Most people have just one phone number. It’s usually seen as the more convenient option, since they get to run all their phone activities through that number and therefore only have to worry about one number.
However, if you happen to be a business owner then running all your activities, both personal and business, through a single phone number might not actually be that convenient. Imagine your phone ringing, and every time you have to wonder if it’s your family or your business associates (as the saying goes- “don’t mix business with pleasure”).
Now, what are the problems you are most likely to face if you decide to “mix business with pleasure”?
You can’t avoid robocalls.
Robocalls are phone calls that use a computerized autodialer to deliver a pre-recorded message, as if from a robot. Robocalls are often associated with political and telemarketing phone campaigns, but can also be used for public-service or emergency announcements. Now, I’m sure you have encountered these types of automated calls quite a couple of times on your personal number, and I’m certain they are all mostly frustrating. And if your personal number is also your business number, I’m afraid that the frustrating nature of these calls is not only what you have to worry about. These automated calls will clog your phone line and block your access to customers, which will severely drag down revenue.
Despite the fact that the U.S Federal Trade Commission has designed a Do Not Call Registry to prevent unwanted automated calls and millions of Americans have this option, the service does not always function as required or even as hoped. Once a number has been compromised, there might be no other option but to change it. Although this is the safest and best option, business owners are often unwilling to do so, especially if the number is already on promotional materials.
You are vulnerable to numerous threats.
You, of course, give your contact out to the world when you have a business, as you want more people to know about your business and to be able to contact you. I really don’t need to stress how dangerous that would be if that number is the same as your personal contact number. You are exposed! You risk being under constant attacks from hackers and scammers and your ‘personal information’ is no longer ‘personal’. We live in a world where this sort of thing is so prevalent that even big technology companies such as Apple, with all sorts of security measures, have had to deal with hacking and bugs of different kinds at one time or the other.
Why would you then risk exposing yourself by advertising your personal number? Imagine advertising to the world the number linked to something as sensitive as your card or bank details- with a little elbow grease, a skilled hacker might be able to get into your account!
You are not in control of the employee-customer interaction.
If you are running your business with your personal number, your employees are likely to be dealing with customers using their own numbers as well. By doing so, you are indirectly giving up control on that part of your business. You don’t know exactly how your employees interact with customers, how they handle conversations and transactions, and what they might fail to do. It is important to keep track of all business activities as you may lose customers through employees’ ineffectiveness or even deceit.
If you are a small business owner who oversees his business all by himself, you probably would like to think that this has little to do with you, but can you really be too careful?
You are bound to that number.
We all know how difficult it is to change a phone number, considering the fact that we register for a lot of services using our phone numbers. For business owners, it is even worse. Once the number has been distributed in different promotional materials and campaigns, changing it would render them all useless, as new ones would have to be made to avoid misinformation. A customer (or a potential customer) will likely lose interest if he calls only to find out that it’s a dead end.
One may argue that well, that means don’t lose your number! But of course we are all victims of circumstances sometimes, and stuff happens- it’s good to have a backup plan.
It disrupts your work-life balance.
This fact needs no special explanation. Although it is quite good to be able to be at the end of your customers’ calls as promptly as possible, you should be able to have a life of your own outside of work. There should be some sort of balance, which will naturally be affected by having no delineating line between your personal and business numbers.
Having gone through everything listed above, hopefully you’ve become open to the idea of getting a dedicated business number. So what now? How can you run your business effectively whilst avoiding all these problems? Just getting a second phone won’t really help. That’s two smartphones to keep track of, to keep charged and so on. And even with this, you still haven’t succeeded in avoiding all the major problems. Robocalls would still bug. You still would not be in full control of the employee-customer interaction. And that phone, together with the number, could still get lost, and now that you have two phones to keep track of it’s twice as likely that one might get misplaced!
Then what is the ultimate solution?
It’s simple: get a second phone number! But not one linked to a phone- why not try going virtual?
A virtual phone number is that second phone number you should get, that ultimate solution. If you are hearing about a virtual phone number for the first time, a virtual phone number is simply a telephone number used to route calls to a user’s actual phone number or numbers. Learn more about the virtual phone number and how it works.
What do you and your business stand to benefit by getting this second phone number?
