Time for a quick friendly reminder about using Local Numbers in major cities around the country to help build local business.
We know how important a toll free number is in establishing your business’s credibility and giving you the big business image you need. But don’t lose sight of the local business you could be missing out on by not using a local number in a big city.
By advertising New York phone numbers or Chicago phone numbers, you can grab some of the big city local business without stepping foot there. Add a local phone number to your iTeleCenter service and start advertising locally in that city.
We currently have numbers available in New York, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and Phoenix. We even have some of those hard to find area codes that local businesses are dying to get. Why not get local numbers in all of these cities and watch your business grow!
Virtual PBX extensions are part of a virtual phone system. Using this technology, you can route calls easily to any phone in any location! Imagine the convenience this can bring you if you’re a busy businessman who’s always on the move!
How Do Virtual PBX Extensions Work?
The system creates virtual—rather than physical—extension numbers that can then be registered to people as they wish. The system allows calls to be routed to any phone without having to worry about extra hardware or complicated physical construction of routing lines. Each extension can be set up to forward to that department or employee’s landline of mobile number.
How are Virtual PBX Extensions Useful?
You can route calls easily, which means you can have virtual extensions for your employees that they can set up with a forwarding number that is the most convenient for them to access. Here’s an example of how you can route calls easily with Virtual PBX extensions:
1. John Smith is a traveling salesman for The Johnson Widgets Company. Because of his job, he is often on the move, relying on his mobile phone to stay in touch with people back home.
2. Mary Jones is a tech support specialist with The Johnson Widgets Company. She typically works from home but does not want to give out her home phone number for privacy reasons.
3. When clients call The Johnson Widgets Company, they may want to reach Mr. Smith in sales at extension 101 or Ms. Jones in tech support at extension 102.
4. Mr. Smith can have his extension automatically route to his cell phone. So, when Mr. Smith is a thousand miles away from the company’s building and receives a call, his cell phone serves as his extension, and clients who want to speak with him can get in touch with him.
5. Ms. Jones can have her extension automatically route to her home phone. She gets the calls she needs to help her customers and her home number remains private.
Call Transfer – An Added Benefit
Remember those tech support calls Ms. Jones is handling? What happens if something is truly beyond repair and the customer needs to purchase a replacement?
The customer does not need to call back in to reach Mr. Smith. Instead, Ms. Jones can conveniently place the customer on hold and transfer the call right to Mr. Smith’s extension!
Do you have annoying ex-boyfriend, charity, relative or just some random caller that just won’t stop calling you? Sometimes, telling a person to stop calling you won’t work: you’ll have to stop annoying calls with call blocking, a rather useful feature for virtual phone systems. Call blocking, otherwise known as call rejection, is a process by which the user can make the caller believe your number is no longer in service.
Is Call Blocking Legal?
Of course it is. The reason why call blocking is legal is because people are entitled to their privacy; they have a right to protect themselves from annoying or possible threatening phone calls. Furthermore, this is also an issue of privacy. Have you ever heard of the “do not call list?” This list exempts you from receiving phone calls from most telemarketers in the United States. If there is a list such as this in place, then it is definitely legal to block individuals who you don’t want calling you.
How Do I Set Up Call Blocking?
Setting up call blocking to stop annoying phone calls using iTeleCenter is a rather simple process:
- Find the telephone number you want to add to call block’s rejection list.
- Access the Call Block option under the iTeleCenter Manage Settings Menu
- the phone number you want to block, click add, and repeat for all numbers you want to block.
- If you want to remove any number from call block, simply check the box next to the blocked number in the list and click save.
Stop annoying calls with call blocking, and you won’t regret it.
If you’re someone who spends more time on your computer than you do on your cell phone (which is a lot of you, actually), then you will be able to see the advantages in having your toll free voicemail messages emailed to you. If you get your messages emailed to you, then you will be able to simply open your email to find your messages. Here’s how traditional voicemail works.
- On your cell phone, you have a voicemail phone number you have to call in order to reach your messages.
- On your home answering machine, you have a physical box that stores your messages so that you can listen to them when you arrive at home. However, your voicemail box at home can fill up, preventing more people from leaving messages.
