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With the rise of the internet and other related technologies, business has started moving faster than ever. Customers and clients are no longer limited to your local area and have countless choices. If a prospect can’t contact you when it’s time to make the final decision, they’ll move on to the next vendor.
A lot of solutions have sprung up to address the paradigm shift occurring right under our noses. One of the solutions small businesses are adopting is call forwarding.
Though call forwarding isn’t new, it used to be cumbersome. When combined with VoIP and virtual numbers, it becomes an effective way to project a local presence wherever your customers are, catch all incoming calls, and offer better support. Here we’ll look at what call forwarding is, the benefits, and a few of the must-have features.
Recommended call forwarding services
These are some of the most recommended call forwarding services on the market:
What is call forwarding?
A call forwarding service allows calls placed to one number to ring on another number. There’s no limit to where the call can be forwarded. Send it to your cell phone, home phone, office phone, or even the phone of someone else (like a colleague).
A call forwarding number is useful when you’re out of the office much of the time but don’t want to hand out your personal cell phone number. It can also be used for customer service, traveling, sales, and more. It gives you the flexibility to work from anywhere.
The ability to forward phone calls is a feature of most VoIP (Voice over IP) services. When you sign up for VoIP, you’re able to forward the virtual numbers you receive to any other phone. It comes with the majority of packages so you won’t be looking at an add-on fee to use it.
How to set up a call forwarding service
Services like Ringcentral have made it easy to get started with call forwarding.
Though the process is slightly different for every VoIP provider, the overall workflow is the same.
- Sign up for an account and finish the general onboarding.
- Set up at least one phone line.
- Go to the settings for the phone line you set up and look for the call forwarding option.
- Enable it and set a call forwarding number.
- Save your changes and test it.
There should be no more than 10 steps with any VoIP provider you choose. Most are considerably less.
Costs associated with call forwarding
When compared to traditional carriers, call diverting costs via a VoIP provider like RingCentral are negligible.
For example, AT&T doesn’t charge for call forwarding itself but may charge you for roaming and long distance if you forward the call outside of your home coverage area. That simply isn’t an issue when you forward phone calls via your VoIP service. It was built to remove barriers to between teams and clients.
There are no extra costs associated with using call forwarding because it comes standard on most VoIP plans. In fact, you’ll save money for yourself and your customers because you can create virtual numbers for their locality and forward it to anywhere in the world.
For example, if a customer is calling from London and you’re in Houston, you can give them a London number and it’ll automatically be forwarded to your Houston office. With a VoIP powered call forwarding solution, you’ll be able to save hundreds of dollars per employee.
Benefits of call forwarding
There are many benefits of a call divert solution. We’ll go over a few here to give you an idea of how versatile it can be.
- Forward calls to as many forward phones as you like so they ring simultaneously (or one after the other). When someone picks the call, it stops ringing everywhere. This increases the likelihood that the call is answered in a timely manner and creates a better impression as well as trust with customers.
- Set rules based on time of day or day of the week so your calls always go to the right place. For example, you can forward calls to your office on weekdays between 8AM-5PM. From 5PM – 7PM calls go to your cell phone. After 7PM, calls are sent to voicemail or a recorded message.
- Cut out a lot of costs associated with customer support by forwarding calls to specific informational extensions. If the caller doesn’t get the right information there, they can choose to speak to a live rep.
- If you’re a small team or constantly out of the office, the biggest benefit of call forwarding is mobility. You’re no longer tied to a desk and can take the next meeting without worrying about how long you’ll be away from a phone.
- Project professionalism by using virtual number extensions. It’s possible to set the forward phone based on an extension appended to the end of the main number. It goes directly to the department or employee the caller is looking for and gives small businesses the appearance of being larger without the associated costs.
Must-have features
Call forwarding is a feature of VoIP services but also there are other important features to consider.
- Multiple ringing locations: You should be able to forward calls to multiple numbers at once. It ensures the caller is answered in a timely manner.
- Caller ID: This isn’t your standard caller ID. Instead, you’re able to define a department or source as the originator of the call so you can answer appropriately. For example, you can set the originator as sales department or customer service. Conversely, you can set the source based on location.
- Conditional and immediate call forwarding: This gives you the ability to define when the call is forwarded and where. You can set up timeframes where it goes directly to your office phone number and other timeframes when it goes to your cell phone or a prerecorded message. This is one of the areas where Zoom Phone excels.
These are just a few of the many features you can find with VoIP call forwarding solutions.
Conclusion
Business moves faster than ever and it demands that we’re connected at all times to deliver our promise. That means timely answers to sales and support calls. Unfortunately, we can’t be glued to a single place all day in order to receive those calls. Call forwarding is a way to get the most out of your time and limited resources.
With a VoIP powered call forward solution, you’re able to project professionalism at a fraction of the cost associated with traditional phone systems. It lets you divorce your desk while you give superior support to your customer, catch sales calls, and reduce costs.
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