanently associated with a local or mobile phone number. In fact, you can change a virtual number’s ring-to-number as often as you’d like – in real-time.

This flexibility makes virtual numbers extremely portable and beneficial to businesses. Here are five ways (of many) that you can use virtual numbers in your business.

1. Use virtual numbers to test advertising

As you know, advertising is expensive. It is imperative to find out which ads work and which ones don’t. One way to do this is to use a unique virtual phone number with each advertisement. From there, you can look at each number’s activities to see which advertisements are resulting in actual phone calls.

In addition to looking at the total number of calls each advertisement generates, consider the duration of the calls. Six-second calls, for example, are likely hang-ups whereas five-minute calls may indicate a closed sale.

While your phone records can provide robust insights into the performance of each ad, it’s also wise to have your customer service representatives source each sale. With some services, it’s possible to set up incoming calls from virtual numbers to display the virtual number in the caller ID field.

2. Use virtual numbers to create a local presence in a distant city or country

If your business is physically located in Miami, Florida, it makes sense to have a local number as well as a toll-free number for your business. Callers from other cities and states would most likely opt to use your toll-free number when calling your main office. However, what if you specifically serve cities outside of Miami such as Orlando, Florida, or Los Angeles, California? You could get virtual numbers for those cities and then route the calls to your Miami office. By establishing local phone numbers in the cities that you serve, your business instantly appears to be a local company. This strategy can be applied internationally as well. Simply order international virtual numbers and use global call forwarding to route those calls to your main office.

3. Use virtual numbers to ensure you never lose your “main” number due to an office move

Publishing your main office number allows local callers to call your business directly. Many business owners prefer that local callers use their main number instead of their toll-free numbers due to costs. However, if you have to move your office, you could lose your main phone number. When that happens, you will have to either re-do all of your advertising, stationary, business cards and invoices so that they have your new phone number or pay the phone company the going rate to forward your calls to your new number. By using virtual numbers from the beginning, you can keep your “main” number regardless of where your office is located. In fact, you can switch your main office on the fly if so desired. For example, if you want to work from home one day and then work from the office the next, you could instantly switch the ring-to number to ring to your physical location.

4. Use virtual numbers to receive calls on your mobile phone while keeping your mobile phone number private.

If you need to be accessible occasionally but hesitate to give out your cell phone number due to concerns about people calling your cell phone 24/7, consider using a virtual number. When you need to accept calls on the go, you could route the virtual number to your mobile phone without having to give out your private phone number. This is a great way to ensure availability when it’s warranted without being subjected to intrusive calls on your cell phone when it’s not. When you are not on a call or when you want to have uninterrupted family time, you can route your virtual number to your assistant, voicemail, an answering service, or some other alternative.

5. Use virtual numbers to control international calling costs.

Since you can change the virtual number’s destination number to any phone number in the world, consider using your virtual number when making an international phone call. Of course, you’ll want to compare per-minute rates to ensure that using your virtual number is the cheaper option. In many cases, it will be, especially if you have an international virtual number plan with low per-minute rates. When the time comes to make the international call, simply change the ring-to number to the number of the person you need to call. From there, dial your virtual phone number. After the call, make sure to change the ring-to number back to your regular ring-to number or voicemail.

These are but a few of the many ways you can use call-forwarding virtual phone numbers for your business. Test advertising,

Here’s a UK virtual phone number database that displays all UK virtual phone number choices. You could use this to view available UK phone numbers if, for example, you wanted to create a UK phone presence for your business and take those UK calls at your phone located anywhere globally.

Additional ways to benefit from Virtual Numbers

Advanced International Call Forwarding Tips

Once you have a global call forwarding number, your international customers can dial a local number without concerns about international calling costs or conventions.

International call forwarding provides companies of all sizes with a convenient way to communicate with an international customer base.

Once you have a global call forwarding number (or dozens of them as the case may be), your international customers can dial a local number without concerns about international calling costs or conventions.

Meanwhile, call divert allows a single call center to handle calls from around the world at affordable per minute rates. If you’re familiar with local and global call forwarding, you likely have the basics of this communications method down. Get more out of your virtual number by following these advanced international call forwarding tips.

