What Is a Virtual Landline and How to Get One

by Audrey Oh

If you’re a small business relying on a traditional landline, you’ll be familiar with breaks in service, costly bills and limited features. A virtual landline is an essential service for any business looking to succeed and grow. Virtual landlines are a cloud-based service that allows you to divert calls to any device you choose. This ensures faults connected with a particular device or events such as business relocation will not impact your business. A virtual number offers many benefits, such as lending credibility to your business and negating the need to publish your personal number in marketing content. 

Virtual landline services often include a wide range of additional services that can significantly benefit your business, such as call queuing and forwarding. All of which means a better experience for your customers, enhanced brand reputation, more sales and increased profit. Read on to find out more about the different types of landline services available and how to get a virtual landline number. 

Types of Virtual Landline Services

A virtual landline means your business telephone number is not fixed to a particular device. You can divert calls to any device you choose. Beyond this, there is a wide range of virtual numbers and services to choose from. 

Freephone numbers such as “0800” allow people to contact your business without paying a penny. These numbers are a great way to boost incoming calls and give your sales team more leads to work on. 

Local rate numbers such as “0845” keep costs low for callers and your business. They hide your geographical location making it easy for small and startup businesses to create the impression of being an established company with a wide reach.

National numbers such as “0871” can become an additional revenue stream as callers pay a higher rate to place calls. They are often used to reduce the number of incoming calls, for example to out-of-hours support lines. 

Local numbers allow you to build a customer base outside of your geographical location by using a local area code. Worldwide numbers work similarly, allowing a small business to establish a presence in another country. 

To find out more about alternate phone numbers for business, read our blog. 

Additional virtual landline services include: incoming call features such as fax to email, voicemail and call queuing, telephone answering and audio conferencing. Virtual landlines offer so much more than a traditional landline. They can help you to manage calls during peak times and deliver outstanding customer service. Virtual landlines also expand your reach and increase the number of warm leads your sales teams have to work with.

How to Get a Virtual Landline Number

So we’ve convinced you, your business needs a virtual landline number. But how do you get one? 

First of all, identify a provider you can trust and that offers everything your business needs. Look for experience, breadth of the service offer and transparent pricing. City Numbers has over 20 years of experience in the industry. We make it easy, quick and cost-effective to set up a virtual number. 

1. Select Your Preferred Type of Virtual Number. City Numbers offers Freephone 0800, Local 0844 and 0845, National 0871, 0300 for public services, UK virtual numbers, worldwide virtual numbers and international toll-free numbers.
2. Choose Where to Route Your Number To. You can divert calls to mobiles, landlines or VOIP numbers, depending on the service you select.
3. Set up a Monthly Payment Agreement We do not tie you into lengthy contracts and there are no hidden costs. We offer a variety of tariffs for different services and users. Pay As You Go starts from as little as £5 per month for 0800 numbers.

4. Choose Additional Services Virtual landline services offer a wide range of useful business services. You can tailor-make a package to suit your specific business needs by selecting the additional services you require. Incoming call features such as IVR (auto-attendant), call queuing and voicemail can help you to effectively manage calls even at peak times.

5. Go Live! Once your order is complete and payment received, we can set up your new number within minutes during business hours.

If you’re a small business or a startup, it’s always daunting committing more of your budget to new investment. A virtual landline number can increase service levels, cut costs, increase profits and boost your company’s image. It’s a cost-effective solution to a host of business challenges and an investment you won’t regret! 

If you’re not sure which is the best virtual landline service for your business, contact us. We can supply, test and support numbers in the UK and internationally. We are committed to providing transparent pricing, outstanding customer service and innovative services that are constantly evolving. Let us help you to grow your business.