As a mobile consultant, you have the luxury of travelling, making your own hours and maintaining a solid work-life balance. However, since you’re on the go, you also face some communication challenges – especially when it comes to your business phone.
Let’s address those phone communication challenges now and see how a virtual phone system can help.
1. Your clients are calling your personal cell number OR you’re carrying and paying for two cell phones.
Don’t mix business with pleasure, they say – so why are you sending your business and personal phone calls to one number? Because you don’t want to have two cell phones AND pay two cell phone bills. Or, maybe you’re already doing this and no longer want to juggle the two. Either way, with a virtual phone system, you won’t have to pay double or manage two phones.
Virtual phone numbers are hosted in the cloud and connect directly with the smart phone you already have. This means that when a client calls your virtual number (aka your new business number) it will ring to your personal smart phone... but your virtual number also has its own professional greeting system and menu options, so if can’t answer the phone, don’t worry! Your caller will not be sent to your “Hey bros this is Bobby” voicemail that is meant for your personal contacts. Instead, your prospect, partner or customer will receive a professional custom greeting from you (ex: “Hello, you’ve reached Consulting by B.”).
A virtual phone system will give you peace of mind by providing a professional image for your business, save you money on a second phone, and give you access to personal contacts – all from one phone.
2. You have team members and they are also using personal cell numbers for business.
If you’re working with a remote team, chances are they are facing the same challenges as you. Personal and business calls coming into one phone line, carrying multiple devices, etc. A virtual phone system will not only ease these woes for you, they will do the same for your team.
A virtual phone number can be linked to multiple devices, so if you want to connect your business partner or your handful of employees to your new business phone number, no problem! The virtual phone system will act as a hub where you can then create different “departments” (billing, shipments, marketing, etc.) or add a directory to the caller menu so each team member has their own extension. Not only does this make your business sound super professional and provide major credibility points, but is also really convenient for your callers.
3. You have a hard time keeping up with business voicemails and important messages.
Voicemails are a nightmare. Listening to them, remembering what someone said, finding paper and a pencil to write down the call back number, it’s awful and chances are you end up spending too much time on the logistics and/or miss out on a lot of business opportunities because of missed messages. Virtual phone systems offer a saving grace – voicemail transcription. Voicemail transcription does exactly what it sounds like; it transcribes your voicemails so you can read them. This is awesome for busy people because you can read, save, send, go back and read again, or just delete entirely, all without ever listening to anything. While you might have appreciated being able to say, “Oh, sorry, never got that voicemail,” to a high school acquaintance who is always inviting you for drinks at a bad time, you will never have to say it to a client who wants to make a purchase or solicit your services.
4. You do not have a professional phone presence.
We’ve touched on this a bit in the other points, but it’s important and worth revisiting. A professional phone presence is a necessity for a business –no matter how small. A virtual phone system offers a slew of professional features like:
5. You know your current phone situation isn’t working, but you don’t have the time to find a new business phone solution.
If you’re experiencing this, you’re not alone and congrats to you for taking the first step – Googling an alternative! Virtual phone systems with the right user experience should be very simple to set up (Cloud Phone, for example takes less than a minute!) and you can manage your account from the cloud. This allows you to scale easily as your business grows and changes, and you only pay for what your business needs, resulting in overall cost savings and increased convenience.
For mobile consultants, having a virtual phone system is business phone communication heaven. If you want to give it a try, you can do a free 30-day trial with Cloud Phone any time. Share your feedback below or via our social channels!