1. Set up local ring tones

Did you know that the ringing sound you hear when you dial a phone number is sounds different in various countries? After a lifetime of making calls within your own country, wouldn’t you be distracted if suddenly the ringing sound sounded different? Though it’s not overly alarming, a foreign sounding ring tone could cause your callers to pause. It draws attention to itself. If you’d prefer not to distract your global callers in any way or draw attention to the fact that your international forwarding number is unlike other numbers your customers dial, use an international call forwarding plan that has a local ring tone feature. This ensures that your international callers hear the same ring tone that they always hear when calling companies within their countries.

2. Use time-of-day routing

Perhaps the biggest challenge associated with international call forwarding is time differences. Business hours for your main office will not always align with your customers’ business hours. With time of day routing and creative staff scheduling, you can overcome this problem. For each country that you serve, you will need to determine which hours to answer calls live and which to route to voicemail based on local time in the targeted country. With time of day routing, you can designate how calls will be handled based on when those calls take place. For example, you’ll likely want to have agents answer calls during normal business hours for the countries that you serve even if that means you need to bring staff into your call center in the middle of the night. Since call volume is likely to drop after five local time, you can then route those calls to voicemail which frees your staff to handle calls in other time zones.

3. Set up a customized greeting

When your international callers call your virtual number, you can either answer the call in person, send it to voicemail, or let an auto attendant greet the caller and then route the call to the appropriate extension or mailbox. A short, customized greeting in the caller’s language is a friendly, professional option. Each virtual phone number that you have can have its own unique auto attendant greeting.

4. Use Caller ID to route calls to the best agent

Another challenge with global call forwarding involves language differences. If your US-based business serves customers in Italy, Spain, and Brazil, you will have callers that speak Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. Obviously, you will want to staff your call center with agents who speak these languages. While you could set each virtual number to ring to your main call center number and then have your agents transfer callers to someone who speaks their language as needed, it’s smarter to use Caller ID to route calls to the right agent in the first place. For example, you could set up routing so that anytime a call comes in using your Italian virtual number, those calls will be routed to the desks of your Italian-speaking agents. The same is true of calls originating from Spain and Brazil. When using Caller ID to route calls, you have two options. You can either have the virtual number displayed or the caller’s own caller ID number. Many companies find it easier to route calls based on the virtual numbers that they have while others prefer to see the caller’s actual phone number.

5. Adjust maximum wait times as needed

Virtual numbers can forwarded through a sequence of numbers, ensuring that should a call go unanswered at one location, the call will be diverted to an alternate number or voicemail. For example, if you have three work-from-home Italian-speaking agents, you could set up your global call forwarding number to ring to agent 1 first. If that call is not answered within a given time period, the call would then be diverted to agent 2, followed by agent 3. One of the problems with such a sequence is that the wait time may be too long; your customer could hang up before the call is finally answered. Fortunately, maximum wait times can be adjusted. You may need to experiment with wait times to find the right balance.

6. Set up simultaneous ringing

If you’d rather have calls answered as quickly as possible, use simultaneous ringing. In the example above, instead of going through a sequence with wait times, all three agents’ phones would ring at the same time.

International call forwarding is an effective tool with a variety of features. Fine-tune your global call forwarding numbers by using advanced features and ensure that your callers receive prompt service from a friendly agent who speaks their language.

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International Call Forwarding for mid-sized Businesses

You can start localizing your business in countries outside of your own through international call divert. You can do so without having to invest in physical locations, local staff, and infrastructure.

International Call Forwarding for mid-sized Businesses

Is it time for your mid-sized business to establish an international presence? Entering new markets with an international forwarding number is a great way to start the process. Not only can you start localizing your business in countries outside of your own through call divert, you can do so without having to invest in physical locations, local staff, and infrastructure. Here’s how an international forwarding number can help you communicate with customers, suppliers, vendors, partners, or employees overseas.

Understanding Call Divert Technology

Call divert technology involves signing up with an international call forwarding service provider. These providers are not necessarily associated with your local phone utility company. In fact, they often use their own networks or contract with major telecommunications carriers to divert your calls. This is especially beneficial in countries where local phone service is substandard and/or expensive.

Once you’ve found a high quality, low cost international call forwarding service provider, you then set up an international forwarding number for the country that you want to establish a business presence in. For example, if your business is located inside the United States and you want to establish a local presence in Chile, you would order a phone number for Chile. To Chileans, this number is just like any other in-country phone number with the correct country code and local area codes. However, since you’re using call divert, whenever someone in Chile dials your international forwarding number, the call would “ring to” the number you’ve designated in the United States.

