When getting a virtual number in India, it is important to determine what you need. Identify the features that are essential to your business.
Among the basic features of virtual phones are call recording, analytics, and voicemail, which may be enough for small businesses and startups. However, call centers should have advanced features that include custom IVRs (Interactive Voice Responses), hold music, call queueing, automatic call distribution, and intelligent routing of calls.
Additionally, consider whether toll-free numbers are available in your country of operation and whether your provider provides them.
2) Analyze the Available Features
After you’ve determined what you need, you must ensure that the virtual phone number provider of your choice has them. Understanding how virtual phones can enhance customer satisfaction and your business communication will be helpful. You should look for these features if you aren’t sure what to look for:
a) Auto-Attendant or IVR
Callers can be guided to the right department using automated voice prompts. Having the right agent for your customers’ needs saves time for both of you.
b) Call forwarding
You can handle business calls from any location by using virtual phone systems. Additionally, call forwarding ensures no calls go unanswered by redirecting them to another phone number.
c) Call transfer
Call forwarding enables customers to be redirected to the correct agent or department even with call forwarding enabled.
d) Analytics
Insights are provided into call session metrics, volume trends, agent performance, customer satisfaction, and more.
e) Voicemail
If you can’t answer the call, it allows callers to leave a message. Then, when you’re available, you can listen to their queries and provide a solution. Call barging, call conferences, and auto dialers are some of the features included.
3) Determine the Costs Involved
Virtual number in India is a cloud-based system, as mentioned above. Most virtual phone numbers in India require a subscription. Users pay per month to access the service. For the SaaS industry, the cost of a virtual system isn’t uncommon, but pricing is an important factor in choosing an appropriate provider.
However, the lowest price does not always indicate the best price. Aside from the price, you should also keep the features, quality, and security in mind.
4) Consider Uptime
Communications outages can have a substantial financial impact. Moreover, it adversely affects your customer experience, damaging your reputation.
As such, service level agreements (SLA) must consider uptime. Due to the nature of virtual numbers in India running over the internet, there may be unavoidable outages from time to time.
Make sure your virtual number provider provides disaster recovery services.
- Are there multiple data centers to ensure your communications aren’t affected?
- What is the turnaround time between one data center and another for your call traffic?
5) Check Third-Party Integrations
The customer interactions in your CRM will be automatically synced if your virtual number system integrates with it. In this way, you will save time and minimize the risk of making mistakes when completing call details.
Make sure your cloud-based number provider integrates with all the tools you use at your company or plan to use in the future. You can integrate your virtual phone number provider’s API with any and all apps you use.
6) Scrutinize the Backup and Security of Your Provider
Several vulnerabilities are associated with virtual number services hosted in the cloud. Since it is the hub for your business’s communications, it is imperative that it is protected internally as well.
To ensure customer data is safe, choosing a virtual number provider that takes extra precautions is recommended.
Secure your data with high-level encryption and intrusion prevention systems from Knowlarity, for example.
Backup should also be prioritized.
7) Consider Future Growth
Changing virtual phone numbers in India is not something you would want to do very often. Therefore, it is vital to consider how scalable the cloud-based system is if you anticipate your business to grow.
Make sure that the features of the top-tier plans of your virtual number provider meet your future needs. Also, please take into account how easy it is to add new users.
Conclusion
You shouldn’t have any trouble choosing the right virtual phone system provider after reading this article. If you want to make sure that your investment is as successful as possible, take the time to follow each of the seven steps.
To give a proper voice to your business, it should have a proper text or voice-based communication system in place to stand out from your competitors. Virtual numbers for business are considered one of the best ways to connect with clients and streamline customer or workplace communication. Virtual numbers are cloud-based mobile numbers.
