Why You Should Give Toll Free Numbers a Try

Does your business have a toll free number? It’s understandable if you want to project a connection with your community with a local phone number, which is a tried and true strategy. Meanwhile, there are always toll free numbers available if you want to convey an established, national feel to customers. The following reasons are why you should consider it. A Variety of Area Codes Many people think that toll free numbers only have the (800) area code, but that’s definitely not the case. A toll free number can have the area codes, 888, 877, 866, 855, 844, or 833—and they are all the same type of phone number; there is no difference except for the digits in the area code. That gives you a lot of options, so that you’re much more likely to find the number that you want, as opposed to the limited selection you’ll find in …

Why Your Business Needs to Use Call Forwarding

  Call forwarding isn’t what it used to be. It has evolved into a fairly standard feature of phone systems and is far more variable and useful than it was with the local phone company. Whether your business has one cell phone to take calls, or 25 employees, call forwarding can streamline the way you manage calls.   It Is Becoming a Standard Tool Consider the analogy of music recording technology. 30 years ago, musicians wouldn’t even attempt to add complicated features to their recorded songs, and they had no way to clean up the recordings and make them sound professional—they had to go to a big, expensive studio. Now, there are tools available to everyone which, when applied to their recordings, put them on the same level as the pros. Those tools are now standard, freely available, and routinely utilized because they simply make everything sound better. The same …

6 Ways to Use a Virtual Phone Number

  Virtual phone numbers tend to still be a little esoteric, even though people who are running a business usually have some idea of what they are. In reality, there isn’t too much difference between a virtual phone number and a regular phone number, and in fact, it’s helpful to think of a virtual number simply as a regular number that happens to be hosted by a virtual service provider. Here’s what you can do with your virtual phone number.   Make Calls Even though a virtual number is not attached to a phone, you can make outbound calls from your existing phones, while showing your virtual number on the caller ID (as part of a virtual phone system like Talkroute).   Receive Calls People can dial your virtual phone number to reach you just like any other phone number, and the experience is exactly the same for the caller. …

The #1 Mistake We Make When Choosing a Phone Service

Whether you’re choosing your phone system for a new small business, or updating your existing system, there are a lot of factors to consider. Is a traditional wired system more appropriate, or is your business structure better suited for a virtual phone system? Do you need certain features, like multi-digit extensions or variable forwarding settings? There may be many different service providers that offer what you need; so, it can be overwhelming to choose between them. That’s why many people ending up bypassing the whole selection process and just choose the most popular service provider, which is usually a mistake. Pick the Right One, the First Time You might get lucky and find that the most popular service, with whom you chose to sign up on a whim, actually does end up being a great fit for you. If you’re not lucky, however, that service may not be able to …

Read This Before You Switch Phone Service Providers

  First of all, if you are moving to a new service provider but do not need to keep your existing phone number, then there isn’t much to it—you cancel your old service, and start up with your new one. Although keeping your number when switching providers is not complicated, there are a couple of extra steps to complete the process seamlessly. This post assumes that you are keeping your existing number when you switch to a new provider.   If it’s your only number with them, the losing carrier will cancel your service. Many people do not consider this fact when making the phone service switch. If you only have one phone number with your current provider, and you are taking that number with you to the new provider, then your account with the previous provider is going to be cancelled as soon as you transfer your number out. …

Carriers & Service Providers—What’s the Difference?

  Most people typically use these two terms interchangeably, and though the carrier and the service provider are in some cases one in the same (this is explained later in this post), it’s important to make a distinction between them because they have two different functions. This article is an attempt to clarify the purpose and function of each entity to avoid any confusion, which could save you a lot of headache when communicating with your phone service.   What Is a Carrier? A phone carrier is the entity that makes it possible to connect our calls. This is what makes it different from a service provider because a provider cannot provide you with phone service without a carrier to connect your calls. They are also referred to as the “underlying carrier”, and they rarely interface with the customer—that’s where the service provider comes in. So, what is the actual …

Everything You Need for Professional Phone System

Everything You Need for a Professional Phone System

  Setting up the right phone system for your business does not have to be complicated, and it doesn’t have to be expensive. By utilizing and applying these key elements, you can set up a system that provides everything that is important to your callers.   Voicemail Greeting Most people buy a new phone and take 5 minutes out of their lives to record it quickly and never update it again until the next time they get a new phone. Instead of taking the haphazard approach, it will help to put a little effort into this, as it is a primary point of contact for calls that may be very important to you, professionally and personally. Read more: How to Record a Good Voicemail Greeting: What Your Callers Aren’t Telling You   Callers On Hold First and foremost, your caller will be much more comfortable on hold when they know …

Insider Tricks for Using a Virtual Phone System

You know when you get a new stereo, and then months later, you figure out things that you didn’t even know it could do? It’s a lot better to know those tricks beforehand, which is why this article contains a variety of tricks and shortcuts that you can use with a virtual phone system to save yourself time, and unnecessary frustration. Route Multiple Menu Options to the Same Phone Not every business has a huge staff of people who are answering phones, wherein the standard structure of each department routing to a different person’s phone line does not apply. You may be the only person answering your phones, in fact, which means you will need a way to offer multiple options for different departments, using only one forwarding phone. All you have to do is simply set your single phone number as the forwarding number for all of the menu …

The FCC and Your Phone Service: What You Need to Know

According to their official mission statement, the Federal Communications Commission is the government agency which “regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories.” The FCC, established in 1934, is subject to Congressional oversight and is “responsible for implementing and enforcing America’s communications law and regulations.” What does the FCC actually do? So that’s the official background of the agency; now, what is it that the FCC actually does—and how does it affect our phone service today? As you’ll see in this article, it is actually working behind the scenes of a number of different aspects of our daily communications. The FCC is the governing body that primarily makes sure that U.S. communications, including phone service of all types, meet a specific set of standards as it applies to various interests such as regulation, policing, infrastructure, …

The 4 Most Used Recordings for Your Phone System

To set up a great phone system means adding brief audio messages in the right places for your callers to provide information, direct them to the correct person, and even hold their attention so the caller doesn’t hang up before they reach you. These messages come in the form of greetings and announcements that make your business sound and function like a professional phone system. Educate yourself on what each kind of message is called and how it is used, with this quick reference guide of phone system audio sections. 1. Welcome Greeting The Welcome Greeting is an optional greeting that you would place as an initial message for callers which they hear as soon as your system picks up. This audio section is where you can include a basic, “Hello. Thank you for calling,” and a quick identification of your company if you like. The Welcome Greeting is not …