How to Create a Local Phone Presence

Today you can set up a local phone presence quickly and easily with inexpensive technologies such as broad band telephone service and virtual 800 numbers.  For small business owners and individual entrepreneurs this is a great way to extend market reach without additional over head.  Quite often our client's desire to set up a virtual local phone presence for on going marketing and advertising or to enhance client relations.  Some new hi-tech but low cost technologies such as broad band telephone service and international stand alone 800 service are helping companies to set up a virtual office local number or toll free line from anywhere in the world.

The primary option many of our clients use today is simply setting up local numbers with the use of broad band phone services.  In taking this approach you can run a company in one city say Dallas, Texas and still use local numbers for advertising efforts in two others say Jacksonville, Florida and Philadelphia Pennsylvania.  Many studies on advertising suggest that people are more comfortable doing business with a company that has a local presence and using this technology to establish a local phone presence can help a company project that image.

Broad band phone is powerful and far less complicated then most people realize.  Anyone with a broad band internet connection can get VoIP today for a very low price and many providers will allow you to set up service with incoming calls for about 8.95 a month for unlimited inbound calls. The best provider we have found for this application is call iConnectHere Broad Band Phone Service.  The equipment is all plug and play so anyone can install it and you can get local numbers in every major US city or you can choose local numbers in the United Kingdom and Israel as well.  If a client in Dallas, TX wanted to set up a Philadelphia virtual office he would simply choose a local Philadelphia number and plug his voice over IP phone into his DSL or Cable Modem connection and like magic a local phone presence in Philadelphia is established.  

The client can now receive unlimited calls from Philadelphia to his Dallas location for 8.95 a month and all the calls for his Philadelphia clients and prospects are to a local number for their area.  Now to understand how powerful this really is the client bringing up the virtual office local number does not need to be in the U.S. In fact a company in India, England or anywhere in the world can set up a local U.S. number and the incoming rate is only 8.95 a month. In fact a client could set up numbers in 4 cities and establish four virtual offices under $40 and that is pretty amazing.

There is however, one drawback to voice over IP service for those wanting to create a local phone presence or virtual office local number and that is by their very nature they require a high speed Internet connection.  Of course many customers still can not get broad band services today due to geography issues for these clients and for clients who want added services such as the ability to track advertising and passively build a database of inbound callers we often recommend another solution in the form of international stand alone 800 services.

What we do is teach our clients how to get a 800 number with out the need to switch their long distance service providers. These are called stand alone 800 services and they allow a lot of flexibility for companies to leverage advertising and increase their local presence as well. For a low fee of just $2.00 a month the client can bring up an 800 toll free number that will ring to any location they chose to point it to in the world. 

If there is anything that makes a prospective client more comfortable then a local phone number it is a toll free 800 number.  When a prospect sees a toll free number in advertising they generally form an opinion that the company must be legitimate and of a fair size to have an 800 number.  This is simply because most people feel that 800 numbers are expensive to own, however if used along with the free voice mail features a typical stand alone number from a company like Kall8 will take an average of over 300 incoming calls to reach a monthly charge of even 20 dollars.  This assumes the number is left in voice mail mode and has a 30 second personal greeting and that the average caller will leave a 1 minute message.

The small business and individual entrepreneur typically use this service to provide a toll free number for clients responding to advertisements outside of their local calling area and the service comes with the ability to track advertising responses on all inbound calls a detailed case study of this function is available at http://providetechnology.com/trackadvertising.htm in addition companies in any location in the world can use this service to provide a toll free number in the United States that will ring to any number anywhere in the world. It is really quite incredible for a service that starts at only 2 dollars a month. The best part is that it can be set up and running in only a few moments. We have even set up an 800 services selection wizard to help people chose the right stand alone 800 service at http://infinitephone.net/800Service.htm that has been very well received and proven to make highly accurate recommendations.

One of the best applications for stand alone 800 service is for entrepreneurs running home based businesses.  These services are a great option for business use with out the expense and installation of a second or third phone line.  The client simply sets up an 800 number and places it into voicemail mode with a professional greeting such as "You have reached the offices of ABC Company, currently we are assisting other callers, please leave your name, number and reason for your call and we will return it as soon as possible".  You then never need to worry that your teen will pick up the phone and say "yea wadda ya want" to a caller responding to your advertising who is expecting to reach a professional and well run company.

Together international stand alone 800 services and broad band phone technologies can assist you in setting up a local phone presence anywhere in the world.  They are quick to set up, very inexpensive and more flexible then you might imagine.  ProvideTechnology, LLC has a professional staff ready to assist you.  If you would like assistance in learning how to utilize these simple techniques give our team of experts a call at 866-994-1212 and we will be glad to help you determine if they are right for you.