As the call divert account holder, you will be billed for calls that go through your international forwarding number on a per minute basis. International call forwarding rates depend on the countries involved. They are also sometimes dependent on whether or not a mobile phone was used. In addition, you can order either local or toll free international forwarding numbers.

Using an International Forwarding Number in Lieu of a Physical Location

Using the United States to Chile example above, you should be able to see how using call divert can be an affordable alternative to setting up a physical location in Chile. Some of the costs that you will NOT incur include the following examples:

Travel costs – You will not need to fly to Chile to scout physical locations.
Office space – Since you won’t need an actual office in Chile, there’s no rent whatsoever.
Infrastructure – Aside from the international forwarding number, you won’t need to invest in additional technology. There’s no PBX or computer network required. Simply divert calls to your main office.
Local office staff – Since you will not have a physical office in Chile, you will not need to hire employees in Chile to answer your phones. However, you may have some staffing costs as addressed below.

Please note that while an international forwarding number can slash your costs and help you establish an international presence, you will still need to do your due diligence to ensure that your business complies with all applicable trade and business regulations which are beyond the scope of this article.

Staffing Your “Local” Office

While you may never need to step foot in Chile in order to use call divert and establish a presence in the country, you will need to accommodate any callers who use your international forwarding number. Depending on the anticipated call volume, you may need to hire additional staff at your call center or main office to handle incoming calls. Depending on the languages involved, you may also need to hire bilingual customer service representatives.

Let’s say that you’ve determined that three Spanish-speaking customer service representatives will be sufficient for the amount of calls you expect to come through your international forwarding number. Use your call diver’s advanced routing features to ensure that these calls ring specifically to these CSRs.

In addition to staffing your office with bilingual staff, you will also need to consider scheduling your staff during international business hours. For example, the time zone your main office is in may conflict with the time zone for your international forwarding number. If so, you will either need to have staff available during that country’s normal business hours or use “time of day” routing to route callers to an alternate call center or voicemail during business hours.

Advertising Your International Call Forwarding Number

As with any other branch office, your call diver number won’t necessarily ring until you’ve advertised it. Use various advertising channels to let international customers know that you are able to take their phone calls. Whether you advertise locally or use the Internet, using an international forwarding number that’s local to your target countries provides local callers with a comfortable and familiar way to reach your office.

As a mid-sized business looking to establish itself internationally, using call divert is a terrific, low-risk way to get started. International call forwarding facilitates communication with minimal costs.

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Staying Connected with Virtual Number Call Forwarding

Advanced virtual number call forwarding features are available. For example, if you tend to use several different phones, simultaneous ringing can be set up to ring them all at once.

Virtual number call forwarding is a convenient and affordable way to stay in touch with families, friends, and business associates no matter where you may be.

With a virtual phone number, your phone number becomes the ultimate portable number. It can ring to your main line, your cell phone, your office line, your hotel switchboard, a disposable phone when traveling overseas, and virtually any other phone you may happen to use. Here’s how you can stay connected with virtual number call forwarding.

Virtual Number Call Forwarding Basics

What is virtual number call forwarding? Virtual number call forwarding is a telecommunications service offered by various telecommunications provider. When you order a virtual phone number, you are issued either a local or toll free number (depending on your preferences).

From there, you will be prompted to designate what’s known as a ring to number. For example, you might set up virtual number call forwarding to ring to your main telephone number initially. Then, whenever someone dials the virtual phone number, your main telephone number will ring.

The beauty of virtual number call forwarding is that you can change the ring to number as needed. Let’s say you have the call forwarding number set to ring to your home phone most of the time. When you go on vacation, you can log into your virtual number call forwarding account and change the ring to number to your mobile phone or hotel room phone. Then, whenever someone dials the virtual phone number, instead of ringing to your home phone as usual, your mobile or hotel room phone will ring.

To your friends, family members, and business associates, the transition will be seamless. From their perspective, they’re dialing the same phone number they always dial to reach you. However, thanks to virtual number call forwarding, you can be reached no matter which phone you have by your side.

Using Advanced Features of Virtual Number Call Forwarding

The basics of virtual number call forwarding are useful in their own right. However, there’s more. Advanced virtual number call forwarding features are available. For example, if you tend to use several different phones, simultaneous ringing can be set up to ring them all at once. That way, you can answer whichever phone you have handy and not miss a single call.