With each of those methods, you either have to consistently clear your voicemail, call using your cell phone, or otherwise go through a process to reach your messages. However, if you use a virtual phone system with the ability to email your messages, you’ll be much happier. The benefits of having your virtual phone system messages emailed to you include:
- Unlimited, instant access to your messages at your computer (or on your smart phone). If someone leaves you a voicemail that is sent to your email, you can immediately access it. You can view the caller ID, click to listen to the message right from the email and if you turned on the transcription service, you can READ your message!
- An easier process of access. Rather than calling your voicemail box or manually sorting through voicemail at home, you can simply open up the audio file in your email and listen to your message (or READ it).
- One location for all of your messages. If you have all calls come through your virtual phone system, all voicemail and notifications will be stored in one place.
It is becoming a necessary process in this day and age, and, as we spend more time dealing with our email, we need to make sure we have everything sent to it.
A vanity number, otherwise known as a phoneword, is a number that a business chooses that spells a particular word or phrase, usually a word or phrase that is associated with that business’ product or service. For instance, Stanley Steamer, a carpet cleaning company, uses 1-800-STEAMER as its vanity number. While the letters actually spell out a word, they only do so because the numbers used to spell out the word hold the letters that correspond to each number. Look at the dial pad on a telephone: each number corresponds to a few letters. Therefore, when you’re creating a vanity number for your business, you can literally spell out a word by using the numbers.
But why are vanity numbers so popular? To put it simply: vanity numbers help people remember a business’ number. Let’s look at the Stanley Steamer example:
- 1-800-STEAMER contains part of the company’s name, which also tells the customer what the business does.
- This vanity number is a simple word; therefore, if someone is looking at a dial pad and trying to spell it, it will be a relatively simple task.
- Potential customers don’t need to worry about memorizing a random string of numbers if they want to easily learn Stanley Steamer’s number.
- Having part of the company’s name in the phone number indicates professionalism. If a company has branded everything down to its own phone number, then its customers will know that it means business.
There is also a luxurious element that comes with vanity phone numbers. People have not always had the option of choosing a phone number that spells out a word; furthermore, only companies who are willing to spend the money on these vanity numbers are the the ones who will get them. Therefore, vanity phone numbers are also popular because of their “classy” aspect. If everyone could easily get a vanity phone number, then it would not be nearly as valuable. Vanity phone numbers are as popular as they are today because they indicate professionalism, help customers remember your business’ phone number, and are signs of class.
You’ve probably heard, “Call us at 1-800-XXX-XXXX Toll Free!” in television commercials before. But what exactly is a toll free number? See, the American consumer is trained to think positively when he or she hears “free;” it means there is no cost to the buyer. Therefore, if something is free, it is good; if you are advertising something free, then people will want to use it. As their name suggests, toll free numbers allow people to call a business without being charged; rather, the called party (the business) is billed for the call. So while it’s all well and good that Your Company Inc. will be billed for a call instead of a consumer, how does that help you market your business?
It’s simple: If people know what toll free numbers are, then they will see the obvious advantage to calling your business as opposed to one of your competitors. If I’m looking to buy flowers for my wife’s birthday, do I want to spend money on the actual phone call while I am making the order? I love my wife, but I’d rather not spend money on a phone call in addition to the money I’m spending on the order. Therefore, toll free numbers are advantageous because they are the cheaper, easier way to lure the consumer in to calling your business and, eventually, purchasing your product.
But wait: Isn’t the called party, such as your business, the one billed for the call? Doesn’t that mean that you’ll have to pay for the call, even if it doesn’t result in a sale? The answer to both of these questions is “yes,” but this doesn’t mean that a toll free number is a negative for a new business. On the contrary, if you’re advertisement budget is slim to none, then you’ll want to use a toll free number because the number of successful customers you get from the promise of a toll free number outweighs the amount of money you’ll need to spend on these toll free calls. So, if you don’t have much money to put towards advertising, then save your money and focus on advertising the toll free number; it’s simple, easy, and will probably result in more business for you!
If you’re a work at home mother, then you will absolutely need to use an 800 number; there’s no doubt about it. You see, if you’re running your business through your home, then your home phone number simply will not do while you are trying to advertise your business because your home phone number is most likely not an 800 number. But if you don’t want to pay for the extra 800 number, then why get it?
- An 800 number allows you to do business with people who are farther away, so you won’t have to worry about incurring long distance charges for your customers.
