Create a Phone Presence in another country with a Cloud-Based Virtual Phone Number

A local virtual phone number enables businesses to stand out from the crowd

How to buy a local phone number in the city where your callers are located has become increasingly important for international businesses.

The rise of e-commerce and online communication has made it more important than ever for companies to make it easy for customers and associates to make phone contact.

This is especially true when attempting to reach new markets around the world. This can be done using country specific call forwarding virtual phone numbers.

One strategy is to "appear local" in each market that you are targeting. This means that businesses should try to provide a point of contact phone number in the same country or region as their target audience and customer base.

By doing so, they can build trust and credibility with potential local customers, which can lead to increased sales and revenue.

One way to appear local is through the use of international call forwarding. Call forwarding is a service that allows businesses to create a local phone number in the country where their customers are located or in a country where they have initiated online marketing.

This enables customers to call a local number and be connected to the business, even if the business is based in another country.

Another way to appear local is through website localization. This involves creating a version of your website that is tailored to the language and cultural norms of the country or region you are targeting.

This can help to make your website more appealing to potential customers, as it shows that you understand their needs and preferences.

Social media is another powerful tool for appearing local. By creating social media accounts that are specific to each market you are targeting, you can build a following and engage with potential customers in a more personalized way.

This can help to create a sense of community and belonging, which can be a powerful motivator for purchasing decisions.

Overall, the "appear local, expand global" strategy is about finding ways to connect with your target audience on a more personal level. By creating a local phone number presence, businesses can build trust and credibility with potential customers, which can lead to increased sales and revenue.

• With the right tools and strategies, businesses can expand their reach around the world while still maintaining a local touch.

The ability for busineses to appear local when expanding their operations to other countries has become increasingly important for enterprises operating in the digital age.

The rise of e-commerce and online communication has made it more important than ever for companies to make it easy for customers and associates to make phone contact.

This is especially true when attempting to reach new markets around the world. This can be done using country specific cloud-based virtual phone numbers.

Choosing the 'Geographic (Local 2-Way Voice)' option

How it works

For example, assume you have a business located in any country and you have customers in Australia. Specifically you have contacts, customer, associates in Sydney. With our service, you can order a Sydney local number and make Sydney-to-Sydney calls.

The person you are calling will see your Sydney virtual phone number as your caller ID. In other words, you could be located in the UK (or anywhere) and call a customer in Sydney, Australia and have your caller ID displayed on their phone with your Sydney virtual phone number.

You will see the feature listed as a number type option on the order form if it is offered in the country where you need the number. The feature is available currently in about 70 countries out of 160.

Geographic (Local 2-Way Voice)

Local Focus: Specifically designed for local communication within the same city or geographic area.

Caller ID Localization: Displays the caller ID of the virtual phone number as if the call is originating from within the same city, enhancing credibility and trust.

Community Connection: Ideal for businesses targeting local customers, fostering a sense of community and familiarity.

Why use the Geographic (Local 2-Way Voice) feature

Make international calls displaying a local caller ID associated with the city of the person you are calling.

With the Geographic (Local 2-Way Voice) feature, the caller ID of the local virtual phone number you choose will appear on the call recipients phone regardless of what country you originate the call from.

How it Works
Voice Mail
Own a Number
Uses
SMS
Mobile Numbers
Guide
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Virtual phone numbers, also known as cloud phone numbers or international call forwarding numbers, are not tied to a specific location like a traditional phone number. The main difference is that the customer decides where the calls are routed which can be to any phone in the world.

Here's how virtual phone numbers work:

A user signs up for a virtual phone number. The customer selects the country where they want the number to work from. The service provider assigns a virtual phone number to the user. For instance, if a customer wants a London, UK phone number, they order the number and they receive the UK number as a part of the account activation email.

When someone calls the virtual phone number, the call is routed to whatever phone number the user chooses, such as a smartphone, landline or VoIP address. The calls to the virtual phone number are instantly forwarded to any phone number in any country the customer desires.

As an option, the user can also make outgoing calls using the virtual phone number. The call is placed through the service provider's VoIP system, and the call recipient sees the customer's virtual phone number on their caller ID.

There are many additional features included with the virtual phone number found here such as voicemail, call forwarding, and call recording to name a few. These features can be accessed and changed 24/7 by the customer using the online portal and free mobile app provided to the customer.

Virtual phone numbers are often used by businesses that want to have a local presence in different countries without having a physical location there. They are also used by individuals who want to keep their personal phone number private or have a temporary phone number for a specific purpose.

Overall, virtual phone numbers provide a convenient and cost-effective way to make and receive calls without being tied to a physical location or phone line.

Customer can choose a phone number in any of 160 countries.

Example

Let's say that you want to forward calls from the U.S. to a call center in India. You can order either a local or U.S. toll free phone number and then forward the calls to your designated call destination number, in this case an India call center.

