International Calling

How to Establish a Global Presence for Your Business: A Guide to International Numbers

Up until a few years ago, the ability to establish a global presence was once the sole province of large businesses.

Today, however, times have changed, and not only is globalization accessible to businesses of any size, it has become a necessity to stay on par with the competition. That said, one of the quickest ways to expand your business overseas is to set up global phone numbers. Let’s see how.

Why are Global Phone Numbers Necessary?

The lack of local business phone numbers in the regions of business operations introduces a number of pain points for both businesses and customers alike. Let us get into the nitty-gritty of this. 

From a Customer’s Perspective

The lack of International phone lines can introduce the following pain points in the minds of a business’s potential customers.

Phone numbers are central to the scams that are making headlines on a daily basis, and a good number of spam calls come from international numbers.

The lack of a familiar/local number can leave potential customers questioning the legitimacy of your business. Statistics show that 87% of customers avoid buying from brands they don’t trust.

The skepticism will compound itself with the “Customer Service” and “Aftersales support” factors. Over 80% of customers still prefer talking over the phone when it comes to customer service.

The absence of a local phone number will immediately raise red flags as to the support customer support capabilities of a business.

And finally, not everyone is willing to call internationally to make inquiries before a potential purchase or for customer support.

From a Business’s Perspective

A business that operates globally without local business phone numbers or Toll-free numbers runs the risk of losing a lot of potential customers.

First, customers are less likely to incur the expenses of dialing internationally for inquiries or customer support. Additional issues such as the time difference, call drops, and delays add to the problem.

Operating International phone lines for global communications from one location is significantly more expensive than operating local business phone numbers. 

Finally, there is the language barrier. English is the global language of business. The reason is that it is the most spoken language in the world, with about 1.5 billion native and non-native speakers worldwide.

The flip side is that it is less than 19% of the world’s population, and a survey showed that about 56% of customers valued product information in their native tongue over the price of the product when it came to making purchase decisions.

How to Establish a Worldwide Presence with Global Phone Numbers

There are several options available for businesses that want to set up global phone numbers, such as:

Use Business Numbers with Local Area Codes

One possible solution to address the above pain points is to use business numbers with local area codes. The advantages of doing so are many:

First, you increase the likelihood of your customers answering your calls when you run campaigns. People tend to trust local numbers and are usually skeptical of foreign ones.

Second, a local area code is more likely to pop up on local online searchers, increasing your exposure and, in turn, your revenues.

Setting Up Toll-Free Numbers

Toll-free numbers are a great choice for businesses that want to give their customers an option to get in touch with them without incurring any charges for the call.

The advantage of these numbers is that they come with familiar prefixes that automatically lend a degree of legitimacy to your business. A secondary benefit of toll-free numbers is that they are customized to match your brand name or slogan and be consistent across regions.

Virtual Phone Numbers via VoIP Services

The third option is setting up virtual business phone numbers. In essence, Virtual phone numbers are a type of phone number that are not tied to a physical location.

Instead, they are routed via the Internet using Voice over Internet Protocol(VoIP) technology. The benefits of these systems are they allow you to establish a global presence without having to set up physical offices in each location.

VoIP services also come with a host of additional benefits:

They can be set up in a matter of minutes, and the icing on the cake is that these services are highly flexible and scalable: you can easily add or remove phone numbers as needed without having to invest in physical infrastructure.

These systems also offer numerous features, such as integration with your existing CRMs, automated call recording, automated and predictive dialers, detailed analytics, call distribution, and more.

For the features they offer, they are also more affordable than setting up numbers via traditional international phone lines.

Summing up

Global phone numbers are the key to winning over customers if you are looking to globalize your business. They address the most common pain points of running an international business in one fell swoop. While there are multiple ways of going about it, virtual phone numbers are by far the best way to go.

And if you are looking for the best possible solution, give JustCall a go. Click here to know how they make a difference for their customers.

Taran, as the Support Manager at JustCall, spearheads efforts to enhance customer satisfaction by strategically collaborating with client-facing teams. He upholds rigorous standards, ensuring JustCall's support services consistently excel. Passionate about superior customer experiences, Taran champions a company-wide dedication to a customer-first mindset.

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