- 800 numbers are professional. Whenever you think of “1 800 numbers”, you most likely think of a company or corporation. The bottom line: an 800 number is professional, and it will make your business that much more attractive if you advertise it.
- An 800 number allows you to easily compartmentalize your business and personal calls.
This works in a few ways:
If you have an 800 number, you don’t have to give your home phone number to all of your clients. This is good for your privacy and convenience, as you will know that anyone who calls your home phone number isn’t doing it for the sake of your business.
If you have an 800 number, you will specifically know that people are calling it to talk to you as a business, not as a personal individual.
800 numbers can be personalized to specifically suit your business. For instance, Stanley Steamer uses 1-800-STEAMER as its vanity 800 number. This will make it easier for people to remember your business’ number if they happen to not have it written down.
Additionally, your 800 number does not need to be a new line for your home. Therefore, if you wish, you can save the expense of installing an additional phone line and simply have your 800 number tied to a virtual phone system like iTeleCenter. Due to its convenience, professionalism, and ability to expand your business, 800 numbers are essential for work at home mothers.
What is “call forwarding?” You may have heard of the term from your phone carrier, telemarketers, or on television. It may sound like a difficult, fancy term that only technologically-savvy people would understand, but call forwarding is actually a very simple concept. Let’s take a look at the following example:
- Sarah is a mother who runs a floral business from her home. Though her young son, Luke, is at school during the week, she also works on Saturdays, as her floral shop is open six days a week. However, Luke plays soccer in the local recreation league, and Sarah has promised her son she will go to every game. What can Sarah do to make sure she can run her business while watching her son?
- Sarah can activate call forwarding to her cell phone. If Sarah is using iTeleCenter’s virtual phone system, she can very easily forward her business calls to her cell phone number just like that! Calls will ring right to her cell phone.
Call forwarding allows you to be away from your business and living your life without entirely being disconnected from your business. If you’re waiting on an important call or a large order, then you should activate call forwarding to ensure that you won’t be missing anything important while you’re supporting your child or spending quality time with your friends. Call forwarding is simple to activate and can make your life incredibly convenient.
While it is important to spend time with the ones you love, you also have a responsibility to stay in touch with potential business contacts. After all, if someone calls your business and does not receive a timely response, then that person may lose interest in your business and decide to use another service instead of yours. So, call forwarding is an essential tool that you can use to make sure that you stay on top of your business while staying on top of your life!
Are you a realtor? Trying to get your property listings in front of the right audience?
Potential home buyers want to learn as much as possible about a property before sitting down and talking to a realtor about it. Here’s where iTeleCenter’s toll free numbers come in.
Here it is in a nutshell:
- Create an extension for each of your property listings.
- Record information for each property listing that includes as much information as you think a potential buyer would want to know before contacting you.
- Advertise your toll free number and extension where you list each property – on signs at the property, in real estate guides, in classifieds, etc.
Your potential buyers will be happy to have all of the information they want before they speak to you. Plus, it will save you the time and effort of speaking to callers who aren’t interested after hearing the details of the home.
Want your existing and potential customers to remember your number? Get a Vanity Number!
You’ve seen the ads for companies like 1800FLOWERS and 1800MATTRESS. I bet these numbers have stuck with you. Imagine doing the same for YOUR business. You can get a vanity number that will stick with YOUR customers.
A virtual phone system like iTeleCenter allows you to search for the vanity number of your choice. Although most 800 numbers are no longer available, there are plenty of 888, 877, 866 and 855 toll free numbers left in circulation to choose from.
When you search, use the 8xx option rather than specifically searching for 855 or 888 to maximize your results.
Think of a name or phrase that best describes your business. Are you a realtor in West Long Branch? How about searching for 8xx WLB HOME? Own a salon on Long Beach Island? How about 8xx LBI HAIR? If you are lucky, the exact match you are looking for will be found. You may need to try a few different options before settling on the best choice.
Keep in mind that there is a feature called Over-dial – where more than the normal 10 digits can be dialed but still result in the call going to the assigned number… in other words, if 855 TAX FORM is not available, you may opt for something like 855 2TAXFORM.
Vanity numbers spell something easy to remember – but they translate to regular numbers – 2=ABC, 3=DEF, etc. In the case of 855 2TAX FORM, the caller would dial 855-282-93676. Note the extra digit 6 at the end. This is the use of over-dial – the caller can enter it, but it is ignored in the dialing sequence.