For many businesses starting up, it can be challenging to appear established. More established companies can generate significant customer interest, which can leave minimal room for startups, especially online. This can be even trickier if you want to operate using a remote team, as it can seem that companies that have a physical presence in a community do better than those that have remote workers.
Luckily, there are options that can help boost a small business or startup, with one of the most profitable (and cheapest) being to invest in a virtual phone number. If you're unfamiliar with this concept, read on as our team walks you through how it may be the best option for your company.
What is A Virtual Phone Number?
So, what is a virtual phone number? A UK virtual number is a phone number that isn't tied to a set location. A person can call a virtual mobile number, and it will be forwarded to a phone of your choice, helping you to receive calls from your customer base anywhere, using an internet connection.
This is a great solution to help your business appear professional without the need to rent or buy a physical office. Plus, it can allow you to take business calls at home, forward calls to your remote team, or even take calls when you are on holiday.
How They Help With Startups
That's all well and good, but you may be questioning how a UK virtual number can help boost a startup's local presence.
Provide Local Customer Support
One of the great things about a virtual UK mobile number, or even a non-mobile virtual number in the UK, is that you get to choose the number starting code. Our team knows that many customers who are reaching out for support will rarely want to call a number that is outside their area code, often due to fear of incurring long-distance fees. When you come to us to discuss a UK virtual phone number, we will help you select one that matches your business area code.
Alternatively, we can investigate multiple phone numbers for different departments or based across different area codes where your client base is located. If you want to reach customers across the UK with different local numbers, we will suggest toll-free numbers, as this can keep costs down for your customers.
Enhance Marketing Campaigns
A core part of any startup business is its marketing campaign.
Online, this can look like A/B testing, but what about using a UK virtual number to track which areas generate the most calls to your business? Your business phone number can be linked to VoIP services to help you identify which parts of the UK have the highest interest in your business or service. Doing so can help you target your marketing efforts more effectively, offering a greater return on investment (ROI). Our team can then offer you a virtual number UK-based around that area code, which will help you establish a local presence without costing you anything extra.
Routing to Remote Teams
Are you a business that has a lot of remote team members? Choosing a local phone number for your company via UK virtual phone numbers can help with call forwarding from a specific area in the UK to your team in another location or even another country without costing you anything extra. This can save you money, as you don't have to invest in a physical office in that area, which can then be reinvested in other parts of the business.
Things To Be Aware Of
Of course, having UK virtual phone numbers can be a boon for small businesses who want to expand or for startups, but what are some things to be aware of?
Spam ID
When you choose one of our UK virtual phone numbers at Dial 9, this won't happen, but it is something to be aware of. Your internet-connected phone number may be flagged on mobile phones as spam in certain parts of the United Kingdom if the number isn't correctly registered. Always verify that the number you have chosen and the company you have chosen to use operate on verified numbers only.
Call Quality
Again, this is unlikely to happen with our system at Dial 9, as we typically don't provide excessive equipment when setting up a virtual phone number, and we operate via SIP trunks However, many providers of virtual phone numbers may offer substandard service, which can result in poor phone call quality or dropped calls altogether.
FAQs
Are Virtual Phone Numbers Beneficial For Businesses?
Yes, a virtual phone number can help boost a business's local presence by using a localised phone number dialling code. They can also route calls to remote teams, which lowers start-up costs. Plus, they are simple to set up when you call our team at Dial 9.
Can These Numbers Be Used For International Calls?
Yes, they can, and they can also receive international calls. One of the things that makes our service the best virtual phone number in the UK is that we offer call forwarding. This is provided at no extra cost to our customers for international calls to mobile phones, secondary phones, or voicemails. So, you will be able to make and receive calls internationally, as well as locally, with no additional costs to your company.
How Can These Numbers Be Used With Remote Work Teams?
Absolutely! All our virtual phone numbers can be used to forward calls to your business to a remote team anywhere in the country or the world. This is one of the main things that our customers call us about. Plus, best of all, you don't have to pay for the installation or upkeep of additional equipment. We simply just make an adjustment to your configuration, which can be done via our online portal, and you're good to go. Our virtual phone numbers also scale well, so as your business expands, more people in your remote teams can take on calls as well as receive more calls.
