There’s been a move to a local movement over the past few years with local communities benefitting from a renewed interest among consumers in supporting local businesses. From Small Business Saturdays to “Come In, We’re Local” signs, businesses across America are capitalizing on the buzz.
You can too. AccessDirect can help you get a virtual local phone number.
What better way to convey your local presence than through a local telephone number that consumers immediately recognize as “being in my area”? You’ll realize big value when you buy a virtual local phone number from AccessDirect.
Research by the marketing firm Yodle found that the majority of customers preferred to shop locally, citing personalized service, trustworthiness, reliability and overall commitment to customer service as key advantages when compared to national chains. Local business phone numbers catch customers close to home, giving your business an instant presence that inspires trust and loyalty.
Consumers are growing increasingly weary of the “big brand” stores and wary of the nameless/faceless brands they now encounter online: Where are they based? What market do they serve? If I have an issue will I be able to connect with a real person?
A virtual business phone number can be a difference maker.
BUILD BRAND AND BUSINESS WITHOUT BREAKING YOUR BUDGET
Local numbers let you reach more customers locally where they are more likely to buy or use your services because you’re a “familiar face” and part of their local market. The benefits of “going local” to meet market needs include:
- The ability to boost your brand. A virtual local phone number in your advertising, on your website, signage, and all of your communication materials sends a subtle symbol that instills trust and confidence in your local market.
- An opportunity to build business. Consumers like doing business with people and businesses they know, and can trust. As the local movement continues to gain steam, you’ll benefit from the word of mouth that will drive consumers to contact you.
- A chance to save money. AccessDirect’s cloud-based, virtual, telephone options are flexible and affordable. You’ll save money—and so will your callers.
AccessDirect can help you find a local number to showcase your business as part of whatever community, or communities you serve.
VIRTUALLY, WHEREVER YOU ARE
AccessDirect offers a wide selection of virtual local phone numbers in literally hundreds of cities, large and small.
Virtual local phone numbers are also great for consolidating phone service in a single location. Rather than pay for the rent and upkeep on a series of call centers or satellite locations, virtual local phone numbers for businesses save you money by allowing you to centralize service without giving up your local presence. Virtual local phone numbers are a great complement to any business that does most of their sales over the Internet, and to franchises, international operations or any other organization working in more than one territory.
Wherever you’re located, in Atlanta (404), Boise (208), Des Moines (515), Brooklyn (347/929), San Diego (619) or virtually anywhere around the country, you’ll find a wide selection of numbers to choose from.
Our order page provides an easy way to search available numbers before making a decision to move forward. Give it a whirl to see what numbers are available to meet your needs.
LOCAL/TOLL-FREE COMBO OFFERS THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
While local numbers can help to convey a hometown, or local, presence, toll-free numbers still resonate with consumers and convey a “big business” image; there’s no reason you can’t use both! Keep your toll-free number, but consider how adding a local number can appeal to an entirely different market—your local market.
There’s no question that, for ambitious businesses, the world is becoming a smaller place. These days, it’s not uncommon to have customers across the country and beyond. While much of this due to the internet, the telephone remains a powerful tool for communicating with clients and other stakeholders.
How does a technology that’s fundamentally local adapt to a global world? Easy. Today, smart businesses are taking steps to buy a local virtual phone numbers to target customers in local markets, while maintaining or adding a toll-free number to make it easier to connect with customers, wherever they are, while giving the appearance of both a local and a large organization.
WHO NEEDS A VIRTUAL LOCAL PHONE NUMBER
- Local Phone Numbers Work for Start-Up BusinessesStart-up businesses are often cash-strapped and also uncertain of what future needs will be. For more, a local presence with a local number is a great starting point to test the waters. A virtual business phone service can help you convey a big business, local presence while you’re getting your business off the ground.
- Virtual Local Phone Numbers Work for Small BusinessesThey say small companies can’t compete with the big guys like the Walmarts of the world. That’s not necessarily true. For local customers looking for personalized, local service—like a hardware store, a plumber, or others—a local number can set you apart.
- Local Phone Numbers Work for Big BusinessesBigger isn’t necessarily better and, sometimes, big businesses want to convey a hometown feel. Local phone numbers can help them do just that.
- Virtual Numbers Work for Virtual BusinessesDon’t have a physical, brick and mortar, presence? You can easily convey a physical presence in your local community with a virtual business phone number, or virtual mobile number.