Similarly, sequential virtual number call forwarding can be used to send incoming calls to the phones you’re most likely to be using. You could set the first number in the sequence as your main office number. If it’s not answered in specified time period, the next number in the sequence will ring and so on until you reach the last number, typically voicemail, in the sequence.

Another advanced virtual number call forwarding feature allows you to specify which phone should ring at a give time of day. For instance, if you work regular business hours at the office, you could set your office phone number as the ring to number from 9:00am to 5:00pm each business day and then set your home or mobile number as the ring to number for the other times of day. Don’t want to answer your phone at night? Set up calls to go directly to voicemail at night.

Virtual number call forwarding isn’t just about forwarding voice calls to your other phones; it’s also about faxing. You can forward incoming faxes directly to your email address. Not only can you receive faxes virtually anywhere, you can potentially get rid of your fax machine, paper and toner costs, and separate phone line. Your incoming faxes will be delivered as PDF files that you can view and store on your computer.

You can also forward your voicemail messages to email if desired. Incoming voicemail messages arrive in your inbox. Simply click the attachment and listen to your message.

These are but a few of the many ways you can benefit from virtual number call forwarding. Getting a virtual number call forwarding plan is an easy process, and it can keep you connected to your contacts no matter where you go. Use virtual number call forwarding to ensure that you can be reached wherever you are and whenever you want to be reached. If you do not want to be disturbed, you have control over that too.

Best of all, virtual number call forwarding is a cost effective choice. Rather than giving your mobile number to people who might call too much or at inconvenient times, you can give out your international call forwarding number and control when and where you take those calls. This preserves your precious mobile minutes – and your sanity! By using virtual number call forwarding, you can also reduce some of your traditional phone lines such as a separate fax line.

Take advantage of these benefits by getting virtual number call forwarding today.

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Virtual Number Call Forwarding When Traveling

Virtual Number Travel — Virtual Number and Travel

Using Virtual Number Call Forwarding When Traveling

Virtual numbers are not only an indispensible business tool for many enterprises but also a very useful travel aid.

Whether you’re a busy professional who travels frequently or a casual traveler, anytime you leave your home base, you often leave behind your ability to communicate using your main phone number.

While you could give everyone you know your mobile phone number or use the phone company’s call forwarding option to transfer calls to your cell phone, doing so is a hassle. Plus, mobile phone companies will not divert calls overseas so unless you’re traveling within your own country, you will need a virtual number to transport your calls abroad. Virtual number call forwarding is the answer.

What is Virtual Number Call Forwarding?

Virtual number call forwarding is a telecommunications service where you order a virtual telephone number that is not attached to any given phone. For example, your home phone number is associated with your home phone while your mobile phone number is associated with your cell phone. With a virtual phone number, you control which phone rings whenever someone dials that number.

When you first sign up for virtual number call forwarding, you will be issued a virtual number and prompted to designate a “ring to” number. This ring to number can be changed as needed, making virtual number call forwarding especially convenient to business and leisure travelers.

Virtual Number Call Forwarding in Action

Let’s use “Bill” as an example. Bill is a US-based sales manager living in New York City who has several trips scheduled in the next few months: an international conference in London, a trip to Japan with his wife, a regional sales meeting at his company’s Chicago office, and a trip to Atlanta to help his son get settled into college.

Bill is concerned about his clients and young adult children being able to reach him when he’s overseas. He also does not want anyone to have to dial complicated country codes or incur international long distance charges when trying to reach him. At the same time, he’s unsure that his cell phone will work in London or Japan.

Bill had heard about virtual number call forwarding from one of his colleagues and decides to give it a try. Here’s what he does:

He signs up with a virtual number call forwarding service provider on a no annual contract basis.
He orders a local virtual number in New York City so that his local clients and most of his young adult children will not incur charges when calling him. He also has the option to order a toll free virtual number.
He initially designates his cell phone number as the default ring to number. When traveling in the United States, he finds that this works well most of the time. He eventually discovers that it’s easy to change the virtual number call forwarding to other phones and enables simultaneous ringing so that both his cell phone and his temporary extension at the Chicago branch office would ring at the same time.
As expected, his mobile phone didn’t work in London or Japan. Bill was able to quickly change the ring to number to his hotel room number when he first arrived. In London, he purchased a disposable mobile phone and set his virtual number call forwarding to ring to his temporary mobile phone. It worked so well, and was such an inexpensive solution, that he did the same in Japan.
His clients and family members were able to reach him no matter where in the United States or the world he happened to be.

