Scale your Business on WhatsApp using Virtual Numbers

A virtual phone number is like a telephone number, but unlike a regular telephone number it is not connected to any physical network. Although these numbers only exist virtually, calls to these phone numbers can be routed to existing landlines or mobile phones.

Let’s paint a picture – nudged by the increasing number of layoffs, stories of ambitious businesses by enterprising individuals are emerging around the globe. Many of these small enterprises are on the cusp of expanding their business beyond their geographical boundary, but it takes a sober investment to build offices in new markets.

While it may be relatively easier for an online business to expand its digital footprint, they often fail to extend their experiential blanket beyond the geographical lines.

Even though it is a common practice to tread carefully while scaling, businesses should not be averse to working closely with an established and well-connected local partner to share resources, or run operations virtually from another location to test the waters in a new market. Sounds easy! But is it easier said than done?

Coming out of the pandemic induced lockdown, many businesses are seeking to scale their operations globally and virtual number plays a major role in meeting that objective without a hitch due to the inexpensive call costs and localising the business for increased affinity with the prospects, and what better way to connect with your customers than the most widely used messaging app in the world – WhatsApp.

What are virtual numbers?

A virtual number is a cloud-based phone number without direct association to a telephone line, such as International Toll-Free Numbers (ITFS) and local Direct Inward Dialling (DID) numbers in a selected country or city.

Your call flows. Your rules.

Not so long ago, any calls dialled to a traditional number could only reach a specific phone destination. A virtual number, however, acts like a gateway. When calls are made to a dedicated virtual number, the inbound calls can be routed to any numbers in the world, such as fixed and mobile numbers.

Delivering greater flexibility in communication flow, virtual numbers allow businesses complete control over who, when, and how to make and receive calls, empowering your business to expand globally, fault-free. Virtual numbers are not just about establishing a localised support centre, it also comes loaded with data, logs, insights, and reports to help businesses gain a defined perspective of the new market.

How to use WhatsApp Business without a phone number

As you may have guessed virtual numbers play a very important role when it comes to marketing products and services or designing customer experience on WhatsApp. Businesses can broadcast messages, automate responses, or offer customer support to their customers using a virtual number without using a personal phone number, which in turn provides an added layer of privacy and anonymity.

1. Promote your products without being flagged for spam

Using virtual number for WhatsApp communication provides your business with a verified number.

Using this legitimate number, a business can easily send WhatsApp notifications, automate FAQs, match customers with the right experts with intelligent routing rules, without the fear of being flagged for spam or banned by WhatsApp.

2. Receive business calls without compromising the privacy

Businesses can safeguard their customers’ identity by masking calls or numbers when connecting customers with a third party on WhatsApp.

For example, if your business uses a 3PL (third party logistics) partner for shipping and deliveries, you can set the 3PL as the call destination to allow customers to track their shipment without worrying about revealing their personal number.

3. Round-the-clock virtual call centre with remote agents

By using virtual number and linking it to a cloud based CX solution, you can easily enable agents from different countries to work cohesively using the same phone number to provide consistent localised, support services to your customers without having to worry about the time difference.

All things better with a unified communications platform!

Combining your virtual numbers with a unified communications platform takes your customer engagement and team collaboration to the next level.

When multiple communication channels, telecom and digital, are brought to a single dashboard, businesses can easily streamline all conversations, and easily match customers with the right experts using intelligent routing rules in an intuitive user interface. Supervisors can also have a centralised and real-time visibility of all enquiries and monitor agent activity with call reports.

International Toll Free Numbers and DID numbers can be good additions to omnichannel marketing campaigns, as businesses use a unified communications platform to coordinate their marketing channels. Assign a virtual number to a campaign segment and gauge which channel performs better by the number of calls coming in through different numbers. Businesses can also benefit from an informed marketing strategy with real-time call reports.

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