Avoiding robocalls.
Now you can say a final goodbye to those annoying automated calls that are ever capable of clogging your line. All you have to do is deploy an auto attendant. A robocall will be directed to a voice menu, where it gets stuck until it times out instead of reaching you. Different providers have different auto attendants, with varying modes of operations and consequently different effectiveness. If you aim to get one of the best services out there, you should definitely go with MightyCall.
A review from MightyCall user Varga Gulshani (Elegant Paining) directly mentioned how well this has worked for his business number, writing,
Security and safety.
If you get a second phone number (virtual phone number), all incoming calls will be forwarded to a device you choose, which means you only need to have one phone on you. This setup prevents hackers and scammers from doing what they do best: hacking and scamming you. You will be entirely off the radar of a potential cybercriminal as only the business number is made publicly available. Any threat will be directed towards the servers of your provider, and they are definitely more equipped to combat such attacks than either an average citizen or company.
You can fully control employee-customer interaction.
A virtual phone system allows you to conveniently have control over the calls coming in and going out of every division of your business. This is so because you can create directories for each division of your company, enter each employee’s details and assign to each an extension through which customers can access different divisions of your company. And, the whole process runs through your desk. You can record and keep track of calls, monitor call statistics per employee and much more.
Flexibility of phone number and contact.
Your business is not bound to a particular number such that when a phone or number gets lost, you have to waste resources reprinting promotional materials to keep your customers updated. Opting for a virtual phone number will save you a lot of trouble when you have to change your number due to a loss of your previous one, switching mobile carriers, or any other reasons. Once you have a virtual phone number, it stays with you, so the inconvenience of switching mobile carriers or numbers is limited to your private affairs. And if due to any circumstance you decide to move to another virtual phone service provider, you can easily port your existing number.
Ensures privacy and work-life balance.
Since you are using a second phone number for your business, i.e. the virtual phone number, your private and personal life is separated from your business life. You can easily determine when and who to receive calls from. This is done by configuring the system to forward calls to you and your employees depending on the time, the day of the week, and the caller’s number. You can set the system to forward calls to your cell phone during business hours and to direct calls to voicemail after hours. You can also include a VIP list, allowing for certain people to call you anytime.
There are however even more advantages of a second phone number.
Music on Hold and Your Custom Greeting:
This is another advantage of choosing a virtual phone number. This feature is especially enjoyed by users of MightyCall.
Unlike the conventional voicemail in mobile carriers, here you get to greet clients with different greetings, depending on who’s calling and when. The music on hold and custom greetings feature helps you create a good first impression with callers and potential customers.
Another thing that might interest you to know is that you can actually have more than one business number! This is especially useful if you are operating two or more businesses. You can run these businesses with different business numbers coming from the same virtual phone system. In a nutshell, your ‘second phone number’ can function as a third, fourth, fifth and more, while still technically playing the role of your ‘second phone number’. However, you should know that this feature (of two or more numbers) is made available by different virtual phone service providers at differing rates, and some don’t even support it at all. If you are a MightyCall user however, you’ve lucked out.mu
Conference calling:
If you are the type that operates a large scale business, in which you usually need to hold meetings with many associates, then you will be glad to hear about the conference call feature.
You can now quite easily hold meetings and conduct collective talks with your partners from anywhere. This feature has a lot of advantages, some of which are:
- It is quite easy to set up: You can organize a conference call within seconds.
- There is an option to record calls: You can record your virtual conference meetings for later review.
- You don’t need to buy any additional hardware or even pay extra.
One of the many features MightyCall users enjoy for free.
Conference calls undoubtedly improve business since it saves you quite a lot of time. And time, they say, is money. You can link up two or more people during a conference call (for example, link up your technician to a client in order to directly address pressing issues).
If you wish to still be able to answer calls from work after business hours, MightyCall makes that possible. A lot of entrepreneurs of fast-growing businesses are always business conscious, not wanting to miss out on any potential transaction. If you are that type of entrepreneur, then after hours call routing is for you. You get to handle calls differently for business and non-business hours.
I’m sure by now you are ready to get your second phone number. And with all the features MightyCall has to offer, there’s only one rational choice for your business.