Using Virtual Number Call Forwarding When Traveling

Like Bill, you could use virtual number call forwarding when traveling. However, like Bill, there may be time zone issues involved. If you intend to give callers your virtual call forwarding number which will ring to you several time zones away, it’s possible that you’ll receive phone calls in the middle of the night. Fortunately, you can control how your incoming calls are routed based on the local time of day.

For example, if you want to be available for calls at a specific time of day, you can set your virtual number call forwarding to ring to your designed phone at a specific time. If someone calls at any other time, the call can be routed directly to voicemail. You could even set your calls to ring to an answering service, call center, or other phone at a specific time of day.

The Benefits of a No-Contract Virtual Number Call Forwarding Plan

Monthly virtual number call forwarding plans with no contracts and no cancellation fees are a terrific choice for anyone who needs a virtual phone number. These plans come with a variety of features including:

Exceptional call quality
Simultaneous ringing
Sequential forwarding
Customized greetings
Advanced PBX features
Rollover minutes
And much more…

Whether you need a disposable virtual phone number for a short time or want to try out the service without a long-term commitment, you can enjoy the benefits of virtual number call forwarding.

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Have your calls forwarded to another country while traveling, or at another office

Have your calls forwarded to another country while traveling or at another office

It can be a problem for all of us that need to stay in contact with our office with associates,
potential new customers as well as existing clients when we travel.

Enjoy seamless contact with callers while traveling or simply to create a phone presence in another country and have the calls forwarded to a mobile or fixed phone overseas. (local overseas or U.S. phone companies won’t redirect calls internationally, we do)

There are actually two separate solutions for the requirement of keeping in contact while traveling and setting up a virtual number to create an overseas phone presence.

Let’s look at the scenario where you already own a mobile phone in your country but plan on going to another country on assigment or on holiday. If it’s going to be a holiday, you may not even want any calls forwarded. But if it’s a business that you have and it’s important to keep in contact with callers, this is how to do it.

#1. Get a virtual number in the same country or locale where you have your mobile number.

#2. Use the built-in call forwarding feature on your mobile to redirect calls to your ‘new’ virtual number.

#3. Set-up the virtual number to ‘ring to’ the phone number overseas where you’ll be going to, either a fixed line or new mobile.

This strategy enables receiving the calls from your mobile or landline from your original country at your new phone number in your new locale.

Creating a phone presence in another country

Virtual numbers are now offered in appproximately 95 countries and the list is growing. Many customers find that they wish to promote their product or services in another country and using a virtual number is the easiet and quickest way to accomplish creating the local phone presence. The removes the requirement of leasing an office internationally and deploying a support staff to go with it. The virtual numbers can be purchased on a month-to-month basis, so no long term commitment is necessary.

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How a Virtual Phone Number Benefits Your Caller

How a Virtual Phone Number Benefits Your Callers

Virtual phone numbers offer many benefits to you and your callers alike. While you may want a virtual phone number for your own sake, you may not realize how useful your choice is to your callers as well. Here’s a quick look at how a virtual number can benefit your callers.

No toll charges – If you order a virtual phone number in your callers’ local dialing area, your callers will not incur toll charges whenever they need to reach you. For example, if you have a child attending college in Pennsylvania and you live in Florida, ordering a virtual number local to your child’s campus ensures that your child can call you anytime without incurring long distance fees. Similarly, you can order a toll free virtual phone number if desired.

Peace of mind – Providing local virtual numbers for your customers can reassure them that your company does indeed serve their community. When looking for new service providers, many people prefer to call local phone numbers. They don’t want to call a remote call center that is unfamiliar with their community or may not even serve it. By having a local phone number, you are signaling that you are committed to serving that community. While the phone may ring to a remote call center, the fact that you have invested in a local phone number shows that you fully intend to provide local service.

Improved service – Everyone wants to receive great customer service. While a virtual phone number doesn’t necessarily improve customer service, it can help ensure that calls are routed to service representatives even if the office is closed for lunch. For example, you can use time of day routing to route calls to your main office if the office that normally handles those calls is closed for some reason.

Doesn’t it make sense to reduce costs, ease stress, and provide better customer service? A virtual phone number can help you achieve all three.

