What Is a Virtual Phone Number & How Do You Get One?

Getting a virtual phone number is a simple, cost-effective way for your business to establish a local presence, save on long-distance calling, and benefit from the flexibility of VoIP.

When your small business is ready to expand its market, add more employees, and manage a higher volume of customer service requests, a virtual business phone number is an absolute necessity.

Because virtual telephone numbers let users make and receive voice calls via the Internet, they offer HD call quality, mobility, advanced features, and additional conveniences traditional wired PSTN phones can’t.

But what is a virtual number, and how does it work? How will having one–or more–benefit your business, and how can you get one?

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• What is a Virtual Phone Number?
• How Does a Virtual Phone Number Work?
• Different Types of Virtual Numbers
• Benefits of a Virtual Phone Number
• How to Get a Virtual Phone Number
• Overview Virtual Phone Number Providers
• Virtual Phone Number FAQs

What is a Virtual Phone Number?

A virtual phone number is a cloud-based telephone number that facilitates voice calling via the Internet instead of a physical connection to the wired Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN.) 

Landlines direct calls via circuit switching, and are tied to one specific location/address. These traditional phone systems require onsite setup, storage, and maintenance–and adding another phone line means a disruptive, lengthy, and expensive installation process.

In contrast, virtual numbers (sometimes called VoIP numbers) facilitate internal and external business communications without depending on a traditional analog network. VoIP numbers use broadband or wireless Internet to establish a virtual connection to phone networks.

Instead of being linked to a physical address, virtual phone numbers are assigned to individuals, departments, branches, or even specific groups of agents (called a shared line.)

This virtual connection also means users can access their VoIP number from anywhere in the world, on any device with Internet access, via softphone interface. These devices can include desktop and laptop computers, cell phones, tablets, and even IP deskphones. VoIP facilitates voice calling via a mobile softphone application that’s accessible on multiple devices simultaneously.

Virtual phone numbers are also much more scalable than traditional analog phones.

Businesses can choose as many VoIP numbers as they need–and access unlimited extensions–directly from the VoIP service provider admin portal. The processing of adding a new phone number to your account takes just a few minutes, and several types of virtual numbers (local, toll-free, international, vanity) are available.

Virtual phone service also comes with more advanced VoIP features than landlines, including:

• Call routing
• Call forwarding
• On-demand/automatic call recording and transcription
• Visual voicemail
• Call blocking and Caller ID
• Ring groups
• Call waiting and call queuing
• Call park, call flip, call hold, call transfer
• Business text messaging (SMS and MMS)
• Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)
• Auto-attendant
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
• Third-party integrations

Virtual Phone Numbers vs Traditional Phone Numbers

The below table provides a quick overview of virtual phones vs traditional phone systems:

How Does a Virtual Phone Number Work?

A virtual phone number works by breaking up outbound voice audio into tiny data packets that travel to their call destination via the Internet. Once these data packets have arrived at the recipient’s device, they reassemble into crystal-clear voice audio.

A stable, high-speed Internet connection with a minimum bandwidth of 100kbps is the most important aspect of quality Voice over Internet Protocol communication. Some businesses may need to upgrade their Internet speed before switching to virtual telephony, and should contact their ISP to do so.

Once you have sufficient bandwidth for your business needs, all you’ll need to use a virtual number is a VoIP router, an Ethernet cord, and your preferred calling device. Keep in mind that you can use your existing equipment and keep your current phone number when switching to VolP business phone system.

Additional VoIP equipment, like VoIP-enabled desk phones, headsets, speakers, and microphones are all optional. Virtual phone numbers come ready with HD audio functionality and include features like noise cancellation, background noise suppression, and adjustable audio levels.

Different Types of Virtual Numbers

There are four main types of virtual phone numbers businesses use:

• Local Numbers: Local phone numbers give businesses a local presence, regardless of their physical location, by providing virtual phone numbers with local area codes and number prefixes. Customers are more likely to take phone calls from a familiar area code, increasing consumer trust in your business.
• Toll-Free Numbers: Toll-free numbers are national phone numbers that charge calling costs to businesses, not consumers. This way, customers can reach a brand from anywhere without incurring long-distance fees. Toll-free numbers also help your business appear more established.
• Vanity Numbers: Vanity numbers are toll-free numbers that end in catchy alphanumeric phrases or numbers that are easy to remember and help consumers understand what your business does. Example: 1-800-DOG-FOOD or 1-887-GET-KALE
• International Numbers: Similarly to local numbers, local international numbers make a business appear local to foreign/international markets. Calling costs are charged at the local country rates.