- A Virtual Number and Virtual Phone System Could Work for Your Business! Looking for the credibility and sense of community that a virtual local phone number conveys? Regardless of the size or type of your business, a free virtual phone number can help you send the message that you’re part of the community.AccessDirect can host your current number virtually (in the cloud), or provide you with a new number and add some features to make your business run even more efficiently while introducing options to meet callers’ needs.
HOW TO GET A LOCAL FREE VIRTUAL LOCAL PHONE NUMBER
Getting a virtual local phone number is easy and affordable with AccessDirect. We offer cloud-based virtual PBX phone systems that can be set up in any type of operation. With our services, there’s no need to purchase additional hardware or upgrade your communications infrastructure. We can route a virtual local phone number to your existing cellphone or landline with no interruption in service. Direct inward dialing numbers (DIDs) allow us to route calls to your existing virtual or mobile phone numbers. When you need to expand further, add new numbers or change your package, doing so is easy.
Already have a local number that you’d like to move to the cloud? No problem; we can help with that too!
ADD SOME BELLS AND WHISTLES TO YOUR VIRTUAL PHONE SYSTEM!
AccessDirect offers a wide range of options that you can use to configure your virtual local number’s performance to meet business needs, take the pressure off yourself and your staff and ensure that none of your important calls are missed, whenever they come in. Consider how the following options might provide added benefit for your virtual business phone service, or virtual mobile number:
- Auto attendant. Your callers may be local, but you may be somewhere else—at a meeting, meeting a client or on vacation. No worries. With auto attendant, your virtual phone system can answer and route calls to you, or any of your staff members, wherever they are.
- Voicemail to email. Especially for small businesses, or solo entrepreneurs, it can be difficult if not impossible to answer the phone every time someone calls. Yet, you don’t want to miss an urgent message. Our voicemail to email, or text, option, ensures that you receive those important messages without having to excuse yourself to take a call.
- Call routing. Most businesses find that the calls they receive begin to show certain similarities. We can help you identify the types of calls you most often receive and set up a system to easily route callers to where they need to go to get the answers they need.
- Professionally recorded greetings. Regardless of the size of your organization, conveying a professional image is critical. The greetings your callers hear when they call your business establishes an impression you don’t want to leave to chance. We can help you write your messages and professionally record them with our voice talent to help you convey the most professional message possible. Better yet, when you need to change that message, we’re here to help.
- And more!
You can get all of this for less than the cost of a traditional phone line.
LOCAL VIRTUAL PHONE SYSTEMS IN ACTION
CASE STUDY #1: A DENVER REAL ESTATE AGENCY
A large real estate agency, based in Denver, Colorado, was increasingly doing business out of state. To fully capitalize on these important opportunities, the agency wanted to give clients a more personalized experience when they reached its main call center. While they already had toll-free 800 numbers in place, the owner was in search of something that would establish a local presence in 22 key markets.
The owner contacted AccessDirect.In addition to setting up a series of virtual local numbers in each of these markets, we configured the system so that, when employees called out to a client, the local number appeared in the caller ID. We also set up personalized greetings for each number so that anyone calling in would get a voice mailbox customized for the targeted location.
Ultimately, the system we set up for this client made them appear more professional and gave customers an easy, toll-free way to get in touch. This inspired greater confidence and has played a small, but key, role in the agency’s ongoing success to date.
CASE STUDY #2: AN OVERSEAS JOB-SEEKER
Businesses aren’t the only ones that can benefit from establishing virtual local phone numbers. Individuals can too, as this case study illustrates. In this case, a young man who had been living abroad for several years was interested in coming back to the states to begin his professional career. He had targeted three prospective cities but felt that his long-distance phone number was putting off potential employers. He felt they were reluctant to get in touch with him because it seemed that he lived too far away and would be a potentially risky candidate.
He contacted AccessDirect.
We set him up with local numbers in each of the cities he was hoping to find work in and arranged for incoming calls to be forwarded to his main phone. The use of virtual telephone numbers in these specific locations proved to be a strategy that paid off. Our client was able to arrange interviews while overseas, ultimately landing a great job that made moving back easy.
WHEN TO GET A LOCAL VIRTUAL PHONE NUMBER?
Your particular situation may not mirror either of the above case studies, but that doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from having a local, virtual telephone number.
If you’re considering upgrading your phone systems to reach more customers, contact AccessDirect first. With our flexible plans, you pay only for the service you need, making our free virtual phone numbers an affordable choice for any business. We can help you find the best virtual phone number for your business; we have thousands of free virtual numbers available in more than 100 cities across the United States and Canada. To learn more or to request a consultation with one of our team members, contact AccessDirect today to buy a virtual local phone number.