This U.S. virtual phone number would look like any other local or toll free US phone number, yet instead of ringing to an office in the U.S., you would direct it to ring to your designated call center phone number in India. (your calls can ring to any phone in any country you wish). This could be any combination of countries that fit your purpose, such as a Hong Kong number that diverts calls to Malaysia, etc.

How to Configure Call Forwarding Voice Mail

Australia virtual number example

Automatically save voicemail messages from your callers
Once you set up your voice mail greeting, our voice mail system will automatically save your messages from incoming callers in an easily accessible location. You can listen to your messages anytime two ways:

Listen to voice mail using your online portal
To manage your voice mail messages, log in to your online Account Portal and click ‘Check Voice Mail’ to access the voice mail inbox window. On this window, you can listen, download, delete or mark messages as read or unread. Also, on this window, you can click download to save the message file on your computer.

Listen to voice mail via email
Voice mail to email forwarding provides an easy way to listen to your messages without ever needing to pick up your phone. Select the email with the voice mail and click on the attachment. The voice mail inbox window will open. Click the ‘Play’ button to listen to the desired message.

Manage Voice mail By Sending to Your Email
Voice mail to Email is a feature included in every virtual phone number plan. With this feature, you can forward incoming voice mail to your email inbox. Manage your voice mail to email settings through our online Portal, access it globally from any device.

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Buy a Global Call Forwarding Phone Number
Own and Control a Phone Number In Another Country
View Rate Plans and Availability
Let's assume that it's important to you to provide a New York City phone number to your callers. Just as an example, you can order a local number in many different area codes in the State of New York as with many other U.S. cities.

To continue with the New York example, if you chose a New York City number with a (646) area code, many New Yorkers, not all, could dial your 646 number and not have to pay any additional long distance fees to their local phone company to reach your virtual number.

A local virtual number will permit a caller within the same city or area code of your chosen local number to connect to your local number without any cost to the caller within that same area code, and many times depending on the rate plan your caller has with their local phone company, the call to your purchased virtual number may be totally free to them.

Are you in Los Angeles, California but need a telepresence in Florida? Buy a Florida virtual number and direct the calls to Los Angeles.

You are located in The U.K. and need a phone number in the U.S? Choose from many states and cities in the U.S. and direct the calls to your phone in the U.K.

Additional Built-in Features

• Time of day routing - with time zone settings
• Voice Mail
• Caller ID - Know what phone number is calling. Learn about Caller ID here
• Selective Call Recording
• Virtual SMS Numbers
• Create a Hotline Announcement
• Use virtual phone numbers for short or long term requirements

The features below can be enabled and disable by the customer through the Customer Management Control Panel. In other words, after your account is activated and you are provided with the login link, you can login to your account and easily set up these features based on your usage preferences.

• Maximum wait time on answer

This feature defines how long the system will wait for leg B to answer before considering it failed and moving on to a second 'ring to' number, etc. Ring time adjustments range from 15 to 40 seconds. The times are approximate, but are within +/- 5 seconds. This means that if you set the ring time to your 'ring to' number to be 20 seconds, this may in actuality turn out to be 15 seconds or as much as 25 seconds. By default the ring time before a call is deemed failed, is four rings.

Therefore, if your circumstances dictate that you need a longer ring time, you can use this maximum "wait time" adjustment. Many customers experiment with this setting until it works to their benefit or they leave the default setting in place.

• Local Ringtone Feature

The system can play a localized ring tone (the tone you hear when you call someone and it's ringing). You will have a selection of 40 countries or the choice to use the remote-end ringback tone, which means the audio is passed through from the destination (this is the default).

Once you activate this free feature, you will increase local appeal when callers dial your Toll Free or Local number. The caller will hear the normal dial ring tone of their country which will make the caller feel more comfortable.

We currently have 40 distinct country local ring tones that customers can choose from. The rest of the countries around the world use one of these ring tones.

Both of these settings are available on the advanced forwarding settings page (accessible from the Customer Management Control Panel).

All customers receive the link to the Customer Management Control Panel upon receipt of account activation. Set up your virtual number to redirect your calls to any phone number worldwide.

Create a phone presence in the country of your choice. Choose from 1000s of local city phone numbers and countries including Dubai, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, London, Rome, Paris, Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro to name a few. Use your virtual phone number for temporary or long term requirements. The numbers are month-to-month.

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Global Call Forwarding Example | Many of your Important Callers are Located in Dubai but your Office is in Egypt

Solution
Buy a Dubai, UAE Phone Number to create a local phone presence in Dubai. Your UAE callers are instantly diverted to your Egypt landline, mobile phone or VoIP. Use this same strategy to route calls to your phone from any of 160+ countries.

Other applications
1 You may be a cruise line operator in Greece. You want to make it easy for U.S. clientele to reach your reservation desk in Greece. You can buy a U.S. Toll Free number and remove the obstacle for your U.S. callers by giving them your U.S. toll free number to reach you at no cost to them.

2 Assume you own a winery with headquarters in France and have distributors in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Italy and the U.S. You can buy country specific Toll Free numbers for the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Italy and the U.S. that will redirect all callers in those countries to your France main office phone number.

