Question about virtual phone number for my company

[kcowan]

BTW calling back your clients and showing a 416 number along with your company name should not be an issue unless you want to appear to be somewhere else.

This is a large topic and I encourage you to further research it. The carriers are not well-positioned to help you. I cannot but I know my friend was able to route all calls to his smart phone in PV this winter and return calls. He explained it to me but I got lost. I know it involved Google Voice and Skype in addition to cell phones and landlines, all on one phone.

One of his numbers is in Silicone Valley and he got a call from a VC that wanted to drop by for a coffee. We both got a laugh over that.

[Taxsaver]

BTW calling back your clients and showing a 416 number along with your company name should not be an issue unless you want to appear to be somewhere else.

I totally agree with you. I decided to include my 416 on my business cards, website and documents I send to my clients. I advertize it as my local number.

For the distinct tone, I decided to set up all my phone contacts with the regular ring, and assing non-contact with a completely and unmistakable ring. To it, I will answer "Welcome to ABC inc. my name is ....".

I think we can close this discussion. Thanks to everyone who shared information!

[ChyrillStucker]

I'm just starting my own business. I spent so much time and talked to so many people at Bell, it's incredible. Today in 30 minutes, I talked with 6 people. A few told me, "Let me transfer you to the right department". I had to re-explain again what I wanted. Maybe it's the way I explained that confused them.

I have my personal, non-business cell phone service with Fido (416-xxx). The Bell Business department gave me a 1-800 virtual phone number so my clients can call me without charge. That number is forwarded to my Fido number. Easy so far.

When my clients call me, they see my toll-free number that they dialed, which is fine.

The problem is when I call them, because they see my personal name and my 416-xxx number. What I want is simple: When I call my clients, I want them to see the name of my company and the 1-800 number that I advertize.

The second thing I want is to have a distinct ring when someone calls me on the 1-800 number so I can either answer in this case "Welcome to ABC inc", or just "Hello" to my friend when they call my 416 number. Of course, I could answer by default "Welcome to ABC inc" for every call. But having a distinct ring helps me to prepare better.

Thanks for your help!!!

If you want your clients to see the toll-free number and not your personal number, then you need to ask your bell provider to set the caller Id as your toll-free number. As far as distinct rings are concerned, I think Bell does not provide this feature. I saw the website but could not discover any such feature. Still, you just call them and ask them for distinct rings. I am also using a similar type of scenario where I have different rings for different numbers and also different IVR for both. So, I know it is configurable. However, it varies from provider to provider. You should confirm from the Bell guys.