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Get Found with Sequential Call Forwarding

If you’re like many business professionals, you’re rarely in one place day-in, day-out. While you likely carry a cell phone with you, you may not want to share your number with everyone for various reasons including keeping your cellular costs to a minimum. How do you limit calls to your cell phone yet stay readily accessible despite your mobile lifestyle? With sequential forwarding.

What is Sequential Forwarding?

Sequential forwarding is a type of call forwarding service that forwards your calls to a series of ring-to numbers in a sequence set by you. If a call is unanswered at the first ring-to number, sequential call forwarding will then route it to the next number in the list. If that number goes unanswered, the call will be routed to the next number, and so on.

For example, if you’re a real estate agent, you may work out of your main office, a branch office, and your home office during the week. In addition, you likely spend a fair amount of time showing clients houses, going on caravan, and attending various business networking events. While you could set your calls to forward to your cell phone whenever you leave your main office, it’s silly (and expensive) to receive cellular calls when you’re sitting at a desk with a landline. Likewise, you may not want to receive cellular calls when you’re grocery shopping or enjoying family time.

By using sequential forwarding, you can set up a ring-to sequence that reflects your most common locations. For instance, you could set your main office number as your primary number followed by your branch office number, home office number, and finally your cell phone. Whenever someone calls your main office number and it goes unanswered, your branch office number will ring. Not at your branch office? Sequential forwarding will try your home office? If the call still goes unanswered, it will try to reach you at your cell phone. Alternately, you could set a voicemail number as your last ring-to number.

How Many Sequential Numbers Can You Have?

Most sequential call forwarding service providers limit the number of ring-to numbers you can have in a sequence to a handful. This is primarily a practical consideration as each ring-to number must be allowed to ring a few times before the call forwards to the next one. If you have too many ring-to numbers in the sequence, your callers may hang up before you’re finally reached.

Sequential Forwarding Considerations

Keep the caller in mind as well as your ability to answer the phone promptly when setting up your sequence. In general, you can specify the number of rings or number of seconds before sequential forwarding will move to the next number.

Finally, consider how each ring-to number is currently set up to handle non-answered calls. For example, if the second number in your sequence is set up to send calls to voicemail after five seconds but your sequential forwarding sequence is set up to forward calls after ten, the call will be sent to voicemail before sequential forwarding has a chance to send it to the next number in the sequence.

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How an International Call Forwarding Number Can Benefit U.S. based Business Professionals

Call Forwarding for Business Professionals

How an International Call Forwarding Number Can Benefit US-based Business Professionals

As a US-based business professional, you likely spend most of your time doing business with other US-based business owners, customers, and partners. Your standard toll free and local phone numbers work fine, allowing you to speak with people from coast-to-coast with minimal costs. However, today’s business world has become increasingly global – and US-based toll free numbers do not work for international callers who need to speak with you. While you could publish your main local phone number, callers from around the world may be uncomfortable dialing it.

Cost concerns and the fact that your number looks odd compared to the phone numbers that they’re accustomed to seeing in their own countries are major obstacles. Fortunately, international call forwarding is a viable and affordable solution to this problem.

International call forwarding works much like an 800 number. 800 numbers essentially forward calls from callers across the United States to your “ring to” number. Callers do not incur costs when they dial toll free numbers; the 800 number’s account holder pays the associated costs and fees.

With international call forwarding, you order a toll free (in a country you require) phone number that is specific to the country where your callers are located. Once you have an international call forwarding number, you then assign a ring-to number to it. Once set up, callers dial a phone number that’s local to their country and the phone rings in the United States at the number you’ve designated.

Why go through the trouble of setting up an international call forwarding number for callers in a different country? For starters, you can expand your service area to include other countries. An international call forwarding number is a low-cost way to establish a local presence in countries outside of the United States. For example, if you want to sell products to customers in Spain, you could advertise your Spanish international call forwarding number throughout Spain. Locals would assume that they’re calling an office in Spain.

International call forwarding numbers are also extremely portable. If you travel frequently and would like to receive phone calls while you’re traveling, you could change the ring-to number of your international call forwarding numbers to ring-to a phone at your current location.

Other useful features include time-of-day routing and local ring tones. Time-of-day routing allows you to change the destination number based on the time the call comes in while local ring tones add to the “local” flavor of the call.

