Virtual Phone Numbers Open up International Markets to Firms of all Sizes

Until the close of the last century the majority of businesses focused on their local or national markets. How could a small business even consider opening offices around the world on a limited budget? The owner or manager would most likely have laughed at the marketing expert who came up with such a suggestion.

A business on a limited budget does not have the funds to invest in renting office space in cities around the world, not to mention hiring the staff to man them. Advertising their products or services in different countries is also not such an appealing option. In addition to the costs of setting up the campaign, business people know that potential customers think twice before calling an expensive overseas phone number to inquire about a service or product. They will naturally prefer to deal with a business that has, or at least appears to have, strong local roots.

Faced with these costs of establishing foreign offices, and uncertain prospects of success, it is easy to appreciate why foreign commerce was left to the larger and well-financed companies. Only firms of a certain size could shoulder the personnel, property and telecom costs involved. This was the situation for many years prior to the advent of internet phone systems.

Business goes Virtual

The spread of internet (also known as VoIP) phone systems over the past decade and a half transformed the international commercial scene. Without the heavy equipment overheads of landline phone providers, internet phone services can offer clients much lower call rates. At the same time, through introducing virtual phone numbers they opened up the world of international commerce to the smallest of businesses.

The simplicity of the virtual number concept should not detract from its revolutionary nature. In contrast to landline numbers associated with a particular phone number, virtual numbers are free of specific physical ties. The client determines where incoming calls to their virtual numbers are forwarded. If they wish, calls are forwarded to an operator in their call center, to a field engineer or a sales representation. They may forward calls to landlines or to any device with a reasonable internet connection.

Companies now attract customers from outside their home market by buying virtual numbers in the target country or countries. This idea also works very well within large countries. For example, people who live in California are more likely to phone a business with a San Francisco than a New York number. However, the most significant gains certainly come from using virtual numbers in different countries.

The virtual number looks like any other local number in that country. People who call the number only pay their local national rates instead of the international call rates. In addition, for added prestige and an additional boost to sales, internet phone companies offer their clients international toll-free number. Providing free and local virtual phone numbers to callers give them a positive message about the firm’s commitment to people in their locality. The low calling cost and the impression that this is a business that cares for their custom, encourage them to call.

Easy to Use Virtual Phone Systems

In contrast to getting new landline numbers, VoIP service providers make virtual phones numbers available to purchases within a few minutes. There are no hardware expenses or phone engineer visits to dig into the telecommunications budget. The best internet phone services even offer a choice of multi-channel virtual numbers in cities where the firm wants to attract custom. They also provide a free-to-download cloud PBX to manage the business internet phone system.

As soon as the virtual numbers go active the company representatives handle foreign customer calls from their main office thousands of miles across the ocean. Instead of having to spend a small fortune setting up a physical presence in some attractive distant market, for a few dollars the firm has the chance to open virtual offices in cities around the world. In many cases businesses can find virtual phone numbers on offer with no connection charges and monthly fees of no more than $2 or $3.

Elena Volozova is a Regional Marketing Specialist at Zadarma. Her passion for breakthrough technologies combined with extensive knowledge of international marketing make her an expert in the business field.