How to Run Multiple Businesses from a Single Phone

When you’re not familiar with virtual phone systems, the idea of running more than one business from a single phone might seem like a really bad idea, if it’s even possible at all. But it is more than possible; it actually works excellently if you have a virtual phone system like Talkroute. What you’ll see in this post is a breakdown of the steps you can take for exactly how to set it up in a very short amount of time, with an explanation of the features that you will have at your disposal. Open a Talkroute Account To get started, just go to talkroute.com/sign-up and sign up for a new account. Don’t worry; there is a free trial period, so you don’t have to commit right away. If you do decide to take advantage of the trial, then you can select a temporary, working phone number which you can …

How You Can Guard Against Phone Number Spoofing

Caller ID spoofing (for lack of a better term, apparently) is simply masking the outgoing caller ID with a number other than the real one, which is technically not illegal unless you’re doing it for unlawful purposes.   The reason it’s not illegal is because there actually are legitimate purposes for spoofing, such as businesses who want to show only one phone number for multiple lines, as part of a PBX system, or victims of domestic abuse who want to hide their number for safety reasons. It is definitely illegal, however, if someone spoofs a phone number to impersonate a bank, for example, in order to solicit your account information. Though it can be difficult to track down the person responsible, there is some action you can take to protect yourself. When you suspect a caller to be a malicious spoofer Use common sense. Caller ID spoofers can sometimes be …

How to Keep Your Office Phones on During an Outage

No phone network is perfect. No matter what type of phone system you have in your office, there is always the chance of an outage, which is why you can’t put all your eggs into one basket, as it were. Here we’ll go over the two major types of business phone systems, the shortcomings of each, and how you can keep your calls coming in, no matter what happens. Conventional Office Phone System If your office has a traditional phone system that works over the PSTN (the old-school, wired telephone network), then you’re fairly safe. It’s for this reason that Talkroute connects calls over the PSTN, to make sure that users always have a reliable connection. As we all know, the old landline in the house (if you still have one) will work even during a power outage. It still works when the power is out because that landline is …

Why Doesn’t My Company Name Show on Caller ID?

    This article will give you an overview of how the company name is set for outgoing caller ID, including a description of the process and why, sometimes, it doesn’t show up for the person you are calling.   Our Talkroute engineers collaborated on this post to provide valuable insight into how caller ID works, and what you can do to make sure your caller ID name is accurate.   CNAM (Caller ID Name) Firstly, the CNAM is the name that shows up on the receiving party’s caller ID when you call a number. When your call comes in on the phone of the person you dialed, their carrier retrieves the CNAM record, and displays your name on the receiving phone’s caller ID.   The CNAM has a 15-character limit, so a name exceeding this length will be cut off in the displayed caller ID.   The Neustar Database …

10 Steps to Handle a Tough Customer on the Phone

    1. Listen. This has to be one of the most crucial aspects of handling difficult callers, and customers in general. When you really listen to what they are trying to tell you, you are simultaneously showing concern and gaining insight into the issue they are having, which helps you to find a solution. Also avoid the impulse to talk over them, even if you have good news.   2. Provide validation to the caller. Many times, the person screaming at you on the phone just you to recognize that they are upset for a good reason. Many customer service professionals have a tendency to talk down to the customer because they don’t understand what is happening, and this is wrong. Instead of just telling them to “calm down”, try saying, “You’re right—this is a problem, and we are going to find a solution.”   3. Don’t react emotionally. …

What Happens After You Port a Number to a Virtual PBX?

The foremost thing you have to understand about ports is that when you take your number from one service provider, and port it to a provider, it is a clean transfer. That is, once the port to your new virtual PBX is complete, the phone number is no longer associated with the losing carrier, in any way. This leads us to the second most important point, which is this: The old phone will stop working. Let’s say that 555-1234 is your primary business phone number, and this number is attached to a desk phone in your office. What makes it possible for that desk phone to ring when people dial 555-1234? It rings because the service provider, whether AT&T, or Comcast, or whoever, has activated the line going into this phone by attaching the number, 555-1234, to that line. When you port that number away to your new provider, the …

Area Code, Prefix, & Other Parts of a Phone Number

Did you ever wonder where the digits in your phone number come from, and what they mean? As you probably suspected, each segment has a reason for being there. Like most codes, it contains information in each part that allows it to function properly and to send your call to the right place. If you dial a phone number using even one digit more or less than the exact code (we’ve all tried it), then you quickly find that it simply doesn’t work. While we take it for granted that phone numbers work and don’t really think about how this number connects our call, the system is made possible by those groups of numbers working together in just the right way. Now you can finally understand what each part of the phone number means, and what it does. Call it Like it Is First things first—let’s name each part of …

Backup Phone System for Any Business

  Your business depends on your phones, possibly more than any other system you have. Whether by network malfunction or act of God, there is no way to predict when the phones may go temporarily out of service—but you can prepare for it. Why leave it to chance?   Talkroute forwards your calls to any phone and any provider; that means you can use your cell phone, landline, or any other phone to take business calls while your primary system is down.   You can have a fully functional phone system that requires next to no maintenance, on deck and ready for those times when your primary phones unexpectedly go out.   HERE’S HOW IT WORKS   Pick a local or toll free number from our library of phone numbers, or transfer an existing number to Talkroute, which will serve as your main backup business line.   Add forwarding phones …

Telephone Terminology: Virtual Phone System Terms

Many of the terms associated with telephony are self-explanatory and familiar, but occasionally you’ll hear one that you’re not quite sure of, which is why we’ve compiled a short list of commonly used phone system terms. If you’re already a Talkroute user, this will also help you understand your system. Please feel free to leave a comment below if you’re wondering about a term that isn’t listed here. Forwarding Phone Number As part of a virtual phone system such as Talkroute, your forwarding numbers are all the phones to which calls are routed. When calls come into the main line, they are routed to the forwarding numbers—these are the phones that will actually ring. Virtual Phone Number or Talkroute Phone Number Your main business line with a Talkroute account is your virtual number, otherwise referred to as your Talkroute number. You may have multiple Talkroute numbers on a single account, …

Is a Virtual Phone Number the Same as a Standard Number?

When you first hear about virtual phone numbers, you might be a little apprehensive about using them for your business because it seems as if this is an entirely different kind of number, but it actually works just the same, and in some ways better than a number you would get from a phone company. A virtual number is not a soft phone number, it is not a VoIP number, and it is even more versatile than a conventional number. A virtual number works just like the numbers you’re used to. When you say, “virtual number”, it sounds like it’s not quite a real number, or that there’s something strange about it, but this is not the case. You receive calls in the same way, and when someone calls your virtual number, they will be instantly connected to you from anywhere, as you would expect. They can also be local …