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Global Virtual Numbers International Call Center

Global Virtual Numbers and the International Call Center

Running a call center is challenging enough; add global virtual numbers to the mix and it becomes even more complicated. However, this challenge can be solved with an understanding of how global virtual numbers work and the right staff.

It’s important to understand how global virtual numbers work so that you can plan accordingly. These numbers are call forwarding numbers assigned to various countries around the world. They appear “local” to callers in these countries, yet they ring to a call center located somewhere else. For example, a caller in the United States may dial a traditional 1-800 number at 2:30 PM and be connected to a customer service representative in Singapore where it’s 5:30 in the morning.

In this example, the international call center in Singapore would need to have a team of customer service representatives who are fluent in English. Because of the time differences between the two countries, this team would need to work an unusual shift. After all, callers in the United States expect someone to answer phone calls during business hours. Not only must the call center have English-speaking staff available, it needs to be in tune with local time in the U.S.

To further complicate matters, international call centers often answer calls from other global virtual numbers. If our theoretical call center in Singapore also handles callers from the United Kingdom, Australia, and Russia, it will need English and Russian-speaking customer service representatives available during those countries’ business hours.

In addition to accommodating callers through staffing, the technology that powers global virtual numbers also has a role to play.

For example, callers who call at 9:00 PM local time do not generally expect a live person to answer the phone. In fact, many prefer to call afterhours so that they can simply leave a voicemail message and receive a callback the next day with answers. A feature called “time of day routing” can control how calls are routed based on the time of day it is in the originating country. The call center manager could set each global call forwarding number to ring to the call center during local business hours and then to voicemail afterhours. From there, appropriate staffing levels could be determined around these schedules. In addition, global virtual phone numbers can be set to emit a “local” ringtone so that callers hear the traditional ringing sound that their country’s phone system uses.

Global virtual numbers

Makes it possible for a single call center to handle calls from around the world, around the clock. Once you understand what calls are coming in, from where, and when, you can then staff the call center with the right people at the right time to handle those calls.

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The Advantages of Toll-Free Call Divert

Toll free phone numbers aren’t just for huge corporations. In fact, many solo business professionals and entrepreneurs have toll free phone numbers. However, unlike large corporations with massive telecom budgets, independent professionals don’t necessarily have the resources to man their phone numbers when they’re away from the office. Toll free call divert is the answer.

What is Toll Free Call Divert?

Call diversion is a telecommunications feature that allows a phone service subscriber to redirect, or divert, their incoming calls to another phone number or voicemail. With toll free call divert, this concept applies to a toll free phone number. By default, toll free numbers are already diverted to a designated “ring to” number. Taking that one step further with toll free call divert, the subscriber can change this ring to number as needed.

For example, if you have a toll free number that rings to your home office, you could use toll free call divert to redirect your calls to your mobile phone number whenever you travel on business. The advantages to using toll free call divert are plentiful and include the following:

Increased flexibility – Instead of missing calls while you’re away, you can divert them to an alternate number. Similarly, you could use toll free call divert to route calls to voicemail when you absolutely cannot be interrupted.

Reduced costs – If you normally use an answering service or hire someone to answer your toll free phone number when you’re traveling on business, you could reduce or eliminate these costs by diverting your calls to your mobile phone or a phone at your current location.

Portability – Toll free numbers are among the most portable numbers available due to call divert features. Whether need to divert calls temporarily while on a trip or permanently due to an office move, you can easily do so by changing the ring to number.

How to Divert Toll Free Calls

The specific steps vary based on your toll free call divert plan. For example, some plans allow you to divert calls by entering a code on the phone followed by the new ring to number. Plans with online account management dashboards usually have easy-to-follow prompts, enabling you to quickly change the ring to number online.

Toll free call divert is an easy-to-use feature that can reduce your costs while allowing greater flexibility and portability.

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Rollover Minutes and Call Forwarding Plans

Virtual Number – Rollover Minutes

Rollover Minutes and Call Forwarding Plans

Thinking about ordering a local, toll free, or international call forwarding plan? If so, one of the options you may want to consider is whether or not the call forwarding plan includes rollover minutes. A rollover minutes option, if available, can provide you with even more flexibility.

What are Rollover Minutes?

You’re likely familiar with the rollover minutes concept thanks to similar offers on long distance and cell phones. Many calling plans, including domestic and international call forwarding plans, are offered in packages where you pay for a pre-determined amount of minutes each month. If you exceed that value, you must pay for the additional minutes you use, often at a slightly higher rate than your bundled minutes. If you do not use up all of your minutes, you generally lose them.