If you already have an existing business phone number you’d like to continue to use, your VoIP provider uses number porting to transfer your current landline number to your new account with them. Number porting is typically free or carries a one-time porting fee.

Benefits of a Virtual Phone Number

Virtual phone numbers offer numerous benefits to businesses of all sizes and across all industries.

Smaller businesses can avoid giving out their personal phone number while appearing more established and legitimate to customers. Plus, they can keep their existing equipment and enjoy unlimited monthly local and long-distance calling to help keep operating expenses low.

Larger companies will benefit from the advanced features, incoming call flow management, scalability, and compliance regulations virtual phone numbers provide.

Below, we’ll explore additional virtual phone system benefits.

Link Business Locations with One Phone Number

With a virtual phone number, several business locations around the globe can use a single, centralized number to answer inbound calls.

If a customer in a particular timezone needs help, they’ll be connected with an agent that’s in their timezone–so customer support isn’t limited to the company’s business hours within just one geographic location.

Call routing strategies can be location-based or time-based, meaning customers will instantly be connected to an available agent regardless of when they call–and even if the initial contact number is located hundreds of miles from the specific extension.

Multiple language menu options and language-based routing are also available, so there’s no need for international customers to dial a separate phone number or sit through endless IVR menus.

Receive Calls Anywhere

Virtual phone numbers deliver more flexibility for remote and blended team members–and even in-office employees that need to make business calls on-the-go, and from any desktop device or mobile phone.

Call forwarding lets agents receive calls on multiple phone numbers–without requiring the customer to hang up and redial another number. Call forwarding also lets agents protect their personal numbers.

Unanswered calls to an office phone number can automatically be forwarded to an agent’s smartphone, a ring group, a home phone number, or a voicemail box after a predetermined amount of time or number of rings.

Corresponding VoIP number mobile apps let agents manage voicemails, make/receive calls, join audio conferences, and even update call settings from anywhere with Internet access.

This level of mobility and the ability to forward calls eliminates the frustration of having to wait by the phone in one place, increases both customer satisfaction and employee morale, and boosts first call resolution rates.

Provide Dial-in Numbers for International Markets

Some products thrive overseas, and one of the best ways to expand into foreign markets is by providing customers with a local number to reach your organization.

Virtual phone numbers aren’t limited to U.S. area codes and 800 numbers. You can also purchase international numbers from some providers, making it easy for your foreign customers to reach you.

With a virtual phone number, it’s easy to set up a call center in a region like Nova Scotia and receive calls from customers based in foreign markets like Italy.

The caller won’t have to dial long distance, and there’s no indication they’re dialing out of the country. International coworkers and clients can even access audio conference calling with ease.

This allows your business to provide a strong customer service experience to foreign consumers without needing to open local call centers.

Measure Performance of Sales and Marketing

VoIP phone numbers provide detailed, interactive 24/7 performance monitoring and reporting.

You’ll be able to designate and keep track of essential KPIs, identify workflow bottlenecks, gain a greater insight into your customers, and more accurately evaluate support quality.It’s also possible to link specific phone numbers with certain marketing campaigns, instead of using your main phone number. This helps you to more effectively measure the performance and conversion rates of those campaigns.

You can even automate and export reports from pre-made and customizable templates, as well as set real-time alerts for when performance metrics are close to dipping below minimum standards.

In short?

A birds-eye-view of all your voice calling activity is always available at your fingertips.

How to Get a Virtual Phone Number

To get a virtual phone number, all you need to do is sign up with a VoIP phone service provider, check to see if your desired number is available, choose a number type, and select from a list of available virtual numbers.

Then, enter your payment method, create your account, and begin calling–the whole process only takes a few minutes

Note that, while there are free virtual phone number providers (like Google Voice) many don’t offer the options of unlimited calling or the ability to connect to multiple users. When you want customer calls routed to the right place without restrictions, a subscription service is the way to go.

Overview of Virtual Phone Number Providers

The table below provides an overview of the five providers that offer toll-free, local, and vanity virtual phone numbers in their plans.

Virtual Phone Number FAQs

Below, we’ve answered some of the top FAQs about virtual phone numbers.