Simultaneous Calls

Accepting and forwarding multiple calls simultaneously is a free feature. The simultaneous call feature is available for the majority of countries where local numbers are offered. No need to be concerned about having too many inbound calls. If you have an abundance of calls all arriving at the same time, we can adjust your account at no additional cost to fit your inbound call traffic requirements.

Quality of call forwarding

Calls are clear and crisp. This service delivers audio quality based on public switched network infrastructure (PSTN) line quality.

Calls transported over (VoIP) the Internet are subject to uncontrollable transport, bandwidth and other issues.

These call quality issues are especially apparent if the call is being forwarded internationally using VoIP. Consequently the potential for negative call quality issues typically associated with calls over the Internet are virtually non-existent with Global Call Forwarding service.

What are the costs?

Costs are determined by your choice of the Virtual Number country or city and the call destination number, where you wish the calls to divert to.

View rate plans and virtual number availability

Provide your associates, customers or family a local phone number and have all your calls routed to any phone number you desire, located anywhere in the world.

If your customers are located in different countries than you or if you travel often or if you have family or friends overseas, now you can give them a local phone number and receive their calls where you are.

Use this service for call forwarding to your cell phone or landline. Or, have your cell phone calls forwarded to another country using an international virtual number.

Changing your 'ring to' number

Once your virtual line is activated, you can login online and easily modify your call forwarding number. The change is effective in real-time and takes just seconds to do.

Using the 'Time of Day Routing' feature

As an example you could have your calls forwarded to a number in Japan in the morning and change the call forwarding to a number in the UK in the evening. Or change it from your landline to your mobile phone, at any time.

What will callers hear when they dial my Virtual Phone Number?

Calls are connected very quickly. The caller will hear normal call processing as with any other call they may make.

What is a 'private' Virtual Number?

The virtual number assigned to your account is unique and does not require your callers to enter an extension number. It is your dedicated, private phone number for your use and distribution.

Is voicemail included?

Yes voicemail and voice to email are included free features.

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SMS messages are forwarded automatically to an email address chosen by the subscriber.

Incoming SMS content is forwarded in email format, with the sender’s caller ID and text message. SMS forwarding subscribers can get an SMS enabled virtual number to receive incoming texts from selected countries. Incoming SMS content is swiftly and conveniently forwarded in email format, with the sender’s caller ID and text message.

For customers who are unsure if this service is what they need, we offer SMS forwarding numbers with a free trial, for customers to test the service risk-free. Subscribers can also get an SMS enabled virtual number as an add-on to their existing service. SMS allows us to provide a more complete virtual phone service, so if you’ve been searching for a viable solution that enables SMS forwarding with your virtual phone numbers, this may be the best one for your needs.

Remote employee using global call forwarding

Which Mobile Workers Can Benefit from a Mobile Virtual Phone Number?

While most anyone who works on the go can benefit from a virtual phone number, those who may benefit the most are those who frequently work from different locations such as their homes, main offices, branch offices, client job sites, and temporary office spaces.

A virtual phone number is also a good choice for mobile workers who travel overseas frequently. For example, when visiting another country, there's no guarantee that your mobile phone will work. Even if it does work, international roaming fees will make using the phone cost prohibitive. With a virtual phone number, you could purchase a cheap disposable phone inside the destination country and then use the international call forwarding feature of your virtual phone number to that temporary mobile phone.

Learn more about how to have your existing mobile phone or landline number follow you internationally.

Virtual phone number forwarding and your BYOD policy. Instead of giving customers their personal mobile phone numbers and worrying about boundaries, they can give out their virtual phone numbers and configure international call forwarding so that those calls are only forwarded to their mobile phones during business hours.

Why Use a Virtual Phone Number when Mobile Workers Have Mobile Phones?

Whether your mobile workers bring their own devices or use company-issued mobile phone numbers, it is not always desirable to give out a mobile phone number to clients, prospects, and others who may call at all hours of the day or night. With a virtual phone number, workers can configure when calls will be routed to their mobile phones and when they should be routed to voicemail or an alternate phone number.

In addition, many workers take mobile phone calls when they're seated inside an office with a perfectly workable landline or VoIP line. This uses up valuable mobile phone minutes, results in higher costs, and is not as comfortable for the user. The ability to switch the virtual phone number's ring to destination at will allows the user greater control over which physical phone to use.

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Example Montreal, Canada virtual number to France. You can own a phone number in any of 160 countries and forward calls anywhere globally.

Upon account activation you will receive

1 Your Specified Country Virtual Phone Number
2 Your account number and portal access enabling you to:

• Change your 'ring to' number instantly 24/7
• Create a custom voicemail greeting
• Enable or disable 'Do Not Disturb'. DND = Callers will hear your greeting and can leave a message.
• View call details in real time: date, time, duration, Caller ID, etc.
• Manage all included features

Own a Phone Number in any of 160+ Countries

A local virtual phone number enables businesses to stand out from the crowd

Instantly forward calls to any phone worldwide