How Not Having Rollover Minutes Costs You Money

For example, let’s say that you have a call forwarding plan with 900 minutes per month. In January, you only use 500 of those minutes. You will have paid for 900 minutes but only used 500 of them. In essences, you’ve overpaid for your usage. Now let’s see what happens in February when you use 1200 minutes. 900 of those minutes will have been included in your call forwarding plan, but you will need to pay for 300 additional minutes at a slightly higher per minute rate.

In this example, not only did you overpay for minutes in January, you had to buy additional minutes in February. If you had a rollover plan, you would have been able to save those unused minutes from January and used them in February. Not only would you be money ahead, you’d still have rollover minutes left to use in March, April, or several months from now. Minutes from each month that you are under your allotment would rollover, allowing you greater flexibility over your call forwarding usage.

Is Adding Rollover Minutes to a Call Forwarding Plan Financially Smart?

Adding rollover minutes to your international call forwarding plan is typically optional and offered for a small monthly fee which could be anywhere from $5 a month to $15 or more per month depending on your plan. In order to determine whether or not this option makes sense for you, you’ll need to examine your usage patterns and do the math.

For example, does your usage fluctuate from month to month or is it fairly stable? If you routinely use just under 200 minutes each month, then AI Telephone’s “Preferred” plan (222 minutes) with no rollover minutes might be suitable.

On the other hand, if your usage goes up and down dramatically each month, being able to “bank” your unused minutes makes a great deal of sense. Once you decide that the rollover option is a possible fit, look at the per month rate for the feature. Will you get more value out of using banked minutes than the fee or does it make more sense to forfeit your unused minutes and pay for overages? Do the math based on your anticipated usage. You’ll likely find that opting for rollover minutes is the financially smarter choice.

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Using White and Black Lists with Your Local and Global Virtual Numbers

Selective Call blocking — Selective Call Blocking

Create White and Black Lists for Your Virtual Phone Number

When calls are forwarded to your global virtual numbers, costs accrue by the minute with rates varying by country. What happens if someone calls your virtual number from an expensive country? What about calls from other countries that are wrong numbers? Unfortunately, unwanted calls can and do occur no matter what type of call forwarding plan you have. Fortunately, you can use white and black lists to allow and block access. Here’s a quick look.

Using White Lists enable Selective Call Blocking

White lists are lists of phone numbers or area codes that you want to reach your virtual number at all times. For example, if you establish a global virtual number in Italy so that your Italian grandmother can dial a local number and reach you no matter where in the world you are, you could place your grandmother’s Italian phone number in your white list and set up your account to block all other calls. This prevents you from being charged for misdialed calls made to your global virtual number yet it allows your grandmother to reach you.

If you operate a local business and serve customers within just a few area codes, you could also use white lists to allow calls from within your designated area codes. This ensures that local callers can reach you while blocking access from callers that you cannot help. For example, if you operate a window washing service in Portland, Oregon, your website could attract potential window washing clients from Portland, Maine. If you receive an excessive amount of phone calls from Portland, Maine, or if you want to avoid that scenario altogether, use a white list to allow phone calls only from the area codes in which you do business.

Using Black Lists with Virtual Numbers

Black lists are the opposite of white lists, though they can be used to accomplish similar effects. Instead of creating lists that allow specific phone numbers or area codes to ring through to your global virtual numbers, you can use black lists to specifically block certain phone numbers or area codes. For example, if your business is constantly being contacted by a disreputable salesperson who won’t take no for an answer or take your number off the list, you could use the black list to block that salesperson’s known phone numbers. You could also escalate your complaint, but blacklisting calls may be faster and more effective.

Similarly, you could block calls from specific area codes. For example, if you have a toll free call forwarding number for the United States, but only serve customers in the continental United States, you could block calls from callers located in Hawaii and Alaska by blacklisting those area codes. You may also want to blacklist area codes such as 876 (Jamaica) that are linked to scams.

Whether to use white lists are black lists or a combination of the two is a personal decision based on how you use your global virtual numbers. It may be easier to whitelist the few area codes or callers that you want to hear from than it is to blacklist all the ones you don’t want to go through. On the other hand, if you only have a few undesirables, then it might be easier to blacklist those and let all other calls go through.

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